Perfect Ten for Baden Baden

The GRENKE Chess Classic began directly after the first February Bundesliga weekend, so after halving out two games, including missing a nice chance against Anish Giri, Jan Gustafsson who was commentator in chief caught a train with me for the five and a half hour trip from Emsdetten to Baden.
I played well in parts, but lost the thread at some stage in most of my games, however a not really deserved win over Anand in the last round gave my score a positive spin. The tournament continued late into the night, many of the spectators remained to watch the high quality playoff between Magnus Carlsen and Arkadij Naidtisch, which was decided in Armageddon, not for the first time Magnus Carlsen found a way to win.
A couple of months later Baden Baden won their tenth consecutive Bundesliga title, the seventh whilst I have been in the team. Despite the strength of our squad this is still a pretty remarkable record – there are quite a lot of other tough outfits in the Bundesliga too, and there has been many a match where everything only fell into place at the last minute. We had a celebratory dinner with Wolfgang Grenke, who is also an active player himself, the success would not have been possible without the very generous support of GRENKE Leasing company.