Federal Chess League 2003/04 (Austria)

The 2003/04 season was the 29th season of the Austrian Chess League and at the same time the first season after the competition was renamed from “State League” to “Bundesliga”. In addition to the name, the calculation of team points was also changed, instead of the two-point rule (two points for a win, one point for a draw, no point for a defeat) the three-point rule (three points for one Win, one point for a tie, no point for a loss).

Union Ansfelden , SV Schwarzach and 1. Wiener Neustädter SV were promoted from State League B, which has now been renamed “ Second Bundesliga ” . While Ansfelden and Schwarzach achieved relegation, the 1. Wiener Neustädter SV was the only newly promoted team to be relegated straight away. In purely sporting terms, however, a second climber would have been relegated with SV Schwarzach. However, since two clubs, SV NÖ Melk-Wachau and SK Gleisdorf, withdrew their teams from the Bundesliga, SV Schwarzach and last year's champions ESV Austria Graz remained as better-placed clubs in the Bundesliga.

SK Hohenems , who barely escaped relegation last year, was the new champion with a 2.5 point lead. The defending champion ESV Austria Graz acted disappointingly. Despite the unchanged line-up, he would have been relegated in eleventh place without the two retreats mentioned from a sporting point of view.

For the reported team squads of the participating clubs see team squad of the Austrian 1st Bundesliga in chess 2003/04 .

Dates and venues

The competitions took place from November 28 to 30, 2003 in Graz , from January 22 to 25, 2004 in Velden am Wörther See and from March 18 to 21 in Jenbach .

Closing table

Pl.	society	Sp	G	U	V	Board P.	MP
01.	SK Hohenems	11	8th	3	0	41.0: 25.0	27
02.	SK Fürstenfeld	11	6th	2	3	38.5: 27.5	20th
03.	Union Ansfelden (N)	11	4th	6th	1	36.0: 30.0	18th
04th	SV Lower Austria Melk-Wachau	11	4th	3	4th	35.5: 30.5	15th
05.	SV Tschaturanga new building	11	7th	2	2	34.5: 31.5	23
06th	SC The people of Klagenfurt	11	3	6th	2	34.5: 31.5	15th
07th	SV Frohnleiten	11	3	3	5	32.5: 33.5	12
08th.	Jenbach chess club	11	2	4th	5	31.5: 34.5	10
09.	SK Gleisdorf	11	3	2	6th	30.5: 35.5	11
10.	SV Schwarzach (N)	11	4th	2	5	29.5: 36.5	14th
11.	ESV Austria Graz (M)	11	2	3	6th	27.5: 38.5	09
12.	1. Wiener Neustädter SV (N)	11	1	2	8th	24.5: 41.5	05

Remarks:

	Austrian champion: SK Hohenems
	Relegation to the 2nd Bundesliga : SV Lower Austria Melk-Wachau , SK Gleisdorf (both voluntarily withdrawn), 1. Wiener Neustädter SV
(M)	Last season champions
(N)	Promoted last season

Crosstab

Results		01.	02.	03.	04th	05.	06th	07th	08th.	09.	10.	11.	12.
01.	SK Hohenems		3½	4½	3½	4th	4th	3	3	3½	4th	3	5
02.	SK Fürstenfeld	2½		3	3	5	2½	3½	2½	3½	4½	4½	4th
03.	Union Ansfelden	1½	3		3½	3	3	4th	3	3	3	4th	5
04th	SV Lower Austria Melk-Wachau	2½	3	2½		2½	3	3½	4th	3	2½	5	4th
05.	SV Tschaturanga new building	2	1	3	3½		3	3½	3½	4th	3½	3½	4th
06th	SC The people of Klagenfurt	2	3½	3	3	3		3	3	4th	4½	2½	3
07th	SV Frohnleiten	3	2½	2	2½	2½	3		3	4½	2½	3½	3½
08th.	Jenbach chess club	3	3½	3	2	2½	3	3		2½	4th	2½	2½
09.	SK Gleisdorf	2½	2½	3	3	2	2	1½	3½		2½	4th	4th
10.	SV Schwarzach	2	1½	3	3½	2½	1½	3½	2	3½		3	3½
11.	ESV Austria Graz	3	1½	2	1	2½	3½	2½	3½	2	3		3
12.	1. Wiener Neustädter SV	1	2	1	2	2	3	2½	3½	2	2½	3

The championship team

1.	SK Hohenems
	GM Jan Gustafsson (11 games / 7.5 points), IM Valery Atlas (11 / 6.5), IM Alexander Naumann (11 / 6.5), Günter Amann (2 / 1.0), FM Jurij Sinowjew (3 / 0.5), FM Milan Novkovic (11 / 7.0), IM Guntram Gärtner (11 / 8.5) and Heinz Grabher (6 / 3.5).

Web links

• Results of the Austrian 1st league on chess-results.com