Weissenhaus Young Masters: Playing chess in the castle

If there were ever a vote for the most beautiful venue for a chess tournament, White House would certainly be one of the favorites. After the opening event at the beginning of the year with the brilliant staging of a freestyle tournament with some of the best players in the world, entrepreneur and chess enthusiast Jan Hendric Büttner really put his foot down and started several new projects.

Working with the chess department of St. Pauli, which had just been promoted to the Bundesliga, Büttner convinced Magnus Carlsen and several other top grandmasters to come to the dynamic club. A move that attracted a lot of attention not only in the chess press.

The Hamburg Chess Club of 1830, the second oldest sports club in Hamburg and one of the largest chess clubs in Germany, was pleased about the return of Niclas Huschenbeth and the arrival of Leonardo Costa – Jan Hendric Büttner had also worked in the background here.

Büttner also founded the Weissenhaus Chess Academy to promote top players and German talent. One of the initiatives was the Weissenhaus Young Masters, which began on Monday, October 14th and ended on Friday, October 18th. It was a classic tournament with a very tight schedule. With the exception of the opening day, two rounds were played every day: the first round started at 10 a.m. and the second round at 4 p.m. – a strenuous program.

Four young talents – Marius Deuer (16), Leonardo Costa (16), Hussain Besou (13) and Christian Glöckler (12) – had the opportunity to gain experience by playing against experienced grandmasters.

Marius Deuer

Glöckler and Costa

The veterans were GM Pavel Eljanov from Ukraine, who now lives in Munich, GM P. Sethuraman from India, GM Sune Berg Hansen from Denmark, Estonian grandmaster Kaido Kulaots and GM Christian Bauer from France.

Pavel Eljanov

P. Sethuraman

Sune Berg Hansen

Kaido Kulaots

Christian Bauer

Benedict Krause from FC St. Pauli completed the field.

At 27 years old, Krause certainly doesn’t belong to the “old guard”. Given some of the much younger participants, particularly Besou and Glöckler, he described himself as a “semi-veteran.”

The tournament schedule was particularly demanding for the older players, some of whom have other commitments. Sune Berg Hansen, for example, runs her own company and hardly has any time to concentrate on chess. Christian Bauer had just played in the Swiss League, then took part in the tournament in Weissenhaus and then rushed to Serbia to play in the European Club Cup in Vrnjacka Banja.

The White House location

The players lived in different houses on the property, and the younger players lived in the chess academy house, where training camps were held regularly. At the end of the tournament, most of the players from the German national team came to visit.

The German national coach Jan Gustafsson with Matthias Blübaum, Rasmus Svane, Dmitrj Kollars and Alexander Donchenko

Kollars, Blübaum, Donchenko and Reinhard Ahrens, captain of the HSK Bundesliga team, test their skills in another game.

The “living room” of the academy

Anyone who lives on the Weissenhaus grounds has many opportunities for relaxation. The Baltic Sea and the beach are just a few steps away, between the pier on Weißenhäuser Strand and a cliff on the way to Hohwacht.

Or you can stay on site, relax in the spa, sit in the foyer or library or visit the billiards room.

The Weissenhaus Young Masters took place in the “north wing” of the palace. Tournament director Sebastian Siebrecht announced the start of each round with a gong.