Weekend Events: Bartel Wins the Polish Championship, Plus Karpov Plays in the Bundesliga
Mateusz Bartel is having himself quite the month! First he wins Aeroflot, thereby gaining entry into the Dortmund super-tournament this summer, and now he has won the Polish Championship. Bartel tied for first with Bartlomiej Macieja with 7/9, and then won the first rapid playoff game to win the title. (The second was unnecessary, according to Chess Today, as Bartel would have won based on a superior tiebreak score even if Macieja had won the rematch.) His rating has also been going up, and according to a tweet from 2700chess his rating is up to 2691.8, almost (but not quite) good enough to get to the tweeter's website.
This past weekend saw rounds 10 and 11 of the Bundesliga, and featured a surprise appearance - a participatory appearance! - by former world champion Anatoly Karpov. (He pushed against IM Martin Kraemer, but couldn't quite overcome the latter's resistance and the game was drawn.) For those who care about such things, OSG Baden-Baden leads with 20 match points after 11 of 15 rounds; Werder Bremen has 19 and SC Eppingen has 17. Most of us have no investment whatsoever in the team aspect of the event, but with many excellent players participating in the league (e.g. Giri, Naiditsch, Volokitin, Vitiugov and Vallejo, to name some of the more prominent figures playing this past weekend) it's worth having a look at the games all the same.
You might suspect based on my last comment that I will now present a game. Your suspicion is right - but the game is from Bartel's performance in the Polish Championship. Have a look at his last round win over Tomasz Markowski.