Andreas Heimann gets his chance in the Deutschland Grand Prix
Luke McShane was very much looking forward to the Grandmaster Tournament as part of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy - 48th International Dortmund Chess Days - which starts next Tuesday. Although the entry regulations between England and Germany were somewhat simplified yesterday - England has been downgraded from a risk variant area to a high incidence area as of today - participation is no longer feasible. The required quarantine of five full days, the PCR tests to be carried out in advance and the travel preparations now make McShane's participation practically impossible. Tournament director Andreas Jagodzinsky had been trying to get a special permit for McShane in order to avoid the quarantine.
In the end, there was a positive decision from the Ministry of the Interior yesterday, but there were hardly any practical possibilities for the English top player to fulfil all time and organisational conditions to come to Dortmund. McShane regrets this very much, as he is in top shape, wanted to play at all costs and thought he had a good chance in the tournament.
The organising committee of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy has therefore now decided that Luke McShane will be invited to the 2022 German Grand Prix. After he immediately accepted, the first participant of the 49th Intermational Dortmund Chess Days next year has already been determined.
Mc Shane will be replaced this year by the 29-year-old German grandmaster Andreas Heimann. Heimann already collected numerous successes in his youth, for example the title of German Youth Champion U12 in 2004. He was then appointed Grandmaster in 2016 and continued to improve steadily, so that in 2017 he exceeded the 2600 mark with his ELO for the first time. He has consistently belonged to this club of 2600 players since 2019 at the latest. Heimann is one of the strongest German chess players not only in tournament chess but also in blitz chess and won the German championship in this discipline in 2016 and 2017. He is now looking forward to his chance to compete in a grandmaster tournament at a high level with national and international rivals. "We are very happy that an up-and-coming grandmaster of German chess is taking the vacant place in the Deutschland Grand Prix," says Andreas Jagodzinsky.
Picture taken by Kirill Merkuriev: Luke McShane beim FIDE World Cup 2019