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It all started on the previous weekend, in the middle of a football game in the giant Weser Stadium in Bremen (northern Germany). There were 43,000 spectators, and during the 15-minute intermission they were treated to a promotional for the Chess Team Championship on the giant replay display in the stadium.
"For Werder Bremen at the board: Almira Skripchenko", reads the display. Anand, too, was featured, but with fewer oohs and aahs. The football crowd is not yet fully acquainted with the talent and personality of the Indian superstar.
The rounds five to seven of the chess Bundesliga took place a week later in the business lounges in the "East curve" of the stadium. One of the teams vieing for the championship title, SC Baden Oos, was there with Anand, Shirov, Vallejo, Dautov, Hübner, Krasnekov and Schmalz (the latter is the infamous "Hawkeye", the terror of all bullet sessions on the chess servers). Here are the results of the matches in Bremen:
SV Werder Bremen 2 - 6 Bremer SG 1 McShane,Luke 0 : 1 Sakaev,Konstan 2 2 Hracek,Zbynek 0 : 1 Bacrot,Etienn 3 3 Efimenko,Zaha ½ : ½ Landa,Konstan 4 5 Pelletier,Yan ½ : ½ Hjartarson,Jo 5 6 Schandorff,La 0 : 1 Agrest,Evgeni 6 7 Gallagher,Jo ½ : ½ Stefansson,Ha 7 9 Skripchenko,A 0 : 1 Baburin,Alexa 8 11 Joachim,Sven ½ : ½ Gisbrecht,Ewg 11 |
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SV Werder Bremen 4 - 4 SC Baden Oos 1 McShane,Luke 0 : 1 Anand,Viswana 1 2 Hracek,Zbynek 0 : 1 Shirov,Alexei 2 3 Efimenko,Zaha ½ : ½ Vallejo Pons, 4 5 Pelletier,Yan ½ : ½ Dautov,Rustem 5 6 Schandorff,La 1 : 0 Huebner,Rober 6 7 Gallagher, Jo ½ : ½ Krasenkow,Mic 7 11 Joachim,Sven 1 : 0 Schmaltz,Rola 9 12 Meins,Gerlef ½ : ½ Buhmann,Raine 10 |
Bremer SG 6 - 2 Stuttgarter Sfr 4 Landa,Konstan 1 : 0 Schmittdiel,E 1 5 Hjartarson,Jo ½ : ½ Berezovsky,Ig 3 6 Agrest,Evgeni ½ : ½ Steingrimsson 4 7 Stefansson,Ha 1 : 0 Papa,Severin 5 8 Baburin,Alexa ½ : ½ Reuss,Andreas 6 9 Fish,Gannadij 1 : 0 Lorscheid,Ger 7 11 Gisbrecht,Ewg ½ : ½ Vuckovic,Alek 9 13 Borik,Otto 1 : 0 Gabriel,Josef 13 |
Stuttgarter Sfr 2½-5½ SV Werder Bremen |
SC Baden Oos 6 - 2 Bremer SG |
Baden Oos suffered from the 4:4 tie against Werder Bremen. The main rivals SG Köln Porz, with Lutz, van Wely, Sokolov, Graf, Gurevich, Vaganian, Hansen and Kengis, were successful in the three rounds they played this weekend. They are ahead of Baden Oos, which has played one round less.
| No. | Name | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | games | pts | board pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SG Köln Porz | 6 | 5.5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 7 | 13 | 39.5 | ||||||||
| 2 | SC Baden Oos | 6 | 4 | 6 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 6 | 11 | 33.5 | |||||||||
| 3 | Bremer SG | 2 | 6 | 5.5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 32.5 | ||||||||
| 4 | SV Werder Bremen | 4 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5.5 | 7 | 10 | 32.5 | ||||||||
| 5 | Hamburger SK | 4 | 3.5 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 6.5 | 6 | 9 | 34 | |||||||||
| 6 | Solinger SG | 2 | 2.5 | 2 | 5 | 5.5 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 30 | ||||||||
| 7 | SV Wattenscheid | 2.5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 27.5 | ||||||||
| 8 | SFR Neukölln | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 23 | |||||||||
| 9 | TV Tegernsee | 3 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 21.5 | ||||||||||
| 10 | SF Katernberg | 3 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 24 | ||||||||
| 11 | SC Kreuzberg | 1.5 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.5 | 5 | 6.5 | 6 | 4 | 22 | |||||||||
| 12 | SK König Plauen | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 13 | ||||||||||
| 13 | SCA St Ingbert | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3.5 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 15.5 | ||||||||||
| 14 | SV Hofheim | 4 | 2 | 1.5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 14.5 | |||||||||
| 15 | Stuttgarter Sfr | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 2 | 1.5 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 13 |
All results and games can be found on the (German lanugage) Bundesliga page.
Bundesliga in the business lounge of the Werder Bremen football stadium
The view fof the players is spectacular – pity that the seats are
not all filled with chess fans
Hard at work during the early morning round
Obviously one of the more interesting games on this Sunday
Early finishers: Paco Vallejo Pons, Vishy Anand and Alexei Shirov
"I was lost after 13 moves!" A shattered Etienne Bacrot, who has
just been demolished by Shirov (visible in the background)
No problems with his game: Vishy Anand enjoys these jaunts to the German BL
What a woman! Almira Skripchenko, who plays in the men's league, spent
hours fighting for a win, then resigning herself to a draw, then almost losing
it, only to take the full point in the end.
The games are archived for the official
Bundesliga site
And for all those of you who actually read these reports to the very end,
here's the picture that caused 43,000 spectators to go "oohhh" –
and reconsider whether chess was only for boring old fogies. [Photo: J.B.Thiele]
Frederic Friedel
