Auteur: Peter Boel

Good afternoon!

We’ve started today with the semi-finals of the Open and the Basque Chess match between Wei Yi and Adhiban Baskaran in the Marriage Room, and the rest of the Open in the big playing hall.

The semifinals both started with a Ruy Lopez.

Dmitrij Kollars (left) and Dinara Saduakassova in the semifinals.

The Basque Chess games aren’t very exciting yet, though they are drawing quite a few spectators. The Chat Chess game between Timman and Van Wely in Assen was a quite spectacular draw. Here it is:

Timman-Van Wely

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 a6 6.O-O b5 7.Ne5 Nd5 8.e4 Nf6 9.Nc3 Bb7 10.d5 Bd6 11.Bf4 O-O

12.Nxf7 Kxf7 13.dxe6+ Kxe6 14.Bh3+ Kf7 15.e5 Bxe5 16.Qxd8 Rxd8 17.Bxe5 Nc6 18.Bxc7 Rd2 19.Rfe1 Nd4 20.Bg2 Bxg2 21.Kxg2 Rxb2 22.Rad1 Ne6 23.Be5 Ng4 24.h3

24…Rxf2+ 25.Kg1 Nxe5 26.Rxe5 Rf3 27.Ne4 Rd3 28.Rf1+ Ke7 29.Nc5 Kd6 30.Nxd3 cxd3 31.Re3 Nc5 32.Rf4 Kc6 33.Rd4 Ra7 34.Kf2 a5 35.Re8 Rc7 36.Re5 b4 37.Ke3 Kb5 38.Rxd3 a4 39.Rd4 a3 40.Re8 Rb7 41.Rc8 b3 42.axb3 a2 43.Ra8 Nxb3 44.Rda4 a1=Q 45.Rxa1 Nxa1 46.Rxa1 Kc5 1/2-1/2

Wei Yi has won his white game in the Basque match with Adhiban. The Indian GM’s knight got stuck on the rim, which was indeed quite dim for him. The knight got caught and the game was lost. The other game was a quite uneventful draw. A short break – and we’re off again!

In the meantime we’ll show you a nice picture of two chess-playing ladies.

A beautiful trick just came on the board in the game Sybolt Strating-Bas de Boer.

Black has aimed his pieces menacingly at g2. White could have defended everything with the cool 21.Qxd5. Strating played the equally cool

21.Rf2

but now Black has a wonderful trick:

21…Nf3+!!

Just let it sink in for a while (as Strating did) and you’ll see that Black is winning in all lines.

Adhiban has just won his white game in the Basque vs Wei Yi in nice attacking style.

Xu Xiangyu and Sipke Ernst have made a pretty quick draw – they’ll have to work hard tomorrow if they want to win a prize in the Open.

Xu Xiangyu

The second Basque game of the second round was also won by Adhiban in a long endgame with opposite-coloured bishops where the Indian GM had two extra pawns. So after leading Wei Yi went down in the end with 1½-2½.

‘It was really crazy’, Adhiban said. ‘With this Basque Chess you get stuck in one game and you forget about the other. My second white game was crushing, in the black game I was somewhat worse but he may have underestimated my counterplay. Then he blundered that pawn on a3, and then lost another. Maybe the endgame was a draw, but it’s very difficult to hold with so little time if I just keep playing around. There had to be a winner in this match, so I just kept playing.’

Adhiban Baskaran, the winner of the Basque Chess mini-match

For Wei Yi it was another disappointment. Probably the Chinese player was the most creative of the four this week, but it didn’t bring him anything in the end.

The young German player Valentin Buckels, whom we have been seeing here for several years already, made a good attempt to join the leaders in the Open with an attacking win over IM Casper Schoppen, who seemed to have landed in the wrong opening.

Buckels-Schoppen

This position is already unpleasant for Black – maybe he should have tried 10…Ng6 here.

10…Bd6

Giving White more time!

11.h5 Bxe5 12.dxe5 N6d7 13.Qg3 f6 14.Nf3 Qe7 15.exf6 Qxf6 16.Ne5 Qe7

It’s already hard to find a useful move for Black.

17.Nxd7 Nxd7 18.h6 g6

And it’s over in a flash:

19.Bxg6 hxg6 20.Qxg6+ Kh8 21.Bd6!

The winning blow – even stronger than 21.Bg5.

21…Rg8 22.Qxg8+ Kxg8 23.Bxe7 1-0

Both semifinal games are captivating fights. In Pruijssers-Beerdsen, despite many tactical tricks along the way, the balance never seems to have been clearly broken.

Young IM Thomas Beerdsen, one of the most active players in the circuit

Dmitrij Kollars has had the upper hand all the time against Dinara Saduakassova. He missed a good chance to keep his grip with 30.Qe4!. After 30.Qxc7 Nd3 Saduakassova fought like a lion and reached a slightly worse rook ending – a pawn down but with active play.

Dinara taking a view from another angle

Today Stefan Kuipers brought the ‘Vorentscheidung’ of his game with Stefan Colijn on the board with a very nice combination:

Kuipers-Colijn

White obtained a winning advantage with the following nice combination:

17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Rxd6! Qxd6 19.Ne4 Qe5 20.Qh6!

The beautiful point. Due to the threat of 21.Nxf6+ and mate Black has to give his queen:

20…Qxe4 21.Bd3 Qg6 22.Bxg6

And White won after 20 more moves.

Tania Sachdev has been better for most of the game against Davorin Kuljasevic and is still pushing. It may end in a draw, but then she will be on the better end of it.

‘Maggie’ van Foreest has just lost the endgame against Iva Videnova, who played very patiently and in the end closed in on the white king. A pity for our little star! Will she bounce back one more time to end on plus-1?

The winner of the game, Iva Videnova.

Roeland Pruijssers has a winning endgame now. His kingside pawns, helped by rook and king, are faster and more dangerous than Black’s queenside pawns.

Saduakassova on the other hand seems to be holding in a 3 vs 2 rook ending – a theoretical draw, but Kollars may try for a little longer.

Tournament direct Loek van Wely and living chess legend Jan Timman had a great time in the province house in Assen. They had to play a sharp game while Dutch IM and TV personality Hans Böhm was asking them all kinds of non-chess questions. ‘I was winning somewhere’, Van Wely said. ‘But it was a nice show anyway.’ After that the three played blitz with members of the audience.

Later Vasily Ivanchuk played a game of draughts with last years vice World Champion Jan Groenendijk. Although Ivanchuk is a good draughts player who has done well in several tournaments, Groenendijk was too strong for him. After that they also played blitz draughts with visitors.

Tomorrow Timman will give a clock simul at the town hall against five players who have won a contest in which they had to answer a number of questions (chess-technical as well as trivia) about Timman. Then we will see if they know as much about chess as they do about this famous chess player.

Kollars and Sadduakassova are going to pay blitz to decide who gets into the final!

After no less than five highly tense blitz games the young German GM Dmitrij Kollars has reached the final of the Open. Dinara Saduakassova was trailing several times but showed incredible tenacity, especially in Game 2 and 4. In Game 5 Kollars won a pawn but the Kazach top player looked to be holding again. However a quite pointed treatment of the ending brought Kollars victory after all.

The pairings for tomorrow are:

Pruijssers-Kollars (final) and

Saduakassova-Beerdsen

Good afternoon!

We’ve started today with the semi-finals of the Open and the Basque Chess match between Wei Yi and Adhiban Baskaran in the Marriage Room, and the rest of the Open in the big playing hall.

The semifinals both started with a Ruy Lopez.

Dmitrij Kollars (left) and Dinara Saduakassova in the semifinals.

The Basque Chess games aren’t very exciting yet, though they are drawing quite a few spectators. The Chat Chess game between Timman and Van Wely in Assen was a quite spectacular draw. Here it is:

Timman-Van Wely

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 a6 6.O-O b5 7.Ne5 Nd5 8.e4 Nf6 9.Nc3 Bb7 10.d5 Bd6 11.Bf4 O-O

12.Nxf7 Kxf7 13.dxe6+ Kxe6 14.Bh3+ Kf7 15.e5 Bxe5 16.Qxd8 Rxd8 17.Bxe5 Nc6 18.Bxc7 Rd2 19.Rfe1 Nd4 20.Bg2 Bxg2 21.Kxg2 Rxb2 22.Rad1 Ne6 23.Be5 Ng4 24.h3

24…Rxf2+ 25.Kg1 Nxe5 26.Rxe5 Rf3 27.Ne4 Rd3 28.Rf1+ Ke7 29.Nc5 Kd6 30.Nxd3 cxd3 31.Re3 Nc5 32.Rf4 Kc6 33.Rd4 Ra7 34.Kf2 a5 35.Re8 Rc7 36.Re5 b4 37.Ke3 Kb5 38.Rxd3 a4 39.Rd4 a3 40.Re8 Rb7 41.Rc8 b3 42.axb3 a2 43.Ra8 Nxb3 44.Rda4 a1=Q 45.Rxa1 Nxa1 46.Rxa1 Kc5 1/2-1/2

Wei Yi has won his white game in the Basque match with Adhiban. The Indian GM’s knight got stuck on the rim, which was indeed quite dim for him. The knight got caught and the game was lost. The other game was a quite uneventful draw. A short break – and we’re off again!

In the meantime we’ll show you a nice picture of two chess-playing ladies.

A beautiful trick just came on the board in the game Sybolt Strating-Bas de Boer.

Black has aimed his pieces menacingly at g2. White could have defended everything with the cool 21.Qxd5. Strating played the equally cool

21.Rf2

but now Black has a wonderful trick:

21…Nf3+!!

Just let it sink in for a while (as Strating did) and you’ll see that Black is winning in all lines.

Adhiban has just won his white game in the Basque vs Wei Yi in nice attacking style.

Xu Xiangyu and Sipke Ernst have made a pretty quick draw – they’ll have to work hard tomorrow if they want to win a prize in the Open.

Xu Xiangyu

The second Basque game of the second round was also won by Adhiban in a long endgame with opposite-coloured bishops where the Indian GM had two extra pawns. So after leading Wei Yi went down in the end with 1½-2½.

‘It was really crazy’, Adhiban said. ‘With this Basque Chess you get stuck in one game and you forget about the other. My second white game was crushing, in the black game I was somewhat worse but he may have underestimated my counterplay. Then he blundered that pawn on a3, and then lost another. Maybe the endgame was a draw, but it’s very difficult to hold with so little time if I just keep playing around. There had to be a winner in this match, so I just kept playing.’

Adhiban Baskaran, the winner of the Basque Chess mini-match

For Wei Yi it was another disappointment. Probably the Chinese player was the most creative of the four this week, but it didn’t bring him anything in the end.

The young German player Valentin Buckels, whom we have been seeing here for several years already, made a good attempt to join the leaders in the Open with an attacking win over IM Casper Schoppen, who seemed to have landed in the wrong opening.

Buckels-Schoppen

This position is already unpleasant for Black – maybe he should have tried 10…Ng6 here.

10…Bd6

Giving White more time!

11.h5 Bxe5 12.dxe5 N6d7 13.Qg3 f6 14.Nf3 Qe7 15.exf6 Qxf6 16.Ne5 Qe7

It’s already hard to find a useful move for Black.

17.Nxd7 Nxd7 18.h6 g6

And it’s over in a flash:

19.Bxg6 hxg6 20.Qxg6+ Kh8 21.Bd6!

The winning blow – even stronger than 21.Bg5.

21…Rg8 22.Qxg8+ Kxg8 23.Bxe7 1-0

Both semifinal games are captivating fights. In Pruijssers-Beerdsen, despite many tactical tricks along the way, the balance never seems to have been clearly broken.

Young IM Thomas Beerdsen, one of the most active players in the circuit

Dmitrij Kollars has had the upper hand all the time against Dinara Saduakassova. He missed a good chance to keep his grip with 30.Qe4!. After 30.Qxc7 Nd3 Saduakassova fought like a lion and reached a slightly worse rook ending – a pawn down but with active play.

Dinara taking a view from another angle

Today Stefan Kuipers brought the ‘Vorentscheidung’ of his game with Stefan Colijn on the board with a very nice combination:

Kuipers-Colijn

White obtained a winning advantage with the following nice combination:

17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Rxd6! Qxd6 19.Ne4 Qe5 20.Qh6!

The beautiful point. Due to the threat of 21.Nxf6+ and mate Black has to give his queen:

20…Qxe4 21.Bd3 Qg6 22.Bxg6

And White won after 20 more moves.

Tania Sachdev has been better for most of the game against Davorin Kuljasevic and is still pushing. It may end in a draw, but then she will be on the better end of it.

‘Maggie’ van Foreest has just lost the endgame against Iva Videnova, who played very patiently and in the end closed in on the white king. A pity for our little star! Will she bounce back one more time to end on plus-1?

The winner of the game, Iva Videnova.

Roeland Pruijssers has a winning endgame now. His kingside pawns, helped by rook and king, are faster and more dangerous than Black’s queenside pawns.

Saduakassova on the other hand seems to be holding in a 3 vs 2 rook ending – a theoretical draw, but Kollars may try for a little longer.

Tournament direct Loek van Wely and living chess legend Jan Timman had a great time in the province house in Assen. They had to play a sharp game while Dutch IM and TV personality Hans Böhm was asking them all kinds of non-chess questions. ‘I was winning somewhere’, Van Wely said. ‘But it was a nice show anyway.’ After that the three played blitz with members of the audience.

Later Vasily Ivanchuk played a game of draughts with last years vice World Champion Jan Groenendijk. Although Ivanchuk is a good draughts player who has done well in several tournaments, Groenendijk was too strong for him. After that they also played blitz draughts with visitors.

Tomorrow Timman will give a clock simul at the town hall against five players who have won a contest in which they had to answer a number of questions (chess-technical as well as trivia) about Timman. Then we will see if they know as much about chess as they do about this famous chess player.

Kollars and Sadduakassova are going to pay blitz to decide who gets into the final!

After no less than five highly tense blitz games the young German GM Dmitrij Kollars has reached the final of the Open. Dinara Saduakassova was trailing several times but showed incredible tenacity, especially in Game 2 and 4. In Game 5 Kollars won a pawn but the Kazach top player looked to be holding again. However a quite pointed treatment of the ending brought Kollars victory after all.

The pairings for tomorrow are:

Pruijssers-Kollars (final) and

Saduakassova-Beerdsen

Today it will be decided which four players will qualify for the semifinals that start tomorrow. Thomas Beerdsen en Roeland Pruijssers, who are facing each other on the top board, have the best chances. Arbiter Frans Peeters announced that between players with an equal score the TPR will be decisive for these qualifications.

Tournament director Loek van Wely gave the comouter percentages for Ivanchuk and Wei Yi in the previous two rounds:

Round 4: Ivanchuk 74%, Wei Yi 49%

Round 5: Ivanchuk 46%, Wei Yi 57%

There were a few amazing results in round 5 of the Open: Machteld van Foreest scored 81%, and the tournament leader Roeland Pruijssers 85%. The winner however was Jonathan Carlstedt with 88%. For round 6, Pruijssers had the best score with no less than 91%.

Dick de Graaf won the game prize for his highly entertaining game with Migchiel de Jong from yesterday. Harmen Jonkman got a special prize for missing an artistic mate in 3 against Lucas van Foreest (see yesterday’s live blog).

14:39 Sicilian and Italian battles rage on

15:17 Draw on board 1

15:20 Saduakassova on a roll again

15:56 Things are getting hot for Ivanchuk

16:09 Ernst looks to be winning

16:12 Wei Yi is winning

17:08 Wei Yi crashes through!

16:55 A second playoff?

17:10 It’s blitz!

18:14 Ivanchuk and Van Foreest win playoffs

18:41 Saduakassova and Kollars qualify for the semifinals

19:35 Paintings for the match winners

19:42 Pairings for semifinals Open

Today it will be decided which four players will qualify for the semifinals that start tomorrow. Thomas Beerdsen en Roeland Pruijssers, who are facing each other on the top board, have the best chances. Arbiter Frans Peeters announced that between players with an equal score the TPR will be decisive for these qualifications.

Tournament director Loek van Wely gave the comouter percentages for Ivanchuk and Wei Yi in the previous two rounds:

Round 4: Ivanchuk 74%, Wei Yi 49%

Round 5: Ivanchuk 46%, Wei Yi 57%

There were a few amazing results in round 5 of the Open: Machteld van Foreest scored 81%, and the tournament leader Roeland Pruijssers 85%. The winner however was Jonathan Carlstedt with 88%. For round 6, Pruijssers had the best score with no less than 91%.

Dick de Graaf won the game prize for his highly entertaining game with Migchiel de Jong from yesterday. Harmen Jonkman got a special prize for missing an artistic mate in 3 against Lucas van Foreest (see yesterday’s live blog).

14:39 Sicilian and Italian battles rage on

15:17 Draw on board 1

15:20 Saduakassova on a roll again

15:56 Things are getting hot for Ivanchuk

16:09 Ernst looks to be winning

16:12 Wei Yi is winning

17:08 Wei Yi crashes through!

16:55 A second playoff?

17:10 It’s blitz!

18:14 Ivanchuk and Van Foreest win playoffs

18:41 Saduakassova and Kollars qualify for the semifinals

19:35 Paintings for the match winners

19:42 Pairings for semifinals Open

A quick start today – Loek van Wely just rewarded Maurice Schippers for his nice black win against Bardhyl Uksini – the best game of round 5. Then the clocks were started.

In the matches we again saw the same openings – with subtle and some less subtle differences. Ivanchuk and Wei Yi are testing a whole range of Nimzo-Indians. In the first game it was a Classical 4.Qc2, the third game saw a Ragozin-type 4.Nf3 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5, and today we are seeing the Rubinstein Variation with 4.e3.

Adhiban and Jorden van Foreest are playing a Queen’s Gambit Accepted for the third time. The main difference: in Game 1 Adhiban put his queen’s knight on c3 on move 7, in the third game he first inserted 7.Qe2. Today, in Game 5, he kept it on b1 for a while and finally put it on d2. Some subtle differences, therefore, but still the moves came on the board so quickly that arbiter Huub Blom couldn’t keep up for a while. But they’ve slowed down now…

Adhiban Baskaran (what’s wrong with this picture…?)

It looks as if with his queen moves to b3 and c2 Ivanchuk has caused some slight discomfort for himself.

Wei Yi has an interesting choice here:

19…Nxe4 20. Bxe4 Qe5 21.Bxh7+ Kh8 22. Bd3 Bd6 23. f4 Qxe3+ 24. Qf2 Bxf4 is not very attractive for White.

But being an attacking player Wei Yi is obviously also considering the spectacular line 19…dxe4 20.Rxd6 Bxd6 21.Qd1 Rfd8 and now White’s wisest option is 22.Be2 Bxh2+ 23.Kxh2 Rxd1 with a slight plus for Black.

Sipke Ernst’s brain went haywire in a theoretical position against Thomas Beerdsen. ‘This line was known to be problematic for Black’, Beerdsen said. ‘When he had to go for an unpleasant endgame he suddenly blundered a piece.’

Beerdsen-Ernst

17…d6

It was more or less known that this line is tricky for Black. Probably he should play first 17…h6 18.Be3 and then 18…d6 or, as Beerdsen indicated, 17…Bb7.

18.Bc6 Nd7 19.Ne4

19…Bd4??

Blundering a piece. 19…Bxc4 20.Nxc5 Nxc5 21.Rxe8+ Rxe8 22.Bxe8 Nd3+ 23.Rxd3 Bxd3 was played in Giri-Dominguez Perez, Baku Olympiad 2016, where Black had a slightly worse ending but held in the end.

20.Bxd7+ Kxd7 21.Rxd4!

Black can’t take the rook due to the deadly fork on f6. After 21…Kc6

22.Rdd1 Bxc4 Ernst tried to confuse Beerdsen by playing very fast for 20 more moves, but the Dutch IM didn’t fail to convert: 1-0

Wei Yi has turned the line 15…dxe4 into a real queen sacrifice with the ambitious 21…Be5!? instead of the fairly solid line I gave earlier. The young Chinese star bets on his strong bishops and queenside pawns, but 24…Bxa2? looks like a mistake. Ivanchuk took on c3 and will be able to gain material with 26.Ra1 next…

Roeland Pruijssers’ attack on the kingside is taking shape. It looks as if Saduakassova’s 20…Nc5 wasn’t the best. She trades White’s off-side knight for an important defender of her king.

Dinara Saduakassova

The Dutch GM reacts immediately with the push of the f-pawn.

Stefan Colijn also won very quickly today. His game with Jan Baljé looked like a modern-day Sämisch-Nimzowitsch.

Instead of taking on a2 or putting his rook on the e-file Colijn now closed off all the exits for White with the highly frustrating move 22…Ne4!, whereupon Baljé immediately resigned.

Stefan Colijn

Two fairly uneventful draws were agreed between Orest Gritsak and Davorin Kuljasevic on board 2, and between Xu Xiangyu and Dmitrij Kollars. Lucas van Foreest is getting into trouble against GM Harmen Jonkman, and Jonathan Carlstedt is in even bigger trouble against his young countryman Luis Engel.

Today on top board, Roeland Pruijssers slowly drove Dinara Saduakassova to the ‘Max rank’ as we call it in the Netherlands nowadays (after Max Verstappen, who also often needs some extra space). “Perhaps with hindsight 17…d4 wasn’t the best”, Pruijssers commented. Closing the centre gave him a free hand on the kingside. “Instead of 20…Nc5, 20…c5 may have been better, but Black has to be on the lookout anyway, for all kinds of threats”, Pruijssers said. “When she put her pieces on dark squares I could attack with tempo.” Here is the sad end for the Kazach girl who had played so sovereignly thus far…

Pruijssers-Saduakassova

30.g4

Here of course 30.Bf8 Rxf8 31.Qh6 Rxf6 32.Rxf6 d2 33.Bc2 was also good.

30…Bxg4 31.Qxg4 d2 32.Rd1 Rd4 33.Qh4 Qd7

Preventing 34.Qxh7+.

34.Rh3

And now after 34…h5 White takes with the queen. Black resigned. This means that Pruijssers is now the sole leader. Chances are that he plays his teammate Thomas Beerdsen in the next round, as Pruijssers has played all his other close pursuers already.

Jorden van Foreest has a losing position; his pawns on the queenside have come quite far but his endangered king position will be fatal for him… that means this match will be undecided until the bitter end!

Vasily Ivanchuk may have missed a chance to decide the match somewhere… this is very hard to say (as he himself would say). It looks as if Wei Yi will be able to hold with a kind of fortress with rook and knight. He might have tried to sac his knight for White’s e- and f-pawns, but instead he is now trading off as many pawns as possible.

Jakob Weinrauch is a young German player who can hardly be seen over the board… but he does see quite a lot, especially tactical tricks. Today he gave his queen for big material, and his pieces came to full bloom in the following position.

Kouwenhoven-Weinrauch

37…Rxf2!

And White immediately resigned.

Adhiban’s choice to play a quiet, technical game today paid off. ‘I was running out of options against the QGA’, he said. ‘It’s not easy to break.’

So he tried it in the endgame. White had a little something there. ‘But I should never have lost that’, Jorden said.

25…Bb2

This may be too drastic. Interesting was 25… g5!? 26.Rb8 Rc7 27.Rxb7 Rc2+ 28.Ke1 Kg6 when Black has great activity for the pawn.

26.Nc4 Bc3 27.Nb6 Rd2+ 28.Kf3

It looks as if Black is going to lose a pawn.

28…Be5?

The best defence, according to the players, was probably 28…Bb2 (28…Bf6 29.Rc7) 29.Nc4 Rc2 30.Rc5 (30.Nxb2 Rxb2 31.Rc7 Kg6 32.Rxb7 Ra2 is not enough) 30… Kg8! (so that White cannot take the pawn with check – now the rook ending is again a draw) 31.h3 followed by g2-g4, still with more pleasant play for White; if 31.Nxb2 Rxb2 32.Rc8+ Kh7 33.Rc7 Kg6 34.Rxb7 Ra2.

29.Rc5 Bd6 30.Rxh5+ Kg6 31.Rh8 Ra2 32.h4 Bh2

32…Rxa3?? 33.Nc4 is the problem here.

33.Nd7 Bd6

With hindsight Van Foreest suggested 33…Bg1 here, but then Black is also in trouble after 34.Ne5+ Kf6 35.Ke4! Bxf2 36.Rf8.

34.h5+ Kg5 35.Rh7 Rxa3 36.Rxg7+ Kxh5 37.g4+ Kh6 38.Rxf7 Bxb4 39.Rf6+ Kg7 40.Rxe6

This position may not be hopeless yet for Black, but in practice it’s very hard to play due to his bad king’s position. Van Foreest had to resign on move 62. ‘I played very badly today’, he groaned.

Wei Yi held the Rook+Knight vs Queen ending with considerable ease. ‘I had considered 19…Nxe4’, he said, ‘but after 20.Bxe4 Qe5 21.Bxh7+ Kh8 22.Bd3 I didn’t see a good continuation.’ As we said he could have got a good position there with 22…Bd6 23.f4 Qxe3+ 24.Qf2 Bxf4. This was what his opponent Ivanchuk had feared: ‘It’s very complicated, this position would have been dangerous for me’, he said.

Wei Yi confessed that when playing 24…Bxa2 he had missed how strong the reply 25.Bxc3 was. But after that he hadn’t been in any real danger: ‘The defence was easy’. Which was illustrated by the fact that he played the last moves pretty much a tempo.

Now the Chinese still has a chance to draw even tomorrow!

Lucas van Foreest saved the only half point for the Van Foreest family today. But it could have been different, as Lucas noticed later on in the press room.

Jonkman-Lucas van Foreest

Jonkman missed a very nice mating combination here with 46.Raf8+ Kg6 47.Rxf6+! Kxf6 48.Rf8+ Kg6 49.Qf5+ Kh6 50.Rh8#.

Instead the Dutch GM repeated moves with

46.Qf5 Re8 47.Qd5+ R8e6 48.Qd7+ 1/2-1/2

Harmen Jonkman

That should be it for today! We’re in for a nice finale tomorrow – in the two matches, but also in the Open where the first 4 in the rankings will go on to the semifinals.

A quick start today – Loek van Wely just rewarded Maurice Schippers for his nice black win against Bardhyl Uksini – the best game of round 5. Then the clocks were started.

In the matches we again saw the same openings – with subtle and some less subtle differences. Ivanchuk and Wei Yi are testing a whole range of Nimzo-Indians. In the first game it was a Classical 4.Qc2, the third game saw a Ragozin-type 4.Nf3 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5, and today we are seeing the Rubinstein Variation with 4.e3.

Adhiban and Jorden van Foreest are playing a Queen’s Gambit Accepted for the third time. The main difference: in Game 1 Adhiban put his queen’s knight on c3 on move 7, in the third game he first inserted 7.Qe2. Today, in Game 5, he kept it on b1 for a while and finally put it on d2. Some subtle differences, therefore, but still the moves came on the board so quickly that arbiter Huub Blom couldn’t keep up for a while. But they’ve slowed down now…

Adhiban Baskaran (what’s wrong with this picture…?)

It looks as if with his queen moves to b3 and c2 Ivanchuk has caused some slight discomfort for himself.

Wei Yi has an interesting choice here:

19…Nxe4 20. Bxe4 Qe5 21.Bxh7+ Kh8 22. Bd3 Bd6 23. f4 Qxe3+ 24. Qf2 Bxf4 is not very attractive for White.

But being an attacking player Wei Yi is obviously also considering the spectacular line 19…dxe4 20.Rxd6 Bxd6 21.Qd1 Rfd8 and now White’s wisest option is 22.Be2 Bxh2+ 23.Kxh2 Rxd1 with a slight plus for Black.

Sipke Ernst’s brain went haywire in a theoretical position against Thomas Beerdsen. ‘This line was known to be problematic for Black’, Beerdsen said. ‘When he had to go for an unpleasant endgame he suddenly blundered a piece.’

Beerdsen-Ernst

17…d6

It was more or less known that this line is tricky for Black. Probably he should play first 17…h6 18.Be3 and then 18…d6 or, as Beerdsen indicated, 17…Bb7.

18.Bc6 Nd7 19.Ne4

19…Bd4??

Blundering a piece. 19…Bxc4 20.Nxc5 Nxc5 21.Rxe8+ Rxe8 22.Bxe8 Nd3+ 23.Rxd3 Bxd3 was played in Giri-Dominguez Perez, Baku Olympiad 2016, where Black had a slightly worse ending but held in the end.

20.Bxd7+ Kxd7 21.Rxd4!

Black can’t take the rook due to the deadly fork on f6. After 21…Kc6

22.Rdd1 Bxc4 Ernst tried to confuse Beerdsen by playing very fast for 20 more moves, but the Dutch IM didn’t fail to convert: 1-0

Wei Yi has turned the line 15…dxe4 into a real queen sacrifice with the ambitious 21…Be5!? instead of the fairly solid line I gave earlier. The young Chinese star bets on his strong bishops and queenside pawns, but 24…Bxa2? looks like a mistake. Ivanchuk took on c3 and will be able to gain material with 26.Ra1 next…

Roeland Pruijssers’ attack on the kingside is taking shape. It looks as if Saduakassova’s 20…Nc5 wasn’t the best. She trades White’s off-side knight for an important defender of her king.

Dinara Saduakassova

The Dutch GM reacts immediately with the push of the f-pawn.

Stefan Colijn also won very quickly today. His game with Jan Baljé looked like a modern-day Sämisch-Nimzowitsch.

Instead of taking on a2 or putting his rook on the e-file Colijn now closed off all the exits for White with the highly frustrating move 22…Ne4!, whereupon Baljé immediately resigned.

Stefan Colijn

Two fairly uneventful draws were agreed between Orest Gritsak and Davorin Kuljasevic on board 2, and between Xu Xiangyu and Dmitrij Kollars. Lucas van Foreest is getting into trouble against GM Harmen Jonkman, and Jonathan Carlstedt is in even bigger trouble against his young countryman Luis Engel.

Today on top board, Roeland Pruijssers slowly drove Dinara Saduakassova to the ‘Max rank’ as we call it in the Netherlands nowadays (after Max Verstappen, who also often needs some extra space). “Perhaps with hindsight 17…d4 wasn’t the best”, Pruijssers commented. Closing the centre gave him a free hand on the kingside. “Instead of 20…Nc5, 20…c5 may have been better, but Black has to be on the lookout anyway, for all kinds of threats”, Pruijssers said. “When she put her pieces on dark squares I could attack with tempo.” Here is the sad end for the Kazach girl who had played so sovereignly thus far…

Pruijssers-Saduakassova

30.g4

Here of course 30.Bf8 Rxf8 31.Qh6 Rxf6 32.Rxf6 d2 33.Bc2 was also good.

30…Bxg4 31.Qxg4 d2 32.Rd1 Rd4 33.Qh4 Qd7

Preventing 34.Qxh7+.

34.Rh3

And now after 34…h5 White takes with the queen. Black resigned. This means that Pruijssers is now the sole leader. Chances are that he plays his teammate Thomas Beerdsen in the next round, as Pruijssers has played all his other close pursuers already.

Jorden van Foreest has a losing position; his pawns on the queenside have come quite far but his endangered king position will be fatal for him… that means this match will be undecided until the bitter end!

Vasily Ivanchuk may have missed a chance to decide the match somewhere… this is very hard to say (as he himself would say). It looks as if Wei Yi will be able to hold with a kind of fortress with rook and knight. He might have tried to sac his knight for White’s e- and f-pawns, but instead he is now trading off as many pawns as possible.

Jakob Weinrauch is a young German player who can hardly be seen over the board… but he does see quite a lot, especially tactical tricks. Today he gave his queen for big material, and his pieces came to full bloom in the following position.

Kouwenhoven-Weinrauch

37…Rxf2!

And White immediately resigned.

Adhiban’s choice to play a quiet, technical game today paid off. ‘I was running out of options against the QGA’, he said. ‘It’s not easy to break.’

So he tried it in the endgame. White had a little something there. ‘But I should never have lost that’, Jorden said.

25…Bb2

This may be too drastic. Interesting was 25… g5!? 26.Rb8 Rc7 27.Rxb7 Rc2+ 28.Ke1 Kg6 when Black has great activity for the pawn.

26.Nc4 Bc3 27.Nb6 Rd2+ 28.Kf3

It looks as if Black is going to lose a pawn.

28…Be5?

The best defence, according to the players, was probably 28…Bb2 (28…Bf6 29.Rc7) 29.Nc4 Rc2 30.Rc5 (30.Nxb2 Rxb2 31.Rc7 Kg6 32.Rxb7 Ra2 is not enough) 30… Kg8! (so that White cannot take the pawn with check – now the rook ending is again a draw) 31.h3 followed by g2-g4, still with more pleasant play for White; if 31.Nxb2 Rxb2 32.Rc8+ Kh7 33.Rc7 Kg6 34.Rxb7 Ra2.

29.Rc5 Bd6 30.Rxh5+ Kg6 31.Rh8 Ra2 32.h4 Bh2

32…Rxa3?? 33.Nc4 is the problem here.

33.Nd7 Bd6

With hindsight Van Foreest suggested 33…Bg1 here, but then Black is also in trouble after 34.Ne5+ Kf6 35.Ke4! Bxf2 36.Rf8.

34.h5+ Kg5 35.Rh7 Rxa3 36.Rxg7+ Kxh5 37.g4+ Kh6 38.Rxf7 Bxb4 39.Rf6+ Kg7 40.Rxe6

This position may not be hopeless yet for Black, but in practice it’s very hard to play due to his bad king’s position. Van Foreest had to resign on move 62. ‘I played very badly today’, he groaned.

Wei Yi held the Rook+Knight vs Queen ending with considerable ease. ‘I had considered 19…Nxe4’, he said, ‘but after 20.Bxe4 Qe5 21.Bxh7+ Kh8 22.Bd3 I didn’t see a good continuation.’ As we said he could have got a good position there with 22…Bd6 23.f4 Qxe3+ 24.Qf2 Bxf4. This was what his opponent Ivanchuk had feared: ‘It’s very complicated, this position would have been dangerous for me’, he said.

Wei Yi confessed that when playing 24…Bxa2 he had missed how strong the reply 25.Bxc3 was. But after that he hadn’t been in any real danger: ‘The defence was easy’. Which was illustrated by the fact that he played the last moves pretty much a tempo.

Now the Chinese still has a chance to draw even tomorrow!

Lucas van Foreest saved the only half point for the Van Foreest family today. But it could have been different, as Lucas noticed later on in the press room.

Jonkman-Lucas van Foreest

Jonkman missed a very nice mating combination here with 46.Raf8+ Kg6 47.Rxf6+! Kxf6 48.Rf8+ Kg6 49.Qf5+ Kh6 50.Rh8#.

Instead the Dutch GM repeated moves with

46.Qf5 Re8 47.Qd5+ R8e6 48.Qd7+ 1/2-1/2

Harmen Jonkman

That should be it for today! We’re in for a nice finale tomorrow – in the two matches, but also in the Open where the first 4 in the rankings will go on to the semifinals.

At the start of the 5th round (the 4th round for the matches) Loek van Wely made the percentages public of the moves that were identical with the computer’s first choice in the match games.

Match game 2:

Ivanchuk 58%

Wei Yi 68%

Adhiban: 67%

Van Foreest 54%

Match game 3:

Ivanchuk 60%

Wei Yi 28%

Adhiban 33%

Van Foreest 75%

For Round 2 of the Open, Casper Schoppen had the highest percentage with 82%.

For round 3 Tania Sachdev had the best score with 88% (actually it was Harmen Jonkman with 100% but that was because he stayed in bed). For round 4 Stefan Kuipers had the best ‘computer score’ with 82%.

From round 3 of the Open, Sipke Ernst got the prize for the most attractive win. For round 4 there was no best game prize, but there was a consolation prize for Bardhyl Uksini who had resigned against Xu Xiangyi in a winning position.

In the matches 1.e4 was again played in both games: Ivanchuk went for a Sicilian with 2…e6 again, and Van Foreest and Adhiban repeted their Italian game.

A very short draw on the top board of the Open. The most interesting thing that can be told about the game between Gritsak and Saduakassova was that it was a quadruple fianchetto!

Orest Gritsak

It looks as if Adhiban’s 15…g4 was too ambitious. There is no good follow-up to be seen on Black’s action on the king’s wing while his centre is completely demolished.

The struggle on the other board (Wei Yi-Ivanchuk) is interesting but still looking balanced.

Today’s Van Foreest-Adhiban game is certainly setting the cogs in motion.

Instead of 18…gxh2+, which was played after more than half an hour’s thought, Commentator Ivan Sokolov, who played Van Foreest last year, came up with a ‘coffehouse variation’:

18…Nh5 19.exd6 Nf4 20.d7+ Bxd7 21.Bxf7+ Ke7 22.h3 Bxh3 23.gxh3 Nxh3+ (Van Wely suggested first 23… Qc8, e.g. 24.Ba2 Nxh3+ 25.Kf1 Ng5!? 24.Kf1 Qc8 (24…Nf2 to promote the h-pawn also doesn’t work: 25.Rxd8 Nxd1 26.Rdxd1! (defending h1) 26…h3 27.Bc4! followed by Kg1 and bringing the knight over – the dangerous-looking pawns are effectively blocked!) 25.Bg6 Nf2 26.Qb3 Now White is threatening something… 26…Qh3+ 27.Ke2 and White wins.

Van Foreest, who was down a pawn in each of his previous games with Adhiban here, has now quite cleverly consolidated. 20.f4! was quite practical, putting an end to all Black’s attacking aspirations, and after 23.Rf1 Black was forced to enter an ending with a minus pawn and several weak pawns as well.

Ivanchuk has taken a risk by leaving his bishop on f8 and now his position looks suspect. Will Wei Yi be able to bounce back?

Wei Yi signing a Yearbook, with himself on the cover, before today’s game.

Siem van Dael forced a quick perpetual with white against Stefan Kuipers in a Two Knights’ game – taking a rest day in a tournament which is going very well for him so far.

An under-20 draw as an under-20 player? We didn’t do that in the old days.

Thomas Beerdsen won today, but he regretted giving mate in 1!

Here Beerdsen played 24…Rh8#, missing the chance to play 24…Rf7+ 25.Kg8 and then give mate by castling queenside.

As expected, Jorden van Foreest has won a second pawn on d6 and Adhiban is now struggling to find counterplay.

Wei Yi has conquered the c5-pawn after Ivanchuk finally decided to play 21…Be7, but now the strength of his 20…h3 move becomes clear: Black’s pieces are so active that a draw is starting to seem likely.

Vasily Ivanchuk

The duel between the Elo favourites in the Open, between Davorin Kuljasevic and Xu Xiangyu, ended in a win for the Croatian GM. More on that later!

10-year-old Machteld van Foreest did it again, she just overplayed Carsten Stanetzek with black. Where will this end…?

Here’s a short analysis of the finish of the game Wei Yi-Ivanchuk:

Of course Ivanchuk had looked deeper than us all. The final point of his h-pawn sally, 20…h3!, was sufficient to keep his disadvantage within bounds:

21.Rd1

‘Maybe I should have played 21.gxh3′, Wei Yi said afterwards. But Black gets good counterplay.’ There can follow: 21…Rh5!? (but 21… Be7 22.Bxe7 Qxe7 23.Rxc4 O-O as in the game also looks playable, of course) 22.f4 Be7 23.Rxc4 Rd8 24.Qf3

Rxg5+ 25.fxg5 Qxe5 26.g6 Rd2!? with crazy complications.

21…Be7 22.Bxe7 Qxe7 23.gxh3 O-O 24.Rxc4 Rfd8!

Not worrying about pawns, activity is what these endings are all about!

25.Rxd8+ Rxd8 26.Rxc5 Qg5+ 27.Qg3 Qd2 28.Qh4 Rb8 29.Qc4

There’s nothing to be gained for White here.

29…Qg5+ 30.Qg4 Qd2 31.Qc4 Qg5+ 32.Qg4 Qd2 33.Qc4 1/2-1/2

Adhiban said, ‘I probably mixed up something in my preparation, I’m not sure now if 15…g4 is the move.’ Jorden van Foreest had also prepared this line: 9…Ng6 is the top move of the computer, but it has hardly ever been played. Anand-Giri in last year’s Candidates went 9…c6. The engine gave 0.00 in this line all the time, but still I decided to try it.’

The black attack ‘looked like a strange King’s Indian’, Van Foreest said. There are people who say the entire King’s Indian is incorrect – in any case, it looks as if this line of today is.

We called White’s 20.f4 a practical move. Van Foreest had of course considered 20.exd6, ‘but I wasn’t sure there. 20…Qg5 looks dangerous’.

Here are some sample lines.

The players mentioned 21.dxc7 and now 21…Ke7! 22.Rd8 Qg3+ 23.Kg1 h3 24.Qd2 h2+ 25.Kh1 Qe5 26.Qe1 Ng3+ 27.Qxg3 Qxg3 28.Rxh8 is still good for White, but it’s very understandable that Jorden wanted to avoid such lines.

21.d7+ looks safer but is not so clear either: 21…Bxd7 22.Rxd7 Qg3+ 23.Kg1 h3 24.Bxf7+ Kf8 25.Qd2 Nf6! (now 25…h2+ 26.Kh1 Qe5 is ridiculous due to 27.Bxh5) 26.Rd5! (if 26.Rd4 Kxf7 followed by …hxg2 and …Rag8 gives Black a lot of play) 26…Nxd5

27.Bxd5 Rd8 28.Nc2 (the white queen can’t move) 28…c6 29.Nd4 cxd5 30.Ne6+ or 29…Ke8 30.Nf5 Qxg2+ 31.Qxg2 hxg2 32.Bxc6+ bxc6 33. Kxg2, both with just a small edge for White.

Of course the endgame with the extra pawn was better. Adhiban managed to drum up counterplay, but it wasn’t enough to save the game.

Davorin Kuljasevic had a good day because he beat one of his major rivals, Xu Xiangyu, who is not yet a GM but has exactly the same rating (2549). Here’s what happened.

‘Probably around here Black went wrong’, Kuljasevic said. ‘He tried to complicate the position.’

18…Na4?!

Better looks 18…Nbd7 19.Bxc5 Nxc5 with fine counterplay – Black wins his pawn back.

19.Bd4 Rxe2?!

Also not the best according to the Croatian GM. ‘Now I get to trap his knight.’

20.b3 Nb2 21.Rfc1

With the nasty threat of 22.Bf1.

21…Nc6 22.Bxg7 Nd3 23.Rc3 Nxf2

24.Nd4 Rexa2 25.Rxa2 Rxa2 26.Nxc6 Kxg7 27.Nb4 Rd2 28.Bxd5

And with a piece down, Xu resigned.

Kuljasevic (31) has not been seen a lot at Dutch tournaments: ‘In fact the last time I was here was 15 years ago when I played the international youth tournament in Hengelo, with Erwin l’Ami and Jan Smeets. It’s great to be here now’, Kuljasevic, ‘especially since my wife (Iva Videnova, PB) is also playing.’

Casper Schoppen resigned his game against Roeland Pruijssers. His knight sac on move 22 looked very interesting, but accurate defence brought the GM from Apeldoorn the point after a few more hours’ work.

Earlier, Sipke Ernst beat Tania Sachdev, and Lucas van Foreest got the better of Ivo Maris with a piece sac that did work – like a dream.

Ten players took a bye for this early third round of the Open (the matches will start as usual at 14.00h this afternoon), which meant the number of players was uneven and Onno Elgersma also has a bye. Unluckily for him, as he’s staying in a house with 4 other youth players who all got out of bed early this morning.

Enrico Vroombout won the brilliancy prize in Round 2 – unfortunately he is one of the bye-takers so he can collect his prize later!

As we slowly opened our eyes we saw a few weird Sicilians. Ivo Maris played 2…Nf6 (the Nimzo-Sicilian), Richard Hendriks played 3.Nc3 and 4.e5, and Dick de Graaf, against Machteld van Foreest, must have thought ‘What the hell’ and played 2.b4.

It’s past 10 o’clock, and two players still haven’t showed up: Carsten Stanetzek from Bonn, and Dutch GM Harmen Jonkman. This means these two players have lost their game by forfeit (against resp. GM Orest Gritsak and youth player Jonas Hilwerda).

15(14??)-year-old Luis Engel, who scored 5/9 in the latest German Championships and made an IM norm there, is playing fearlessly against the established GM Roeland Pruijssers. With 16.Be7 (not only threatening the Rf8 but also to play the devastating 17.Nh4) he won the exchange for a pawn, while Pruijssers was also forced to trade queens. How is the young German talent’s technique??

Dinara Saduakassova’s play again makes a smooth impression today. She allowed a doubling of her pawns in a Paulsen Sicilian, getting an open file. Now her bishops and rooks are looking murderous against White’s king.

Lucas van Foreest seems to be losing a piece. Siem van Dael has quite calmly developed a kingside attack and is threatening mate after 20.Rg4. Now Black has to play …Rg8 and …Bf3, putting the bishop on h5 and trading queens. But White can play Bd3 and Rh4, and take on h5 after which Black first has to take on h6 and White can take back with the rook, winning a piece.

Siem van Dael

Jakob Pajeken has resigned against the Kazach top talent. The German player sacrificed his knight to avert various threats of winning his queen, but soon realized that Black’s attack still can’t be warded off. Also Mateusz Paszewski has won – a Botvinnik Slav quickly went very wrong for his opponent, Amir Nicolai.

And Van Dael has indeed won a piece according to the procedure sketched above. He played the crucial move 23.Bd3 quite quickly. Now he has to make the switch from attacking to converting – always quite difficult!

I was going to write that Stefan Kuipers, who was a pawn down against Sipke Ernst, missed a nice chance in the following position:

Here Kuipers could have played 26…Bxd4! 27.exd4 Rhd8 and then with …Qb5 cut off White’s king, while threatening …Rc4. This looks very dangerous for White. However Black played 26…Rhd8 first, and after 27.Ra1 Qf5 there followed 28.Nd3?!. Probably Ernst should have played 28.Ke1, for now Black did strike with 28…Bxd4!. It’s starting to look very interesting for Black!

While Lucas van Foreest is fighting for his life, his little sister Machteld has just scored her second point, with a tremendously sharp counter against Dick de Graaf.

De Graaf-M.van Foreest

Black has defended well and still has her extra pawn, so now De Graaf tries some bluff:

22.Bxh7+ Kxh7 23.Rh3+ Kg8 24.Ng6

24…Ne3!

A very strong counter. White simply doesn’t have enough attacking material.

25.Rxd8+ Rxd8 26.Rxe3 Bxe3 27.Qh5 Qxc2

Fearlessly played, though of course everything wins now.

28.Ne7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Kf7 0-1

2 out of 3 by a ten-year-old — a record?

Stefan Kuipers just collapsed in a very promising position.

Here Ernst made a mistake by playing

30.Ra4?

According to the computer, 30.Rhe1 followed by Re3 still defends. Ernst thought with hindsight he should have played 30.f3 but then 30…Rcd8 31.Ra3 Rxd3+ 32.Qxd3 Rxd3+ 33.Rxd3 Qe5! is nice for Black.

30…Rxa4

Much stronger was 30…Qxf2+ 31.Kd1 and now 31…Rdd8 (31…Rd6 looks more logical but this gives White the opportunity to play 32.Rxa7+ Kxa7 33.Qa3+ Kb7 34.Qxd6 Qc2+ 35.Ke1 Re8+ 36.Ne5 Qe4+ 37.Kf2 and perhaps escape) 32. Re1 Qxg3 {and Black is having a field day. ‘I looked at this move all the time’, said Kuipers, ‘and I can’t explain why I didn’t play it.’

31.Qxa4 Rd8 32.Qb3 Qxf2+ 33.Kc3

33…Rxd3+?

Kuipers panics. After moves like 33…Qxg2 or 33…Qf5 nothing is clear yet.

34.Kxd3 Qxg3+ 35.Kc4 Qg4+ 36.Kc3 1-0

Siem van Dael has converted very nicely against Lucas van Foreest.

Lucas van Foreest is not happy with his position…

Roeland Pruijssers has completely taken over against Luis Engel and now looks just winning. On board 1 the struggle between IMs Casper Schoppen and Xu Xiangyu is very tense and is still looking balanced.

Xu Xiangyu has very cleverly countered after Casper Schoppen may have gone too far with 35.Qg8. Black put the thumbscrews on the c2- and c1-points, which forced Casper to give his queen. It doesn’t look very holdable for the young Dutchman.

… it turned out to be holdable for White after all; Schoppen managed to create a fortress with rook and knight vs queen. The result is not yet given on the site, but it’s a draw.

Again two 1.d4 openings in the matches, again a Nimzo and a QGA, like in the first round. But otherwise everything is different. Ivanchuk and Wei Yi are now playing a kind of Ragozin, and in the QGA of Adhiban and Van Foreest the queens are still on the board.

Gert Ligterink just spent the first hour of his commentary session on the morning game between Dick de Graaf and Machteld van Foreest. Fascinating stuff! In more than one way…

The first wins in the Open already: Aan Sikka and Laurens van Twillert both won their games with white.

Dinara Saduakassova has started well against Sipke Ernst. Machteld van Foreest has made an interesting pawn sacrifice against Stefan Colijn, but is it correct…?

Very interesting developments in the game Adhiban-Van Foreest. On move 17 the Indian piled up the pressure with 17.Qc4.

Now Van Foreest played

17…Rc8

17… a5 looks dangerous but may have been possible, e.g. 18.Nxe6 Rxd1+ 19.Nxd1 Bxe3 20.Nxg7+ Kf8 21.Nxe3 Kxg7 22.Nf5+ Kf8 23.Qc1 (23.Ba2!? Nxa2 24.Qxa2 Nxe4 25.Qa3+ Qc5 26.Rd4 Bc6 27.Qxc5+ Nxc5 28.Rc4 Rg8 29.f3 Bxf3 30.g3 with a slight edge for White) and now e.g. 23…h5 24.Qg5 Rg8 25.Qh6+ Ke8 26. Qf4 Kd7 27. Qd2+ ends in a draw!

18.Nxe6 Bxe3 19.Nxg7+ Kf8 20.Qxb4+ Kxg7

21.Qxb6

A quite subtle refinement here may be the immediate 21.e5! Bxf2+ (no choice!) 22.Kh1 Qxb4 23.Rxb4 Rb8 24.exf6+ and Black cannot take back due to 25.Rf4+.

21… Bxb6 22. Rb4 Rc6 23. e5 Re8 24. exf6+ Rxf6

Now Van Foreest was down a pawn for the third time in the match, but this time he got quite good play for it.

Now the game Ivanchuk-Wei Yi also runs wild. Wei Yi sacked a rook on move 18, drawing White’s king to d4 on a full board! The computers think it’s no good… but what about the humans?

And suddenly Jorden is also winning! His bishop pair was very strong, and Adhiban’s 30.Kf2? was a blunder – he should have traded rooks first, though Black already had the upper hand. The Indian must have missed 31…Bc5+ and the trick 32…Bxg2+.

The Marriage Room of the town hall has exploded!

Here’s a short reconstruction of the bizarre finish to the Ivanchuk-Wei Yi game:

18…Rxe3!???!

A flabbergasting move. He could have played it one move earlier, before 17…g5 18.Bg3, in order to have …Qe5+ in the end, but then White has 18.Bxf6! in between.

19.Kxe3 d4+ 20.Kxd4

The white king leads his men into the battle.

‘What was he thinking…?’

20…Re5 21.Bd3 Be6

22.Qxb7!

Ivanchuk played this almost a tempo, but it was the move Wei Yi had overlooked: ‘I just looked at 22.Rc8+ Kg7 23.Nc4. Then I wanted to take” (23.Qa3 Qb6+ 24.Kc3 Ra5 25.Qd6 Nd5+ 26.Kc2 Ne3+ 27.Kc3 is a draw! The king cannot go to b1 in view of the bishop check on a2): 23…Bxc4. Now 24. Bxc4 is no good due to 24…Qd2+ but 24.R8xc4 Rd5+ 25.Ke3 Nc5 26.Rxc5 also wins for White.

Now the white king is surrounded by enemy pieces, but where are the checks?

22… Kg7 23.Ne4 Nd5 24.Bxe5+ Nxe5 25.Rc5

And before the white king could reach the fifth rank, Wei Yi resigned…

A meltdown, as our tournament director would say.

We carry on from the position after move 24 in the previous comment:

25.Kh1

After the liquidation with 25.Ne4 Bxe4 26.Rxe4 Rxe4 27.Bxe4 Rxf2 28.Kh1 Rxb2 Black has all the fun.

25…Rfe6 26.h4 Bc7

Threatening mate.

27.f4 Ba8 28.Kg1?

A mistake, though not yet a fatal one. Better was 28.Rc4 or 28.Kh2.

28…Ba5!

29.f5

‘Actually he was lucky to have this move after his first mistake’, Van Foreest said.

29…Re1+

30.Kf2??

He had to play 30.Rxe1 Rxe1+ 31.Kf2 when Black is a little better after 31…Bxb4 32.Kxe1 Bxg2.

30…Bxb4 31.Rxe1

And now…

31…Bc5+ 32.Kf1 Bxg2+ 33.Kxg2 Rxe1

And this endgame was hopeless for White.

Van Foreest had been under pressure earlier on, but he hadn’t really worried: ‘Some of my pieces were hanging, but I didn’t see a win for him. Anyway, I had no choice but to go in for those Nxe6 lines, otherwise I would have been clearly worse.’

Something bizarre also happened on board 3 of the Open. Uksini Bardhyl resigned in a winning position!

Here Xu Xiangyu played

24.Nxh7!?

And Black threw in the towel. Instead he could have won with 24…Qb4 25.Nf6+ Kf8 26.Nxd5 Qxa4. These moves appeared on the live broadcast, but it must have been because Xu showed them to Uksini!

White has to give the house to avoid mate: 27.Nc3 Rxc3! 28.bxc3 Qa2+ 29.Kc1 b2+ 30.Kd1 and now 30…Nc5! 31.Bc2 Rb8 wins for Black.

Xu Xiangyu

Dinara Saduakassova from Kazachstan is the sole leader in the Open after round 4. She defeated the hardened GM Sipke Ernst in a game that was stunning in the sense that she never lost control.

‘I didn’t expect him to play this line of the Nimzo’, Saduakassova said right after the game. ‘Maybe the liquidation with 9…dxc4 and 10…dxc3 wasn’t the best. I had the two bishops and a good structure. Then I tried to make problems for him on the a-file. He defended well and created some counterchances, but with Ra2-f2 I made trouble for him on f7.’ Saduakassova has made it look very easy up till now. But that was just appearances: ‘It wasn’t easy at all’, the 20-year-old smiled.