Schachbundesliga starts, all games live

Next weekend probably the strongest team competition in the world starts its new season: the Schachbundesliga. Of the sixteen top teams, OSC Baden-Baden is the big favourite with sixteen grandmasters in their squad, headed by Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen. As from this season, all games can be followed live online.

By Georgios Souleidis

Next weekend, from Friday October 3rd to Sunday 5th, one of the strongest team competitions starts its new season: the Schachbundesliga. 16 teams, each consisting of 16 to 18 players (only 8 play each weekend) compete until March 2009 for the German championship. OSG Baden-Baden is the big favourite with 16 grandmasters in their squad, headed by Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen.

The strongest challengers are Werder Bremen with Shakhryar Mamedyarov, some strong Ukrainian players like Eljanov, Efimenko and Areshchenko and SV M?ɬºlheim-Nord with Dmitry Jakovenko, former FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov and France's number one Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

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All games live As from this season, all games of the Schachbundesliga will be covered live on the internet. This service is offered to all chess fans for free. The website of the Schachbundesliga serves as the entrance site and from there you can go to the four playing venues and follow the games. Each playing weekend, in the first rounds there is sometimes an additional match on Friday, 128 games will take place at least.

Playing venue Hamburg: Friday, October 3, 16:00 CET (10:00 EST) Hamburger SK - SF Berlin (round 7) Saturday, October 4, 14:00 CET (08:00 EST) Hamburger SK - TV Tegernsee (round 1) SF Berlin - FC Bayern M?ɬºnchen (round 1) Sunday, October 5, 10:00 CET (04:00 EST) TV Tegernsee - SF Berlin (round 2) FC Bayern M?ɬºnchen - Hamburger SK (round 2)
	Playing venue Trier: Friday, October 3, 16:00 CET (10:00 EST) SG Trier - SC Remagen (round 7) Saturday, October 4, 14:00 CET (08:00 EST) SG Trier - OSG Baden Baden (round 1) SC Remagen - SC Eppingen (round 1) Sunday, October 5, 10:00 CET (04:00 EST) OSG Baden Baden - SC 1950 Remagen (round 2) SC Eppingen - SG Trier (round 2)
Playing venue Bremen: Saturday, October 4, 14:00 CET (08:00 EST) SK Turm Emsdetten - SC Kreuzberg (round 1) Werder Bremen - USV TU Dresden (round 1) Sunday, October 5, 10:00 CET (04:00 EST) SC Kreuzberg - Werder Bremen (round 2) USV TU Dresden - SK Turm Emsdetten (round 2)
	Playing venue Solingen: Friday, October 3, 16:00 CET (10:00 EST) SG Aljechin Solingen - SV Wattenscheid (round 7) Saturday, October 4, 14:00 CET (08:00 EST) SG Aljechin Solingen - SV M?ɬºlheim Nord (round 1) SV Wattenscheid - SF Katernberg (round 1) Sunday, October 5, 10:00 CET (04:00 EST) SV M?ɬºlheim Nord - SV Wattenscheid (round 2) SF Katernberg - SG Aljechin Solingen (round 2)

Further information (in German) and entrance site for the live coverage: http://www.schachbundesliga.de"^Reports^"Club competition, Live games"^^1222969824^1314785601^Georgios "World Mind Sports Games kick off today"^"A whole new and huge event starts today, and chess is involved: the World Mind Sports Games. After the Summer Olympics athletes and the Paralympics sportsmen now approximately 3,000 Bridge, Chess, Go, Draughts, and Xiangqi players from over 150 countries have travelled to Beijing.

The first World Mind Sports Games is held in Beijing, China from October 3 to 18, 2008. Twenty five to thirty gold medals will be vied for by more than 3000 competitors from over 150 countries. There will be five mind sports competitions: Bridge, Chess, Go, Draughts, and Xiangqi (Chinese Chess).

The Games will be under the aegis of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) and organized by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) of which FIDE is a founding member. Venues are the China National Convention Center and the Beijing International Convention Center.

For chess there are the following sections: Men's Individual Blitz, Women's Individual Blitz, Men's Individual Rapid, Women's Individual Rapid, Mixed Pairs Blitz, Mixed Pairs Rapid, Men's Teams Blitz, Women's Teams Blitz, Men's Teams Rapid and Women's Teams Rapid.

The rate of play for the ten events: Blitz Chess: 3 minutes with increment of 2 seconds per move. Individual (Men & Women), Pair (Mixed Team), Team (Men & Women) Rapid Chess: 25 minutes with increment of 5 seconds per move. Individual (Men & Women), Pair (Mixed Team), Team (Men & Women)

Here are the participants lists as published by FIDE on July 21st. They're not definite and certainly not official lists (nothing about participants can be found on the official website!). As Chessdom reported, a Russian sponsor who should have been responsible for part of the air tickets seems to be withdrawing. They also stated that Topalov is not playing.

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Most of the details about entries, rules and regulations of the 1st World Mind Sports Games can be found here at the FIDE website. Below is the schedule of the chess part of the event:

Date	Time	Event	Round
October 3	12:00 hr	Arrival
		Opening Ceremony
October 4	10:00 hr	Technical Meeting
	15:00-19:00 hr	Blitz Individual (Men & Women)	Round 1 to 11
October 5	10:00-13:30 hr	Blitz Individual (Men & Women)	Semi-Finals & Finals
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Individual (Men & Women)	Rounds 1 to 3
October 6	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Individual (Men & Women)	Rounds 4 to 5
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Individual (Men & Women)	Rounds 6 to 7
October 7	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Individual (Men & Women)	Rounds 8 to 9
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Individual (Men & Women)	Semi-Finals
October 8	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Individual (Men & Women)	Finals
	15:00-19:00 hr	Blitz Pair	Rounds 1 to 11
October 9	10:00-13:30 hr	Blitz Pair	Semi-Finals & Finals
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Pair	Rounds 1 to 2
October 10	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Pair	Rounds 3 to 4
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Pair	Rounds 5 to 6
October 11	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Pair	Round 7
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Pair	Rounds 8 to 9
October 12	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Pair	Semi-Finals
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Pair	Finals
October 13	10:00-13:30 hr	Blitz Team (Men & Women)	Rounds 1 to 5
	15:00-19:00 hr	Blitz Team (Men & Women)	Rounds 6 to 11
October 14	10:00-13:30 hr	Blitz Team (Men & Women)	Semi-Finals & Finals
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Team (Men & Women)	Rounds 1 to 2
October 15	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Team (Men & Women)	Rounds 3 to 4
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Team (Men & Women)	Rounds 5 to 6
October 16	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Team (Men & Women)	Round 7
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Team (Men & Women)	Rounds 8 to 9
October 17	10:00-13:30 hr	Rapid Team (Men & Women)	Semi-Finals
	15:00-19:00 hr	Rapid Team (Men & Women)	Finals
October 18		Closing Ceremony & Departure