You will fall in love with the German Team after watching this!

Hi everyone, I'm here with the amazing German team with Alexander in a very nice posture there at the back.

Hello everyone, welcome to Chess Days India.

Okay, let me start off with the man who has the mic here, Vincent. Bronze medal, I think a fantastic performance by the team, could very well have been a gold medal performance. How is the overall spirit? Like, how are you feeling?

Yeah, I think we have to be happy. It's the first Olympiad medal since I played, and I think for all of us. Of course, there had been the chance for a bit more, but, you know, since we lost that match to India, I think we were fighting mostly for bronze medal. So managing that is a huge success, and I guess we're all happy about that.

We have the coach of the team here, Ian, joining in as well. I have a lot of questions, but maybe one question we can ask, anyone can answer, is how is the team spirit so good? Maybe Rasmus, you can answer.

Yes.

How, like, the thing is, how are you guys So close with each other.

Okay, Rasmus is the core of the team.

In spite of being so close to each other in strength, you know, many of you are similar strength, and it's not just in the Olympiad. You guys like to hang out with each other even without the Olympiad.

Um, yeah, I think like it's a bit of coincidence. We had this Prinzengruppe, um, like 20 years ago, and like Matthias and me and Alex, we are like one year apart, and we know each other very well since we were 10 years old. We were at many training camps and playing tournaments together, and we have been very good friends since then. And Frederik is my brother, and Vincent is the same year as Frederik, so they also know each other since they're 10 years old. And it just like automatically happened. Like Dimitri, we also know since 15 years now, and somehow it just We always have very good friendship, and we just know each other since so many years.

And it's very struggle making any other friends.

Yes, actually good point. But but Jan, how has it been? Like you, you've been the coach of so many teams. This team just feels very special. You know all of them. Has it been amazing working with them?

We're just very lucky to have this very strong generation born out of the Prinsengruppe that Rasmus mentioned, and then. having Vincent and Frederik who are still catching up to these guys in strength, but they also contributed to the team this time. So if they can get there, I think we can have a very strong team in the future. And seriously, like, yeah, the team spirit and the closeness these guys have, like, normally chess players on teams are friendly with each other, but the vibe is different with how friendly people are. And you know how it is, normally if you're at a tournament, you're working for somebody you're with them and then you switch teams, but the German boys are always together at any event, so it's— I think it's a different vibe.

Right. Dimitri, what was your role, if you can tell? All of them played. I guess you were the team second. Yes, and, uh, yeah, we had a kind of a different rhythm.

When they were awake, I was sleeping. Well, when I was awake, they were sleeping. Yeah, so I was this team second. I tried to— I mean, of course, the role is pretty limited. You're not playing. But I tried to do what I can.

He worked like he's being humble. He started working at nine every night, and we had breakfast at seven thirty every morning. And sometimes he kept it.

He kept working.

Sleep, yeah? You didn't sleep at all.

At night, not so much.

Wow! But he had some like how is it called? Coffee. Should I tell?

Yeah, yeah.

I tried to give him caffeine tablets and energy drinks, but. We're burning the candle.

Yes, yes, it's good that the time is over.

But it's like having one second is like for the entire team is a lot of work, right?

Okay, Jan. No, no, no, it was not me only. I mean, Jan helped, of course. Wasn't too much.

Also, some players didn't have so many requests. No, no, but No, no, but what Dimitri did is really amazing. We're lucky he's a broken human being and doesn't sleep at nights normally, but sacrificing himself for the team like that was really special.

I have one question: Who is the funniest person in the team? From whatever I can see, I do feel that.

What?

Matthias.

Just the irony in your face right now.

I always start laughing when I'm that serious.

Okay, but he's just naturally funny. Yes, Dimitri is.

But Dimitri tries so hard, which is very funny.

But not Alexander? I thought it would be him. I'm not funny.

I'm always, I'm always very serious with what I'm saying.

Uh-huh.

You always—

he's always taking it face value. That is how it should be.

Well, so they don't want to say in front of the camera, but everybody's a bit Scared of Alexander because he might murder you. Murder you? He might. It hasn't happened yet, but like there's always a chance.

Okay, can I get the mic and maybe we can give it to oh okay Frederick maybe. Frederick, fantastic tournament. Yeah, nine and sorry nine and a half out of eleven or eight and a half?

No, I'm not that strong.

Come on, eight and a half.

Yeah, you got the gold medal.

Yes.

Incredible performance.

Yeah, thanks. I don't know what to say. Like, I think I played—

Your best tournament ever?

I mean, one of the best. Like, I've had a couple 2800 performances, but definitely from the importance of the event and also like a lot of pressure also on the team and individually. So from that standpoint, pretty good. Unfortunately, I didn't play a good last game. I'm like kind of disappointed with today, but besides that, I played really well, I think.

Vincent, what do you have to say about Frederik's performance? Because I think he kind of delivered in many, many games. Yeah, many matches.

Yeah, I mean, I played decent. I got winning positions and I didn't win them, and he got it done. So that was nice. I mean, against Uzbekistan. I was lucky that my missed win against Nederbrecht didn't matter, and also today could have been important. So yeah, of course, having him score so many crucial wins was, was great, and I think one of the key factors for— like, it's one of the main reasons the tournament went so well.

I think what really stood out for me is that each one of you performed in the tournament. It was amazing to see. Like, for example, I was seeing Poland It was like 2.5-1.5 that you guys won, and it was Donchenko, Alexander, who actually fired there. Maybe if we can have it, there was— you beat Kosakowski with some great— like, you were worse, but then you converted that game with the d3 move and some crazy tactics.

I think that was certainly a wild game. I remember it fondly. It's one of my biggest contributions apart from being a huge moral support to this wonderful team. And I think I'm really trying to glue the team together in team spirit. But that was a wonderful game, and I think definitely one of the better ones. And sometimes you just need one person who gets lucky.

Yeah.

And most matches we had that one guy who either played very well or in the critical moment just had a little bit of help. And sometimes that's all you need to win the close matches.

And you spoke about gluing the team together. How would you do that?

Literally.

No, I think it's even if you don't play, I had quite a few rest days, but that still doesn't mean that basically I'm out and I'm just not part of the whole thing. That means I'm still trying to spend time with them to encourage the people as they go along and also potentially help Dimitri with his workload.

So many night discussions.

Wow.

Actually, with our team, every time somebody was resting, he came with the others to the game.

Wow.

I can't remember anybody not coming. So giving some moral support for the game.

Really? Never joined when you were playing?

Yes.

Yeah.

That is true because he didn't have a rest day.

Yeah, he played 11 rounds.

Oh my God.

Uh, you beat Hans Niemann. I think that was a very special game because without it, I think beating USA would have been tough. And somehow you beat him effortlessly. Like, he played e4, you went Knight d2, and the position was like just winning. Did you feel it? Like—

Yeah, I felt that I was winning.

Yeah, I don't know, it wasn't his best game. He was also kind of overambitious. Like, in the past I have not had so many great results against him, so maybe it's like underestimating me or something because of that. So he played a bit too ambitiously, I think, and that really backfired. So yeah, he had a bit worse position after the opening, and then he blundered a pawn already in a bad position, but After that, it was just completely over.

Amazing. And I think you also managed to beat Yakubov, and I think you came to the ChessBase India studio and discussed that game. Another incredible victory that was.

Yeah, that— about that one, I'm much more happier than the Hans Niemann game because I find, or I found, some really creative ideas and solutions to the position, like Knight e5 and stuff. So that was a pretty well-played game, I think, in general. So yeah.

And Matthias, today it was your time to shine. Uh, you managed to score a very important win today against Jordan.

Yeah, luckily he just blundered. That, that was pretty much the game. I mean, no, but there's not much more to say. I tried to make my opponents hate the game as much as I do, but Yeah, in this case he just blundered, blundered all his pieces.

He had a great tournament here. Jordan had a great tournament.

Yeah, he had like an amazing tournament before, before today. Like today he just had an off day, but it happens.

I mean, he had an off move, I think, like one off move.

I guess, yeah, you could say that. But I mean, one move is enough sometimes. Okay, I mean, it's just a clean exchange, like it's It's pretty easy to convert.

Amazing. I think Rasmus, you and I think Frederik managed to score a couple of very important wins against Turkey, against I think one more team.

Uzbekistan.

Was it?

France.

Uzbekistan.

Against Uzbekistan, both of you.

And France.

Yeah, it was like, it was a great 3rd board and 4th board tango with both of you.

Yes, I think I didn't play that well, but I was just incredibly lucky this tournament. Somehow, I don't know, I had— I didn't maybe have much luck in tournaments before, and all my luck came together here. Like, Bochidov made a huge blunder.

Yeah, were you surprised when he played this move, Bishop e4?

Yeah, I mean, I had seen it like 20 minutes before, and somehow he had still missed this idea even when Knight f4 was on the board, which was a huge shock. And then the day after, I also played Terribly against Maurizio, and then suddenly I managed to turn, turn the game around, or he turned it around for me, and I managed to even win that game. Yeah, somehow I just managed to get, get points. I don't know, I didn't play especially well, but it was very important to get those points. And I guess you have to be lucky, which I was, and maybe others in the team also, in critical moments. And this also helped us to get 3rd place in the end, but Of course, we also played extremely well.

And Jan, how important it is to have someone like Vincent on board 1? You know, like, he's so good. Like, I think you were unbeaten in this tournament.

I lost to Ding.

You lost to only Ding. But apart from that, like, and he was— he could push against just about anyone. With Nodirbek, he was winning. I think having a board number 1 like that is really, really Helpful, yeah, for a captain.

No, I think having a world-class player on board 1 is obviously helpful for anybody, but also in this tournament, Vincent probably isn't that happy with his score, but it felt like he kept getting better. And especially in the last round, with the exception of this Ding game, it was always a question, is he gonna win the game or is the opponent gonna escape? And of course, that's huge for the team to have this security that no matter if it's up to Satorov or MVL or whoever sits there, Anish with black, that we're in very good hands and we don't really have to be that worried that, oh my God, we might lose that game. And that, I think, gives the others a lot of stability too. And other than that, it's hard to admit, but Vincent is also, I think, a great leader and how he treats the other guys. I mean, it's a very special vibe to have.

Could you throw a bit of light on that I don't want to praise him too much.

Also, he's very snobbish and has expensive clothes and flies business class.

You're always giving us something to laugh about.

It's great for you.

Say all the guys in the lasers just told you.

I think that honestly, Vincent is just— whenever he's with us, he can just share from his vast experience and just help all his younger colleagues to kind of really flourish.

So is this about chess or something else?

This is definitely about chess.

Yes. Okay.

He is— no, but still, your presence whenever you're with us is just enormous. It supports everyone around you just even passively. One look from you at the board and immediately the people know you have their back and they want to have yours.

You know, with Alexander, I don't know which part is a joke and when does he get serious. But I think one of the painful games was, of course, against India. I think it was such an amazing game, especially Alexander. I'm sorry to bring this up, but you played so well. I absolutely thought like you're going to crush it. And I mean, it's not fair to ask like how you felt. Of course you felt bad. But if you had anything to share about that one.

I don't know. Like, honestly, it just— these kind of things happen. Yeah, they hurt in the moment. It takes a while to get over it, but at a team event, I have the luxury that I don't have to play the next day, or to be fair, the day after that as well. And in this case, of course it hurt us. We would have had very good chances for at least silver if we win that match. But the way things turned out, because we had 4 other players in good shape, it basically cost us probably 1 spot in the rankings. And okay, it cost me 1 game, but—

1 spot?

it's not the end of the world. Yeah, so of course it felt like it during the time, but still, as you said, I played some very good moves, and you can always take the positives or the negatives from it. Sometimes it's worth to take both.

That's beautifully said. For you, Jan, how easy was it to decide on who would play with players? Because you had to always decide. I think it was constant on the top 3 boards almost. But on board 4 and 5, you had to make these decisions whether Alexander would play, Rasmus would play. How would you decide?

No, it was easy because the top boards always wanted to play every game, so there was never like any even implications that they would like a rest. That made it very easy. And seriously speaking, you don't know, you go a little bit with momentum. Of course, I have some thoughts sometimes. Do we want, I don't know, more variance in this game or more stability? But it's always a guessing game, and I will look smart if we win on board 4 and not so smart if we lose. But it's not like there's a genius plan— you play this guy in, in that game and so on. And here, like, in the end, Rasmus scored 3.5 out of 4, but he will be the first to admit that not all the games look clean, while Alex played a great game against Gukesh and lost. So it's easy to look at the scores and say you should put the guy that won games, but it's not— It's not that simple, and I think we got lucky that we got 5 great players and the points fell the way they fell this time.

And I want to ask you, like, German chess has been strong for many years, but now it feels something truly special with Vincent being like one of the best in the world, Frederik, Matthias playing the Candidates. I think Rasmus and Alexander also coming up. It feels like This generation is special. Do you feel it? Like you coming from a slightly older generation, do you feel it?

You mean the European team champion 2011?

No, I—

Thank you, thank you. No, I fully agree. And we can say they're young, but no one's getting younger. So we also have to use the the time we have. And yeah, what can I say? Of course, it's a very special group of players.

Finally, Vincent, I want to ask you like maybe the mic. How has it been to sort of be with this team? You usually play like. Super tournaments, you play like the best in the world, you're playing the Grand Chess Tour finals and so on. And then just being with these guys, I feel like you also enjoy this a lot.

Yeah, of course, it's very enjoyable and even more enjoyable if you, if you play well. Um, you know, in 2023 we just missed out on gold medal in the European teams by tiebreaks, and that still kind of stung. And now that we played so well together in the Olympiad and beat some of the best teams in the world, that really gives a great feeling. And yeah, it was just a fantastic event.

I like the question too.

You're used to being with the best players in the world, and you took it as very natural.

Yeah.

Okay, I want, I want to end this interview with something very special. You have to tell one thing that you find special about the person on your right. So it goes this way, and then, so you have to start with Matthias.

And I think he has the ability to be very reliable in important situations. Like, if you look at last year's Grand Swiss, this year's Olympiad, I had many great positions, I did play well, but I didn't finish it. And he both last year and this year was there in very important moments, and that of course helped a lot.

Beautiful.

Honestly, I would also say reliable in Rasmus' regards. Like, he's— I mean, he's, he's also been on the national team for so many years, and he's always like very reliable on the team. And we had him on board 2 for quite a while, and now this, this year finally I got the chance to block on board 2. That was his job a few years ago. But yeah, he's, he's a very reliable player and Plays well, so amazing.

We have to say something about the player?

No, you have to say about this Alex. No, no, you have to say about Dimitri. Really?

I am the right one.

Yeah, I wanted to say that he's a very good person.

Person?

Yes.

Wow.

I don't know how to explain it, but can you try it?

But that's surprising.

You can always trust him, and I don't know how to explain it. He's just a very, very kind.

It's about you, Alex.

I don't know how to explain.

Are you saying about Alex or Dimitri?

About Dimitri. Just pick your choice. Could be anyone. Yeah, so no, it's Alex.

But that was a very nice compliment.

That was very nice. Didn't expect that one, actually.

I don't know how to explain it further.

I mean, as I'm not a chess player here, you have to say anything, something in general. So I get where you're coming from. Yeah, so thanks a lot.

Dimitri, you have to say something about Jan.

Yeah, okay, so for you I mean, I guess it's that you don't get into our nonsense all the time. Yeah, if we have some coughing match, for example, for who doesn't play next day, like who tries to simulate a sickness, you— I mean, you don't really care and make a good decision. And usually it works. Yeah.

So what is this good quality that he doesn't listen to you guys?

Yeah, basically just shutting out all the noise. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, you have to give it to him.

Yes. It's your turn.

So I praise Alex or he praises me? Who's more right?

No, you have to.

You have to.

Ah, I got praised by him.

You have to tell something about Alex.

No, I think, well, we know, all know what a talented chess player Alex is, but I think especially in this tournament, he was also such a good team player. It was mentioned earlier that he was always willing to help with preparation and was fine playing, was fine resting. And yeah, big kudos to him because also it can be difficult if all of a sudden you're sitting out the games. But no, Alex made the job very easy.

Amazing.

And Alex, about Frederik.

All right, I even set up for this.

Freddie.

Let's see, what can I say about Freddie? I'd say on the good side, he— No, on the good side, I think he is the one person out of all of us who has the most kind of day-to-day passion about, uh, towards chess. I would say he I would think so. He's the one who's always the first to look at games, to maybe solve something if you give him a position, and it's, I don't know, I feel like it's a very good quality to have when you're spending your life with the game.

That's what I would say.

Also, this tournament showed me that better late than never always applies to Freddy, especially when he's coming to meet us in the lobby.

That's actually true.

Okay, chess-wise, I don't think I can praise— or I think I can praise Vincent a lot, of course. And it's also nothing I should comment here. I think he's just really reliable. Like, I mean, if you have like a top player on board 1, it was already said, and You don't have to worry what will happen. Like, I can always— or as a team, you always have a good feeling about Vincent's game. And also as a human being, he gives a lot of great advice also in life. And also for me as a younger colleague, it's very important to get his experienced advice.

I'm still the youngest in the team.

You know, it's so amazing to see you all, and thank you for sparing time for this interview. I still remember in Metz 2015, it was when I, I think, saw it was Matthias and Alex.

Yeah.

In 2015, I think it was two of you I saw back then. Dennis was also there. Yeah, correct. And and from there, it's been eleven years, and I've seen German chess growing. And Vincent, you, Frederick, all of you doing an incredible job with Ian always being there as the watchful trainer. Thank you guys for doing this, and congratulations. I hope that gold comes soon. I think 2028.

So you're rooting for Germany in 2028?

Well, in general, I do love German team. Like when you guys were in World Cup, I know Frederik knocked out Gukesh. I think Matthias, you knocked out Anish. I got knocked out by Alex.

That was my greatest moment there.

Alex knocked out Anish. You knocked out Anish. I mean, in general, they were knocking out all the people that I liked, and I I just loved it. You know, like so.

So it was good that I knocked out Kukash.

Well, the way you played was amazing. It was a great game. Chess-wise, fantastic. But thank you guys, and have a safe flight.

Bye.