Chess - The Scotsman 17/04/2012

OF all the world’s national leagues the German Bundesliga (BL) is the most prestigious, with tremendous firepower and a long, rich history.

Over the years, the BL has produced some truly fantastic teams. The current top dogs, OSG Baden-Baden, are very much in that tradition.

Their 18-man squad – though only two non-EU players can turn out per match – is überstrong, with the world champion Viswanathan Anand, world No 1 Magnus Carlsen; seven more rated over 2700: Peter Svidler, Paco Vallejo, Michael Adams, Alexei Shirov, Étienne Bacrot, Arakadij Naiditsch and Sergei Movsessian; and two more of the current Top 100: Peter Heine Nielsen and ex-FIde champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

With such a formidable line-up, Baden-Baden dominated to win the title at the weekend by a two-point margin over their nearest rivals Bremen – but a draw in the penultimate round meant the champagne was kept on ice for an extra day, as they had to get a result in the final round.

The big shock in their penultimate round mishap was Anand being outplayed and losing to the sub-2700 Dutch player Sergei Tiviakov. Not exactly the ideal confidence-booster the world champion was looking for going into his title defence against Boris Gelfand in early May.

S Tiviakov - V Anand

Bundesliga 2011–12, (14)

Sicilian Defence, Moscow variation

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ Nd7 4 d4 cxd4 5 Qxd4 a6 6 Bxd7+ Bxd7 7 c4 e5 8 Qd3 h6 9 Nc3 Nf6 10 0–0 Be7 11 a4 b6 12 b3 Ra7 13 Rd1 Bc8 14 Ba3 Rd7 15 Nd2 0–0 16 Nf1 Bb7 17 Ne3 Re8 18 Ncd5 Nxd5 19 Nxd5 Bxd5 20 Qxd5 Qa8 21 Qxa8 Rxa8 22 Rd5 f6 23 Rad1 Rad8 24 g3 g5 25 f4 gxf4 26 gxf4 Kf7 27 Kf2 exf4 28 Kf3 Ke6 29 Bc1 Rc8 30 Bxf4 Bf8 31 h4 Rc6 32 h5 Rb7 33 Be3 Rb8 34 Bd4 Rc7 35 Rg1 Bg7 36 Rg6 Rf7 37 Be3 Rd7 38 Rf5 Rf7 39 Kg4 Bf8 40 Bxh6 Bxh6 41 Rxh6 Rg7+ 42 Kf4 Rf8 43 a5 Rg1 44 axb6 Rb1 45 b7 Rxb3 46 e5! dxe5+ 47 Rxe5+ Kd6 48 Rf5 Ke6 49 Rh7 Rd8 50 Rd5 1–0