Georg Jocher: district master and corona fighter

Georg Jocher won the individual title at the regional chess championship.

The winner of the M1 class had hardly played any tournaments recently, because his main focus is on the fight against Corona.

Penzberg - Georg Jocher had made it comfortable.

For the individual district championship, he connected his computer to the television.

The 28-year-old completed the online games in the M1 class from the couch - and ultimately won the title.

But the two days of the tournament were not really relaxed and comfortable for the SK Penzberg player: “It was no walk in the park.

I gave everything."

In the last lap, the action got even worse.

Jocher absolutely needed a draw in the duel with his direct opponent Gerhard Lettl (TV Tegernsee).

However, the SK player made "a pretty big blunder", threatening defeat.

Fortunately, the opponent missed the chance, "I was able to save myself to a draw".

Due to the better tie-break rating, Jocher was ahead of the Lettl.

The tie-break distance (1.75 points) was extremely small.

"It doesn't get any closer," says Jocher.

After eight rounds, he and Lettl each had 6.0 points.

None of the other 20 participants had such a record.

Jocher (5 wins / 2 draws / 1 loss) was “surprised himself” that he had won the title fights in the highest class.

Because actually he “doesn't have that much time left to play chess”.

Georg Jocher experiences a dramatic finish

The molecular biologist is working on his doctorate.

And Jocher is dealing with the corona virus.

According to the 28-year-old, this was not originally planned.

Jocher works at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases under Professor Stefan Lichtenthaler.

His team deals with Alzheimer's and researches how the disease “develops on a molecular and cellular level in the brain”, says the homepage of the institution belonging to the Helmholtz Association.

Current world events have now moved the corona virus into the center of interest.

Jocher decided to change the project he had initially considered.

He is now doing basic medical research in the area of ​​"Corona" and is studying how to prevent the virus from entering cells.

At the very end, there could be a drug that at least mitigates or completely prevents severe courses of Covid-19.

So far, doctors have only been able to use cortisone to at least increase the chance of patients surviving in critical circumstances.

Due to his work, Jocher, who comes from Schlehdorf and now lives in Munich, has hardly played tournaments for a long time.

In the team fights with the SK Penzberg in the Zugspitzliga, he took part.

His record: five wins from five games.

In addition, there was a victory without a fight because the opponent had not started.

However, the season had to be canceled in March due to Corona.

SK Penzberg took second place at this point and had a chance of winning the championship.

Georg Jocher won the single title in 2017

Jocher started playing chess at the age of seven at SC Großweil, which has since been disbanded.

The Malik couple, who were involved in the association, taught him the basics.

As a teenager, Jocher says with a smile, other leisure activities such as football and skateboarding were more in the foreground.

At the age of 17 he took up chess again and now competed in tournaments.

During his studies in Austria he played at HAK / HAS Innsbruck in the Tyrolean regional league.

Jocher caused a stir in January 2017 when he (still playing for Großweil) won the title as a debutant in the M1 class at the district individual championship in Germering.

At that time there were four players tied, including Thomas Lochte (SK Weilheim).

Jocher won because of the better Buchholz rating.

The following year he finished seventh in the M1 and did not take part in the championship in 2019.

Jocher favors "modern chess", as he calls it.

The player tries to gain strategic advantages and utilize them in the endgame.

In the past, says Jocher, it was often about attacking the opposing king with many pieces.

When the 28-year-old looks at the field and the pieces, “then I see patterns of play and possible weak points in the opponent”.

During the game, “you can feel the game dynamics,” he says.

It happens “intuitively that I think of the right plans”.

Jocher prefers the face-to-face chess - the opponents sit across from each other at the table - the online version.

“The psychological elements have a greater effect there.

The fight is not as sterile as on the computer. ”However, Corona now ensured that the individual district championship was held in an online tournament for the first time.

Each player had 20 minutes to think about each game, with an extra five seconds for each move.

The doctoral student had days off between Christmas and New Year. During this time he prepared meticulously for the district championship. Ironically, against the two actors, whom he had in particular in the run-up, the yield turned out to be lower than hoped. The duel with Sebastian Finsterwalder (Gautinger SC / 7th place) ended in a draw, he lost against club colleague Bernd Salvermoser (4th place). But Jocher easily caught that with five wins. And “I was pretty lucky” on the last lap. But that is also part of it - as in every sport.