Viernheim lead at the halfway mark
After eight of the fifteen scheduled rounds in the 2025/26 Chess Bundesliga season, two teams are the clear frontrunners in the standings.
SC Viernheim, champions of the 2023/24 campaign, have won all eight of their matches and therefore stand on 16/16 match points. OSG Baden-Baden, sixteen-time German champions, follow one point behind on 15/16, having recorded seven victories and one draw. Sfr. Wolfhagen are currently third on 13/16, two match points behind Baden-Baden, and still have to face both leading sides later in the season.
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Baden-Baden’s only drawn match came in round four against Bayern München. On that occasion, Baden-Baden were unable to field a full eight-player team. With only seven games played over the board, Bayern managed six draws, while Baden-Baden scored a single victory. Combined with the forfeit point awarded to the Munich side, the match concluded 4–4.
In the most recent league weekend, played on 7-8 February, both Viernheim and Baden-Baden obtained back-to-back victories. Baden-Baden produced clear 6½–1½ and 7–1 wins. Viernheim, meanwhile, defeated SG Solingen by the narrowest possible margin on Saturday, prevailing 4½–3½.
In the match against Solingen, one of Viernheim’s key players, Alexey Sarana – who had begun the round with 5 points from 6 games – was defeated by Dutch veteran Loek van Wely. The match was decided by victories from David Antón against Predrag Nikolić and Bassem Amin against Florian Handke. Amin has featured in all eight rounds and has so far scored an excellent 7/8, consisting of six wins and two draws.
David Antón (Viernheim) defeated Predrag Nikolić (Solingen) in Saturday’s round | Photo: Hans-Joachim Vitz
Baden-Baden saw Fabiano Caruana make his season debut during the same weekend. The world number three faced two Polish grandmasters, drawing Mateusz Bartel on Saturday and defeating Jan Klimkowski on Sunday for a total of 1½/2. Caruana is scheduled to compete later this week at the Freestyle Chess World Championship in Weissenhaus.
Three Baden-Baden players – RadosÅ‚aw Wojtaszek, Étienne Bacrot and Alexander Donchenko – have appeared in all eight rounds and each has scored 6 points. Bacrot and Donchenko both achieved 2/2 perfect scores over the weekend.
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores one of the most intriguing and under-examined areas of modern chess: reversed opening systems, focusing on the Reversed Grünfeld and the Reversed Dutch. At first glance, these two systems seem unrelated. However, they share a common strategic challenge: the value of tempi, structure, and psychology when familiar openings are played with colours reversed. Drawing on his long professional experience, Sokolov explains why these positions are far more subtle than they appear and why traditional engine evaluations often fail to capture their true complexity.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Larsen’s b4 Plan vs Reversed Stonewall Setups: Larsen – Spassky
Viernheim and Baden-Baden are scheduled to meet in the penultimate round of the season, during the final weekend from 24 to 26 April. With Wolfhagen still to face both frontrunners, the remaining rounds include direct encounters between all three leading teams.
OSG Baden-Baden v. USV TU Dresden took place in a beautiful setting on Saturday (in Dresden) | Photo: Sven Noppes
Facing Dresden’s IM Maximilian Neef, Baden-Baden’s Alexander Donchenko gained the initiative on the kingside early on, and managed to end the game in style.
Black was already lost, as he has not enough defensive pieces surrounding his weakened monarch. But 45…f6? led to a quicker defeat, as White has forced mate with 46.Qxh7+ Nxh7 47.Rxh7+ Kg8 48.Rh8+ Kf7 49.R2h7+
49…Rg7 and the white knight is perfectly placed on f5 for 50.Rxg7#
Standings after round 8
Find here all results and detailed information…
All available games
The King’s Indian Defence has been one of the most dynamic and popular responses to 1.d4 for decades. Legends such as Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, and Hikaru Nakamura have employed it at the highest level – and it continues to fascinate today, as it offers Black not only solidity but also rich attacking and counterattacking opportunities. Its special advantage: the King’s Indian is a universal system, equally effective against 1.d4, 1.c4, and 1.Nf3. Grandmaster Felix Blohberger, multiple Austrian Champion and experienced second, presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black. His approach: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
Free video sample: Introduction
Free video sample: London System