Immediately
after the champion of champions, Garry Kasparov, had finished his visit on the
server, in which he answered questions from the fans and talked at length about
his new work on the development of chess and the play of his predecessors on
the chress throne, the 2. CHAMPIONS-CHALLENGE began. The event was won by the
young Polish talent and chess star ZBIGNIEW PAKLEZA, who triumphed over a strong
field and has now 2.000 ducats more in his account. The tournament saw many
strongly contested matches and took some more time than the week before. But
there also was lots of interesting chess, which made quite a few spectators
stay until the final.
The field was quite impressive and many a young talent wanted to leave his
mark and win the first prize of 2.000 ducats. In contrast to the debut, this
time there were hardly any big surprises in the first round, and all the favorites
managed to win. However, for some of them this proved to be not that easy: Kai-Rudolf
Wornath (Bullmover), for example, had to concede
a game against Heike Vogel (flatterviech), and GM Mihail Saltaev (uzbek)
had to play no less than five
games against Remco Sprangers from the Netherlands until he made it to the
second round.
1.
Round |
|
Klosterfrau |
vs |
Mc Taktikal |
2:0(0) |
Matzel |
vs |
puntarenasss |
2:1(2) |
Bullmover |
vs |
flatterviech |
2:1(0) |
Chessbolo |
vs |
zaki |
2:0(2) |
topotun |
vs |
MASTER YODA |
2:0(1) |
Abrau |
vs |
jrt |
2:0(0) |
Mokele MBembe |
vs |
T_Meier |
2:0(1) |
JustAPlayer |
vs |
pomfritz |
2:0(0) |
TigerTAD |
vs |
Space Advantage |
2:0(0) |
Odnek |
vs |
Meister Hitzfeld |
2:1(0) |
AlexanderMagnus |
vs |
Golden eye |
0:2(1) |
Pakleza |
vs |
ThorsHammer |
2:0(1) |
DusanPopovic |
vs |
mike55 |
2:0(0) |
LARGECAT |
vs |
Anakin |
2:0(1) |
uzbek |
vs |
remco |
2:1(2) |
Dagon |
vs |
arow31 |
2:0(1) |
Things really got going in the round of the last sixteen. All matches were
close, and even those that ended with a 2:0 result saw some real struggles.
A tough contest was the encounter
between Mokele MBembe and JustAPlayer, which went over eight games. Interesting
chess throughout and exciting blitz-games were presented to the spectators.
If you want, just play through the match. The match between TigerTAD and Odnek
turned into a very special endurance test: after a first-game draw, both of
the opponents could score leading to a result of 1:1 - after which we saw a
series of ten draws, before the players agreed to a bullet-tiebreak, which was
won by Odnek.
This long match not only put a strain on the players, but also on spectators
and the tournament director. To be honest, I just didn't think it possible that
blitz-games could so often end in a draw. And it is not because the players
quickly agreed to a draw. Maybe they proceeded a bit too carefully, adhering
to the motto "Take no risks on the defensive, and may God help with the attack."
Each and everyone who throws a glance on the games
is able to draw his/her own conclusions.
At any rate, we took this as an incentive to search for a way to limit the
number of games. As a KO-tournament does not allow for a drawn match, and as
you need a tie-break that is more or less fair, it might take a while until
all new methods are fully implemented. Until then, one can only advise the players
to take some more risks, because such marathons in the end often turn out to
be pyrrhic victories if you meet an opponent, who had an eigthy-minute break,
and is able to push you easily from the screen.
Last
Sixteen |
|
Klosterfrau |
vs |
Matzel |
2:1(1) |
Bullmover |
vs |
Chessbolo |
0:2(0) |
topotun |
vs |
Abrau |
2:0(0) |
Mokele MBembe |
vs |
JustAPlayer |
2:1(5) |
TigerTAD |
vs |
Odnek |
1:2(11) |
Golden eye |
vs |
Pakleza |
0:2(0) |
DusanPopovic |
vs |
LARGECAT |
0:2(0) |
uzbek |
vs |
Dagon |
0:2(0) |
After the long strain of the previous round Odnek was a pushover for Pakleza
and after two more games the tournament was over for Odnek, Jörg Wegerle. Much
to the dismay of his rather large number of fans, who know him as trainer on
the server, IM Dennis Breder (Klosterfrau) had to concede a clear defeat against
Chessbolo. And the winner of the semi-marathon in the round of the last sixteen,
Mokele MBembe, neither had sufficient energy for a successful encounter with
topotun. The fourth semi-finalist was Dagon, who could prevail against LARGECAT.
Quarterfinal |
|
Klosterfrau |
vs |
Chessbolo |
0:2(0) |
topotun |
vs |
Mokele MBembe |
2:0(1) |
Odnek |
vs |
Pakleza |
0:2(0) |
LARGECAT |
vs |
Dagon |
1:2(1) |
In the semi-finals the time has come to lift the protective cover of anonymity
and to call the players by their real names. In view of the successful tournament
no one should see this as an attack against their honour. In a Russian
duel Michaiö Panarin (topotun) prevailed against Vladimir Grebionkin (Chessbolo).
The Polish talent Zbigniew Pakleza had comparatively few
problems with IM Thomas Henrichs.
Semifinal |
|
Michail Panarin |
vs |
FM Vladimir Grebionkin |
2:1(0) |
Zbigniew Pakleza |
vs |
IM Thomas Henrichs |
2:0(1) |
But the final
turned out to be a rather close affair, in which the young Pole finally prevailed.
However, the public would certainly have liked if his behaviour at the online-board
would have been less marked by youthful inexperience, and if he would have made
more good moves and less draw offers, which he used to heap on his opponents
when he was playing with Black. But finally he also played the better moves
and deservedly won the Second Champions-Challenge.
Finale |
|
Michail Panarin
|
vs |
Zbigniew Pakleza |
1:2(2) |
All in all the second edition of the CHAMPIONS-CHALLENGE also proved to be
a successful event, which despite its length still fascinated the spectators.
Martin Fischer