Chess - The Scotsman 10/04/13

Question: How does White win?

One of the world’s top football clubs, Bayern Munich, achieved a notable feat last weekend by wrapping up the notoriously tough Bundesliga title in record time. Such has been Bayern’s dominance of the German top flight that no other side have claimed the title this early in the Bundesliga’s 50 year history.

And the Bayern of the German chess scene is OSG Baden Baden who, like their footballing counterparts, also had a record run this season by winning their latest Bundesliga title at the weekend.

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They have been first every year since 2005-6, but this season they had won the title – the strongest professional chess league in the world – before the final weekend of the season.

Baden Baden is the cash-rich team that even boasts world championship contenders, Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand in its squad. But neither was needed for the final weekend, as Peter Svidler and Michael Adams on top boards easily added two more match victories, to finish the season with a Bundesliga first of a perfect 30/30 match points and 89/120 game points, well ahead of their nearest rivals.

Also starring for Baden Baden was the German No 1, Arkadij Naiditsch, who will be returning to Scotland for a simultaneous display at the iconic Edinburgh Chess Club on the revised dates of Saturday 20 April at 12pm.

The world No 29 is set to become the strongest player to do a simultaneous at the venerable club in Alva Street since world champion Alexander Alekhine in 1938.

A Naiditsch - W Koch

Bundesliga 2012–13, (15)

Leningrad Dutch

1 c4 d6 2 Nc3 f5 3 d4 Nf6 4 Nf3 g6 5 g3 Bg7 6 Bg2 0–0 7 0–0 c6 8 Qb3 Kh8 9 Rd1 Na6 10 Qa3 Qb6 11 Bd2 Qb4 12 Qxb4 Nxb4 13 Rac1 Na6 14 d5 Bd7 15 Ne1 cxd5 16 cxd5 Rfc8 17 Nd3 Nc5 18 Nxc5 Rxc5 19 Be3 Rcc8 20 h3 Ne8 21 Bd4 Bxd4 22 Rxd4 Nf6 23 Re1 Kg8 24 e4 fxe4 25 g4! h6 26 Bxe4 g5 27 f4 gxf4 28 Bd3 Re8 29 Bg6 1–0

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