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Chess is exploding in the crown crisis. In arrests and lockdowns around the world, more and more people are turning to the age-old game of kings at home, especially online. The Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” also inspires people who have not yet been interested in the game. And world chess champion Magnus Carlsen is hosting a series of online tournaments with millions of cash prizes. This has never happened before.
Chess actually seems to win the crisis: only in Germany are the boom oversleeping, at least in the association. The German Chess Federation (DSB) is busy with itself, anger in its own ranks has led to several resignations of officials in recent months. At the center of the criticism: the national team coach Dorian Rogozenco.
The chess federation now drew the consequences. On the association’s homepage on Monday evening it was said that they had decided by mutual agreement with the national team manager to go their separate ways. DSB President Ullrich Krause thanked us for the good cooperation. Rogozenco would have said that the work made him proud. “Even if there were conflicts in the end, I wish everyone all the best for their further development in chess,” Rogozenco said.
However, there were not only some conflicts, but some. This culminated on Saturday in a rebellion of twelve top players, including 16-year-old Vincent Keymer, Germany’s greatest talent. The players published an open letter threatening to stop playing for the national team with Rogozenco.
The letter says that the national team manager Rogozenco is making “destructive decisions that have reached unbearable proportions”. Rogozenco in particular showed no respect for the players. The association avoided a dialogue.
Georg Meier, longtime national player and promoter of the protest, specified the allegations in an interview with SPIEGEL. Individual players have had problems with Rogozenco in recent years, the Romanian has been the national team manager since January 2014. In recent months, however, there have been several conflicts that have now triggered the joint protest of national players, according to Meier.
A reproach: Rogozenco is said to have organized individual training for one of the race participants at the German Masters, a tournament of eight German top players in August. “This is unheard of because he later played against his teammates in the squad. The association financed and organized its warm-up program, so to speak, under the leadership of the national coach. This hit all the other players hard, “Meier said.
This training also led to the resignation of competitive sports advisor Andreas Jagodzinsky in early October. In an internal email on October 1st, he complained that Rogozenco had not clarified the costs of the training, in which a top 20 grandmaster of the world rankings should have participated. SPIEGEL was able to see the mail. As a result, training took place for German player Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who is said to be a longtime friend of Rogozenco. The training is said to have cost € 4188, a lot of money for an association like the Chess Federation. Jagodzinsky was supposed to approve the association’s spending of over 500 euros, but Rogozenco is said to have acted on his own initiative. The DSB has announced an investigation, which is apparently still ongoing. There was no mention of this in the notification that was made now.
The national team coach apparently opposed the association
There was another conflict over German top player Elisabeth Pähtz and her participation in the August chess Olympics, the team world championship, so to speak. Shortly before, Pähtz’s online account on the lichess chess platform had been caught cheating. Pähtz later stated that a friend had access to her account and won games with outside help. Evidence that she was not involved in the fraud, she privately told the chess federation and world federation Fide.
The associations have not officially commented. However, Pähtz said on “chessbase” that she was banned by Fide for one day of competition because she was in charge of her account. However, two players from the Olympic team, Rasmus Svane and Matthias Blübaum, didn’t want to play on a team with Pähtz as long as the allegations were not dealt with in an understandable way, Meier explains. At that point there should have been an agreement within the federation that Pähtz would not be formed by the national team manager.
In the last round of the tournament, Rogozenco apparently stood up, donned Pähtz and knocked the two men off the team. “It was a big break between the players and the national team manager,” Meier said. Subsequent complaints had dismantled DSB chairman Ullrich Krause.
DSB president Ullrich Krause is also criticized by the players
Photo: Private / German Chess Federation / DPA
No respect for the women’s team
Rogozenco should get along well with Pähtz, the best German player. With many other members of the women’s national team, however, there were always problems. In recent years, Rogozenco is said to have often behaved disrespectfully towards women, team spokeswoman Sarah Papp told SPIEGEL: “It happened that he went out of his mind, some players started crying in his presence. or after “. Initially, it was not possible to reach Rogozenco for SPIEGEL to comment on the alleged allegations.
The women were delighted when they took over their national coach two years ago. Alexander Naumann has become the so-called team captain, he should also be responsible for training in tournaments. Last summer, however, Rogozenco said he would decide on training for the Olympics, even though, unlike Naumann, he had not trained with women. Then Naumann resigned.
Meier and Papp both point out that they sought a conversation with the coach of the national team and the association after the conflicts. After the lack of reaction, the open letter was the last option. The players want dialogue and new solutions from the association.
Do you need a national manager?
Then the players also want to discuss whether the post of national team manager is even necessary. He takes a full-time job, although international matches are only held once a year at the European Championships or Olympics, and there are rarely training grounds for all players. The national team coach is partially funded by the Ministry of the Interior’s elite sports sponsorship, which paid the chess federation between € 80,000 and € 108,000 annually between 2014 and 2019. The money for a national team coach could also be invested differently.
Grandmaster Meier thinks it would be best to book coaches only for training camps or tournaments and pay only for them. For an indefinitely hired national team coach, there is “no substantial justification,” he says.
Athlete spokesperson Papp points out that she wants a team captain for women who can make their own decisions independently of a national team coach. “It would be important for us to have a coach who has the same rights as the male coach and who is not under the male coach. These are outdated structures, “says Papp.
To realize these ideas, however, a dialogue between the association and the active is required. It has now been announced for next weekend. The DSB Presidium had invited the team’s players to a video conference to talk about the future direction of competitive sports, he said.
DSB President Ullrich Krause was apparently forced to react. There are presidential elections in 2021.
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