The central finals of the German Bundesliga in Berlin bring the expected champions with OSG Baden-Baden and a new grandmaster for Austria. Felix Blohberger succeeds in his third norm. The title will soon be officially awarded to him by FIDE.
Blohberger wins the GM title within a few months. The Viennese talent will get the first standard in June 2022 at the international festival in Prague. The second standard follows a month later, at the end of July at the GM tournament in Vienna. In the German Bundesliga, Blohberger plays for SF Berlin. The third GM norm will kick off on November 23, 2019 (!) With a draw against Sergei Movsesian and a loss against Vincent Keymer. After two draws and a win in February 2020, Blohberger put down a run with 3.5 points from 4 games in the resumption of the pandemic last week and secured a norm from nine games. The key to success was probably a win against Predrag Nikolic in the 11th round.
Markus Ragger achieved a top performance for SG Solingen. Austria’s number one is, as always, a reliable team player. In the long 2019/2021 season, Ragger remains unbeaten and has eight and a half points from thirteen games, including wins against Leko and Kacper and draws against Anand, Vidit and Mamedyarov. Solingen cannot play for the title this time, but takes a well-secured fourth place.
Valentin Dragnev plays for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga final on board three or four and draws his games against Zbynek, Krasenkow, Bacrot, Prusikin and Feygin. In the end of the season there are five points from eleven games. Bayern has nothing to do with the relegation battle and takes a good eighth place in midfield.
The title goes to an overpowering OSG Baden-Baden with 26 out of 28 possible points ahead of the chess friends Deizisau (23) and SV Hockenheim (22). It is already the 14th championship title since 2006 and without a pandemic it would probably be one more. The German master played this year with Vachier-Lagrave, Anand, Wojtaszek, Rapport, Adams, Vallejo Pons, Naiditsch and Bacrot. If someone is missing, the substitutes’ bench is more than top-class with Yifan Hou, Shirov, Kasimdzhanov, Movsesian or Gustafsson. (wk, photo: chess ticker)
Tournament site finals Berlin, Website Chess Bundesliga
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