Draw secured in reduced numbers (JS)
Against the guests from SC Haar 1, the first guard of Schachfreunde München e.V. unfortunately had to leave board 1 unoccupied even though eight players were present. Since, according to the rules, at least three regular players must compete, there was nothing for it but to fill a board with a regular player who was not present. Despite the early deficit, the Schachfreunde went undaunted to work and, through forceful activity, played themselves into promising positions.
On board 7 Gupta Saksham, with opposite-side castling, launched a pawn attack to open lines to the opposing king. In what was, according to the computer analysis, a clear winning position, Gupta missed the non-trivial winning continuation amid hair-raising tactical complications, which allowed his opponent equality and a split of the points.
On board 6 Ardian Ajdar let nothing go wrong and punished a presumptuous opposing knight sortie into his half of the board with a fine combination that earned him an exchange. Opposing attempts at counterplay led only to queen loss and thus unavoidable loss of the game.
Kayra Pacaro had to deal on board 8 with an extremely aggressive opponent who, seemingly out of nowhere, sacrificed a knight to rob Kayra’s king of its pawn cover. But Kayra kept his nerve, fended off the attack effortlessly and even extended his advantage. His opponent, however, proved himself a resourceful tactician even in a lost position and, by means of a further sacrifice, forced Kayra into a perpetual check and a split of the points.
On board 2 too, suspense was guaranteed until the end. Namik Krasnikov took his opponent’s queen at the cost of two rooks. In the almost balanced position, Namik’s active piece play against the opposing king, which remained in the centre of the board, proved extremely promising. It didn’t take long until his opponent, under the sustained pressure, broke down and made the decisive mistake.
On board 4 Leon Nguyen temporarily extended the Schachfreunde’s lead. In a lively piece exchange he got two opposing minor pieces for a rook and pawn. Although the material balance was not disturbed, the extra piece often pays off in practice. So Leon too managed, with precise play, to obtain and convert a winning advantage.
On board 5 Martin Markl was exposed to an early rook’s-pawn thrust against his fianchetto position on the kingside. His opponent managed to open lines toward Martin’s king, whereupon he steadily increased the pressure. Despite valiant resistance, Martin ultimately could no longer prevent decisive material loss.
All eyes now turned to board 3, where Lukas-Benedikt Merenda was at this point conducting an almost hopeless defensive fight a piece down. In a long-balanced middlegame, Lukas’s opponent advanced his pawn majority on the kingside step by step and forced Lukas to give up his bishop for the pawns.
Despite the early lead, the guests needed a hefty portion of luck to achieve the split of the match points 😊