The broadcast began with IM Soham and FM Marc at 10 a.m. on Twitch on our channel …
At the end of the year, three teams took part in the DVM for the first time. They all got off to a very good start in the tournaments! After two wins, our U12 team already played a brought-forward final round in the third round against TV Tegernsee. The U10 and U12g already had three rounds behind them at that point, and the girls had four and the boys three match points to their name. The girls’ team caused a surprise, just like the U10, in the first round against significantly stronger teams. The girls started with 2.5 to 1.5 against the Schachgemeinschaft Leipzig and the boys against Brackel. During the Zoom interview in the stream with Anian, who accompanied the children in Berlin, Atreyu’s game against his opponent was shown. In the Berlin Defence, the line 5. exd5 Nd4 appeared on the board. The preparation had paid off as always and Atreyu pulled off the surprise! The girls narrowly lost to the eventual champions from the Schachakademie Paderborn. In the third round a clear 4–0 win against Blankenese followed. In parallel, the U10, who had drawn against Mühlheim in the second round, could do nothing against the overwhelming favourites from Hamburg.
For the U12 the first narrow defeat then came in the third round after all. The team lost to TV Tegernsee 2.5 to 1.5; Lukas was probably already feeling unwell here, because in the next round against the eventual champions SV Empor Berlin he had to resign his game due to illness. He had a severe headache and fell asleep on a sofa outside the tournament area, which normally was not allowed to be left. That meant, after Vedarth had also lost, that the top two boards had to win. And they did, unlike in the match against Tegernsee when Tugrul did not manage to beat Tingrui Shen. So it came about that we were the only team to take any match point at all from the Berliners. But nobody suspected that at the time. Because of Lukas’s absence, I had to act and brought Jonas into the team; he had already shown good performances against strong opponents in the MMM and at our rapid tournaments. The next morning the opponent was Bad Homburg. Lukas was still ill but did not want to let the team down and joined in, so Vedarth watched from the sidelines. As always there was intensive preparation against the opponents by IM Soham. This took place in our “headquarters”, from which we also streamed at times. Tugrul and David both drew for the first time, so it ended 2–2 again. In the second-to-last round the other guests from Berlin, namely Oberschöneweide, were up. Our record against Oberschöneweide was 1–1; this was already the third time we had met at a DVM. Everything went much more smoothly than expected; we had reckoned with more resistance, since the Berliners had pushed the Hamburg team to the limit in the previous round and lost unluckily. Above all our Jonas played a remarkable game on board 4 and thereby played his way into the hearts of the commentators and spectators. Only once did a mate in 2 escape him; otherwise he found consistently good to very good moves. Tugrul and Lukas also won their games. David achieved a draw.
Before the final round against Hamburg, we had everything in our own hands. With a win, third place would be within reach, and moreover trophies beckoned for our boards 1 and 2, undefeated up to that point. But the opponents from Hamburg made it extremely hard for our team. When I arrived, there was a large gathering around board 4. Marcus and the arbiters explained excitedly that the position from a few moves earlier had to be set up again. Vedarth’s king had fallen off the board and afterwards did not return to its original square. Shortly after, Vedarth accepted the draw offer after consulting team captain David. But I was told that even a win would have been possible. Lukas, on the other hand, was lost; the positions of David and Tugrul gave hope for a team victory. In the end, however, it turned out that the Hamburg players had the stronger nerves. From a certain point on, David could no longer find the best moves until he finally blundered, and Tugrul also let his promising initiative slip away. He played the longest and lost in a remarkable rook endgame. The dominance of the black rooks and the king decided the game. The disappointment after the clear defeat was of course great; we had reckoned with more. As a positive, it should be noted that the mood was good both in the team and in the tournament. Jonas played his way into the team with his second game and Vedarth kept developing throughout the course of the tournament. The streaming was great fun, the game analyses with the children above all. IM Soham did the heaviest work; after hours of commentating, he prepared the children intensively for the next opponents. So there were no nasty surprises for anyone.
The teams in Berlin won their first and last matches; from the third to the sixth round one can speak of a mixed tournament course. There will be DWZ gains for some. Leo and Fabian make the jump over 1000 and Kai is at 900 and Melissa has her first evaluation at just under 800. The Berlin travel group led by Anian had a lot of fun; for the children it will remain an unforgettable experience!