The finale live

(11.04.2020 by Andreas Jagodzinsky)

7:56 pm: And now it's happened. Alessia resigns. Moritz wins 3-1 and has clearly improved in the course of the tournament. In the final both players played top-class at times. Alessia did not use her chances in the white games. That she lost two - partly clear - better positions was bitter. But Moritz could rely on his tactical strength in the decisive phases.

We say goodbye for today! Happy Easter and stay healthy!

7.53 pm: Alessia continues to fight - for a lost cause.

7.52 pm: The first online club champion will be Moritz Runte, who has turned two difficult positions with black.

7.51 pm: The smoke clears. Moritz is a piece up. This is about to be given up. Two pawns are still hanging.

7.49 p.m.: She didn't pay attention for a moment. From the time she spent before the loss of material and immediately afterwards, you can see that she didn't sacrifice, but simply missed something.

7.48 pm: Moritz at ten minutes. Alessia is under seven. And now she looses a pawn and an exchange.

7.46 pm: The last moves of Alessia look very powerful. As I've said all along: She stands better.

7.45 pm: Not that I was anywhere near the final. But it is much more relaxed to watch the young people. They've been entertaining us for almost three hours now.

7.39 pm: Also in the game just mentioned Moritz started his counterattack with ...Df6. Now Alessia is thinking long and hard again. I change my opinion quite opportunistically: Black has no problems.

7.36 pm: At the last City Championship this structure was on the board in the spectacular game between Timo and Moritz. Moritz was under pressure for a long time, but then countered successfully. On the occasion: Unfortunately, the city championship will be cancelled this year. The planning uncertainty unfortunately makes it impossible to hold it.

7.34 pm: Even though there is still a long way to go until Alessia wins, here are the rules if there should be a 2-2: In that case, two blitz games (5+2) will be played. As long as there is a tie after two Blitz games, two more Blitz games will be played. And if that works until Christmas... Both opponents are young and fit.

7.31 pm: I would rather play the position with white. Everything that the 15-year-old Bundesliga promoted player does in this game has its hands and feet.

7.26 pm: Alessia chooses a setup with a long castling. As a reminder, she has to win to get into the tiebreak.

7.23 pm: After a few technical problems at lichess, the game now continues. Alessia plays 1.d4 again. Quickly, the exchange variation of the Queen's Gambit is on the board.

7.19 pm: The expert audience sees the draw coming soon. Alessia has defended herself brilliantly. And there is the division of points. The game continues with game four.

7.18 p.m.: That should be enough for the draw. Meanwhile Alessia has more than one minute again.

7.16 pm: The ending with bishop and knight final should be a draw. But the time...

7.15 pm: Alessia has equalized the material ratio. But the time remains bad.

7.11 pm: Alessia is now under one minute. Moritz still has more than three. Alessia now offers a draw.

7.08 pm: And now Moritz is better. He has won material. But with time running out it was also difficult to keep all the figures covered.

7.06 pm: Tactically, there seems to be something working for Moritz now.

7.04 p.m.: The time now speaks clearly for Moritz. The more active figures are also a plus. But in the end Alessia's more material could decide.

7.00 pm: Moritz down to five and a half minutes, Alessia under four.

6.55 pm: Should Alessia succeed in replacing the missing pawns in front of her king with pieces that she stands better because of the material advantage. Probably Moritz should now look for perpetual check.

6.53 pm: A decision is about to be made. At least that of the game. Alessia has one more piece. But there is no trace of royal security. The question is whether Moritz has more than perpetual check.

6:49 p.m.: And now he sacrifices his knight. He should at least have perpetual check. Maybe there's more. Tactically, that's probably a good decision.

6.47 p.m.: Moritz is probably working very hard on a piece sacrifice.

6.44 pm: Until today, Alessia has been the dominant player of the tournament. She was lucky to escape from a losing position only in round 1 against Andreas Reinhardt. Moritz actually showed what he can do only yesterday.

But in the final he played really well and kept his nerves in a critical position in the second round.

6.38 p.m.: Now it's Alessia who thinks long and hard in the morning. Psychologically this is uncomfortable for her now because she can't lose any more.

6.33 pm: By the way, Alessia has just lost her first game in the tournament. Moritz had to admit defeat to Alex Poggemann in the second match.

6.32 pm: You can see from the time consumption that the plan to make use of the good theoretical knowledge has not worked out for Moritz so far. But he is leading in the match and could already bring about the decision by winning this match.

6.29 pm: Moritz opens again with 1.e4. In her fourth move, Alessia deviates from the first game.

6.28 p.m.: And that's when it happened. Moritz has turned the match around and takes a 1.5-0.5 lead.

6.21 p.m.: And Moritz clearly has the initiative.

6.16 p.m.: This is going to be difficult for Alessia, who hardly has any time left.

6.12 p.m.: But now Moritz is in the driver's seat.

6.10 p.m.: Moritz offers a draw, good moment! Alessia's time is getting tighter and tighter.

6.08 p.m.: Possibly Moritz is now passing a good opportunity. Instead of continuing to activate his pieces with another pawn sacrifice, he covers his pawn.

6.05 pm: The plan to distract the queen with a pawn sacrifice seems to have worked. At least there are now approaches for black counterplay. The option of using long castling to move the white king to the queen's wing should no longer exist with the half-open b-line.

6:00 p.m.: For the first time in the final, four rapid chess games are played, or three if someone manages 2.5/3 or 3/3.

5.57 pm: Moritz now offers a pawn. After that, the Queen of Alessia would first be cut off from the king on the black queen's wing. But a king's attack by Moritz is not in sight.

5.52 p.m.: Moritz should know that his opponent is more comfortable. But he is trying to keep the shop together and maybe one day he will try to compensate for the structural disadvantages of the position with his pair of bishops, which he now has.

5.46 p.m.: For the first time Alessia thinks longer now. But her position seems much more harmonious.

5.43 pm: The Romanian youth national player is still in theory, while Moritz has already spent four minutes more. That could be quite difficult for him.

5.39 p.m.: Alessia probably knows better. She plays much faster.

5.36 pm: With Black, Moritz is now playing a king's indian against 1.d4 to surprise his opponent.

5.34 p.m.: And now it is a draw.

5.29 pm: Alessia offers to repeat the move, but Moritz does not respond.

5.25 p.m.: It remains balanced. But no one wants to offer a draw.

5.21 pm: After further exchanges an even final game for the knights has been played. Does anyone offer a draw?

5.20 pm: Moritz' hopes of gaining an advantage through his good preparation for the opening did not work out in Game 1. The position looks very balanced.

5.16 pm: The game started with the Berlin defense in the Ruy Lopez. Quickly, Moritz exchanged some material. After 20 moves, the position looks pretty even.

5.00 pm: Moritz as DWZ-weaker player decides to play white in the first game.

Before the final

(11.04.2020 by Andreas Jagodzinsky)

At 5pm Alessia and Moritz will play the final.

Moritz and Alessia answer some questions before the match:

Moritz: Alessia is very strong. In shorter timecontrols, e.g. Blitz, I can keep up with her and even win many games, because she is not that fast. But in Rapid she is better than me and I need to use my opening knowledge against her to get an advantage in the match. 

Alessia:  Today, I think we have equal chances. Moritz is definitely a talented and strong  player and I hope that today both of us will play well and make some interesting games.

Intermediate results from the online tournament

(05.04.2020 by Andreas Jagodzinsky)

The preliminary round of the first online club tournament in the club's history is still three days away.

The dates for the preliminary round can be freely arranged between the players. From the quarter finals onwards, things will become more disciplined. All matches are played simultaneously from Maundy Thursday to Easter Saturday.

What is the situation in the groups?

Group A started last Monday and most matches were played until Wednesday. In the end the group was finished first. Somewhat surprising was the group victory of Alex Poggemann. The current NRW champion of the U18 Moritz Runte came second. The two youth players will meet the first-placed players of group B. At the moment, I am leading. But in the last match Bernd Pröschold can still overtake me.

In Group D, the duel between Marcus Schmücker and Linda Becker is still to come. With a 2-0 from Marcus, he goes into the knockout phase with Timo Leonard. In every other result he takes Linda Becker with him. Whereby a 0-2 gave Marcus the opportunity to comment on the KO phase, because then Linda and Timo Leonard would move on.

It took until Friday to play in group C. But then it happened very fast. Secret favourite Marc Störing was surprisingly last in the group. But his match against Alessia Ciolacu was by far the best duel of the preliminary round. I watched both matches live and was impressed how well they played. In the end, our Romanian junior national team player was successful twice, after she had lost her first match against Andreas Reinhardt and could only rematch with luck. But after that she dominated her group.

Like Alessia, Catriona Dartmann Aubanell scored 3.5/4 and played today against her Bundesliga colleague for the group victory. Alessia did not give the player of the same age from Barcelona a chance. Of the three players who started, two are in the KO bracket. Linda can still follow.