Deizisau Wins Star-Studded European Online Club Cup
Schachfreunde Deizisau won the European Online Club Cup on Wednesday. The German team won the final group ahead of Clichy Echecs 92 of France. Top favorite Baden-Baden (Germany) had failed to make it to the finals.
In the final, played on Tuesday and Wednesday, Deizisau scored 14 match points, one more than Clichy Echecs 92. Mednyi Vsadnik (Russia) came in third on tiebreak after finishing in a tie with Poland Hussars (Poland) with both teams scoring 11 points.
European Online Club Cup | Final standings
| Rank | Fed | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | BP | MP |
| 1 | SF Deizisau e.V | 2½ | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 1½ | 2½ | 20½ | 14 | ||
| 2 | Clichy Echecs 92 | 1½ | 3 | 3 | 3½ | 1½ | 2 | 3 | 2½ | 2½ | 22½ | 13 | ||
| 3 | Mednyi Vsadnik | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 22 | 11 | ||
| 4 | Poland Hussars | 1½ | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3½ | 2½ | 2 | 2½ | 3 | 20 | 11 | ||
| 5 | Odlar Yurdu | 1½ | ½ | 1 | 2 | 3½ | 3 | 1½ | 3 | 3 | 19 | 9 | ||
| 6 | Hamburger Schachklub 1830 | 2 | 2½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 2½ | 1 | 2½ | 2½ | 14 | 9 | ||
| 7 | 4NCL Guildford | 1½ | 2 | 2 | 1½ | 1 | 1½ | 2½ | 3 | 3½ | 18½ | 8 | ||
| 8 | Ladya Kazan | 1½ | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2½ | 3 | 1½ | ½ | 2½ | 16½ | 8 | ||
| 9 | Novy Bor | 2½ | 1½ | 2 | 1½ | 1 | 1½ | 1 | 3½ | 4 | 18½ | 7 | ||
| 10 | Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo | 1½ | 1½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1½ | ½ | 1½ | 0 | 8½ | 0 |
The winning team from Deizisau, a town 20 kilometers southeast of Stuttgart, consisted of GMs Matthias Bluebaum, Alexander Donchenko, Georg Meier, Andreas Heimann, Vincent Keymer, and Dmitrij Kollars. Their 14 match points were based on six victories, two 2-2 ties, and one loss.
Deizisau defeated Clichy 2.5-1.5 in what would be one of the crucial matches in the final:
| Bo. | Fed | 1 | Clichy Echecs 92 | Rtg | - | Fed | 4 | SF Deizisau e.V. | Rtg | 1½:2½ |
| 4.1 | GM | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2701 | - | GM | Bluebaum, Matthias | 2670 | 1 - 0 | ||
| 4.2 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2676 | - | GM | Donchenko, Alexander | 2659 | 0 - 1 | ||
| 4.3 | GM | Amin, Bassem | 2695 | - | GM | Meier, Georg | 2628 | ½ - ½ | ||
| 4.4 | GM | van Wely, Loek | 2620 | - | GM | Keymer, Vincent | 2591 | 0 - 1 |
On board one, Tata Steel Chess winner GM Jorden van Foreest won a wild game against Bluebaum.
While Donchenko won his game on board two, things fell into place for Deizisau when Keymer beat GM Loek van Wely, who spoiled a winning endgame and then also missed a draw. Keymer would be the best-performing board-five player of the final with a 2812 performance.
Keymer analyzing his win vs. Kuzubov.
The European Online Chess Club Cup took place March 27-31, 2021, on Tornelo. In the event, 91 teams and more than 500 players participated, including over 400 titled players and more than 80 players rated over 2600. The time control was 15 minutes for each game with a five-second increment per move, starting from move one.
In the qualification phase (March 27-28), groups consisting of 10 teams played a round-robin of nine rounds. The top two teams qualified for the playoffs on March 29, when the 18 qualifiers were divided into three groups of six teams. The nine best-ranked teams—three from each group—proceeded to the final, where the 10th team was Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo, the winner of the European Women's Online Chess Club Cup.
A special prize, named after GM Vasily Smyslov, went to GM Vladislav Artemiev for his brilliant attacking win against GM Mateusz Bartel, played in the group stage. GM Dejan Bojkov has provided annotations:
Another nice attacking game was GM Andrey Esipenko's win vs. GM Etienne Bacrot, played in the playoff stage. Surprisingly, Baden-Baden finished in last place in a group where the top three qualified for the final.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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