Prior to the commencement of the season, reigning champions OSC Baden-Baden [de] started as runaway favourites - their impressive squad was topped by Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Alexei Shirov, Étienne Bacrot, Magnus Carlsen, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Pentala Harikrishna and Francisco Vallejo Pons.
GMs Peter Heine Nielsen, Sergei Movsesian and Michał Krasenkow were just three of the other players.
OSC Baden-Baden successfully defended their title, whereas Werder Bremen faded badly after a good start and so a close fight developed for the remaining places.
Unexpectedly, Hamburger SK [de] confounded the ratings to take second place, its Polish contingent Radosław Wojtaszek and Robert Kempiński scoring heavily.
SG Porz and TSV Bindlach-Aktionar finished in third and fourth places respectively, with outstanding performances coming from Loek van Wely (also undefeated) for Porz and Vladimir Baklan and David Baramidze for Bindlach.