U20 Landesliga with familiar faces on Saturday and six tournaments on Sunday, four individual tournaments at the Pelkovenschlössl, our girls in Garching and the Quarantine League
A long weekend is coming to an end, and there was certainly no shortage of excitement. First to Saturday: Michael and his team from Haunstetten arrived earliest, although they didn’t play at all in the first round — Südost had cancelled. I knew Michael, just like Zarko the Augsburg team captain, from the C-coaching course four years ago in Leipheim. Who would have thought we’d meet again in this constellation? Zarko and his team didn’t make it to Reinmarplatz in time, and our players too only arrived late, just before 10, and chatted for a few more minutes outside. So things got underway somewhat late; the first minutes of the match were fairly quiet apart from Matvei’s board. Tugrul was leading the fastest positionally and was up the exchange. So there was justified hope that a win would come out of this. Zarko, however, was somewhat later satisfied with the position, for there was more than just compensation for the exchange, ensured by a strong knight and a passed pawn. With Matvei the game took shape similarly in terms of material; he too was leading by the exchange, though in the endgame phase with two rooks against rook and knight and a few pawns. He brought in the point the fastest. On board one Ardian used a lot of time but came out of the opening strengthened. Some mistakes by his opponent favoured his play and soon we could also rejoice over his win. As I said, Tugrul’s game took a different turn; Vincent worked persistently towards promotion and managed it too. So it stood 2-1, and Vroni’s board decided between a win and a draw; she and Alexander gave nothing away and fought it out. She had a bit more time; at first he offered a draw, they played on for a few more moves, after which it was clear, both were satisfied with the half point. So we managed a narrow 2.5 to 1.5, a result that leaves all promotion chances open at the U20 final round on 24 September.
On Sunday came the big tournament day at the Pelkovenschlössl. In the girls’ team, which played in Garching, Archisha couldn’t play, as she had been ill for a few days; at short notice Georgia and Ioanna also reported in sick, so we lined up as a threesome on boards 1, 2 and 3 with Vroni, Tugce and Smrithi. At the same time, the first rapid chess rounds were already running at the Schlössl. With a half-hour delay, the rapid chess tournament began. IM Fedorovsky led the participant list. But there were other strong players at the start too. It became clear, however, that first and second place would be decided between Michael Fedorovsky and Julio. In an exciting game, Michael’s checkmate came as the clock fell. The point of contention was whether the mate came before the clock fell or after. One ought to introduce video evidence for blitz tournaments too for such disputed scenes :) In the end both agreed to a draw. Julio gave up one more point against Niklas, who came in at an excellent third place, but otherwise took all the other points. Not only those two delighted us; the U12 team, represented by Tugrul, David and Matvei, also lived up to its name. They took places 4, 6 and 7 out of 27 participants, who — apart from Alexander and Mete — were all older than them and among whom were strong youth and club players. That gives hope for the end of the year, when we host the U12 DVM at the Munich City youth hostel. Tugce’s development too, the twin sister of Tugrul, who scored 6 out of 7 at the girls’ championship and lost only to Emily Alferova in an exciting and balanced game, gives us great hope.
The youth rapid chess tournament with 14 participants and the beginners’ tournament with 8 participants started a little later at 10:15. Anian directed the groups upstairs on the first floor. It turned out that the youth rapid chess tournament was very balanced in terms of strength. Anyone could have finished on top here in the end, but on this day it was Vedarth who played the most convincingly. To reach his first place, though, it also took his club colleague Jonas providing support. He punished a mistake by Jakob, who would have overtaken Vedarth with a win, and continued playing consistently flawlessly to victory. So at the top we had Vedarth, Jakob and Elias. Barbara had her strong moments; she played a game worth seeing against Jonas, and against Maxim she was also ahead and could afterwards still have reached a draw by perpetual check. Leo continued to gather tournament experience, drew against Atreyu and had other strong moments. Kai was back and reached seventh place behind Jonas (5th). With this we are spoilt for choice for the upcoming U10 Championship, for which 11 teams have registered so far. So we also invite the U20 teams who play on 24 September to come to us at the Gymnasium Moosach München.
In the blitz tournament, IM Schenk dominated, against whom everyone got to play. There was plenty of fun in the 19 rounds. In second place came Jacon Tobias.
Finally, a few words on the Quarantine League. After the dry spell during the summer holidays, when the team was handed defeat after defeat, the opposite has now occurred. Since the 12th division, we have been promoted every time. Now we are in the 6th, and more than 12 always take part. Other clubs often struggle to fill their team, whereas we, according to the current trend, are set up such that the pool of possible players extends to about 30 and the players partly take turns. There are unexpected appearances, such as from Andreas, who had gone off the radar for two months. The team is thus completely revitalised.