Reinhard Ahrens is an institution in Hamburg chess. Treasurer of the Hamburg Chess Club since 1991, and team captain of the first Bundesliga team since 2008, he and Christian Zickelbein are the defining figures of the largest and one of the oldest German chess clubs. In uncertain times, he led the Hamburg team and, thanks to his meticulous work, kept it in the first German chess league.
The German Chess League is now also hoping for this meticulousness from the retired tax official, after Ulrich Geilmann announced his resignation as vice-president a few months ago and explained this with a scathing open letter.
" Nevertheless, developments have occurred recently in particular that have raised profound doubts in me as to whether I am still willing to burden my limited time budget with extensive work. This conflict has increased in recent weeks and months due to the well-known legal disputes over the tournament regulations and the formal admission criteria, as well as the associated confrontations. In addition, in individual cases there has been little appreciation and only rarely really effective criticism of the work of the executive committee, which has only implemented majority decisions!
All this has confirmed my decision not to continue down this path.”
An excerpt from Geilmann's open letter.
The background to this was the legal disputes in connection with the admission criteria for teams in the German Chess League, which were met with little enthusiasm, especially in Kirchweyhe.
Now it is up to Ahrens to quickly find his way into office and overcome the many rifts that have arisen. As the German Chess League writes in its statement, no one has been found for marketing, the German Chess League's major construction site. However, Michael Langer, President of the Lower Saxony Chess Association (congratulations on yesterday's birthday) has promised the German Chess League to support them with marketing.
The German Chess League has developed into a great event in recent years. It has a top-class line-up, is broadcast worldwide on the Internet and has world-class players taking part. So far, it has not been possible to translate this into spectators and sponsors. Perhaps Ahrens will manage to bring calm to the German Chess League so that it can concentrate on the opportunities that lie ahead.
Photo: www.hsk1830.de
