10 Nimzos participated in the Bundesturnier 2024 in the 3 main events.

Christoph Drechsler and Arthur Tönz both held their starting ranks in Hauptturnier 1.
To note a very sweet revenge for Christoph over his long time adversary Bruno Kamber.

Alister Smith did a brilliant tournament in Hauptturnier 2, starting from rank 50 to reach final rank 5! Here his impressions on the last game:

The club was well represented across the three main tournaments and scored well.  Congratulations to all!

I had the good fortune to enter the final round of Hauptturnier 2 in fifth place! With the black pieces in front of me, all eventualities – apart from the tournament win (worse Buchholz) – were open… 

I ended the round where I started – fifth - Thanks for the pre-game support (including Monday training), the camaraderie, and post-game congratulations! 

This Bundesturnier Hauptturnier 2 was Fabien Robichon’s first experience in a long time-control tournaments. Here are his key takeaways:

Wow, my first official Chess tournament: Olten 2024. Here are my key lessons learned. I hope this will be useful for other chess players ;)

• Manage your emotions: losing in chess is tough, very tough, especially if from a mistake, or when doing your best and still losing, sometimes after a few hours of fight. It is hard. On the other hand, winning after a few hours is very pleasant! You cannot stop the bad emotions coming in after a loss, so let them come, give it a bit of time, tomorrow is another day.

• Learn: from a loss or a victory, there is always something to learn out of game. Not a great opening? Review it. Not a good end game? Review it. No idea what went wrong? Ask another player. Learn to continuously progress.

• Manage yourself: do not forget yourself! A tournament is demanding. Do not forget all the biological needs like eating, drinking and sleeping well. I really appreciated the Migros restaurant just nearby to avoid too many sandwiches. Another one to consider seriously: breathing deep in and deep out, especially when under pressure like being attacked or short in time.

• Connect with others: I really appreciated the many discussions with other players, especially from the club, starting in the train on the way, throughout the day, and on the return. We debriefed, analyzed, commented, progressed, learned, felt not alone when losing, and celebrated when winning. A good moment of camaraderie.