Schachbundesliga Final Weekend
The German chess league, the Schachbundesliga, is one of the the strongest team championships in the world.
The league season comes to its climax this weekend with two rounds to play and three teams still in contention for first place.
The current standings:
| Team | W | D | L | TP | BP | |
| 1 | OSG Baden-Baden | 12 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 76.0 |
| 2 | SG Solingen | 12 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 66.0 |
| 3 | Werder Bremen | 10 | 3 | 0 | 23 | 67.5 |
| 4 | SV Mülheim Nord | 8 | 4 | 1 | 20 | 63.5 |
| 5 | SV Wattenscheid 1930 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 55.5 |
| 6 | Hamburger SK | 7 | 1 | 5 | 15 | 57.0 |
| 7 | SC 1950 Remagen | 7 | 1 | 5 | 15 | 56.5 |
| 8 | SC Eppingen | 6 | 2 | 5 | 14 | 55.5 |
| 9 | SK Turm Emsdetten | 6 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 53.5 |
| 10 | SG Trier | 6 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 50.5 |
| 11 | SF Katernberg | 6 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 45.5 |
| 12 | SF Berlin 1903 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 46.5 |
| 13 | FC Bayern München | 1 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 41.0 |
| 14 | Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim | 0 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 35.0 |
| 15 | SK König Tegel | 0 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 32.5 |
| 16 | Erfurter SK | 0 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 3.0 |
The key games over the weekend are Werder Bremen v SG Solingen, and OSG Baden Baden v SV Mülheim Nord, which both take place on Saturday. Games start at 2pm local time (so are now underway!). Live relay of the games can be found at the official site.
The players in these key matches are:
| OSG Baden Baden | SV Mulheim Nord |
| Shirov | Vachier-Lagrave |
| Bacrot | Tregubov |
| Adams | Fridman |
| Naiditsch | Golod |
| Vallejo Pons | Berelowitsch |
| Nisipeanu | Levin |
| Gustafsson | Hausrath |
| Dautov | Schebler |
| Werder Bremen | SG Solingen |
| Gashimov | Nikolic |
| McShane | Werle |
| Eljanov | Edouard |
| Fressinet | Jussupow |
| Areshchenko | Ragger |
| Nybäck | Ernst |
| Hracek | Naumann |
| Babula | Hoffmann |
