Thomas Lochte is a passionate chess player.
He has competed in tournaments all over the world.
He is also out and about in pandemic times - most recently he played in Poland.
Weilheim - Thomas Lochte was not quite sure what had driven him.
Was he determined or a little crazy?
Presumably it was a mixture of both that led the SK Weilheim player to “31.
International Chess Festival Krakow ”to Poland - with all the side effects that travel in the pandemic brings with it, such as corona tests and quarantine.
But Lochte simply has a special “love for presence chess”, as he says.
And he has a soft spot for tournaments.
The Feldafinger has already played on all continents and now has well over 3000 official tournament games on his account.
A highlight: in 1999 he took part in the World Cup in China with SC Starnberg.
The Starnbergers came eleventh out of 14 teams.
In April 2019, Lochte also visited the continent he was still missing, South America - at that time he took part in an open in Mar del Plata (Argentina).
“I still miss the Antarctic,” he said at the time with a smile.
Appearance at the 31st International Chess Festival in Krakow
Of course, Lochte had long played a tournament in Poland.
32 years ago - at that time the neighboring country was still part of the Eastern Bloc - he took part in a competition in Warsaw.
The SK Weilheim player competed in Krakow for the first time.
With his Elo rating of 2076, however, he was “only” allowed to participate in the B tournament.
There the 63-year-old was listed in third place according to the entry list.
“I set out to win the tournament,” he said.
But the veteran also knew that he would be sitting across from many players, mainly teenagers, whose low rating does not reflect their true skill level.
The evaluation of the Elo points is not handled consistently in all countries.
Such strong, but “undervalued” youngsters would have cost him almost 200 points between 2016 and 2019 “and gave him gray hair”.
In the end he lost some Elo points again and ended up with 5.0 points (3 wins / 4 draws / 2 defeats) after nine rounds on 31st place among 96 women and men.
Tomasz Musial from Poland won the B tournament (7.5 points).
The best German was the 17-year-old Taron Khachatryan (Norderstedt) with 6.5 points (9th place).
In the tournament, Lochte first played against a 68-year-old Poland and won.
After that, Lochte faced a veritable armada of teenagers.
The sticking point for the Feldafinger was ultimately the third round.
There he had already achieved a clear winning position against his 16-year-old opponent, Bartosz Panek (Elo rating 1927).
But on move 21 Lochte was surprised by the opponent's “gambler move” with a pawn on e3.
Lochte let the figure stand - "after that I got caught in a matt network," he reported.
The SK player had to give up.
Since it was clear that a top position could no longer be achieved, “I switched to tourist mode,” said Lochte.
From the remaining six laps he still got 3.5 points.
Disinfection before the start of each round
The tournament was held in the "Galaxy Hotel", which is located directly on the Vistula.
The conditions “were good,” reported Lochte.
According to him, the mask requirement was observed almost one hundred percent by the participants.
“In front of the tournament halls on the different floors, at least before the start of the round, referees and tournament helpers with disinfectant spray bottles were ready.” The participants received the booked meals in the morning, at noon and in the evening via room service.
The supporting program was canceled due to the pandemic.
The participants had to forego blitz tournaments and shogi competitions (Shogi is a Japanese variant of chess), excursions and museum visits.
As a city, Krakow has a lot to offer, according to Lochte.
The main square of Rynek, which is well worth seeing, was “largely to themselves in this pandemic-ridden year”.
According to the SK player, the trip and the effort were worth it.
And the test results "were all negative".