ASV Linz is Austrian chess champion

2023-04-16 11:15:10

For the first time in the club’s 103-year history, the Linz Workers’ Chess Club is Austrian State Chess Champion.

Linz (OTS) – After a total of 11 rounds and 66 games, the Linzers ended up undefeated at the top of the table in the 1st Bundesliga, followed by last year’s champion SK Sparkasse Jenbach in second place and SV “Das Wien” St. Veit in third place.

Already in the first year after promotion to the top division, the Linz Star Ensemble was able to secure the title! Led by the world-class French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and the Iranian junior world champion Parham Maghsoudloo, the people of Linz took no risks and used grandmasters in all 66 games without exception.
The level of the 1st Bundesliga in Austria is consistently extremely high, so in the top duel ASV Linz vs. SK Jenbach the reigning world champion in blitz chess, Maxime Vachier – Lagrave and the reigning European champion, Matthias Bluebaum (D) sat opposite each other.

As ASV Linz captain, the President of the Austrian Chess Federation, Michael Stöttinger, can now also call himself “State Champion”: “In the end, the victory was closer than it looks on paper – congratulations to my team, but also to the really outstanding performance of our opponents!‘ said Stöttinger happily and a good deal relieved.

„Capital of innovation and now also Austrian chess capital, I am happy about that as mayor, chess fan and host of the chess Bundesliga“ said Linz Mayor Klaus Luger at the award ceremony in the ballroom of the New Town Hall in Linz.

The arrival of none other than Zurab Azmaiparashvili, President of the European Chess Federation and himself a grandmaster, speaks for the increasing importance that chess enjoys in Austria, also internationally:
„From the first world champion to the cultural asset chess – café, Austria is a fixed point in the chess world and as the organizer of the European Club Cup (the Chess Champions League) I am of course happy about the extremely strong Austrian teams.“ , said the Georgian grandmaster and chess official.