The upcoming 2024-25 Bundesliga season will only have 15 teams instead of the 16 originally planned. SK Doppelbauer Turm Kiel is withdrawing its team from the Bundesliga shortly before the start of the season, which begins on September 28th. This measure particularly affects Hamburger SK as Kiel’s travel partner. The Hamburg team will now probably also host the home matches originally planned in Kiel on October 5th/6th and January 11th/12th, 2025. Hamburger SK is scheduled to host the matches on February 1st/2nd and March 22nd/23rd anyway, meaning it will have four real home matches this season.
Kiel’s withdrawal also has a direct impact on all other teams that will be playing in Hamburg, because they will only be able to play one match each. Some players may not want to travel for just one match. However, the travel costs for the clubs are the same if a player only plays one match as if he were to play two matches.
Kiel team captain Wolfgang Pajeken regrets the development. Apparently, the organizers of Kiel’s Bundesliga involvement did not have enough support from the club. The financing of the Bundesliga team was guaranteed by a sponsor, but the club was involved in certain organizational tasks, but there was less and less willingness to perform them.
“We saw this development coming to a certain extent and would have liked to say goodbye to the Bundesliga team in a proper sporting manner after the coming season, perhaps by using fewer grandmasters and more young players,” explained Wolfgang Pajeken when asked. “The organizers and the sponsor met again with the club board to discuss the situation and the support from the club. The impression here was that the club does not really want to make the effort to have a team participate in the Bundesliga.”
This development is regrettable, and not only for organizational reasons for the next Bundesliga. The management of the Kiel Bundesliga team had not only signed up a number of international grandmasters, but also had an eye on the national junior players and brought a number of promising national and international youth players to Kiel. In addition, chess life in Kiel was organized by organizing a number of tournaments, including invitational tournaments with international participation.
Final table 2024
The teams of the 2024/25 season:
Results service of the German Chess Federation…
