We hoped that SG Zürich might stumble in the last round and that we could still overtake them in this way and become champion. But Zürich won against the Chessflyers with 4.5 points to 1.5 points and thus became the deserved ZMM winner of the top league.

With our victory over Wollishofen, we ended up on the second final rank. 3rd place Wollishofen and 4th place Pfäffikon, which could just save itself from relegation with a win over Nimzowitsch in the final round. Place 5 Nimzowitsch and the unfortunate place 6 still went to the Chessflyers.

Peter P.

Drama on my board: In the middlegame I sacrificed a pawn with e4-e5, but got the initiative, and unfortunately I didn't continue optimally afterwards. Precise moves by my opponent gave him the advantage. Later, he surprisingly played Tc1-d1, which allowed me to threaten a baseline mate with Tc2. He could only thwart this by losing a piece. However, in time trouble, I overlooked the necessary move sequence, which resulted in a losing position. But I continued to play for a few moves, while my thoughts were mainly on the winning position. Once, I almost lost on time. Then the surprise: On my opponent's 39th move, I suddenly noticed that he was taking a long time, despite his simple position. Almost by chance, I looked at his time... which was running out! He thought that there would be additional time after the 36th move. The opposing, non-playing team leader got emotional and chided me for not giving up before. Well... In the end, the last two boards of the SG still won and the tempers calmed down again...

 

 

 

 

Peter P.

In the intermediate ranking after three rounds we are now on the first place with the maximum of team points! Closely followed by our biggest competitors "SG Zürich" and "Wollishofen", who both have one team point less. They had played a draw in the direct encounter. Exactly these two opponents we will duel in the next and last two rounds. Let's go for a successful fight! Let's get the title this year!

 

 

 

 

Peter P.

Also in this competition we were strongly superior in terms of ELO. Not least thanks to the reinforcement of our grandmaster Misha! Unfortunately, I didn't get much of the other games, since I was intensively occupied in my game with figuring out whether my allowed double pawn e6,e5 was more of an advantage or disadvantage in the middlegame. According to the engine, my assessment was a bit too optimistic, a bit... By the way: In the first round it was said that the top league will be played with 75 minutes + 30 seconds bonus. That is not the case now. In this round we played again with the usual 60'+30''. The tournament organization seems to have room for improvement...

Peter P.

Daniel hat wohl recht, ich hätte das Remisangebot nach 13 Zügen nicht annehmen sollen; trotz unserer Elo-Dominanz. Wer hätte gedacht, dass es noch so verdammt spannend würde; ein Mix aus Action- und Horrorfilm :-). Mateo siegte bald souverän! Bei Thomas schaute man mit unklaren Gefühlen hin. Steht er besser oder ist sein König zu luftig? Aber auch er gewann schliesslich. 2.5 Punkte für uns! Francesco geriet schon früh sehr unter Druck. Er verlor im Verlauf eine Qualität; ein Verlust war wahrscheinlich. Siggi bestritt eine komplexe Partie gegen einen unerschrockenen, gut spielenden Gegner. Und Daniel stand meistens eine Spur besser. Für den sicheren Team-Sieg wäre es am besten gewesen, wenn Siggi irgendwie hätte remisieren können, so dass Daniel wohl auf einfache Weise auch das Remis hätte herbeiführen können. Es kam aber anders! An allen drei Brettern wurde nur noch mithilfe der 30 Sekunden Inkrement-Bedenkzeit gespielt. Für die Zuschauer Spannung und Genuss pur! Vor allem am Brett von Siggi blieb es komplex und jedes Resultat war möglich. In der knappen Zeit wurden beidseits teils Gewinn- bzw. Remiswege ausgelassen. Mittlerweile schaffte es Daniel seinen Gegner zu bezwingen! Zum Glück, denn Siggis Gegner blieb kühn und schaffte den Sieg…

Peter P.