The German Bundesliga – preparing to rumble

Three teams set out to win Bundesliga

Most exciting final in the 25 years of Germany's top chess league live

"I am the kind of person who always wants to win", says Wilfried Hilgert, wealthy businessman and sponsor of ten-times German team champion SG Porz. Chess professionals from all over the world are happy about this ambition. For more than forty years Hilgert has been supporting his chess team with money, turning it into Germany's most successful club. The 71-year old even put a clause into his will that guarantees Porz' ongoing financial support after his death.

The Porz Bundesliga team in 1967, with Robert Hübner, Paul Ellrich, Johannes Eising, Dr. Paul Tröger, Volkmar Hilgert, Wilfried Hilgert (an active member of the team), Wolfgang Hübner, Hans-Jürgen Frenzel, Klaus Kuntze and Edmund Budrich. Photo: Vereinschronik der SG Porz

SG Porz, situated in a suburb of Cologne, is just one of three contenders in the most exciting title race in the 25 year-history of the German top chess league, commonly known as the Bundesliga. The season is drawing to a close this weekend, 9th and 10th April, with Porz, Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen leading head-to-head at 24:2 team points. In contrast to the Olympiad, in which board points count, team points decide in the Bundesliga where teams are composed of eight players according to a fixed order. If at the end of the season two or more teams still share the lead, a tie-break match or tie-break tournament for the title of German team champion will be played.

As Baden-Baden and Porz face each other in the very last round on Sunday there is a fair chance that the winner of this match will not yet be champion but gain the right to play a tie-break against Werder Bremen – provided they manage to beat their last two opponents Wattenscheid and Solingen.

Only a year ago the Bundesliga was in turmoil when four teams voluntarily withdrew after the season, mainly for lack of financial resources. As a consequence Stuttgarter SF, who came last without scoring a single team-point, was allowed to remain in the league, though according to the rules the four teams which finish last should be relegated.

Currently the world's strongest chess league looks as financially healthy as ever. But its history has been overshadowed by several scandals: When Heinrich Jellissen, sponsor of Bayern München, the team dominating the league in the eighties, died in 1994, he owed his players huge sums of money. In 2003, two weeks before the first round of the season, defending champion Luebecker SV withdrew their team. The team's sponsor, Wilfried Klimek, was recently jailed by the public prosecutor for failing to file bankruptcy in proper time.

A typical Bundesliga contest

Luebeck had been notorious for winning the German team championship (three times in all) without a single German player on their team. The rules of the league encourage teams to invite foreigners: even though each club can only nominate three non-European players, there is no limit on the number of European players. Clubs which are either not willing or unable to spend a lot of money on foreign professionals have no chance to compete for the title. They either have to fight for a place somewhere in the middle or try to avoid being one of the four teams relegated every year.

Peter Svidler (standing, right) analyses with teammates (Fabian Döttling, standing left, GM Baadur Jobava seated right) and opponents (IM Erwin L'Ami, seated left)

At the outset of the season 2004/2005 things did not seem to be much different. Only two teams appeared to have a chance for the title: Porz and the OSC Baden-Baden, sponsored by the company Grenkeleasing AG. Porz with Michael Adams on board one can boast of no less than fourteen grandmasters, eight of them with a rating of 2600+. Baden-Baden nominated "only" thirteen grandmasters, but with Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Alexei Shirov and Francisco Vallejo-Pons at boards one to four, followed by five grandmasters with a rating of 2600+, they are everything but a pushover. In their top lineup both Baden-Baden and Porz can sport an average of more than 2650.

Chess Bundesliga poster of Werder Bremen, with Almira Skripchenko

But on 12th March the SV Werder Bremen (yes, the chess section of the current German football champion), a team which had lost all of its ten previous Bundesliga-matches against Porz, surprised chess fans. Even though they had on average 100 rating points less on every board they beat their rivals 6:2, turning the fight for the title into an exciting three-team race the final of which is starting this Sunday at 9 o'clock.

The Chess Bundesliga advertised in the giant screen of a soccer stadium

The early beginning of Sunday rounds has often been called Bundesliga's black spot by professional players. It is more likely to be of advantage for Porz, speculates Christopher Lutz, who has been playing board one for Hilgert's team for more than ten years, as he and his teammates have become more used to the early morning hour than Baden-Baden's top shots Anand, Svidler and Vallejo.

The Bundesliga website will transmit the games of Baden-Baden, Porz and Bremen live (look for live coverage here). On Saturday the matches (classical seven hour-games) and the transmission will begin at 14:00 o'clock German time (GMT+1), while on Sunday they will begin at 9:00 o'clock.

All German Bundesliga teams