German Open

[john reade]

Has anyone heard any results from Dortmund?

[Ingo_Zachos]

I just returned from the hotel, saying good-bye to the players that visited our tournament this year.

The German Open 2007 was a pretty close race.
I suffered a deafeat and drew the other game with Bernard Coll already in the first round, and as in the next rounds Bernard, Liam Stephens and me drew all our games,against each other which were all hard fought, Bernard was constantly leading and had the chance to win the event in the last but one round, as we played round robin with an odd number of players and he had the bye in the last round.
He had to face Thomas Wien from Germany in his very first tournament ever, who constantly improved over the rounds, and Thomas showed that he now could put up a stubborn fight and defended well and reached a simple drawn ending, and as everybody, including Bernard, expected a draw, Thomas moved once again too hastily in Bernards(!) time trouble, and so, with a little bit of luck that a champion needs, Thomas made a very silly mistake, voluntarily exchanging when he had the move and so losing the whole game by the move.
But in the second game Fortuna did not smile upon Bernard, who with red ran into Thomas' pet defense line in the Single Corner: 1. 11-15 22-18, 2. 15x22 25x18, 3. 12-16 18-14
After Thomas equalled the chances in the midgame, Bernard overplayed his position and slightly weakend his single corner pieces.
Thomas with good endgame technique, and this time with the patience that a tournament player needs, secured the win and Bernard had nothing more to do then watching if his rivals for the tounament victory could catch up or pass him in the last round.
With this victory Thomas also remained in striking distance to me, with the chance of winning the national title.
Liam needed two victories to pass Bernard by one point and I could have ended equal with Bernard provided I won both games.
As the schedule demanded, I had to play Thomas exactly in the last round, needing a drawn round to win the national title.
Thomas, on the other hand, needed a win to catch the national trophy.
Meanwhile Liam had to play Irene Paetzold who already had secured her second German Lady Champion title in a row.
But all these speculations were easier said then done!
Irene played her best game in the tournement, and Liam had no substancial advantage until the end.
Then, suddenly, Irene was shocked by a move she had not expected and resigned immediately, thinking she had lost a piece, but as she realized just moments later she still could have forced a simple drawn 2 vs. 2 ending.
I will post this game tommorrow on this forum.
In my first game with Thomas I had red and after 1.11-15 22-18, 2. 15x22 25x18 I had a though time:
I now knew that Thomas has his pet line against my favored 3. 12-16 and finally I decided to play 3. 10-14 with the idea of transposing if he plays 3.- 29-25 with 4. 12-16.
Thomas then decided to mix up things by playing 3.- 23-19 instead of the well-known 3.-24-19.
In fact, 23-19 is regarded as inferior in all books, but according to the programs it still draws, and actually my theoretical positional advantage melted away in the middle game.
But, as I threatend a piece, Thomas hastily and automatically moved it away, missing a move on the other side of the board that could have regained the piece with an equal endgame.
He immediately realized that I had a breaktrough after this mistake, and altough he managed to set up a few traps, I avoided them all, winning the first game and thus getting Thomas' congratulations for the German national title.
In our second game he played the Dundee to avoid my preparation, and indeed, after I played for a shot that would only have ended in a bad postion he had a pull in the game and I had to find a few star moves to stay in the game.
But his habit of playing too hastily, being used to internet rapid games, allowed me to equalize and as he did not switch to a safe draw policy I even managed to win the endgame, and thus caught up with Bernard at the top of the tournament.

But only a few seconds later my dreams of a joint victory were spoilt by Liam who outplayed a disappointed Irene that still suffered from the missed draw.

So finally the table looked like that from the top:

1. IM Liam Stephens, Ireland
2/3. CM Ingo Zachos, Germany
Bernard Coll, Scotland
4. Thomas Wien, Germany
5. Irene Paetzold, Germany

First the German national trophies were awarded to Ingo Zachos who won his first national title (altough the title winner of 2006, Dennis Pawlek was unable to participate due to working commitments in Thailand) and Irene Paetzold who won her second German Lady title in a row.
Liam Stephens, who was the only player undefeated, also recieved his trophy as German Open winner a second time in a row, thanked for the organisation and promised to defend his title in 2008.
As I was already German National Champion and as he won our head-to-head encounter the second place was also awarded for the second time in a row to Bernard Coll.
At last, as national champion and referee, and in consent with all participants, I decided to award the trophy for the third place to
Thomas Wien, as we agreed not to have double prices.

After the event was closed, the German National Champions decided to play a small 3 move event with our guests Liam Stephens and Bernard Coll and they proved their superiority in this style.
Especially Bernard, who emerged as the deserved winner, recieved quite a few presents from his friends

My thanks to all that participated and supported us, especially to Jack Coll, who missed his flight to Dortmund only by accident.
I know Bernard misses the points

I will post the date and place of the next German Open on this forum as soon as we finally decided on it.
Also I will publish a small book on the event and the small 3 move ty we played, with commentary, crosstables, pictures, etc. for about 15 Euros plus shipping to anyone interested.
Dennis Pawlek promised to finish his work on the 2006 tournament as soon as his time allows.

Greetinx from cloudy Dortmund, Germany

Ingo Zachos

[Palomino]

Greetings,

Congratulations Ingo for winning the German National Title and I also want to congratulate Liam for his first place finish.

An excellent report of the tournament Ingo.

Regards, "Pal" Bucker

[S_McCosker]

Congratulations to Liam Stephens on winning the German Open for the second straight year. Liam I hope your playing in Limerick sounds to me like you would have a good chance of winning.

Also congratulations to Ingo Zachos on winning his first German National title.

[Lindus Edwards]

Many congratulations to Liam on a terrific performance. Well done Ingo and Bernard too.

[MostFamousDane]

Another great victory for Liam "The Killer" Stephens

Sune

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Congratulations to Liam, Ingo and everyone who organised and played in this event.

Ingo, this funny "innnovation" in Single Corner grabbed my whole attention and interest !

11-15, 22-18, 15-22, 25-18, 10-14, 23-19, !? 14-23, 27-18, ... see diagram.


Red to move

My first impression was that red should have a huge advantage here after 8-11. But a pleasant surprise is - this position is absolutely playable for both sides and somehow red ambitious here are limited. After 8-11, 29-25 white are OK. WOW !!!

Nice possibility for variety. Who must be credited ?

Sincerely,

Alex

[kiwinurse]

Many congrats to Liam and Ingo,sounded like quite a tournament.Thankyou Ingo for the wonderful description of the games,it was like just being there.

[tommyc]

Well done Liam and Ingo.

[Ingo_Zachos]

... Who must be credited ?

...

It was an idea by Thomas Wien (finished at 4th place), who actually tried to avoid to transpose into the Agnes Grey after 3. 10-14 29-25, 4. 12-16 and was afraid to use the published play 3.- 24-19, because he wanted to avoid my pp-knowledge... (the first time someone thought my pp was superior to his!)
Thomas is a strong and quite regular player on yahoo (rated there around 1700), who has limited access to books. I will ask him if he played it before on the internet or if it was crossboard intuition.
Anyway, I also first thought it was a theoretically bad position(overdevelopement and creates holes on 23 and 27), but my "advantage" melted away and a quick look over it by KingsRow says that it might be sound and safe, and who knows, maybe red even tries too hard to win it...


Greetinx from Dortmund,

Ingo

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Title of new variation : "SC Dodger" ... or "German Dodger"

Alex

[Ingo_Zachos]

I would prefer Postkutsche (stage coach), as this is the name of the hotel we played in.

Greetinx,

Ingo

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Postkutsche

Deal, I like it !

Alex

[Dennis Pawlek]

Congratulations Ingo and Liam.

Wish I could have attend this year. Ingo dont forget to send me pics, pairings and resultes and reviews and whatever you have that I can update the homepage as soon as. I got everything by now to update.

[liam stephens]

Thank you all for your congratulations and good wishes. I was, of course, delighted to win the German Open for a second time. My thanks to Ingo for organising and hosting the event and arranging the excellent accommodation. It was a shame that the tournament was not better supported with more entries.

Below is a short account of my trip for anyone who might be interested.



I flew out from Dublin to Dusseldorf on Friday 17 August at 7.10 am.
Despite the early hour, the airport was packed with travellers and it took ages to get through the check-in and security. Fortunately I spotted Bernard Coll in the queue and we also had booked the same return flight, so we were able to share the journeys, out and back.

We arrived in Dusseldorf at around 10.30 am and from the airport rail station I was able to catch a train to Dortmund. Bernard had to go to Dusseldorf central station to meet his brother Jack who was travelling from Scotland. (at that stage he was unaware of the fact of Jack’s car crash on the way to the airport, which he did not find out about until later in the day after arriving at the hotel)

When I arrived in Dortmund at mid-day I took the wrong connecting train to Aplerbeck, the district in which the hotel was located (I had not read Ingo’s precise instructions carefully enough) and ended up in Aplerbeck Sud (South) instead. Outside of the station it appeared to be a residential area and there were no shops or any sign of people about. A little further along the road I saw a man sitting in his front garden and asked him for directions. He did not understand English, so he called his daughter out of the house, as she did speak English. When he learned what had happened, he got his car out and insisted on driving me to the hotel, which was probably a mile or so away from the station.
I was indeed full of gratitude for such a kind treatment, as a visitor in a new city.

Later that evening Bernard and Ingo arrived at the hotel. Ingo had received a message from Jack Coll informing him about the car accident on the way to the airport in Scotland. Fortunately, he had no serious injuries, but the car was a write off. Irene Patzold and her husband, Jurgen, also arrived that evening after a 4 hour drive from Hamburg.

Ingo had booked us excellent accommodation – the Hotel Postkutsche – which was also the playing venue. The competition was very close and as Ingo mentioned going into the final round I needed two wins against Irene. In the first game I took a 3 for 3 that was no good and was struggling for the draw until near the end, when my opponent made an error allowing me to gain a piece. The tournament concluded on Saturday evening.

On Sunday we had a consolation 3 move tournament which Bernard won in convincing style.
All in all it was an excellent weekend of checker playing.
That evening we had some free time and Ingo took us on a brief walking tour of the Aplerbeck area of the city of Dortmund. We viewed several fine buildings and some of the old Churches which survived intact after the war. Ingo said they acted as landmarks for the Allied Aircraft and escaped bombing for that reason. Dortmund is now a city with a population in excess of 500,000, and was almost entirely rebuilt after the war. Each evening we dined in a local restaurant that Ingo recommended, within walking distance of the hotel and we had excellent meals there.


On Monday morning Ingo came to the hotel after our breakfast and following a fond farewell to Irene and Jurgen, accompanied us to the central Station in Dortmund, where we caught the train back to Dusseldorf. Our flight back to Dublin was not due till 20.50 hrs., so we had a full afternoon free to see the sights in Dusseldorf. We went on a visitor’s guided tour of the city which took 3 hours.
This included a boat trip on the Rhine and some spectacular views from the 200 meters high tower overlooking the city.


Our flight back to Dublin left at 20.50 hours. In contrast to Dublin the airport terminal at Dusseldorf was fairly quiet and check-in taking only about 10 minutes. The flight home was uneventful, but just before landing the stewardess announced that the local time was “twenty to ten”. I heard this as “22.10” and thought - Oh the flight is late and I will miss my onward bus connection. However, when I checked my watch it was in fact 21.40 (twenty minutes to ten) so all was well! The airport bus arrived in Dublin central station by 22.30 and I got the bus from Dublin at 23.00 arriving home at 00.30.hrs.