Amstetten Chess Club: Victory without defeat

46 men and women were guests of the Amstetten Chess Club in the first days of the new year to participate in the traditional New Year's tournament.
At the same time, the city and the heroes of Mostviertel were also played for the first time. The top-ranked tournament in the Swiss system was held from January 2 to 5 in Volksheim Allersdorf.

What do chess players and ski players have in common?
correct. They are the first to start the new year in sports. As Stefan Krafft, Manuel Wittner and Jan Hörl – in pursuit of seeded Four Hills Championship leaders Andreas Wellinger and Reui Kobayashi – sailed from Bergisel in Innsbruck, active participants from Amstetten Chess Club The New Year was quite sporting and there were exciting duels for the New Year's crown. And with great success.

15 men and women accepted the challenge presented by the host club and performed their first highlights of the season. For one Positive surprise Concern for young players Robert Zitner. After initial successes in rapid chess tournaments, he now also played his first tournament taking into account classical time. He won three of his five matches. He was 21st overall and best young player. Beside him were two other talents from the local chess club No ELO rating in. This number is used to measure the playing strength of chess players.

How do you get an ELO rating?

in Championship and competition regulations to Austrian Chess Federation The following explanation can be found, which is given here only in excerpts:
For players who do not have an Elo rating, the input value is determined before the actual calculation. If a player with no Elo rating has played less than seven matches against Elo rated opponents, the Elo rating will not be calculated and the results will be saved for the next period(s). In U14 tournaments, all players who do not have an Elo number or who have an Elo number are ranked to enter at 800. In order to receive an entry value, a player must achieve 0.5 points from at least 5 matches or play 7 matches against opponents with an Elo rating ( Excluding U14 matches) or the player must achieve 1 point from at least 7 matches or at least 9 matches played against rated opponents (including U14 matches).

For comparison – the best player in the world currently, the Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsenholding an Elo rating of 2830. Before the end of the year he successfully defended his titles in blitz chess and rapid chess.

Top class at first

Eleven more active participants than the previous year were attracted by the prospect of fame and honor in the region's capital. Despite the absence of last year's winner Robert Ernst and third-place finisher Christian Schmidrathner, the quality on the field was tremendous.
There were five players with an ELO over 2,000 and another nine with over 1,800 21st City Championship in the beginning. Naturally, this title can only go to a player who has a club or residence in Amstetten.

in the end reachable As in 2019, this is a local hero Thomas Wadsack Four points out of five possible points. With this performance, the 23-year-old secured second place overall. His only defeat in the competition came at the hands of eventual winner and first-time champion Mostviertel in the third round.

the victory Gone – in a finale that was exciting until the last step – in times the previous year Emanuel Hugel From Datatech Pressbaum-Eichgraben. 25 year old, who has his own YouTube channel He only had to accept a points split in the fourth round and won all his other matches. On the final day of the five-day tournament, he defended his lead against rivals Tobias Berger and Manfred Lienhardt, who had previously earned the same number of points and dueled in the finale.

With them tied, they ultimately remained half a point behind the winner in third and fourth place as they moved past Wadsack, who ranked first between the two – on equal points – due to the better fine grain rating.

The Mostviertel champion will certainly analyze his matches in the New Year's tournament soon Connected.