Crucial Bundesliga Clash This Weekend - UPDATED
This Saturday and Sunday sees the penultimate weekend of games in the strongest chess league in the world, the German Bundesliga.
Leaders and hot favourites Baden-Baden will face nearest rivals Werder Bremen in the 12th round of games today (Saturday) at 14:00 local time (13:00 UTC).
For such a crucial clash, the strongest players may play, so depending on their availability Baden-Baden can pick from Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Peter Svidler, Paco Vallejo Pons, Mickey Adams, Alexei Shirov, Etienne Bacrot and many more.
Werder Bremen can counter with Vugar Gashimov, Pavel Eljanov, Zahar Efimenko, Le Quang Liem, Laurent Fressinet, Luke McShane and more.
The 13th round will follow on Sunday with games starting at 10:00 local time. All games can be followed at the official website's excellent live interface.
The current standings (MP=Match points, BP=Board points):
| Team | W | D | L | MP | BP | |
| 1 | OSG Baden-Baden | 10 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 59.5 |
| 2 | Werder Bremen | 9 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 56.5 |
| 3 | SC Eppingen | 8 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 50.0 |
| 4 | SG Solingen | 7 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 50.5 |
| 5 | SF Katernberg | 7 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 44.5 |
| 6 | SG Trier | 6 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 50.0 |
| 7 | SV Wattenscheid 1930 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 47.0 |
| 8 | SV 1930 Hockenheim | 4 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 45.5 |
| 9 | SF Berlin 1903 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 43.5 |
| 10 | SV Mülheim Nord | 4 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 43.5 |
| 11 | SK Turm Emsdetten | 3 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 40.0 |
| 12 | SK König Tegel | 3 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 34.0 |
| 13 | Hamburger SK | 2 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 36.5 |
| 14 | SC Hansa Dortmund | 1 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 32.5 |
| 15 | USV TU Dresden | 2 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 34.5 |
| 16 | SC 1950 Remagen | 0 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 36.0 |
UPDATE - Baden-Baden took a narrow victory 4½-3½ over Werder Bremen thanks to a win by Mickey Adams over Laurent Fressinet on board three.
Vishy Anand played on top board but was held to a draw by Pavel Eljanov in an exciting game.
