Auteur: Peter Boel

Report Round 5 Open & Round 3 Matches
We have started the 5th round of the Open and the 3rd round of the matches.

Both match games started with the same first two moves as in the first games, but in both White deviated on move 3. Sam Shankland played 3.Nf3 followed by the king’s bishop’s fianchetto against Peter Svidler’s 2…g6, and Vladimir Fedoseev met Jorden van Foreest’s 2…e6 with 3.Nf3 instead of 3.Nc3. So, we can expect two whole different ball games today!
Hans Böhm: ‘Clever choice by Fedoseev’

Fedoseev’s choice for the quiet line of today, with an early exchange of queens, was called clever by the man in charge of the commentary today, Hans Böhm, who sends happy chess greetings to chess fans all over the world!

The position after 14…Re8 was still known from a quick draw by Karjakin and Anand from the Tata Steel tournament of this year. Karjakin played 15.Bc3 immediately, Fedoseev first limited Black’s c8-bishop with 15.f3. The (non-)development of this bishop is Black’s main problem in this line.

Vladimir Fedoseev
Dynamic play by Svidler

Peter Svidler has responded dynamically to Sam Shankland’s double fianchetto. He has opened the centre and offered a pawn with the active 10…Nc6, which White’d better not take… not immediately, of course, but after 11.Nd2 Bg4 White did take the pawn, and commentator Hans Böhm doubted if Black now has sufficient compensation.
A Van Randtwijk shocker

Irishman Henry Li was in for an early shock today.

Black has mistakenly taken on f3, which turns out to be a grave error. Here he must have counted on the move 11…Nd4 but was in for a shock: Van Randtwijk replied with the lethal 12.Qxf6! and White wins a piece in view of 12…Bxf6 13.Bxf6, threatening 14.Ne7+.

Mick van Randtwijk
Was Fedoseev’s 15.f3 wrong?

Yes, the move may have the idea to limit Black’s c8-bishop. But now with Black’s knight still on a5, Van Foreest played 15…f5! 16.Bd5+ Be6 and Black keeps his pawn. White gets a rook on the seventh rank for it, but is this really better than the plan with 15.Bc3 Nc6 16.Rab1, with nice control for White?
Rash queenside castling by Ravi

Rakshitta Ravi has ambitiously castled queenside on move 15, which was an invitation for Valentin Buckels to play 15…d4 and demolish White’s queenside. This looks disastrous for the 13-year-old Indian girl, but she has saved herself from bad positions before. Will she make it this time?
Interesting struggle on top boards

The fight on the top board of the Open, Amin-Guseinov, is quite interesting. White has the structure, Black the activity. It looks like a dynamic balance. Dmitry Kryakvin is mounting the pressure on Stefan Kuipers, who is having a hard time.

Dmitry Kryakvin

His teammate Merijn van Delft seems to be holding up better against Evgeny Romanov. His kingside looks slightly loose, but the same goes for White’s queenside. Their teammate Roeland Pruijssers is equalish against Erik van den Doel, but is now starting something on the kingside.
Roel Hamblok wins

The first full point of the day was scored by Roel Hamblok. The Belgian FM got very fluent play on the black side of a McCucheon French and never looked back, finishing off with a relentless king hunt against Jip Damen.
Svidler easily equalizes

In fact Peter Svidler did have sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn, as he proved with a simple liquidation on moves 17 and 18 (…Bh6 and …Ne4). White’s a- and c-pawns were doomed, and now a position is reached where neither side seems to be able to undertake much. We’ll see if these top GMs can surprise us after all.

There are different ways to concentrate before a game…
Shankland and Svidler draw

The first undecided game in this match – more soon!
Analysis of Shankland-Svidler

Here is what the players told us right after the game:

Shankland-Svidler

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 c6 5.Bg2 d5 6.b3 dxc4 7.bxc4 c5 8.Bb2 cxd4 9.Nxd4 O-O 10.O-O

10…Nc6

‘This move was played by Anish (Giri, against Kramnik in Stavanger 2016, PB), so it should be good’, said Svidler.

11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Nd2 Bg4 13.Bxc6 Rc8 14.Bf3 Bxf3 15.exf3 Qd3 16.Rc1 Rfd8 17.Bc3

17.Nb3 looked scary’, Svidler thought. ‘But it doesn’t work’, Shankland replied immediately: ’17…Qxd1 18.Rfxd1 Rxd1+ 19.Rxd1 Rxc4 20.Rd8+ Bf8 21.Bd4 and now 21…Ra4 saves Black: 22.Bxf6 exf6 23.Nc5 Rxa2 24.Nd7 Kg7 25.Nxf8

and now White’s knight doesn’t get out. Perhaps White can get a pawn for it but this should be an easy draw.’

17…Bh6 18.f4 Ne4

This direct method had been underestimated by the American GM.

19.Nxe4 Qxe4 20.Qa4 Rxc4 21.Qxa7 Ra8 22.Qd7 Rxa2 23.Rfe1

‘A devilish trick’, Shankland grinned.

23…Qf3

Not 23…Rxc3? 24.Qc8+ and White wins! But now the fire goes out.

24.Bd4 Rxc1 25.Rxc1 Bf8 26.Rc8 Ra8 27.Rxa8 Qxa8 28.Be3 ½-½

‘A pretty OK game’, Svidler said. ‘Of course it’s better if you know

everything and you don’t have to work it all out over the board.’ ‘Anyway the level of the three games has been pretty good so far’, Shankland ventured. ‘Yes’, Svidler agreed. ‘In the first game, Sam played much better, in the second I played slightly better…’ ‘Much better’, Shankland interrupted. ‘Of course if both sides play good all games should end in a draw, but still it was OK.’ And off they went to grab a bite to eat together.
Kryakvin cracks Kuipers

Stefan Kuipers has resigned in a prospectless position. After Dmitry Kryakvin’s last move, 36.Rf6, all kinds of bishop sacrifices are in the air, and the Dutch IM decided not to wait which one the Russian was going to choose.

On first board structure seems to be winning from activity. Bassem Amin has gained a pawn with some intricate manoeuvres, and it doesn’t seem as if Gadir Guseinov can create anything here.

Bassem Amin is not quite used to autumn temperatures in Hoogeveen, but his play doesn’t suffer from it
Safarli in pursuit

Eltaj Safarli, no. 2 by Elo rating in the Open, beat Marijn den Hartog. The Azeri GM was always slightly better, and the attempt at liberation by the young Dutch player with 17…d5 and 18…Ne4 backfired badly.

Eltaj Safarli in round 2
Draw Pruijssers-Van den Doel

The encounter between the two highest-placed Dutch players, GM Roeland Pruijssers and GM Erik van den Doel, has just ended in a draw after a fairly uneventful game.
Van Delft also cracks

The third Apeldoorn player on the top boards, Merijn van Delft, is also cracking in time pressure.

Romanov-Van Delft

In this position the Dutch IM tried to lift the pressure with 34…Ned5? but this led to material loss. After 35.c6 Qe8 (unfortunately 35…Qd6 also loses a piece after 36.Bxd4 Nxb4 (this counter-capture doesn’t save Black here) 37.Be5) 36.Nxd5 Rxd5 37.Bxc7 cannot take back because the rook on d5 is hanging due to the pin along the e-file. Merijn had to play 37…Qxc6 but this is losing.

Merijn van Delft (right) with Dmitry Kryakvin before their round 3 game
Third fighting draw Fedoseev-Van Foreest

For the third time, Vladimir Fedoseev tested the endgame technique of Jorden van Foreest for hours, and again the Groningen GM didn’t budge. A third fighting draw against a world top player.

The discussion was about White’s 15th move.

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

Here Karjakin had played 15.Bc3 against Anand in Wijk aan Zee, after which White has some pressure after 15…Nc6 16.Rab1. Van Foreest knew this, but Fedoseev didn’t, although he was the one who had opted for this variation. ‘But anyway, after the line in the game White still had pressure.’ ‘Yes, it was quite unpleasant for Black’, Van Foreest admitted.

According to the players White missed a chance on move 23.

‘Here, instead of 23.Rb5 I should have played 23.Kf2, when I should have some edge’, Fedoseev thought. Stockfish gives 23…Rc8 24.Bc1 c3 25.Rxa7 c2 26.Rb7 Nd5 27.Ke1 Nc3 as an equalizer here. Anyway, the balance was never disturbed in the rest of the game.

Jorden van Foreest (right) still has a lot to smile about
Some curious minor promotions

Rob Bertholee came to tell us that there was a highly curious incident in his game of today, with some reverse minor promotions:

Khoi Pham-Bertholee

38.Kf1

‘It turns out that he should have played 38.Kf2 here’, Bertholee said. ‘Then after the same moves as in the game…

38…Re8 39.c7 d2

… here I had calculated that if White plays 40.c8Q I am winning with 40…d1N+. But with the king on f2, here he would have had the same move as in the game:

40.c8N+!

Now I could escape with 40…Kc7 41.Rc5+ Kb8 but with the king on f2 he would have saved himself with 42.Rd5 and I don’t have 42…Re1 with check!’
Two more interesting draws were seen in the matches today, and with the rest day coming both matches are still very balanced.

In the Open, Bassem Amin took over by beating the leader, Gadir Guseinov, with very careful and technically strong play. Dmitry Kryakvin pushed Stefan Kuipers to the edge and joined the lead on 4½ points. Evgeny Romanov, Eltaj Safarli, P Karthikeyan and Guseinov are trailing by half a point.
23 oktober 2018
Verslag Ronde 5 Open & Ronde 3 Matches
We have started the 5th round of the Open and the 3rd round of the matches.

Both match games started with the same first two moves as in the first games, but in both White deviated on move 3. Sam Shankland played 3.Nf3 followed by the king’s bishop’s fianchetto against Peter Svidler’s 2…g6, and Vladimir Fedoseev met Jorden van Foreest’s 2…e6 with 3.Nf3 instead of 3.Nc3. So, we can expect two whole different ball games today!
Hans Böhm: ‘Clever choice by Fedoseev’

Fedoseev’s choice for the quiet line of today, with an early exchange of queens, was called clever by the man in charge of the commentary today, Hans Böhm, who sends happy chess greetings to chess fans all over the world!

The position after 14…Re8 was still known from a quick draw by Karjakin and Anand from the Tata Steel tournament of this year. Karjakin played 15.Bc3 immediately, Fedoseev first limited Black’s c8-bishop with 15.f3. The (non-)development of this bishop is Black’s main problem in this line.

Vladimir Fedoseev
Dynamic play by Svidler

Peter Svidler has responded dynamically to Sam Shankland’s double fianchetto. He has opened the centre and offered a pawn with the active 10…Nc6, which White’d better not take… not immediately, of course, but after 11.Nd2 Bg4 White did take the pawn, and commentator Hans Böhm doubted if Black now has sufficient compensation.
A Van Randtwijk shocker

Irishman Henry Li was in for an early shock today.

Black has mistakenly taken on f3, which turns out to be a grave error. Here he must have counted on the move 11…Nd4 but was in for a shock: Van Randtwijk replied with the lethal 12.Qxf6! and White wins a piece in view of 12…Bxf6 13.Bxf6, threatening 14.Ne7+.

Mick van Randtwijk
Was Fedoseev’s 15.f3 wrong?

Yes, the move may have the idea to limit Black’s c8-bishop. But now with Black’s knight still on a5, Van Foreest played 15…f5! 16.Bd5+ Be6 and Black keeps his pawn. White gets a rook on the seventh rank for it, but is this really better than the plan with 15.Bc3 Nc6 16.Rab1, with nice control for White?
Rash queenside castling by Ravi

Rakshitta Ravi has ambitiously castled queenside on move 15, which was an invitation for Valentin Buckels to play 15…d4 and demolish White’s queenside. This looks disastrous for the 13-year-old Indian girl, but she has saved herself from bad positions before. Will she make it this time?
Interesting struggle on top boards

The fight on the top board of the Open, Amin-Guseinov, is quite interesting. White has the structure, Black the activity. It looks like a dynamic balance. Dmitry Kryakvin is mounting the pressure on Stefan Kuipers, who is having a hard time.

Dmitry Kryakvin

His teammate Merijn van Delft seems to be holding up better against Evgeny Romanov. His kingside looks slightly loose, but the same goes for White’s queenside. Their teammate Roeland Pruijssers is equalish against Erik van den Doel, but is now starting something on the kingside.
Roel Hamblok wins

The first full point of the day was scored by Roel Hamblok. The Belgian FM got very fluent play on the black side of a McCucheon French and never looked back, finishing off with a relentless king hunt against Jip Damen.
Svidler easily equalizes

In fact Peter Svidler did have sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn, as he proved with a simple liquidation on moves 17 and 18 (…Bh6 and …Ne4). White’s a- and c-pawns were doomed, and now a position is reached where neither side seems to be able to undertake much. We’ll see if these top GMs can surprise us after all.

There are different ways to concentrate before a game…
Shankland and Svidler draw

The first undecided game in this match – more soon!
Analysis of Shankland-Svidler

Here is what the players told us right after the game:

Shankland-Svidler

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 c6 5.Bg2 d5 6.b3 dxc4 7.bxc4 c5 8.Bb2 cxd4 9.Nxd4 O-O 10.O-O

10…Nc6

‘This move was played by Anish (Giri, against Kramnik in Stavanger 2016, PB), so it should be good’, said Svidler.

11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Nd2 Bg4 13.Bxc6 Rc8 14.Bf3 Bxf3 15.exf3 Qd3 16.Rc1 Rfd8 17.Bc3

17.Nb3 looked scary’, Svidler thought. ‘But it doesn’t work’, Shankland replied immediately: ’17…Qxd1 18.Rfxd1 Rxd1+ 19.Rxd1 Rxc4 20.Rd8+ Bf8 21.Bd4 and now 21…Ra4 saves Black: 22.Bxf6 exf6 23.Nc5 Rxa2 24.Nd7 Kg7 25.Nxf8

and now White’s knight doesn’t get out. Perhaps White can get a pawn for it but this should be an easy draw.’

17…Bh6 18.f4 Ne4

This direct method had been underestimated by the American GM.

19.Nxe4 Qxe4 20.Qa4 Rxc4 21.Qxa7 Ra8 22.Qd7 Rxa2 23.Rfe1

‘A devilish trick’, Shankland grinned.

23…Qf3

Not 23…Rxc3? 24.Qc8+ and White wins! But now the fire goes out.

24.Bd4 Rxc1 25.Rxc1 Bf8 26.Rc8 Ra8 27.Rxa8 Qxa8 28.Be3 ½-½

‘A pretty OK game’, Svidler said. ‘Of course it’s better if you know

everything and you don’t have to work it all out over the board.’ ‘Anyway the level of the three games has been pretty good so far’, Shankland ventured. ‘Yes’, Svidler agreed. ‘In the first game, Sam played much better, in the second I played slightly better…’ ‘Much better’, Shankland interrupted. ‘Of course if both sides play good all games should end in a draw, but still it was OK.’ And off they went to grab a bite to eat together.
Kryakvin cracks Kuipers

Stefan Kuipers has resigned in a prospectless position. After Dmitry Kryakvin’s last move, 36.Rf6, all kinds of bishop sacrifices are in the air, and the Dutch IM decided not to wait which one the Russian was going to choose.

On first board structure seems to be winning from activity. Bassem Amin has gained a pawn with some intricate manoeuvres, and it doesn’t seem as if Gadir Guseinov can create anything here.

Bassem Amin is not quite used to autumn temperatures in Hoogeveen, but his play doesn’t suffer from it
Safarli in pursuit

Eltaj Safarli, no. 2 by Elo rating in the Open, beat Marijn den Hartog. The Azeri GM was always slightly better, and the attempt at liberation by the young Dutch player with 17…d5 and 18…Ne4 backfired badly.

Eltaj Safarli in round 2
Draw Pruijssers-Van den Doel

The encounter between the two highest-placed Dutch players, GM Roeland Pruijssers and GM Erik van den Doel, has just ended in a draw after a fairly uneventful game.
Van Delft also cracks

The third Apeldoorn player on the top boards, Merijn van Delft, is also cracking in time pressure.

Romanov-Van Delft

In this position the Dutch IM tried to lift the pressure with 34…Ned5? but this led to material loss. After 35.c6 Qe8 (unfortunately 35…Qd6 also loses a piece after 36.Bxd4 Nxb4 (this counter-capture doesn’t save Black here) 37.Be5) 36.Nxd5 Rxd5 37.Bxc7 cannot take back because the rook on d5 is hanging due to the pin along the e-file. Merijn had to play 37…Qxc6 but this is losing.

Merijn van Delft (right) with Dmitry Kryakvin before their round 3 game
Third fighting draw Fedoseev-Van Foreest

For the third time, Vladimir Fedoseev tested the endgame technique of Jorden van Foreest for hours, and again the Groningen GM didn’t budge. A third fighting draw against a world top player.

The discussion was about White’s 15th move.

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

Here Karjakin had played 15.Bc3 against Anand in Wijk aan Zee, after which White has some pressure after 15…Nc6 16.Rab1. Van Foreest knew this, but Fedoseev didn’t, although he was the one who had opted for this variation. ‘But anyway, after the line in the game White still had pressure.’ ‘Yes, it was quite unpleasant for Black’, Van Foreest admitted.

According to the players White missed a chance on move 23.

‘Here, instead of 23.Rb5 I should have played 23.Kf2, when I should have some edge’, Fedoseev thought. Stockfish gives 23…Rc8 24.Bc1 c3 25.Rxa7 c2 26.Rb7 Nd5 27.Ke1 Nc3 as an equalizer here. Anyway, the balance was never disturbed in the rest of the game.

Jorden van Foreest (right) still has a lot to smile about
Some curious minor promotions

Rob Bertholee came to tell us that there was a highly curious incident in his game of today, with some reverse minor promotions:

Khoi Pham-Bertholee

38.Kf1

‘It turns out that he should have played 38.Kf2 here’, Bertholee said. ‘Then after the same moves as in the game…

38…Re8 39.c7 d2

… here I had calculated that if White plays 40.c8Q I am winning with 40…d1N+. But with the king on f2, here he would have had the same move as in the game:

40.c8N+!

Now I could escape with 40…Kc7 41.Rc5+ Kb8 but with the king on f2 he would have saved himself with 42.Rd5 and I don’t have 42…Re1 with check!’
Two more interesting draws were seen in the matches today, and with the rest day coming both matches are still very balanced.

In the Open, Bassem Amin took over by beating the leader, Gadir Guseinov, with very careful and technically strong play. Dmitry Kryakvin pushed Stefan Kuipers to the edge and joined the lead on 4½ points. Evgeny Romanov, Eltaj Safarli, P Karthikeyan and Guseinov are trailing by half a point.
23 oktober 2018
Report Round 4 Open and Round 2 Matches

Vind alle foto’s hier.

The Matches have started!

With the famous Dutch arbiter Geurt Gijssen as a special visitor, the two match games have just started. Peter Svidler and Sam Shankland opted for a Symmetrical English Opening…

whereas Jorden van Foreest and Vladimir Fedoseev played a Najdorf with 6.Be2 and 7.f4.

The commentary starts in roughly half an hour with Jeroen Bosch, Dutch IM and author of ‘SOS’ fame.

Interesting theoretical discussions

Shankland still seems to be in his preparation, even though Svidler played the surprising 11.Bb5!?, inviting 11…a6, an old idea of famous Russian coach Yuri Razuvaev which has never been repeated since 1994. Shankland’s 14…f6!?, covering some important dark squares but also creating some weaknesses, was still quickly played but is quite a remarkable idea.

The Sicilian on the other board promises to become sharp. Jorden van Foreest thought long about the crucial move 10.g4, and Vladimir Fedoseev’s reply 10…d5 is surprising. Many players would blindly go 10…b5 here.

Round 4 of the Open has started!

A smooth start of the second round of this day. The only player who hasn’t arrived yet is the black player on first board, Evgeny Romanov, who is (supposed to be) playing Gadir Guseinov.

Update: Romanov arrived a few minutes late and now finds himself behind an O’Kelly Sicilian by transposition.

One short draw

Erik van den Doel and Eltaj Safarli took a free afternoon with a 5-move draw. On the rest of the boards it seems that the players just want to play. IM Iniyan seems to be in danger again, as it looks like White (Enrico Vroombout) comes first on the queenside in this chain struggle in the King’s Indian.

A nasty trick

Young Loek van der Hagen (Loek II??) is experiencing the latent dangers that are lurking in the modest-looking Queen’s Pawn set-up played by Frenchman Hector Giacomini. Loek’s 10…f5? was premature, as he has just found out.

Giacomini-Van der Hagen

Here he had to pull the emergency brake with 13…Qg6, as the game move 13…Nb6? fails to the nice 14.Bf7! Rxf7 15.Qh5 and this is basically over!

Hector Giacomini

Shankland in trouble

Sam Shankland seems to be on the verge of losing after he played 20…Ke7 in a fairly open position. After 20…Kf7 the problem would be Bxg6+ in many cases, but that might have been preferable above the game continuation. After 21…Bd6 and the exchange of bishops, the area around the black king looks pretty airy. Are we witnessing the resurrection of Peter Svidler here? He played 23.Rfd1 quickly and confidently.

Van Foreest (half a) pawn up

Jorden van Foreest has carefully surrounded the perky d5-pawn and conquered it. He is now a pawn up, but it’s doubled on the f-file and Fedoseev has some compensation.

Comments by Svidler and Shankland

Peter Svidler equalled the score in his match with Shankland with a quite convincing and attractive win today. The following moment was crucial:

Svidler-Shankland

Svidler said that after his bad stretch it was pleasant to be pressing again. ‘This is a very topical line which I don’t know much about. He obviously knew much more. Black should be OK in general.’ Shankland had indeed prepared very carefully, but mostly the positions without 11.Bb5 and 11…a6. ‘With the pawn on a6 there are some subtle differences’ — mostly, that the b7-pawn becomes weaker.

15.c4!

This is a dynamic move that Shankland hadn’t considered in his preparations: ‘I still think Black should be OK here, but I have to find some accurate moves.’

15…b6

Svidler: ‘I thought 15…Nxc4 16.Qxb7 Bb5 should be OK for Black.’ After 17.Bf4 (17.Re1, which Svidler had planned, may be easier for Black, he will be playing 17…Qd7 anyway) 17…Qd7 and White is still a bit better.

16.c5 bxc5 17.dxc5 Bxc5 18.Bxa6 Rb8

18…Rc6 might have been more precise, according to Svidler. After 19.Bb5 Rd6 20.Bh6 Kf7 Black may be able to solve his problems.

19.Qc2 Qb6 20.Bd3

‘This was very awkward for Black’, said Svidler.

20…Ke7

Now White always has the threat of Qc2-d2-Qh6, but after 20…Kf7 there is always Bxg6+ hanging in the air.

21.Bf4 Bd6

21… Rbc8 looked more tenacious, when after 22.Qe2 (or first 22.Rab1) the black king should go to f7 anyway.

After 22.Bxd6+ Qxd6 23.Rfd1 Black couldn’t find any way to make his pieces cooperate, and Svidler finished off with a number of careful moves, in the meantime walking a couple of miles through the playing hall. When it was over, he uttered a few sighs of relief.

Again a draw for Jorden??

Jorden van Foreest was clearly better for a while, while Fedoseev was searching for counterchances with his queen and knight. He had played quite carefully all afternoon, but then 42.b5? slipped out of his hand, and after this too optimistic push the b-pawn only became a weakness. Protecting it with 44.c4 weakened his king again. It looks like also this second hard-fought game will end in a draw.

Wins for Amin and Pruijssers

Bassem Amin’s game was again quite prematurely finished, just like this morning against Robby Kevlishvili. But this time the result was positive for him. Indian IM Shyaamnikhil was clearly worse, but he resigned the game at a pretty early stage. Roeland Pruijssers had some luck in his game against his teammate Nico Zwirs from Apeldoorn. Zwirs seemed OK, even better for a while,

Pruijssers-Zwirs

Black should be fine after 28…gxf5 29.Bxf5 Rc7 30.g6 Kf8 followed by taking on b3, but he played 28…Nxb3? immediately, after which he was nailed to the wall with the zwischenzug 29.f6!, imprisoning the black bishop. This eventually turned out fatal for him.

Nico Zwirs

23 oktober 2018
Verslag Ronde 4 Open en Ronde 2 Matches

Vind alle foto’s hier.

The Matches have started!

With the famous Dutch arbiter Geurt Gijssen as a special visitor, the two match games have just started. Peter Svidler and Sam Shankland opted for a Symmetrical English Opening…

whereas Jorden van Foreest and Vladimir Fedoseev played a Najdorf with 6.Be2 and 7.f4.

The commentary starts in roughly half an hour with Jeroen Bosch, Dutch IM and author of ‘SOS’ fame.

Interesting theoretical discussions

Shankland still seems to be in his preparation, even though Svidler played the surprising 11.Bb5!?, inviting 11…a6, an old idea of famous Russian coach Yuri Razuvaev which has never been repeated since 1994. Shankland’s 14…f6!?, covering some important dark squares but also creating some weaknesses, was still quickly played but is quite a remarkable idea.

The Sicilian on the other board promises to become sharp. Jorden van Foreest thought long about the crucial move 10.g4, and Vladimir Fedoseev’s reply 10…d5 is surprising. Many players would blindly go 10…b5 here.

Round 4 of the Open has started!

A smooth start of the second round of this day. The only player who hasn’t arrived yet is the black player on first board, Evgeny Romanov, who is (supposed to be) playing Gadir Guseinov.

Update: Romanov arrived a few minutes late and now finds himself behind an O’Kelly Sicilian by transposition.

One short draw

Erik van den Doel and Eltaj Safarli took a free afternoon with a 5-move draw. On the rest of the boards it seems that the players just want to play. IM Iniyan seems to be in danger again, as it looks like White (Enrico Vroombout) comes first on the queenside in this chain struggle in the King’s Indian.

A nasty trick

Young Loek van der Hagen (Loek II??) is experiencing the latent dangers that are lurking in the modest-looking Queen’s Pawn set-up played by Frenchman Hector Giacomini. Loek’s 10…f5? was premature, as he has just found out.

Giacomini-Van der Hagen

Here he had to pull the emergency brake with 13…Qg6, as the game move 13…Nb6? fails to the nice 14.Bf7! Rxf7 15.Qh5 and this is basically over!

Hector Giacomini

Shankland in trouble

Sam Shankland seems to be on the verge of losing after he played 20…Ke7 in a fairly open position. After 20…Kf7 the problem would be Bxg6+ in many cases, but that might have been preferable above the game continuation. After 21…Bd6 and the exchange of bishops, the area around the black king looks pretty airy. Are we witnessing the resurrection of Peter Svidler here? He played 23.Rfd1 quickly and confidently.

Van Foreest (half a) pawn up

Jorden van Foreest has carefully surrounded the perky d5-pawn and conquered it. He is now a pawn up, but it’s doubled on the f-file and Fedoseev has some compensation.

Comments by Svidler and Shankland

Peter Svidler equalled the score in his match with Shankland with a quite convincing and attractive win today. The following moment was crucial:

Svidler-Shankland

Svidler said that after his bad stretch it was pleasant to be pressing again. ‘This is a very topical line which I don’t know much about. He obviously knew much more. Black should be OK in general.’ Shankland had indeed prepared very carefully, but mostly the positions without 11.Bb5 and 11…a6. ‘With the pawn on a6 there are some subtle differences’ — mostly, that the b7-pawn becomes weaker.

15.c4!

This is a dynamic move that Shankland hadn’t considered in his preparations: ‘I still think Black should be OK here, but I have to find some accurate moves.’

15…b6

Svidler: ‘I thought 15…Nxc4 16.Qxb7 Bb5 should be OK for Black.’ After 17.Bf4 (17.Re1, which Svidler had planned, may be easier for Black, he will be playing 17…Qd7 anyway) 17…Qd7 and White is still a bit better.

16.c5 bxc5 17.dxc5 Bxc5 18.Bxa6 Rb8

18…Rc6 might have been more precise, according to Svidler. After 19.Bb5 Rd6 20.Bh6 Kf7 Black may be able to solve his problems.

19.Qc2 Qb6 20.Bd3

‘This was very awkward for Black’, said Svidler.

20…Ke7

Now White always has the threat of Qc2-d2-Qh6, but after 20…Kf7 there is always Bxg6+ hanging in the air.

21.Bf4 Bd6

21… Rbc8 looked more tenacious, when after 22.Qe2 (or first 22.Rab1) the black king should go to f7 anyway.

After 22.Bxd6+ Qxd6 23.Rfd1 Black couldn’t find any way to make his pieces cooperate, and Svidler finished off with a number of careful moves, in the meantime walking a couple of miles through the playing hall. When it was over, he uttered a few sighs of relief.

Again a draw for Jorden??

Jorden van Foreest was clearly better for a while, while Fedoseev was searching for counterchances with his queen and knight. He had played quite carefully all afternoon, but then 42.b5? slipped out of his hand, and after this too optimistic push the b-pawn only became a weakness. Protecting it with 44.c4 weakened his king again. It looks like also this second hard-fought game will end in a draw.

Wins for Amin and Pruijssers

Bassem Amin’s game was again quite prematurely finished, just like this morning against Robby Kevlishvili. But this time the result was positive for him. Indian IM Shyaamnikhil was clearly worse, but he resigned the game at a pretty early stage. Roeland Pruijssers had some luck in his game against his teammate Nico Zwirs from Apeldoorn. Zwirs seemed OK, even better for a while,

Pruijssers-Zwirs

Black should be fine after 28…gxf5 29.Bxf5 Rc7 30.g6 Kf8 followed by taking on b3, but he played 28…Nxb3? immediately, after which he was nailed to the wall with the zwischenzug 29.f6!, imprisoning the black bishop. This eventually turned out fatal for him.

Nico Zwirs

23 oktober 2018
Wereldtoppers Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi bezoeken Drents Museum

De vier topschakers die elkaar komende week bij het Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi in twee matches bestrijden, bezoeken op de rustdag, woensdagmiddag 24 oktober, het Drents Museum in Assen. Daar kunnen bezoekers Jorden van Foreest, Vladimir Fedoseev, Peter Svidler en Sam Shankland ontmoeten en tegen hen schaken. Ook de Oegandese schaakster Christine Namaganda, bekend van de Disney-film ‘Queen of Katwe’, is van de partij.

Bezoekers van de schaakmiddag in het Drents Museum zijn vanaf 13.15 uur welkom via de groepsentree (Brink 3 in Assen). Van 13.30 uur tot 14.00 uur is er dan een meet & greet met de vier grootmeesters. De bezoekers kunnen handtekeningen verzamelen van deze toppers, en ook een partijtje tegen hen snelschaken. Van 14.00 uur tot 14.30 uur volgt een interview met Christine Namaganda, bekend van de film ‘Queen of Katwe’, over schaken in Oeganda. Zij is dit jaar eregast van het Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi.

Van 14.45 tot 16.00 uur neemt de 19-jarige Nederlandse grootmeester Jorden van Foreest centraal in de Statenzaal plaats voor een schaakmatch op afstand. Via internet zal hij diverse partijen spelen met de huidige jeugdwereldkampioen, het 18-jarige toptalent Parham Maghsoodloo uit Iran. Toernooidirecteur Loek van Wely van het Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi geeft hierbij live commentaar. Deze snelschaakmatch sluit perfect aan bij de tentoonstelling Iran – Bakermat van de beschaving die nog tot en met 18 november in het Drents Museum te bezichtigen is. Het schaakpubliek kan na het evenement gratis deze tentoonstelling bezoeken.

22 oktober 2018
Report Round 3 Open

Early round has started

At nine o’clock sharp, chief arbiter Frans Peeters started the early round of today. So round 3 is under way, with most of the boards already taken. Round 4 will start at 15.00 this afternoon, while the 2 match games will begin at the regular time: 14.00 h.

Verhoef is going for an early kill

Pieter Verhoef from Arnhem is about to punish a wrong treatment of the Caro-Kann by Daniel Kutchoukov.

Verhoef-Kutchoukov

12.Bf4

Threatening something nasty on f7.

12…Ndf6?

He probably should have gone for the lesser evil with 12…Nxe5.

13.Nf5!

Why wait? Of course the knight cannot be taken due to 14.Nxc6+.

13…Bf8

And now Pieter is probably contemplating 14.Nc4 and putting something on d6.

Tomilova wins exchange

Young Indian talent Rakshitta Ravi is in trouble. Against Russian WIM Elena Tomilova she lost the exchange due to a simple but still rather nice trick:

Rakshitta-Tomilova

18…Bxe2! 19.Qxe2 Nd4 20.Qd2 Rxc3

Winning the exchange due to the fork on e2. Rakshitta played 21.Qxd4 and is floundering on.

Rakshitta Ravi

A funny thing happened…

… early in the game between Yannick Husers and mega-talent Machteld van Foreest.

Husers-Van Foreest

Here Machteld played the correct 10…Nf2+! 11.Rxf2 Bxf2 12.Qxf2 fxe5 13.d3

But now:

13…Df6?

The strong follow-up was 13…Nc6! and Black wins a piece back; White can’t put anything on e3 on account of the 14…d4 fork.

Here Yannick thought for some time while Machteld was cruising through the playing hall as usual. Then he took his bishop and with some force plunged it…

14.Bf4?

Arthur Maters and Kevin Brands, playing on the board next to Husers and Van Foreest, were looking at the neighbouring board for several long seconds in amazement before continuing their own game. After a while Machteld came back and played 14…exf4. Now 15.Nxd5 was much less strong than it would have been one move earlier, when it would have been very good for White!: 14.Nxd5 Qf7 15.h3! Bxf3 16.Qxf3 Qxf3 17.Bxf3 Rxf3 18.Nxc7 Rf8 19.Nxa8 Rc8 when in the end White remains a healthy pawn up. Instead, Husers is now an exchange behind for a pawn, but we have no doubt that this game will see more crazy developments.

This is not Yannick Husers

Bas de Boer wins

The first actual result of the day (earlier William Shakhverdian and Max van de Pavoordt settled for a quick draw) was in favour of Bas de Boer, who convincingly beat Belgian FM Roel Hamblok. De Boer won a piece and then, instead of defending it, crashed through on the kingside.

Romanov wins an exchange

Evgeny Romanov seems to be heading for a win against Thomas Beerdsen, the Dutch IM who made it to the finals last year. Romanov built a strong centre and after Beerdsen opened the kingside with 20…f5, tactical opportunities started to appear not for him but for the Russian GM. Now an exchange is lost on f8.

Elegant win with a hiccup by Nico Zwirs

Nico Zwirs from Apeldoorn, who already has 2 IM-norms in his pocket, seems to be in good shape again. Today he won an elegant game against Dries Wedda. But there was big hole in it!

Zwirs-Wedda

This looks pretty chaotic, but White’s attack comes much earlier:

30.Qxh6+?!?

As Nico explained, winning was 30.g6 fxg6 31.Qxh6+ Bxh6 32.Rxh6+ Qh7 33.Rxh7+ Kxh7 34.Rh1#.

30…Bxh6 31.Rxh6+ Kg8 32.Rdh1??

In view of Black’s possibility on move 34, here White should have opted for 32.Rg6+! Kf8 33.Bxd6+ Qxd6 34.Rh6!!. With this silent move White forces 34…Kg8 and wins after 35.Bxf7+ Kxf7 36.Rxd6 with his strong pawns.

32…Qxc2+ 33.Ka1 Re1+ 34.Rxe1

34…Nd1??

34…Nc4! covers the crucial pawn on d6. After 35.Bxf7+ Kf8 there is no check with the Bf4-bishop anymore.

Now White has a pretty finish:

35.Bxf7+! Kf8

35…Kxf7 36.Re7+ Kg8 37.Rg7+ is mate next move.

36.Bxd6+ 1-0

It’s mate in two again after 36…Kxf7. Olé!

Good draw for Van Delft

Dmitry Kryakvin is the first GM who yields a draw in this tournament. Van Delft got a good position with black, but the game petered out into a drawn rook ending.

Eelke de Boer resigned early against Indian IM Shyaamnikhil. Perhaps he could have played on a bit, but he must have been fed up with his unpleasant position.

A sneaky trick

17-year-old German FM Valentin Buckels just won after Serbian WIM Mila Zarkovic went wrong in an extremely sneaky position:

Zarkovic-Buckels

Here, 32.Nd4? was not possible due to 32…d5!, but White could have played a trick herself with 32.Rxc5! dxc5 33.Ne7+, which is almost equal. Instead, 32.Qc3? was immediately losing after 32…Rxc6.

Some accidents

Two Indian players were quite unfortunate this morning. First, IM P Iniyan thought, in a winning position, that he had a strong zwischenzug against Erik Sparenberg:

Iniyan-Sparenberg

Here White played 30.Nd5, where 30.Qxb1 would have won. The game move allowed 30…Qe1+ 31.Kg2 and now the long diagonal is blocked too: 31…Be4+ 32.Rf3 Bxf3+ 33.Kxf3… while the other one is opened!: 33…e4+ 0-1.

His countryman P Karthikeyan was very close to a draw against Gadir Guseinov.

Karthikeyan-Guseinov

What could possibly go wrong here for White? Well…

39.Bd6??

39.Qe4 was a draw.

39…Bg1+ 40.Kg3 Qe1+ 41.Kf3 Qf2+ 42.Ke4 Qd4+ 43.Kf3 Qd3+

And White resigned. Some guys need very little material to give mate!

22 oktober 2018
Verslag Ronde 3 Open

Early round has started

At nine o’clock sharp, chief arbiter Frans Peeters started the early round of today. So round 3 is under way, with most of the boards already taken. Round 4 will start at 15.00 this afternoon, while the 2 match games will begin at the regular time: 14.00 h.

Verhoef is going for an early kill

Pieter Verhoef from Arnhem is about to punish a wrong treatment of the Caro-Kann by Daniel Kutchoukov.

Verhoef-Kutchoukov

12.Bf4

Threatening something nasty on f7.

12…Ndf6?

He probably should have gone for the lesser evil with 12…Nxe5.

13.Nf5!

Why wait? Of course the knight cannot be taken due to 14.Nxc6+.

13…Bf8

And now Pieter is probably contemplating 14.Nc4 and putting something on d6.

Tomilova wins exchange

Young Indian talent Rakshitta Ravi is in trouble. Against Russian WIM Elena Tomilova she lost the exchange due to a simple but still rather nice trick:

Rakshitta-Tomilova

18…Bxe2! 19.Qxe2 Nd4 20.Qd2 Rxc3

Winning the exchange due to the fork on e2. Rakshitta played 21.Qxd4 and is floundering on.

Rakshitta Ravi

A funny thing happened…

… early in the game between Yannick Husers and mega-talent Machteld van Foreest.

Husers-Van Foreest

Here Machteld played the correct 10…Nf2+! 11.Rxf2 Bxf2 12.Qxf2 fxe5 13.d3

But now:

13…Df6?

The strong follow-up was 13…Nc6! and Black wins a piece back; White can’t put anything on e3 on account of the 14…d4 fork.

Here Yannick thought for some time while Machteld was cruising through the playing hall as usual. Then he took his bishop and with some force plunged it…

14.Bf4?

Arthur Maters and Kevin Brands, playing on the board next to Husers and Van Foreest, were looking at the neighbouring board for several long seconds in amazement before continuing their own game. After a while Machteld came back and played 14…exf4. Now 15.Nxd5 was much less strong than it would have been one move earlier, when it would have been very good for White!: 14.Nxd5 Qf7 15.h3! Bxf3 16.Qxf3 Qxf3 17.Bxf3 Rxf3 18.Nxc7 Rf8 19.Nxa8 Rc8 when in the end White remains a healthy pawn up. Instead, Husers is now an exchange behind for a pawn, but we have no doubt that this game will see more crazy developments.

This is not Yannick Husers

Bas de Boer wins

The first actual result of the day (earlier William Shakhverdian and Max van de Pavoordt settled for a quick draw) was in favour of Bas de Boer, who convincingly beat Belgian FM Roel Hamblok. De Boer won a piece and then, instead of defending it, crashed through on the kingside.

Romanov wins an exchange

Evgeny Romanov seems to be heading for a win against Thomas Beerdsen, the Dutch IM who made it to the finals last year. Romanov built a strong centre and after Beerdsen opened the kingside with 20…f5, tactical opportunities started to appear not for him but for the Russian GM. Now an exchange is lost on f8.

Elegant win with a hiccup by Nico Zwirs

Nico Zwirs from Apeldoorn, who already has 2 IM-norms in his pocket, seems to be in good shape again. Today he won an elegant game against Dries Wedda. But there was big hole in it!

Zwirs-Wedda

This looks pretty chaotic, but White’s attack comes much earlier:

30.Qxh6+?!?

As Nico explained, winning was 30.g6 fxg6 31.Qxh6+ Bxh6 32.Rxh6+ Qh7 33.Rxh7+ Kxh7 34.Rh1#.

30…Bxh6 31.Rxh6+ Kg8 32.Rdh1??

In view of Black’s possibility on move 34, here White should have opted for 32.Rg6+! Kf8 33.Bxd6+ Qxd6 34.Rh6!!. With this silent move White forces 34…Kg8 and wins after 35.Bxf7+ Kxf7 36.Rxd6 with his strong pawns.

32…Qxc2+ 33.Ka1 Re1+ 34.Rxe1

34…Nd1??

34…Nc4! covers the crucial pawn on d6. After 35.Bxf7+ Kf8 there is no check with the Bf4-bishop anymore.

Now White has a pretty finish:

35.Bxf7+! Kf8

35…Kxf7 36.Re7+ Kg8 37.Rg7+ is mate next move.

36.Bxd6+ 1-0

It’s mate in two again after 36…Kxf7. Olé!

Good draw for Van Delft

Dmitry Kryakvin is the first GM who yields a draw in this tournament. Van Delft got a good position with black, but the game petered out into a drawn rook ending.

Eelke de Boer resigned early against Indian IM Shyaamnikhil. Perhaps he could have played on a bit, but he must have been fed up with his unpleasant position.

A sneaky trick

17-year-old German FM Valentin Buckels just won after Serbian WIM Mila Zarkovic went wrong in an extremely sneaky position:

Zarkovic-Buckels

Here, 32.Nd4? was not possible due to 32…d5!, but White could have played a trick herself with 32.Rxc5! dxc5 33.Ne7+, which is almost equal. Instead, 32.Qc3? was immediately losing after 32…Rxc6.

Some accidents

Two Indian players were quite unfortunate this morning. First, IM P Iniyan thought, in a winning position, that he had a strong zwischenzug against Erik Sparenberg:

Iniyan-Sparenberg

Here White played 30.Nd5, where 30.Qxb1 would have won. The game move allowed 30…Qe1+ 31.Kg2 and now the long diagonal is blocked too: 31…Be4+ 32.Rf3 Bxf3+ 33.Kxf3… while the other one is opened!: 33…e4+ 0-1.

His countryman P Karthikeyan was very close to a draw against Gadir Guseinov.

Karthikeyan-Guseinov

What could possibly go wrong here for White? Well…

39.Bd6??

39.Qe4 was a draw.

39…Bg1+ 40.Kg3 Qe1+ 41.Kf3 Qf2+ 42.Ke4 Qd4+ 43.Kf3 Qd3+

And White resigned. Some guys need very little material to give mate!

22 oktober 2018
Shankland beats Svidler, no upsets yet in the Open

FInd all photos here. Photos by Harry Gielen: opening and day 2.

Summarizing today: it was a very interesting start of both matches. After some original play in both games, White was better in both Shankland-Svidler and Fedoseev-Van Foreest. But how much better was differing with almost every move. In the end Van Foreest held the draw by a great effort, while Svidler couldn’t make it against Shankland.

In the Open group there were again no surprises, although the work is becoming harder for the grandmasters. The only small upset was Eelke de Boer’s win against Indian IM P Iniyan, but this can hardly be a surprise because the 15-year-old player from Groningen is having a very good year so far.

Today the four match players were presented to the Open players and the public by tournament director Loek van Wely before the first round of the matches, and the second round of the Open. Van Wely presented former Dutch champion Jorden van Foreest for his fourth match here, praised rising star Fedoseev for his fighting mentality, called Peter Svidler an ‘extremely gifted player who keeps a high level despite not working a lot on his chess’, and last but not least another ‘rising star’, Sam Shankland, the current US champion as well as American Continental champion. Shankland made his final GM norm years ago by making a short draw against… Van Wely, in Berkeley 2011.

The tournament director also presented Hans Pees, CEO of the company DGT, which provides all the live boards for the matches, the Open, and a few boards of the Amateur tournament as well – without asking anything in return! Pees was going to make the first move on the board of Shankland-Svidler, but Sam was so eager to make his first move that he had already started before Pees could reach the board.

Peter Svidler also seemed a little surprised that Sam Shankland was moving so fast! (photo Harry Gielen)

Both games started with 1.d4 and Shankland answered Svidler’s notorious 2…g6, aiming for his pet Grünfeld, with 3.f3.

Hilwerda on the attack…?

It seems that 15-year-old Jonas Hilwerda will be in the picture again today. His opponent, Kasper Bleeker, wanted to grab the centre with 10…f5, probably assuming that 11.Bxf5 was no good in view of 11…Rf8. However, Hilwerda captured anyway, and after the rook move he can make a promising piece sac with 12.Qh5+ g6 13.Bxg6+ after which the black king will be chased all over the board.

New paths in the ‘Grünfeld’

Can we still call it that? The game Shankland-Svidler is following a completely untrodden path already. When the American took on c5 instead of playing the more ‘regular’ 4.d5, Svidler reacted with the gambit 4…e6 5.Be3 b6!?.

This move was first played by Grischuk against Caruana at the Baku Grand Prix in 2014! Caruana didn’t accept the pawn immediately and played 6.Nc3, and after 6…Ba6 the same moves were played as here: 7.cxb6 axb6 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4. Shankland-Svidler is without the moves 6.Nc3 Ba6, and on move 8, after 8.Bh4, Svidler played the totally novel 8…d5!?. Highly interesting stuff from the outset!

Principled Nimzo struggle

The other match game, Fedoseev-Van Foreest, is also interesting.

Fedoseev (right) and Van Foreest receive the final instructions from arbiter Frans Peeters (mid) (photo Harry Gielen)

The young man from St Petersburg treated a Nimzo-Indian carefully with the slow development moves 5.Nge2, 6.Bd2 and 7.Ng3. This gave Van Foreest the chance to play the interesting 5…Re8, with possibilities of pushing his d-pawn to d4, when White’s king may get into trouble. After 10…e5 a critical position was reached:

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

11.Qd2

White can also hold after 11.Qh4 d4! 12.0-0-0 Ng4 13.Qxd8 Rxd8 14.Be1, but after 14…Nc6 Black is fine.

11…Nc6

Now 11…d4? doesn’t quite work because of 12.0-0-0!, although Black may even have good compensation for the pawn after 12…Nc6 13.exd4 exd4 14.Bxd4 Nxd4 15.Qxd4 Qa5. But also the text looks good for Black.

12.b4!?

An interesting idea that was also suggested in commentator Robert Ris’ audience. The intention is 12…d4 13.Bb2 and after 13…dxe3 14.fxe3!? when White’s bishop pair will start to tell despite his structural deficit. The computer prefers the more natural 12.cxd5. But that might become boring after 12…Qxd5 13.Qxd5, and that wasn’t in the contract for both players!

First point of the day for Kryakvin

Russian GM Dmitry Kryakvin fairly quickly beat local FM Luuk van Kooten in round 2 of the Open. ,,My opponent just gave a pawn”, Kryakvin explained. He modestly didn’t add that White was already in trouble anyway: in the queenless middlegame Black’s pieces were much more active than White’s.

Safarli follows suit

Eltaj Safarli also won quickly with black: another local hero, Stefan Colijn, had to resign after 22 moves. Safarli gave a pawn for active piece play.

Colijn-Safarli

Here the Azeri GM played the fluid 14…Nd7! and after 15.h3 Ne5 16.Qa6 Be6 17.Qxa7 Nxc4 not only did Black gain his pawn back, but the foundation under White’s position had been blown away. The rest was smooth sailing for Safarli.

Slight plus for Shankland

Sam Shankland has managed to hold on to the pawn Peter Svidler gambited in the opening. There was some Black counterplay against the e3-pawn, but Black’s d5-pawn was always going to fall. In the endgame with 2 rooks + knight on both sides Svidler has some Benko-like counterplay for the pawn, but will it be enough to hold?

Much more equal is the other match game. Vladimir Fedoseev allowed his Bc3 to be exchanged for Black’s strong knight on c6, losing the bishop pair, after which the position looked quite equal. There followed some careful manoeuvring, but so far our Dutch hope seems to be doing very nicely with black (equalizing that is, of course).

The four match players before the start of the round. To the left tournament director Loek van Wely (photo Harry Gielen)

First Dutch wins: De Boer and Kevlishvili

Eelke de Boer en Robby Kevlishvili chalked up the first Dutch wins of this round: De Boer (15) as well as Kevlishvili (17) went pawn-grabbing in the right way and converted coolly. Kevlishvili was even four pawns up in the final position. Both players are on 2/2 right now.

>A turnaround in the matches?

There seems to be a slow turnaround going on in both matches. Whereas Peter Svidler looks to be increasing his chances for a draw in the double-rook ending with a pawn less, Vladimir Fedoseev has started to grind in the R+P ending against Jorden van Foreest, and now it looks as if the Dutchman is going to have to give a pawn as too many of his foot-soldiers are loose.

Amin on his way to win

Top-seed Bassem Amin has met with some very tough resistance from German player Robert Baskin, who is playing for the second consecutive time here, I believe. Under pressure, Baskin sacrificed his queen for rook + knight and seemed to be putting up a kind of fortress, but with some careful manoeuvring the Egypt GM forced a decisive breakthrough:

Amin-Baskin

Everything is now exactly in the right place for 58.e4! and Black had to take with the rook (58…dxe4? 59.Qf5+; 58…Nxe4 59.Qxd5 and Black has to stay on the e-file to defend the knight and so has to give up the a6-pawn anyway):

58…Rxe4 59.Kxa6

And White’s b-pawn should decide.

Bassem Amin in full concentration (during round 1)

Tough resistance by ladies

The (grand-)masters don’t get their pawns easily against various lady players. Gadir Guseinov and Evgeny Romanov were always better against Anna Warakomska and Elena Tomilova respectively, but Erik van den Doel had almost nothing for a long time against Sonja Maria Bluhm, Jorden van Foreest’s girlfriend, although the pressure is now mounting in the rook + opposite-coloured bishops ending. Thomas Beerdsen is also having a very long day against Serbian WIM Tijana Blagojevic. Now the Dutch IM has rook plus a- and c-pawn versus rook, which looks to be winning since Black is passive and White’s pawns are far advanced. But it’s really hard to say in this endgame.

Update: in the end Beerdsen did bring home the point.

Another turnaround…?

It looks like there has been another shift. Jorden van Foreest is defending tenaciously and seems to be close to equality again, whereas Peter Svidler now has his pawn on h6 endangered. He cannot well defend it as then his king comes under fire of the two white rooks…

Amin wins, and Van den Doel too?

Robert Baskin has had to resign against Bassem Amin in a hopeless endgame of queen versus knight + two pawns. Erik van den Doel has, with the patience of an angel, collected two pawns and seems to be winning too now.

Another tough day for Erik van den Doel

Van Foreest keeps the draw

After a great defensive effort, Jorden van Foreest held the draw with black against Fedoseev. The endgame was very tricky.

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

Here White probably missed his best chance to advance his e-pawn with 50.e5! (instead of the game move 50.Rb8) 50…Rc7 (50…Nxa3 51.e6 Re7 52.Rc5, catching the knight. Then White follows up with Nf7+ and Ke5, pushing the e-pawn through) 51. e6 Kg7 52. a4 Kf6 and now Black gets pushed back with 53.Rb8 followed by e3-e4 etc.

Both players thought after the game that five moves later…

55.e5 was not good at this point ‘as this pawn becomes weak’. The alternative 55.Rd8! would have given better winning chances, e.g. 55…Nc5 56.e5+ Kf5 57.Kh4 Nd7 58.Rc8! when 58…g5+ looks best (due to the pin on either the 5th or the 7th rank), and now 59.Nxg5 Rxe5 60.e4+ Kg6 61.Rg8+ Kf6 62.Kxh5. After 55…Kf7 White had to trade the rooks and there was no win.

A very tense game in which Van Foreest played, in any case, the opening and the endgame well. ‘I gave him too many chances in the opening’, Fedoseev said. And Van Foreest: ‘I was in a bit of time-trouble and panicked a little. In the end I held the game but I don’t know if it was because of my good defence or because of his bad play.’

Fedoseev and Van Foreest at the onset of their hard-fought draw.

Shankland wins!

The result was known already some time ago… but we’ve made some analysis of this incredibly tricky double-rook endgame – for what it’s worth. Unfortunately the players were quickly gone so we couldn’t get any reactions from them (yet).

Shankland-Svidler

32.fxg4

Stronger may have been 32.Ke2! with the idea 32…Nxh2 33.Rf8 Ra7 (33…f5 34.g3+ Ke5 35.Re8+ Re6 36.f4+ Kxe4 37.Rxe6+; or 33…f6 34.Rxf6+ Rxf6 35.Nxf6 Kg3 36.Ke1) 34.Rfd8 Re7 35.g3+ Kf5 36.Kf2 and Black has to give material.

32…Kxe4 33.a4 Rac5 34.h3 Rc3 35.Re8+ Kf4 36.Rd4+ Kg5 37.Re5+ Kf6 38.Rb5 Rc2+ 39.Kg3 Re6 40.Rd3 Kg7

Threatening 41…Ree2… but is it really a threat?

41.Kh2

Here even something like 41.Rf3 Ree2 42.Rxb6 g5 43.Rf1 was possible (41.Kf3 g5 42.g3 Rh2 is less clear).

41…Rb2 42.h4

Tickling Black on the kingside. It’s surprising how irritating this can be, even though it doesn’t bring any immediate dividends.

42…Ree2 43.Rg3 Re6 44.h5 Rd6 45.Rb4 g5

Some experts ventured that Black perhaps should not have reacted with this move. Now the h6-pawn becomes just a tiny bit weaker.

46.Rb5

46…f6?

Opening the door for the white rooks! Shankland is quick to take profit.

47.Rc3! Re2 48.Rb4 Kf7 49.Rbc4

49.Rc7+ Re7 50. Rxe7+ should be winning too. In the single-rook ending Black has much less chances to draw, in general, because he cannot create counter-threats against the white king.

49…Ke6 50.Rc8 Rdd2 51.Rg3 Kf7 52.Rh8 Rf2 53.Rh7+

And Black resigned because of 53…Kf8 54.Rb7 Rd6 55.Rc3 Rd8 56.Rcc7 etc.

The sole winner of today!

22 oktober 2018
Shankland beats Svidler, no upsets yet in the Open

Vind alle toernooifoto’s van dag 2 hier. Foto’s van Harry Gielen: opening en dag 2.

Summarizing today: it was a very interesting start of both matches. After some original play in both games, White was better in both Shankland-Svidler and Fedoseev-Van Foreest. But how much better was differing with almost every move. In the end Van Foreest held the draw by a great effort, while Svidler couldn’t make it against Shankland.

In the Open group there were again no surprises, although the work is becoming harder for the grandmasters. The only small upset was Eelke de Boer’s win against Indian IM P Iniyan, but this can hardly be a surprise because the 15-year-old player from Groningen is having a very good year so far.

Today the four match players were presented to the Open players and the public by tournament director Loek van Wely before the first round of the matches, and the second round of the Open. Van Wely presented former Dutch champion Jorden van Foreest for his fourth match here, praised rising star Fedoseev for his fighting mentality, called Peter Svidler an ‘extremely gifted player who keeps a high level despite not working a lot on his chess’, and last but not least another ‘rising star’, Sam Shankland, the current US champion as well as American Continental champion. Shankland made his final GM norm years ago by making a short draw against… Van Wely, in Berkeley 2011.

The tournament director also presented Hans Pees, CEO of the company DGT, which provides all the live boards for the matches, the Open, and a few boards of the Amateur tournament as well – without asking anything in return! Pees was going to make the first move on the board of Shankland-Svidler, but Sam was so eager to make his first move that he had already started before Pees could reach the board.

Peter Svidler also seemed a little surprised that Sam Shankland was moving so fast! (photo Harry Gielen)

Both games started with 1.d4 and Shankland answered Svidler’s notorious 2…g6, aiming for his pet Grünfeld, with 3.f3.

Hilwerda on the attack…?

It seems that 15-year-old Jonas Hilwerda will be in the picture again today. His opponent, Kasper Bleeker, wanted to grab the centre with 10…f5, probably assuming that 11.Bxf5 was no good in view of 11…Rf8. However, Hilwerda captured anyway, and after the rook move he can make a promising piece sac with 12.Qh5+ g6 13.Bxg6+ after which the black king will be chased all over the board.

New paths in the ‘Grünfeld’

Can we still call it that? The game Shankland-Svidler is following a completely untrodden path already. When the American took on c5 instead of playing the more ‘regular’ 4.d5, Svidler reacted with the gambit 4…e6 5.Be3 b6!?.

This move was first played by Grischuk against Caruana at the Baku Grand Prix in 2014! Caruana didn’t accept the pawn immediately and played 6.Nc3, and after 6…Ba6 the same moves were played as here: 7.cxb6 axb6 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4. Shankland-Svidler is without the moves 6.Nc3 Ba6, and on move 8, after 8.Bh4, Svidler played the totally novel 8…d5!?. Highly interesting stuff from the outset!

Principled Nimzo struggle

The other match game, Fedoseev-Van Foreest, is also interesting.

Fedoseev (right) and Van Foreest receive the final instructions from arbiter Frans Peeters (mid) (photo Harry Gielen)

The young man from St Petersburg treated a Nimzo-Indian carefully with the slow development moves 5.Nge2, 6.Bd2 and 7.Ng3. This gave Van Foreest the chance to play the interesting 5…Re8, with possibilities of pushing his d-pawn to d4, when White’s king may get into trouble. After 10…e5 a critical position was reached:

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

11.Qd2

White can also hold after 11.Qh4 d4! 12.0-0-0 Ng4 13.Qxd8 Rxd8 14.Be1, but after 14…Nc6 Black is fine.

11…Nc6

Now 11…d4? doesn’t quite work because of 12.0-0-0!, although Black may even have good compensation for the pawn after 12…Nc6 13.exd4 exd4 14.Bxd4 Nxd4 15.Qxd4 Qa5. But also the text looks good for Black.

12.b4!?

An interesting idea that was also suggested in commentator Robert Ris’ audience. The intention is 12…d4 13.Bb2 and after 13…dxe3 14.fxe3!? when White’s bishop pair will start to tell despite his structural deficit. The computer prefers the more natural 12.cxd5. But that might become boring after 12…Qxd5 13.Qxd5, and that wasn’t in the contract for both players!

First point of the day for Kryakvin

Russian GM Dmitry Kryakvin fairly quickly beat local FM Luuk van Kooten in round 2 of the Open. ,,My opponent just gave a pawn”, Kryakvin explained. He modestly didn’t add that White was already in trouble anyway: in the queenless middlegame Black’s pieces were much more active than White’s.

Safarli follows suit

Eltaj Safarli also won quickly with black: another local hero, Stefan Colijn, had to resign after 22 moves. Safarli gave a pawn for active piece play.

Colijn-Safarli

Here the Azeri GM played the fluid 14…Nd7! and after 15.h3 Ne5 16.Qa6 Be6 17.Qxa7 Nxc4 not only did Black gain his pawn back, but the foundation under White’s position had been blown away. The rest was smooth sailing for Safarli.

Slight plus for Shankland

Sam Shankland has managed to hold on to the pawn Peter Svidler gambited in the opening. There was some Black counterplay against the e3-pawn, but Black’s d5-pawn was always going to fall. In the endgame with 2 rooks + knight on both sides Svidler has some Benko-like counterplay for the pawn, but will it be enough to hold?

Much more equal is the other match game. Vladimir Fedoseev allowed his Bc3 to be exchanged for Black’s strong knight on c6, losing the bishop pair, after which the position looked quite equal. There followed some careful manoeuvring, but so far our Dutch hope seems to be doing very nicely with black (equalizing that is, of course).

The four match players before the start of the round. To the left tournament director Loek van Wely (photo Harry Gielen)

First Dutch wins: De Boer and Kevlishvili

Eelke de Boer en Robby Kevlishvili chalked up the first Dutch wins of this round: De Boer (15) as well as Kevlishvili (17) went pawn-grabbing in the right way and converted coolly. Kevlishvili was even four pawns up in the final position. Both players are on 2/2 right now.

>A turnaround in the matches?

There seems to be a slow turnaround going on in both matches. Whereas Peter Svidler looks to be increasing his chances for a draw in the double-rook ending with a pawn less, Vladimir Fedoseev has started to grind in the R+P ending against Jorden van Foreest, and now it looks as if the Dutchman is going to have to give a pawn as too many of his foot-soldiers are loose.

Amin on his way to win

Top-seed Bassem Amin has met with some very tough resistance from German player Robert Baskin, who is playing for the second consecutive time here, I believe. Under pressure, Baskin sacrificed his queen for rook + knight and seemed to be putting up a kind of fortress, but with some careful manoeuvring the Egypt GM forced a decisive breakthrough:

Amin-Baskin

Everything is now exactly in the right place for 58.e4! and Black had to take with the rook (58…dxe4? 59.Qf5+; 58…Nxe4 59.Qxd5 and Black has to stay on the e-file to defend the knight and so has to give up the a6-pawn anyway):

58…Rxe4 59.Kxa6

And White’s b-pawn should decide.

Bassem Amin in full concentration (during round 1)

Tough resistance by ladies

The (grand-)masters don’t get their pawns easily against various lady players. Gadir Guseinov and Evgeny Romanov were always better against Anna Warakomska and Elena Tomilova respectively, but Erik van den Doel had almost nothing for a long time against Sonja Maria Bluhm, Jorden van Foreest’s girlfriend, although the pressure is now mounting in the rook + opposite-coloured bishops ending. Thomas Beerdsen is also having a very long day against Serbian WIM Tijana Blagojevic. Now the Dutch IM has rook plus a- and c-pawn versus rook, which looks to be winning since Black is passive and White’s pawns are far advanced. But it’s really hard to say in this endgame.

Update: in the end Beerdsen did bring home the point.

Another turnaround…?

It looks like there has been another shift. Jorden van Foreest is defending tenaciously and seems to be close to equality again, whereas Peter Svidler now has his pawn on h6 endangered. He cannot well defend it as then his king comes under fire of the two white rooks…

Amin wins, and Van den Doel too?

Robert Baskin has had to resign against Bassem Amin in a hopeless endgame of queen versus knight + two pawns. Erik van den Doel has, with the patience of an angel, collected two pawns and seems to be winning too now.

Another tough day for Erik van den Doel

Van Foreest keeps the draw

After a great defensive effort, Jorden van Foreest held the draw with black against Fedoseev. The endgame was very tricky.

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

Here White probably missed his best chance to advance his e-pawn with 50.e5! (instead of the game move 50.Rb8) 50…Rc7 (50…Nxa3 51.e6 Re7 52.Rc5, catching the knight. Then White follows up with Nf7+ and Ke5, pushing the e-pawn through) 51. e6 Kg7 52. a4 Kf6 and now Black gets pushed back with 53.Rb8 followed by e3-e4 etc.

Both players thought after the game that five moves later…

55.e5 was not good at this point ‘as this pawn becomes weak’. The alternative 55.Rd8! would have given better winning chances, e.g. 55…Nc5 56.e5+ Kf5 57.Kh4 Nd7 58.Rc8! when 58…g5+ looks best (due to the pin on either the 5th or the 7th rank), and now 59.Nxg5 Rxe5 60.e4+ Kg6 61.Rg8+ Kf6 62.Kxh5. After 55…Kf7 White had to trade the rooks and there was no win.

A very tense game in which Van Foreest played, in any case, the opening and the endgame well. ‘I gave him too many chances in the opening’, Fedoseev said. And Van Foreest: ‘I was in a bit of time-trouble and panicked a little. In the end I held the game but I don’t know if it was because of my good defence or because of his bad play.’

Fedoseev and Van Foreest at the onset of their hard-fought draw.

Shankland wins!

The result was known already some time ago… but we’ve made some analysis of this incredibly tricky double-rook endgame – for what it’s worth. Unfortunately the players were quickly gone so we couldn’t get any reactions from them (yet).

Shankland-Svidler

32.fxg4

Stronger may have been 32.Ke2! with the idea 32…Nxh2 33.Rf8 Ra7 (33…f5 34.g3+ Ke5 35.Re8+ Re6 36.f4+ Kxe4 37.Rxe6+; or 33…f6 34.Rxf6+ Rxf6 35.Nxf6 Kg3 36.Ke1) 34.Rfd8 Re7 35.g3+ Kf5 36.Kf2 and Black has to give material.

32…Kxe4 33.a4 Rac5 34.h3 Rc3 35.Re8+ Kf4 36.Rd4+ Kg5 37.Re5+ Kf6 38.Rb5 Rc2+ 39.Kg3 Re6 40.Rd3 Kg7

Threatening 41…Ree2… but is it really a threat?

41.Kh2

Here even something like 41.Rf3 Ree2 42.Rxb6 g5 43.Rf1 was possible (41.Kf3 g5 42.g3 Rh2 is less clear).

41…Rb2 42.h4

Tickling Black on the kingside. It’s surprising how irritating this can be, even though it doesn’t bring any immediate dividends.

42…Ree2 43.Rg3 Re6 44.h5 Rd6 45.Rb4 g5

Some experts ventured that Black perhaps should not have reacted with this move. Now the h6-pawn becomes just a tiny bit weaker.

46.Rb5

46…f6?

Opening the door for the white rooks! Shankland is quick to take profit.

47.Rc3! Re2 48.Rb4 Kf7 49.Rbc4

49.Rc7+ Re7 50. Rxe7+ should be winning too. In the single-rook ending Black has much less chances to draw, in general, because he cannot create counter-threats against the white king.

49…Ke6 50.Rc8 Rdd2 51.Rg3 Kf7 52.Rh8 Rf2 53.Rh7+

And Black resigned because of 53…Kf8 54.Rb7 Rd6 55.Rc3 Rd8 56.Rcc7 etc.

The sole winner of today!

22 oktober 2018
Report Round 1
Simul Nick Schilder

The very popular Dutch singer Nick Schilder from the duo Nick & Simon gave a simul this morning against around 30 young players at the McDonald’s in Hoogeveen. As expected, a lot of girls turned up to play chess with Nick! Later this afternoon he will open the tournament at the De Tamboer theatre in the Hoogeveen city centre.

Nick had had good fun at the exhibition: ‘There was certainly some talent around, and there was a good atmosphere’, he said. ‘It’s great that the owner has already been supporting this event for 22 years.’ With so many opponents to face in 1.5 hours, things became hectic. Christine Namaganda (from the movie ‘Queen of Katwe’) and tournament director Loek van Wely stepped in to help Nick, who is a pretty good chess player, to keep up the pace. There were a few draws and even one young winner.

Round 1 Open has started!

Round 1 of the Open started a little late today. Some of the boards were already occupied…

Here, Nick Schilder is playing an offhand game with Christine Namaganda, who by the way is the actress who played the opponent that the ‘Queen of Katwe’ had to beat in the movie of the same name.

Tournament director Loek van Wely welcomed all the players. Chief arbiter Frans Peeters announced that all 42 games of the Open group will be transmitted live every day. He asked the players to stop the clocks immediately at the end of their game, so that the last move can be recorded (and no further moves). A bye can be requested, but if a player has taken a bye he can no longer apply for the finales, which will take place after round 7 between the highest 4 players in the ranking.

Drawing of lots for the matches

Sorry, we’ve been absent for a while due to the fact that the official opening of the Hoogeveen Matches was held elsewhere. You can read more about that later on this site. The drawing of lots had the following result for the first round, which will be played tomorrow:
Sam Shankland-Peter Svidler
Vladimir Fedoseev-Jorden van Foreest

Some bizarre moments

Dutch GM Erik van den Doel was a bit surprised by the strong play of 13-year-old Indian girl Rakshitta Ravi. ‘I was worse for a while’, Van den Doel admitted. As far as move 30 the young Indian girl – yet another big talent to watch? had some pressure on the seasoned Dutchman’s position. Then, as these things go, she went astray with 30.Bb7? and slowly lost control.

Fresh Dutch IM Max Warmerdam also had a hard time against 15-year-old talent Jonas Hilwerda. Then the young player from Groningen suffered from a horrible short-circuit.

Warmerdam-Hilwerda

Here Jonas played 25… Bxg5, a good move but with the wrong

intention: ‘After 26. Bxf8 for some reason I thought my rook was on b8, and I wanted to play a nice trick: 26…Qf7!!. When I saw what was wrong I had already touched my queen.’ But it gets worse. After 26…Qc8 (26…Bg6 would have been the ‘normal’ move) 27.Qg3 Black sacrificed his queen with 27…Qxf8, and eventually lost. However, 27…Qd7 or 27…Qe6 would still have been OK for Black! He just threatens to take on f8 with the rook, and otherwise he will have time to retreat his bishop.

Just a few small surprises

The grandmasters did their job today in the first round – no upsets to speak of. But several young players did quite well today, bridging some big Elo-differences. Feline Waardenburg held Ron Hoffman to a draw, and so did Max van de Pavoordt against Rob Bertholee, as well as Duncan Klaren against IM Migchiel de Jong and William Shakhverdian against seasoned Indian player Ojas Kulkarni, who has played in a lot of Dutch tournaments recently.

Even better did Marcel Winkels, who beat the theoretically much stronger Marijn den Hartog, and the same went for Loek van der Hagen against Irishman David Murray.
21 oktober 2018