From Unrated to Promotion: 8 Highlights from Our First Season
Last week, I shared a blogpost about our club’s story—how a group of strangers who only played online started getting serious and eventually became an independent OTB chess club. We joined the lowest league in the German chess hierarchy and earned a promotion by finishing in 2nd place. Today, I want to present the story of how it happened—through the games. As it was. In chronological order.
14th January 2025, First Round. Top board got our first point in the league.
Our strongest and probably most experienced player Uğurkan (playing white pieces) was already famous in our team for his unstoppable Grand Prix Attack. In this game he got to demonstrate it. After 11 moves both black knights were already out of the game which put an end to any chance of defense for black. A great wall of pawns on the dark squares from b2 to f6 cemented the attacking position for white, and black resigned after losing all hope of saving the game. This first win gave confidence to the rest of the team and we won this first match with the score 3-1.
4th February 2025, Second Round. Tactical and clean win on our second board.
Our second strongest player, Till (playing white pieces), got to play his favorite Queen’s Gambit, to which his experienced opponent replied with the Slav Defense. It was a sharp positional battle from the very beginning, with white having a slight advantage until black put his knight on a6 (isn’t there an old rule about not putting your knights on the edge of the board?!). White saw the opening in black’s defense and one thing led to another, the rook sacrifice on move 23 was just the first step towards a checkmating idea a few moves later. Black resigned in a mate-in-one position. We opened the scoreline against a high-rated team.
4th February 2025, Second Round. Gamble and confusion led to another win on the top board.
This time Uğurkan was playing black pieces and he had to face the English Opening. He later admitted that he wasn’t quite sure about the right theoretical response. This became even more evident by move 20, when white had an advantage of almost four pawns and the black’s queen side was completely destroyed. But our maestro didn’t give up. He came up with an attacking idea for which our opponent fell. Move 23, f pawn took on e4 and suddenly a mate in 9 appeared on the board, black found the right move, another blunder by white and it was actually a mate in one?! Nobody could believe what had just happened after white’s resignation. It was probably the craziest game of the season. We led 2-0, but unfortunately our third and fourth boards couldn’t withstand the pressure from their opponents and we drew this round 2-2.
11th February 2025, Third Round. An impressive draw against a much stronger opponent on the top board.
In this game neither of our two best players could play, so Rashi (playing white) was promoted to the top board. Her opponent was highly rated and if we look at chess.com, the rating gap was almost 1000 points. She played her beloved London System and her opening preparation was so good that according to the engine, by move 22 white had an advantage of +3. Unfortunately, black found the right countermeasures to white’s aggressive attacks, and it all ended in a series of exchanges and a bishop vs knight draw (with a large group of pawns hugging each other). Even though it is just a draw, I think all of us were very happy with the result. Despite that, we couldn’t win on any of the other boards and ultimately, this was our first loss with the score 1-3.
25th March 2025, Fourth Round. The director of the club took matters into his own hands.
After our loss in the previous round, we had to win every single remaining game to be promoted. Our club’s director, Daniel (playing white), is the one who takes care of all the bureaucratic work for the club and makes sure we only have to focus on chess without worrying about anything else. Nevertheless, he also used to play classical chess when he was a kid, and he is definitely one of the strongest players in our team. In this match the players went for Najdorf Sicilian. It was a quick thriller in which black prepared his own demise by opening the f file on move 19. After that, white broke open the walls of the black king’s palace. Black resigned after sacrificing his knight for nothing.
25th March 2025, Fourth Round. I played my best game and secured us a win.
That day, I was playing white on the second board and I went with my well-prepared Bird’s Opening. The opponent had a very passive defensive response to it, which I didn’t punish, but ultimately he blundered by making a dubious knight sacrifice on move 17. After carefully defending my king from his approaches, it took me a slow positional transition into the endgame to secure the win. He resigned after realising he couldn’t stop me from promoting the pawn. We won this match with the score 3-1. At this point, we just had to win the final round.
15th April 2025, Fifth Round. Another flawless victory for the top board.
In this game, Uğurkan (playing white pieces) demonstrated once again how dangerous he is when you let him push his pawns. It was a rare e4-e5 game. By move 21 he had his pawns on f5, g5 and h5 squares. While black tried to start her own counterattack, the white’s defense was impeccable. And most importantly, the best defense is attack. After the knight fork on king and rook, black resigned. In the meantime, our board 2 drew, and our board 4 lost, which meant that board 3 had to win no matter what.
15th April 2025, Fifth Round. Must-win game ended in a…
On board 3, Rashi (white) was once again playing her London System setup against a very passive King’s Indian defense. This meant that she needed to crack the code of such a robust defense. She went for her own pawn storm to keep black on his toes. In the meantime, black was planning his own attack on the queen’s side, where white castled. Black had been maintaining a meticulous defense for a very long time, but ultimately crumbled under the time pressure and blundered his rook due to a sharp manoeuvre from white. All of us felt relieved and overjoyed once black resigned. It was our first season, the first classical games for many of us, yet we somehow managed to earn 2nd place and be promoted by a narrow margin after winning in the very last game. Our league adventures will continue next year, but we will also play more in our own club classical championship. Stay tuned for more blog updates!
