SMM 2024 - NLB

Final standings after 9 rounds

All in all, a pretty concerning season. The start was very sloppy, with losses to the weaker team Olten, and the too high loss to Tribschen. They were only partly compensated by a very good win to Trubschachen. The mid-season was so-so with a bad draw against (on paper) weaker Uzwil. It was only the super-short win to Wettswil which saved us in the end. We will have to make sure to start better next season, to avoid the stress of uphill battles against demotion.

Round 9 - Closing the bill

In this last round, we knew we were very likely saved; only a very bad loss from us and an unlikely very high win from Wettswil would have meant demotion.
Half of the games were finished within two hours on logical draws. Felix also finished his not too late, with a very aggressive attack. A computer would have punished the too many sacrifices, but his opponent being human, he crumbled under the pressure. The others were very tough games. Miran spoiled a very nice strategic advantage on a fork, and then missed some chances for a draw. Thomas and Parwis had to do with opponents in good form, which did not give them any respite.

The 5-3 loss did not hurt us too much, as Wettswil also lost their match. So in the end the individual points did not matter, we were saved on match points.

Round 8 - The long-awaited liberation

The situation was ideal on paper. We were playing at home, and with reinforcement coming from Bucharest: our friend Codrut who joined in our effort to avoid demotion. But Wettswil also took this encounter seriously, coming with one of their best possible setups.

Things were looking very good, as both Christoph and Joe had early wins; the first from brilliant attacking play, the second from taking enough advantage in the position that the opponent would blunder the rest. Lars had a good draw against a dangerous player, in a game where he was always slightly better but not enough to play on.
Arthur had a difficult opening, but his opponent forgot to slow down in attacking and overcomitted, exposing his own king.
Followed a draw from Miran in a creative game where he always had the advantage. Taking the half-point was a very logical decision even with the better position, as the match looked won after that. But it was not as clear as that…
Thomas had a bit of an acrobatic middle game, where both players took strange decisions. It looked like he was coming out on top, when suddenly he tripped and let his opponent invade the first rank. The defense was too tough to keep up, and the full point was given.
Dylan’s game was a harsh loss out of too optimistic play in the opening.
Remained Codrut’s match. He took a very good advantage in the middle game by exploiting dubious choices of his opponent, but was too confident in his plan, which backfired. The position looked completely lost in the endgame, until they reached a rook-and-pawns one where the draw was saved. A very important half point, as it meaned a team win!

With these two team points, we were close to be mathematically safe. Only a high win from Wettswil on the last round, coupled with a terrible loss from us against Glarus would make us slip behind them in the ranking. So we still had to play seriously on Sunday.

Standings after the 7th round

Round 7 (15.9.2024): Keeping an unnecessary suspense

SG Zürich 2, who was also in the demotion zone, came with some of their strongest possible team. We were missing Joe, but still had decent chances.

Dylan took a good quick draw.
Perparim blitzed out his opening and gave a pawn for no reason, to have to defend a difficult endgame (which was lost).
Sacha held first board with style and had small chances for an advantage in the endgame, which were not enough for the full point.
Christoph and Parwis had difficult battles, of which the latter was also strangely given away.
Arthur, too confident in the opening, blundered a pawn against a very strong kid, and the game with it.
Miran played a very good game of slowly conquering each square of the board, and finished cleanly with the only win of the day.
Nathan, even physically diminished by a cold, held the pressure up against his stronger opponent for a very long time, until the endgame where he had to give the draw.

On the paper the expected result would have been a 4-4. A painful loss. We will have to play all-in for the last double round.

Round 6 (25.8.2024): On our way

This home game was crucial in our fight against demotion. The league’s results being very even, there were still quite a few teams at risk.
We got lucky that Winterthur 2 was already long safe and could not promote as they are already present in NLA, hence they came with a reduced team.

This gave us nice clean wins on the first 3 boards. Christoph kept a solid game and drew. Perparim played too fast again and let a point slip to a dangerous youngster. Thomas also fumbled in his game. Parwis had a neat advantage, and converted it. Miran took an early draw.

Even with this win, we are not completely out of danger. We need to score at least once in the last rounds to have our future in our own hands.

Round 5 (23.6.2024): Recurring nightmare

Uzwil was again a nightmare for us this season. Like last season, their 2 top boards played well above their rating. On top of that, they have a few new players that gained close to 200 points in the season, that gave us a really hard time. We will have to break the spell that this team has cast upon us some time.

Round 4 (26.5.2024): All in for a liberation

This was a match against two teams who were supposed to be league favorites, and were still without a single point after three rounds. For once we managed to muster our strongest possible team. Trubschachen did not fully manage: they were unlucky to miss on a last-minute sick player. No need to ask us twice, we profited from it.

Dylan’s lightning win (15 moves) against an IM and Christoph’s quick win against an inexperienced player put us in a very comfortable situation with 3-0.
Nathan held a good draw against another IM, so that we only needed one more point.
Perparim fought against his urge to play fast and converted a very nice game into a winning endgame, in which his opponent promptly gave up. The win was already ours.
Parwis also took his chances and got a winning pawn endgame, which did not require much technique.
Sacha defended fiercely against a very good IM (soon to be GM), but eventually had to give the point.
Joe finished a clean game with a win.

This good 6.5-1.5 win liberates us from the last rank in the league. We need to continue scoring to eliminate the risks of demotion.

Round 3 (28.4.2024): Absents

After the first two catastrophic rounds, we could have hoped for a rebound. But the calendar being as it is, this round was in the middle of school vacation in our canton, and many events led to the team being deprived of many of its players. With the help of Michele we managed to at least be 7 to avoid complete shame.

The games on the day went okay. Arthur did a quick draw with black against a slightly stronger opposition, Michele and Giannis suffered against much stronger players. Christoph held his ground against the opponent’s number 2 (good perf!). Joe scored against weaker opposition. Dylan defended well but had to give the full point against very good play. And Miran completely crushed through his game in an opening of his specialty.

All in all, we might have taken a draw or even the match with one more player. We need to fix our absenteism issue immediately to save our season.

Round 2 (14.4.2024): Where are we?

Many were absent this day, so we went with a suboptimal setup to face some of the stronger opposition in the league (on average 140 elo stronger than us).
Without surprise, this was not a success. Even our only clearly winning board (Arthur) did not manage to get more than half a point.
Good defense on the last board by Felix though, who clinged onto the half point in a not-so-easy endgame.
We will need to rise again in the next round.

Round 1 (10.3.2024): Wrong start

With close to our best possible setup, against an in average 100-rating points weaker opponent, this looked like an easy start in the season.
Sadly, our taking it a bit too easy costed us dearly.
After a total positional domination of his adversary, Perparim fell to his weakness again, and played too fast at the moment of converting the game, letting half a point slip. Christoph and Thomas both confirmed their good form and got points against much weaker opposition. Joe got tangled in confusion after a good opening, eventually blundering the entire point to a weaker but always dangerous player. Sacha got the better position out of a strong junior player, but missed the chance to transform the advantage. Dylan had to defend an equal but unpleasant endgame in an uphill battle, but secured the half point solidly. Lars had a very difficult game against an aggressive player. In the end, it looked like it would be a 4-4. Vital battled hard in his very long game, passing from a completely winning mating attack which failed due to missing time for finishing the calculation, to a worse Rook+Knight vs 2 Rooks endgame, to a winning Knight + Pawns vs Rook, to a losing one. We got very unlucky on this one, but it gave somehow a feeling of missing precision. We will need to recover from that loss and learn our lesson.

SMM 2023 - NLB

Final standings

We ended up 3rd, tied with Glarus by team points but behind them on individual points.
All in all, with all the unluck we had this season, not a bad result.
Glarus tripped on their last obstacle, Olten. Not many were expecting them to lose this encounter, but in the end they let the promotion slip and go to Bodan.
Gligoric and Lenzburg are demoting to regional league.

Round 9 (1.10.2023): Ending the season on a high note

The last round of the season was one between two teams who weren’t playing for promotion anymore, but for the 3rd place. But the tournament organizer decided anyway (short-term, no concertation) to have the games live-transmitted online. Even if we didn’t like this much, at least we shone by our results!

Round 8 (30.9.2023): The ultimate show of bad luck against Wettswil

On the paper a short win from our side was the expected result, but some of our usuals missing for this match, Joe half sick and the rest of the team a bit distracted by the sound of the bells in the bell tower where we played, didn’t make this an easy occurrence. Also, clever team composition from their side, as they anticipated the boards 1-2 switch. Result 4.5 to 3.5 for Wettswil.

Round 7 (17.9.2023): Clean win against Gligoric

Gligoric being on the paper on of the weakest teams in the league, a 6-2 win was not a surprise, but to win a match with no single full point given is a good feeling.
Good to see Perparim being back in form!

Round 6 (27.8.2023): A painful draw against Uzwil

Another complicated match, against a very - in many ways - annoying team.
The good wins from Miran and Thomas, and the - unannounced and dubious - forfeit win of Christoph were just enough to compensate for some surprising counter-performances at the top boards.

Standings after the 5th round

With our very short wins, and thanks to Bodan inflicting the same 4.5-3.5 score to the previous leaders Glarus, we are now 2nd behind Tribschen.

This means that the final victory is still in our grasp! But it is important for us to catch up Tribschen, and Glarus on board points.

Round 5 (25.6.2023): Joe and Lars save the team

Another strange day. With a rating average of 2220 against 2080, the awaited score should have been 6-2 in our favor.
I got a free day with a forfeit win. Thomas finished very early with a quick draw in a bad position. A tired Perparim gave a pawn in the opening and the game soon after. Lars’ and Parwis’ games were hard fought and Parwis ended it not too late with a draw. Dylan and Sacha had clear advantages, but let their opponents slip with half a point too. Remained Joe in an about equal game against a player known to him for decades, and Lars in a position that quickly degraded. Joe’s opponent was pushed to the mistake, and our GM friend took the full point out of experience. Lars had a long and painful game to defend, but he managed to hold it in the end, giving us the two very much needed team points.

That was a stressful event, but we got the best of it again :-D

Standings after the 4th round

Round 4 (11.6.2023): phyrric victory against Lenzburg

A strange encounter. Lenzburg put together a weak team, with a player under 1300, for a rating average of 1953.
This should have been a clear swipe, at least a 6-2 I expected. But, apart from Christoph who had a short and easy day against an amateur player, we all had to fight to the very end.

Miran lost a very bitter game where his opponent found a deadly king attack. Yasin also had a hard time as he oversaw a tactic that lost him a pawn. His opponent went on and pushed his extra passer, and got the point. Also Nathan’s game was very wild, and could have gone both ways; a draw was a good escape for both players.
In the meantime, Sacha held the advantage he got in the opening throughout the game and brought us a second point, evening the score.
Joe pressured against a much weaker player long enough to collect the logical win.

Remained me and Lars to play, with Lars being forced to take big risks and ending up letting his opponent get connected central passers. The defeat happened shortly after.
So the score was tied with only the captain left to save the day and the match win. My old opponent got surprised by one of my opening specials on move 4 and played for a draw with obstination the rest of the game. Every occasion for an exchange was forced and taken by him, which was extremely frustrating. But every exchange was also making small concessions. Over long time, these stacked and became real weaknesses. I had to manoeuver through a complicated knights-endgame with little time on the clock, but managed to liberate the team at the end of the day with a victory.

Who could have guessed this one to be that hard to take?

We have to score much better if we want to keep up with the leaders!

Standings after the 3rd round

Round 3 (14.5.2023): Draw against Bodan

Another matchup against a contender for the promotion.
They could have been expected to be out of motivation due to their first-round loss to Wettswil, but they showed they are still in for it.
Good thing we still took them seriously and aligned a very strong team.
It was the occasion to greet our new friend and recruit Nathan, and with style as he brought the point home!

Bodan got clever and made their strongest players play on boards 2-3 (even if 3 got forfeited) to dodge our board 1.
Expected result was 4-4, but it looks like there was more for us to take.
Now we’ll need to cruise and crush all to stay in the run. Let’s do it!

Round 2 (30.4.2023): 4-4 draw against Glarus

Glarus is one of the other contenders for the promotion, and we remember how closely we beated them in the 2021 season.
As expected, they came with a very strong team; so we were right in having one of our strongest possible lineups, and get backed by our super-joker Björn!
On the paper, the chances were supposed to be even: we were stronger on the first boards, they were stronger on the last ones.
Expected result was the 4-4 we got, but it could have went their way if it weren’t for Sacha’s performance!

Overall not a bad result, as we keep our chances for the final win.

Round 1 (16.4.2023): Win against Olten

After a very tough season at the top in NLA, we are back in NLB with much to prove, as we ambition nothing less than to promote back!
Round 1 was a very clean win against Olten, with an impressive tactical game from Codrut, a serene win from Miran, and many solid draws.
No single game was given to our opponents. Expected result was 4-4.

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Rangliste

Rang Club MP EP
1. Luzern 16 (47/Schweizer Meister)
2. Zürich 15 (46)
3. Riehen 15 (44½)
4. Winterthur 11 (40)
5. Genf 8 (39)
6. Nyon 7 (30½)
7. Wollishofen 7 (27½)
8. Réti 6 (35½)
9. Echallens 3 (25/Absteiger)
10. Nimzowitsch 2 (25/Absteiger)

Mannschaftsleiter: Arthur Tönz

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 9/ 13. November 2022
Nimzowitsch – Réti 5 : 3
Joseph Gallagher – Roger Moor (2392)    ½ – ½
Dylan Viennot – Michael Prusikin   0 – 1
Sacha Georges – Fabian Mäser 1 – 0
Lars Bäumer – Michael Hochstrasser   ½ – ½
Perparim Bajraktari –Jürgen Fend   0 – 1
Parwis Nabavi – Olivier Moor    0 – 1
Christoph Drechsler – Fabian Frey   0 – 1
Miran Alic – Claude Douguet    1 – 0

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 8/ 12. November 2022
Nimzowitsch – Wollishofen 3½ : 4½
Joseph Gallagher - Roger Moor   ½ – ½
Dylan Viennot - Michael Prusikin   0 – 1
Sacha Georges - Fabian Mäser 1 – 0
Lars Bäumer – Michael Hochstrasser ½ – ½
Perparim Bajraktari – Jürgen Fend   0 – 1
Parwis Nabavi – Olivier Moor   0 – 1
Christoph Drechsler – Fabian Frey  0 – 1
Miran Alic – Claude Douguet   1 – 0

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 7/ 18. September 2022
Winterthur – Nimzowitsch 6 : 2
Nico Georgiadis – Joseph Gallagher 1-0
Dennis Kaczmarczyk – Sacha Georges 1-0
Benedict Hasenohr – Dylan Viennot ½-½
Lena Georgescu – Lars Bäumer 1-0
Kambez Nuri – Yasin Chennaoui 1-0
Martin Ballmann – Parwis Nabavi 1-0
Julian Schärer – Miran Alic ½-½
Sebastian Gattenlöhner – Christoph Drechsler 0-1

Winterthur was playing home, so it was not much effort for them to align a very strong team. We were favorite on none of the boards. Joe's game was an explosive one, which is all we were expecting to see. He took a very good advantage out of the opening with black in a sicilian. Things went even more complicated in the middlegame, where the computer was giving our side a decisive advantage. But these are the hardest to keep, and the game evolved rapidly in the other direction, as tactics appeared out of nowhere for the young Nico. Sacha impressed again with his solid play, going for active counterplay when the position was asking for it instead of slowly being grinded down. He still cracked in a drawn rook endgame, but what a good performance still!
Dylan is now the specialist of 6.5+ hours games. In his caracteristic dynamic/aggressive style with either colors, he went for the isolated pawn as black, and probably overstepped the limit back sacking a pawn too much. He went on to defend a desperate position with minus pawn and passive pieces, which his opponent straight out failed at transforming. The bishop and plus-pawn against knight endgame ended in a 85-move hair-pulling draw, after Dylan holding on to the only drawing line for something like 10 straight moves. A pretty impressive feat of calculation, and an incredible fighting spirit! Lars had to hold tight in a cramped position against the female Swiss champion. To relieve his pieces, he gave the exchange; but this did not prove to be enough and that meant another point for Winterthur. Our new friend Yasin played his special Philidor defense. He went a bit too quick when everything seemed to easy and would win him a pawn; but his opponent went for a very good queen versus pieces exchange, and Yasin's position soon crumbled. A more prophylactic approach would certainly have given him the point it seemed. But not a bad game in itself, rich in learning. Parwis held his ground against a retired IM until the zeitnot hit him hard. The game was not to be saved, but he tried all he could.
Miran's superior opening preparation again awarded him with a technically won middlegame, the computer giving him a positional -2.5 per move 20 already. Tactical complications later, the opponent's experience got him the equality, and a potential plus pawn in the endgame. Miran's attack in the early middlegame took such a toll on his opponent's confidence that he missed a few wins. They actually both missed a few, on each side (36...Rxh2 0-1). The crazy game ended on a draw in a rook ending. Great performance against a player 240 rating points stronger! Our only win of the match came from Christoph at the last board, who won a pawn incorrectly sacrificed by his opponent for an inexistant attack. Christoph exchanged queens and won another pawn, poaching the full point.
End result 6-2. Not too bad for against Winterthur.
– Arthur Tönz –

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 6/ 17. September 2022
Nimzowitsch – Nyon 4 : 4
Joseph Gallagher – Jean Netzer 1-0
Dylan Viennot – Murtez Ondozi ½-½
Sacha Georges – Sébastien Joie ½-½
Lars Bäumer – Nicolas Duport 1-0
Parwis Nabavi – Pascal Guex 0-1
Christoph Drechsler – Laurent Vilaseca 0-1
Arthur Toenz – Christian Michaud ½-½
Miran Alic – Selvan Gautier ½-½

The Saturday match seemed to go in the right direction as Joe made another show of his execution of IM Netzer in 22 moves. Dylan played with plenty of ambition with black, but ended up in an endgame with a minus pawn. It should have been an easy draw, but ended up in a 127-move thriller, with Dylan heroically pulling the half point after an exhausting 7 hours game. In Sacha's game also we could see that both teams were not giving any half point easily. They played on a very equal knights endgame for nearly 40 moves before agreeing on the draw, after a game in which our Sacha was never in trouble. The queen-side game reminded me very much of Codrut's game against Buss in the 5th round. Lars completely outplayed his opponent as black in a French defense, after accepting a pawn and holding onto it, then jumping right to the endgame, and finally bringing the king in his opponent's camp. A classical win, which did good to the morale. Parwis suffered a pretty bad pressure after a creative opening from Guex. He sacked the queen for rook and knight, hoping for a fortress that got slowly broken down by his opponent's precise play. Christoph had a very different scenario. He created massive play in the opening, understanding the position much better than the opposition. But the complications of the middlegame turned the position upside down and he had to defend a difficult endgame against a near unstoppable pawn flood. The 40th move, as is often the case in these time controls, was the losing mistake, and with it the score was evened out. My game was quite acrobatic. In a position with a slight positional advantage but a potential weaker king, I decided to go for a pawn and/or exchange sacrifice to liberate my pieces, which my opponent declined. My terrible time/stress management forced me to look for equal endgames. My opponent's even worse time management got him a technically losing knight and pawns endgame, but both our mistakes evened out eventually and I didn't manage to convert the endgame that was already drawn 20 moves ago, after a single missed winning opportunity. Miran's game in his new specialty QGD with ...a6 went crazy as he desperately sacked material for an illusory king's attack. His opponent was put under enough pressure to not find the perfect moves and eventually had to find a perpetual check to not lose. End result of a extremely hard-fought match: 4-4.
Not a good result for us regarding the standings, but we cannot regret of not fighting with all our energy! And at least, we did not lose, so we are still in the run for keeping our spot.
– Arthur Tönz –

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 5/ 4. September 2022
Echallens – Nimzowitsch 4 : 4
Joseph Gallagher – Florin Gheorghiu 1-0
Dylan Viennot – Niels Willems ½-½
Sacha Georges – Guillaume Sermier ½-½
Codrut Constantin Florescu – Ralph Buss ½-½
Lars Bäumer –Lindo Duratti 0-1
Christoph Drechsler – André Meylan ½-½
Perparim Bajraktari – Nicolas Perréard ½-½
Parwis Nabavi – Cédric Pahud ½-½

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 4/ 3. September 2022
SG Zürich – Nimzowitsch 5½ : 2½
Christian Bauer – Joseph Gallagher 0-1
Yannick Pelletier – Codrut Constantin Florescu ½-½
Lothar Vogt – Sacha Georges 1-0
Anthony Petkidis – Lars Bäumer 1-0
Daniel Fischer – Jozef Janovsky ½-½
Noah Fecker – Christoph Drechsler ½-½
Norbert Friedrich – Yasin Chennaoui 1-0
Pawel Silberring – Miran Alic 1-0

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 3/ 12. Juni 2022
Genf - Nimzowitsch Zürich 5:3
Vernay - Joeseph Gallagher 0:1
Sokolow - Dylan Viennot 1:0
Benitah - Lars Bäumer ½:½
Fontaine - Codrut Constantin Florescu 1:0
Geiser - Christoph Drechsler ½:½
Gerber - Arthur Toenz 1:0
D. S. Kostov - Thomas Heerd 0:1
Kovacevic 1:0 f.

Outlook
Our match against Geneva went quite differently than I expected. As GM Luther was missing we were weakened, and we got unlucky by missing on Miran also to a last minute cold, though he was dead-ready for the game. So we went with one forfeit board. And we got lucky we didn't have a second one, as Thomas Heerd jumped in last minute to our help; with great success as we would later see :-). Geneva showed us quite some respect (fear?) by sending 3 GMs against us. I was surprised, especially as they sent us some who I would have expected to be too tired/lazy to do the night trip.

Match recap
The games themselves were very tense. Lars made another very pro-like solid draw, against a strong IM. Dylan had a high-tension attacking game against GM Sokolov (ex #3 world), fought with passion, but had to give the full point eventually. Christoph seemed to get an advantage from enterprising play, but it wasn't enough for the full point. Codrut had a difficult game against GM Fontaine that was playing below his logical board. Thomas Heerd, our last-minute joker-player, won a pawn thanks to an opening glitch from his opponent, and converted the game easily, not giving any counterplay away. I managed to keep my ground against a very aggressive IM, and made the position even after a tactical oversight from his side. But I started feeling physically unwell due to some meds I was taking, the heat and the stress, and quickly lost the game that should likely have ended in a draw. Joe won a very long and technical game, slowly but surely pressing GM Vernay in the endgame. Overall, we managed quite okay, if we discard my unexpected loss and the forfeit board.
– Arthur Tönz –

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 2/ 15. Mai 2022
Luzern 1 – Nimzowitsch 1 ½ : 7½
Oliver Kurmann – Joseph Gallagher 1-0
Valery Atlas – Sacha Georges 1-0
Fabian Bänziger – Codrut Constantin Florescu 1-0
Roland Lötscher – Lars Bäumer ½-½
Ghazal Hakimifard – Parwis Nabavi 1-0
Vincent Riff – Christoph Drechsler 1-0
Aleksandar Rusev – Yasin Chennaoui 1-0
Pirmin Lötscher – Miran Alic 1-0

SMM 2022 / Nationalliga A / Runde 1 / 1. Mai 2022
Nimzowitsch 1 – Riehen 1 3 : 5
Thomas Luther – Ioannis Georgiadis ½-½
Sacha Georges – Dennis Breder 0-1
Dylan Viennot – Olivier Renet ½-½
Lars Bäumer – Nicolas Brunner 0-1
Codrut Constantin Florescu – Ognjen Cvitan ½-½
Christoph Drechsler – Dorian Jäggi ½-½
Parwis Nabavi – Gregor Haag ½-½ 8
Miran Alic – Heinz Wirthensohn ½-½

Yesterday's match was an excellent start for us in the NLA, against the top favorites. Solid draws from all around, and 2 losses in hard-fought battles. Christoph, Miran and Parwis were even nearing the full point in their games. Thanks everyone for being so quick in setting up the place after the key incident. In the end we managed to start with minimal delay. This is definitely an occurrence that people will remind me of ten years from now :-D :-D
– Arthur Tönz –

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / Rangliste

Rang Club MP EP
1. Nimzowitsch 16/44
2. Mendrisio 14/42.5
3. Glarus 39 10/39
4. Tribschen 8/29
5. Winterthur 6/27
6. Gligoric 5/27
7. St. Gallen 5/24
8. Wollishofen 4/28
9. Réti 3/27½

Mannschaftsleiter: Arthur Tönz

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 9. Runde / 5. Dezember 2021
Nimzowitsch 1 (2266)-Tribschen 1 (2189) 5:3
Thomas Luther (2525) - Kevin Cremer (2321) 1 : 0
Codrut Constantin Florescu (2279) - Jürgen Strauss (2227) ½ : ½
Dylan Viennot (2282) - Markus Räber (2283) 1 : 0
Sacha Georges (2240) - Daniel Lustenberger (2224) 1 : 0
Lars Bäumer (2239) - Lubomir Kovac (2199) 1 : 0
Christoph Drechsler (2181) - Olaf Nazarenus (2101) 0 : 1
Perparim Bajraktari (2185) - Albert Gabersek (2091) 0 : 1
Parwis Nabavi (2197) - Roman Deuber (2065) ½ : ½

Surprisingly to me, Tribschen came with all their big guns. Heinz's prediction that they wanted to avoid having to travel to Mendrisio next season by helping them to go up to NLA later was confirmed by their captain; which was quite lazy and unsporty, but it gave us a last challenge to overcome. "In a calm sea, every man is a pilot", they say.
In my eyes, the match started in very much the same way as against Wollishofen: a stressful and unclear struggle between two teams with different objectives.
Codrut started out by getting in difficulty after the opening against a very dangerous player; but for some reason his opponent underestimated his position and bailed out immediately with a move repetition. First relief. Next to that were quite a few games that got me in concern. Christoph got in trouble due to a vicious attack on his king. Dylan created a messy position by taking audacious choices in the opening and middle game.
Sacha got into a lot of complications after a pawn loss, in exchange for the potential of tactical opportunities. For the rest, I was confident we were more or less on track, as Thomas, Lars and Perparim grabbed nice strategic advantages and Parwis a complex but even game. A catastrophe scenario wasn't off the board for quite some time, until Sacha successfully pressured his opponent into losing material thanks to very dynamic play; and Thomas treated us with a nice double-knight pseudo-sacrifice. Christoph's king's protection eventually cracked under repeated total assaults. Dylan then led his opponent into an endgame with a protected passer, then easily bringing the point home, showing us he's not only a great attacker, but a precise technical player too. With 3.5 points in the pocket, any half point would be enough.
Perparim messed up a little in a won/drawn endgame and gave back a point to Tribschen, but this was quickly compensated by Parwis' clean and solid draw. It remained only our surgeon-like precise Lars who was playing for the honor and the win, which he did grab.
- Arthur Tönz -

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 8. Runde / 21. November 2021
Nimzowitsch 1 (2218) - Wollishofen 2 (2091) 5 : 3
Thomas Luther (2525) - Thomas Wyss (2264) ½ : ½
Dylan Viennot (2282) - Joachim Kambor (2109) ½ : ½
Sacha Georges (2240) - Claude Douguet (2081) ½ : ½
Lars Bäumer (2239) - Patrick Kuhn (2079) 1 : 0
Christoph Drechsler (2181) - Thomas Held (2065) 1 : 0
Thomas Kuhn (2103) - Georg Kradolfer (2036) ½ : ½
Arthur Toenz (2095) - Florian Bous (2051) 1 : 0
Miran Alic (2078) - Thomas Kohli (2040) 0 : 1

The match against Wollishofen 2 was a tense, stressful and weird one. The general feeling is that we all - except for Lars - played quite poorly, and that our opponents came with a really motivated team and the energy to try and save their spot in the league. On board 1, Thomas played an un-ambitioned opening and his opponent equalized quickly, pushing our player to take the draw by repetition. On board 2, Dylan's opening backfired against a dangerous player. Luckily for us, Kambor was happy with a draw by repetition in a superior position. Already a good half-point we saved. On board 3, Sacha got a quite safe position with a small plus after the opening, but it would take time to make something out of it if at all possible. Meanwhile, the other games were tense.
I again was too creative in the opening and had to give up a pawn, with a very bad position as a result. Lars reached a very tense middlegame but did not break under the pressure and even turned the position in his favor with a nice central outpost. Thomas Kuhn kept an even game against long-time acquaintance Kradolfer, playing solidly as we know him to do. Miran had a very dangerous-looking beginning and middlegame, with so many only-moves to find. Christoph had a Meran semi-slav with reversed colors which seemed to quickly backfire.
The match was definitely going in the wrong direction, with our 2-3 top boards neutralized and a few bad-to-desperate positions on some other. Then the first decisive results came: Lars converted his finely-played positional advantage into mating and material winning threats which lead to the win, and Christoph's opponent played too much with fire, meaning time, and lost on time as he let a piece fall and wasn't in time to press the clock after his move. To the eye the position looked difficult for our player, but apparently it wasn't as simple. This +2 compensated for Miran's defeat, after a nerve-wracking defense. This unexpected stroke of luck made the match look much better. But luck struck twice that day, as my opponent started to misplay and give me hope for a draw.
Sacha took the draw in a pawn endgame that ended up in simultaneous queening. This left us with my and Thomas Kuhn's games. As my opponent kept playing erratically, I managed to force his pieces to passivity and get the upper hand, in an endgame with a pawn down. That's the time when I told Thomas he could take the draw, which he did immediately. I could have ended the match immediately with a repetition. But I felt like there was more to it, so I took the risk of pushing for the win, as any individual point could help in the final standings to get the first league rank. My perseverance paid in the end.
- Arthur Tönz -

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 7. Runde / 7. November 2021
Nimzowitsch 1 (2265) - Mendrisio 1 (2331) 5 : 3
Thomas Luther (2525) - Michele Godena (2528) ½ : ½
Dylan Viennot (2275) - Fabio Bellini (2475) 1 : 0
Lars Bäumer (2235) - Emiliano Aranovitch (2367) 0 : 1
Codrut Constantin Florescu (2288) - Yelena Sedina (2288) 0 : 1
Sacha Georges (2235) - Fabrizio Patuzzo (2314) ½ : ½
Christoph Drechsler (2183) - Simone Medici (2231) 1 : 0
Perparim Bajraktari (2184) - Damir Levacic (2295) 1 : 0
Parwis Nabavi (2197) - Alfredo Cacciola (2148) 1 : 0

We did it! We beat Mendrisio 5-3! And what a match it was!
I thought they would keep their team as on Saturday and leave out Godena and Bellini. But clearly they understood we were there to take ownership of the league, so they had their full roster also. We managed to get everyone on board and have an impressive line-up at average rating 2265 (I never saw that at Nimzo, planets did align!). I was sad not being able to witness the historical match, but Heinz kept me posted about it so I was able to see it through his eyes. Here is what I heard from the match.
All games were disputed quite fiercely. Thomas got a nice strategical advantage after the opening, but got a little too optimistic about his chances at the time of exchanging queens and had to be happy with the draw. In the meantime, Perparim played a beautiful piece sacrifice followed by a deadly attack on his opponent's king, which brought home the first point in style. After that, Dylan had very good initiative on his opponent's king. He converted an excellent game against a very strong player, pulling a great performance at just the time we needed it. The true exploit being of winning a game with the French defense :-D.
Next, Codrut lost his game against the aggressive Sedina, which is very dangerous with white (nearly only plays white from what I remember). Parwis won his game, carrying the team as he did the day before. Thank you so much for having taken the time to be there for both matches. Lars and Sacha were fighting very hard to keep chances for draws against players ranked about 100 elos above them. Sacha did manage, Lars didn't. Very brave fights from what I heard. In the meantime Christoph confirmed the result with a very professional, solid win in an endgame.
Final result: 5-3 for Nimzowitsch. It was time for a nice pizza and celebration. I also ordered a pizza for in my isolation room, to join everyone in the mood :-). I was very happy and proud when I got the final result. We have a great team, we fight hard and we party even harder. I can't wait to be back in Zurich and hear all about the games and get the two last matches of this great season with all of you guys. I am confident we will get the result we need against Tribschen to confirm the incredible season and get Nimzo back in the NLA after a 36 years long absence. Go Nimzo, go!
- Arthur Tönz -

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 6. Runde / 6. November 2021
Winterthur 2 (2184) - Nimzowitsch 1 (2229) 2½ : 5½
Walter Bichsel (2296) - Thomas Luther (2525) ½ : ½
Sebastian Gattenlöhner (2260) - Codrut Constantin Florescu (2288) 0 : 1
Urs Rüetschi (2285) - Lars Bäumer (2235) ½ : ½
Stefan Zollinger (2192) - Sacha Georges (2235) 0 : 1
Martin Schweighoffer (2144) - Christoph Drechsler (2183) 1 : 0
Daniel Borner (2125) - Parwis Nabavi (2197) 0 : 1
Sarah Krenz (2069) - Thomas Kuhn (2112) ½ : ½
Michael Jähn (2101) - Miran Alic (2060) 0 : 1


SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 5. Runde / 24. Oktober 2021
Nimzowitsch 1 (2189) - St. Gallen 1 (2084) 7 : 1
Thomas Luther (2525) - Wolfgang Steiger (2283) 1 : 0
Codrut Constantin Florescu (2288) - Thomas Akermann (2192) ½ : ½
Lars Bäumer (2235) - Martin Leutwyler (2179) ½ : ½
Sacha Georges (2235) - Peter Klings (2128) 1 : 0
Christoph Drechsler (2183) - Peter Bischoff (1938) 1 : 0
René Valdivia (2067) - Roman Schmuki (2013) 1 : 0
Miran Alic (2060) - Jan Fecker (1947) 1 : 0
Markus Germann (1920) - Halit Rexhepi (1992) 1 : 0

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 4. Runde / 23. Oktober 2021
Réti 2 (2098) - Nimzowitsch 1 (2157) 3 : 5
Michael Bühler (2086) - Thomas Luther (2525) 0 : 1
Thomas Allard (2109) - Codrut Constantin Florescu (2288) 0 : 1
Carmi Haas (2135) - Lars Bäumer (2235) 0 : 1
Peter Pfister (2137) - Christoph Drechsler (2183) 1 : 0
Christoph Schmid (2110) - Miran Alic (2060) ½ : ½
Hallgerdur Thorsteinsdottir (2003) - Thomas Heerd (2054) ½ : ½
Sharif Mansoor (2118) - Urs Martin Egli (1989) 0 : 1
David Uhlmann (2086) - Markus Germann (1920) 1 : 0

Congratulations everyone on a spectacular double win! Here is the match recap. I wasn't around, so I will comment on what I can :-D
We were pitted against dangerous opponents, even though they both are quite low on the league rankings. Both needed points to keep hope for staying in the league, so they were not going to be easy game.
It looks like Réti either had issues getting their people tested or they simply had a suboptimal team for the day. The 5-3 result in our favor is half a point above the expected result, even though our team was also weakened by many absences. Our subs are of great quality!
For the match against St. Gallen, we simply had a significantly better team than the opponents. From what I heard, some games were fought fiercely, some were very easy. The end result is that we inflicted a 7-1 slap to the visiting team :-D.
This is quite a statement again, and we can see us playing for the league win without being overly cocky. My bet is that Mendrisio will travel with their full team when coming to us, which might be a first for their stronger players; as the team usually only plays with their stronger players at home. And if they don't, then really not much will stand between us and the NLA! Thanks a lot to Miran for the smooth and very serious handling of captainship in my absence! And to everyone for the great team play. It feels fabulous experiencing such team spirit and friendship in our group :-).
- Arthur Tönz -

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 3. Runde / 10. Oktober 2021
Glarus 1 (2209) - Nimzowitsch 1 (2189) 3 : 5
Ufuk Tuncer (2335) - Thomas Luther (2525) ½ : ½
Fabian Bänziger (2387) - Codrut Constantin Florescu (2288) 1 : 0
Nikolas Pogan (2249) - Dylan Viennot (2275) 0 : 1
Dmitry Atlas (2229) - Perparim Bajraktari (2184) ½ : ½
Guido Neuberger (2202) - Christoph Drechsler (2183) ½ : ½
Dario Bischofberger (2160) - Miran Alic (2060) ½ : ½
Oswald Bürgi (2070) - Arthur Toenz (2080) 0 : 1
Martin Dürst (2040) - Markus Germann (1920) 0 : 1

What a great win it was! The opposing team was pretty strong on paper, sporting young talents and veterans alike, and the expected result was a draw (1-1). We came with a great team, and stole the show!
Dylan's opponent didn't know their opening and let himself be driven in a preparation. Our new teammate places a well-timed king-opener and went for the jugular, for a violent 22-move miniature.
This started us ideally. Perparim got a pleasant strategical position from the beginning, and easily neutralized the strong Atlas. Not far from there, the opponents' captain played into a childish opening trap, allowing our newly crowned club champion Markus (congrats again!) to soon grab the second point, after having to wait for his resignation for a dozen moves.
Meanwhile, Thomas reached a quiet position with a token advantage as black and didn't find a way to break his opponent stubbornness in not playing the game. Miran played very solidly and cleanly, to the opposite of the previous round rollercoaster (haha), and got an ending without any risk, securing half a point more. Christoph's and Codrut's positions were very complex, and to me it long looked like they would both have to give up the point. Codrut had a real hard time against the unoriginal but precise kid, and did end up losing the game, but not without putting up a good fight.
During all this I had a simple enough Petrov and an even position throughout the game, with a little positional plus. Then, for no reason, my opponent started panicking and allowed me pressing him till the endgame and grab the full point, just as Christoph managed to snatch the draw in a difficult endgame.
Such great team effort, congratulations team! We beat Glarus fair and square; apparently they were unbeaten since 2017.
Thanks again to Markus for subbing and Perparim to join the team :-) After the game, we wanted to go get a pizza, but this was without expecting the infamous covid-certificate-gambit. We ended up having Burger King on a highway rest area. It was still fun and an unexpected end of the day :-D
- Arthur Tönz -

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 2. Runde / 19. September 2021
Gligoric 1 (1847) - Nimzowitsch 1 (2144) 1½ : 6½
Milos Milovanovic (1988) - Codrut Constantin Florescu (2288) ½ : ½
Mirko Mikavica (2061) - Dylan Viennot 0 : 1 FF
Sasko Ristevski (1950) - Lars Bäumer (2235) 0 : 1 FF
Urs Binzegger (1918) - Christoph Drechsler (2178) 0 : 1
Darja Babineca (1840) - Thomas Kuhn (2112) ½ : ½
Colin Federer (1613) - Arthur Toenz (2080) 0 : 1
Johannes Rappazzo (1816) - Miran Alic (2060) 0 : 1
Apiram Vinayagamoorthy (1587) - Thomas Heerd (2054) ½ : ½

For our first match in the season, it was already a weird one. Gligoric took forever to send us an invite, and on game day, they had two untested players, and 4 substitutes, which were all children. What's more, they insisted on letting the two untested players play outside in the cold and the rain. Very unsporty. Obviously, this was far from an acceptable situation, so I called the league responsible and it was decided they would forfeit these two boards. My thanks and apologies for Gligoric's behaviour go to Dylan and Lars for having made the time to be there in spite of the lack of game.
The rest of the match was supposed to be just a formality, but it ended up being very interesting. Codrut had a very unbalanced position right from the start and was put under a lot of pressure by the guy responsible for the day's chaos. He had to be very creative and find a stalemating theme to get out of the sticky situation, but we all know that's the kind of tricks our friend is able to get out of his hat! Dylan and Lars both won by covid-testing-forfeit. Not a gambit I hope to ever see again. Christoph had an interesting opening, as his opponent wanted to try and confuse him. But CD is not one to be fooled, and planted a pretty queen sacrifice for the mate and the win. Thomas K, for his return to Nimzowitsch, played a quiet strategic game with black, from what I could see. His young opponent did well and grabbed half the point.
I played against a very promising junior that surprised me a lot by his strategic maturity, equalizing quite easily. I had to wait for the inevitable tactical mess up in the early endgame to convert the game. Miran had without doubt the wildest of the six games. I could feel his distress as the position was computer-objectively lost, but also his determination when he decided it was too complex for a little kid to figure out. With a classic rook sac on the opponent's castle he turned tables and grabbed a well deserved point. Kudos for combativity!
Thomas H was in the leading seat the whole game, easily overclassing his young opponent with manoeuvers. But maybe he underestimated the kid's resources and fighting spirit as they ended up in an endgame too hard to convert if at all convertible.
After the game, we went for a pizza with the ones that got hungry. It was also a fun time; I'd say we should make that a habit :-)
- Arthur Tönz -

SMM 2021 / Nationalliga B / 1. Runde / spiellfrei