Suddenly Germany's new chess star

Puzzles aren't one of Matthias Blübaum's hobbies. And so he's probably glad that the organizers of the tournament in Uzbekistan are showing mercy in light of the combination of personal clumsiness and the airport staff's overly harsh handling of Blübaum's suitcase. The 28-year-old German will be replaced with a prize plate that shattered into pieces on his journey home to Germany.

The plate, adorned with a depiction of a mosque in the host city, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, is a symbol of Blübaum's greatest triumph. While the 28-year-old German became the first player ever to win the European Championship title for the second time this year, qualifying for the Candidates Tournament , which his second-place finish in Uzbekistan earned him about three weeks ago, is an even bigger achievement. It's the precursor to a battle for the World Chess Championship crown. Blübaum is just two games away from challenging the king of his sport – India's Dommaraju Gukesh.

Blübaum's participation in the Candidates Tournament next spring prompted an unusually effusive announcement from the German Chess Federation. The success was called "sensational," "crazy," and "historic." The federation echoed the emotional outbursts, which Blübaum himself would never have expressed. "Even though it's probably not entirely wrong: I would never describe my own success as a sensation. It's a huge surprise for me, too; I didn't expect it. And of course, it's a great success," Blübaum told WELT AM SONNTAG.

But a look at the history shows that it is more than just a "huge surprise." Blübaum is only the third German to make it to a Candidates Tournament, and the first since Robert Hübner, who competed in 1991. His predecessor, Hübner, according to the obituaries for the grandmaster who died in January, was someone who consistently picked his games apart afterward. Self-critical to the last pore. A look at Blübaum's performance in Samarkand shows that he has certainly carried this trait forward. After all, there were no tears of joy reported after his success. There were no strong declarations of war against his opponents. Rather, the quotes from the German-German duel against Vincent Keymer, which almost cost Blübaum his top spot, stuck in his mind.

"I blundered like a complete idiot. I should have lost," he said immediately after the game. For the otherwise sober East Westphalian, this was almost a rant. Ultimately, Blübaum salvaged a draw because Keymer overlooked a trick by his opponent. Expert Christof Sielecki judged him to have "risen from the dead" in the chess podcast "Schachglatzen." While Blübaum secured second place with another draw in the eleventh and final game, Keymer finished fourth.

There's another aspect to this surprise. Germany has a new chess hero overnight – and it's not rising star Keymer , ranked ninth in the world. While his name is well known outside the scene, that's hardly the case for Blübaum (ranked 41st). "It's okay for me to be in Vincent Keymer's shadow. It's justified," says the German number two: "He's the one in the world's top 10, he's several years younger than me, and the stronger player. Logically, he'll be more in the spotlight."

Blübaum has retained his humility, although the new attention has naturally opened doors. Financially, the Lemgo native has entered new spheres, taking home a good €53,000 for second place in Uzbekistan. "The prize money is triple the highest I've ever received for an event. A European Championship title once earned €17,500. That was also a lot of money, but this is a whole lot more. I can't complain," says Blübaum. Above all, this offers security: "As a chess professional, it's not like you constantly win prize money like that."

The sport maintains a niche existence in Germany, although it has gained new momentum due to the coronavirus pandemic and the associated online chess boom. Nevertheless, sponsors are lacking. Blübaum has so far earned his money solely through entry fees and prize money, including a few hundred dollars from online tournaments that he streams on the Twitch platform . "The top 10 to top 20 in the world earn very well. Below that, it gets smaller. At the level I've been at in recent years, you can make a decent living from the sport," says Blübaum, "but it's not like I've made a decent living from chess. Especially because I know that the level slowly declines after the age of 40."

Until then, Blübaum still has a few years to play at the top level. The fact that he's even among the extended world elite is the result of a consistent approach. The talent was developed at the age of twelve in the "Princes Group": National youth coach Bernd Vökler gathered four boys for clinics several times a year, with coaches provided by the association. The "Princes" were supposed to become "Kings." A concept that Blübaum now says "worked very well": "Ultimately, everyone in the Princes Group became grandmasters."

But Blübaum never neglected his second career path—even after the Chess Federation offered him the opportunity to fully focus on sports for a year after graduating from high school. Blübaum studied mathematics and earned his master's degree. Only with this certainty of having an alternative did he decide to pursue a professional career and dedicate his life to chess: "Chess is the central focus of my life. I hardly follow any other sports, for example, I don't watch football matches. I try to do sports as a balance, go running regularly, but that's about it."

When Blübaum isn't upset about his own achievements, he says he's an introvert. He doesn't take extreme positions; instead, he likes to put things into perspective. When he talks about chess players being "nerds," he adds, "to a certain extent," that there are plenty of exceptions. When he talks about his good time management as a strength of his game, he adds that this also harbors a weakness: "In some positions, I don't go deep enough and make decisions too quickly—and sometimes there's not enough risk-taking, that can also be a weakness." The colors of his sport—black and white—don't really suit Blübaum. Listening to him, it's mostly shades of gray that come to the fore.

He will enter the Candidates Tournament as a clear underdog. In the category that determines the quality of players in chess, he is likely to be significantly behind his competitors. Blübaum has an Elo rating of 2687 points – 2700 is the absolute world class rating. "A few points in the Elo rating definitely make a difference. It's mainly about the consistency with which you achieve good results, and a few smaller factors like nerves," explains Blübaum.

In Uzbekistan, the German demonstrated precisely this virtue, while his opponents ranked higher than him failed one after the other. "As an underdog, it worked out very well in the tournament because the stronger players wanted to prove something against me and sometimes took too many risks. Naturally, I hope something like that happens again," says Blübaum. He still feels comfortable when nobody is paying attention to him. Even though at least the perception in Germany has changed.

Luca Wiecek is a sports editor for WELT. He played his last game of chess during his school days.