Auteur: Peter Boel

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.

The Hoogeveen Open has 37 live boards, which is unique in the Netherlands. The new software programme livechess 2 that is being used in the Hoogeveen town hall since yesterday was developed by the Belgian software developer Jan Vanhercke, and is connected to the new plastic DGT smartboards.
 

‘Wood is beautiful’, Vanhecke says, ‘but it’s heavy, and it has to be solid too. The wooden boards that have been used up to now are pretty hard to manage due to their thickness and weight. Now DGT has made a board that looks like wood, but is thinner and weighs less because it’s made from plastic. It has been extensively tested: it doesn’t curve, it doesn’t bend, and it doesn’t wear.’ The technique is also highly sustainable; it uses about ten times less energy than the old technology. 
 

To fabricate the boards in such a way that they give good signals and indicate which piece is on which square is not the biggest problem. ‘The big challenge is to read the data sent from the boards well, and convert them into a real chess game. For examples, players don’t always carry out their moves completely “correct” on the board, and some positions can appear on the board in different ways. Sometimes you just don’t know what actually happened on the board.’

Vanhercke has been searching for ten years for a satisfactory solution. ‘In the first two or three years I’ve been mainly cursing. Often I thought I had it, and then I didn’t. After a lot of research and further and further refinements I found an algorithm that became the basis of livechess. I came into contact with Albert Vasse, and ever since then DGT is working with this software.’ What the solution includes has to remain a secret, of course: ‘Let’s say that I solved it by not looking at the problems the way a chess player would.’

 

‘Of course we will keep refining and updating the equipment and the software, but what we have here is the basis for the future’, Vanhercke claims. A ‘preliminary version’ of Livechess 2 has already been used on 64 boards at the Belgian national junior championships in April of this year. ‘It worked like a dream there. Now we are using it for the first time in combination with these smartboards.’

Of course it is exciting to find out whether this new combination of state of the art software with hardware will also work well in a top tournament like Hoogeveen. ‘If things go wrong, I cannot do so much from a distance’, Vanhercke says. ‘But actually this is no longer an experiment, we’ve done that in Belgium. The software is quite robust, and Lennart Ootes is the perfect man to operate it. I will be following the developments from a distance.’
 

DGT’s aim is to make this equipment well accessible for the entire chess community. ‘We want to make it possible that a club can put its activities online in a simple way, even if it doesn’t have a server at hand. This is possible, for example, with a ‘cloud service’. We have developed that too, and used it in tournaments like Tata Steel, the London Classic, and also at the World Championships Rapid and Blitz. That function is also almost ready. This package has to be useful for both small clubs and big tournaments.’

We’re off again! Today both match games started with 1.e4, which we more or less expected with Wei Yi and Jorden van Foreest playing White. And in spite of Wei Yi’s reputation as a Sicilian slayer, Vasily Ivanchuk did take up the challenge and played 1…c5. Bravo!

There were no games in the Open yesterday that were beautiful enough to deserve the brilliancy prize. But Dinara Saduassakova did win a prize: all her moves against Alef Boer coincided for no less than 100% with the first choice of the strong ChessBase computer!

The first decision is here: Jan Boersma won by forfait against Pieter Hopman, who wanted a bye in the second round.

Tania Sachdev ‘put the lights out’ in the playing hall yesterday because she failed to convert a good piece sacrifice and had to work very hard for the point. Today she may finish earlier, as she already has a big advantage right after the opening. It looks as if Amir Nicolai may have forgotten about Qa4 checks when he played 8…c5, and after 9.Nxc4 there are also checks on d6 in the air.

Tania Sachdev may be pipped at the post, since Lara Schulze looks to be winning in a violent attack on the king of Robin Duson, who bravely started the game with a Dragon Sicilian.

Jonathan Carlstedt also looks to be in big trouble against his countryman Carsten Stanetzek, who already won a crazy game from Onno Elgersma yesterday.

The youngest member of the Van Foreest clan, Machteld, is having a hard time against Axel Fehr with white in a sharp Sicilian. But we also applaud her bravery to go in for this sharp Najdorf.

Strange things are starting to happen in the game Van Foreest-Adhiban. The Indian put his knight on the rim, and the young Dutchman could on move 16 have taken twice on h6 and covered the c4-pawn by 18.Nd2. Instead Van Foreest also put his knight on the rim: 16.Nh4!?, when after Black’s reply 16…Qh5 White cannot well take on h6, and c4 is hanging. The result is now that Van Foreest has lost a healthy pawn, just like yesterday.

Wei Yi and Ivanchuk are engaged in a sharp struggle. The provocative pawn capture 19…Qxb2 was predicted by our commentator of today, Robert Ris, who called it ‘just a move Ivanchuk would play’. Tournament director Loek van Wely joined the analysis, and said after the pointed reply 20.Bxb5, ‘Maybe this is a good time to leave you alone with your audience.’ However Black remained alive with active play. Even stronger, Loek van Wely commented: ‘It’s hard to imagine this can be anything for White’.

Thomas Beerdsen just started a furious attack with the rook sacrifice 24.Nf5 against Jakob Pajeken. His assault on the black king with knight and queen looks dangerous, but unfortunately there is no engine to be found that thinks it’s anything. It just looks losing for White! After 27…Rf5 Black can always give that rook for the annoying knight.

The second game between the Chinese and the Ukraine top GMs also ended peacefully with a perpetual. Wei Yi had played this line four years ago versus Alexei Shirov: “Then I castled long instead of short. Maybe after Black played 12…d5 I had some chances.” The sharp 17.Nf5 didn’t quite work out; the computer suggests trying something on the queenside with 17.a4 or even 17.Qb4.

“18…g6 was a good move”, said Wei Yi. “After that it was probably a draw. Maybe Black even had a little something after taking on b2, but it was not enough to win.” Ivanchuk agreed about the last bit: “I’m not sure if I had anything there.”

A few not unexpected decisions at the top of the Open group. Xu Xiangyu pressed against Stefan Colijn and won a queen, after which the conversion didn’t take very long. Roeland Pruijssers replied to a furious attack by Joost Wempe with a vicious counter, and Sipke Ernst defeated a young player from the same province of Frisia with a petit combinaison:

Here Ernst introduces the decisive trick: 28…Qg5 29.Nxd6 29.Tf1 was necessary, to prevent the following onslaught. 29…f5 30.Nf2 Nhf4 31.exf4 Nxf4 With attack on g2 and e2/c1. After 32.Qxf5+ Qxf5 33.Nxf5 Ne2+ Ernst hauled in the loot.

The young German talent Dmitrij Kollars won a quite technical game today, while his coach, Jonathan Carlstedt, went down against Carsten Stanetzek.

We received some comments by Lara Schulze on her combinative win against the young Dutch girl Robin Duson.

Schulze-Duson

14…Nxf3

‘This was a trap’, Schulze said. ‘Black cannot take this pawn.’ She should have played the thematic 14…Nc4.

15.Nd5!

A great counter. If Black now takes the queen White gets

a very favourable endgame with the bishop pair: 15…Nxd2 16.Nxe7+ Kf7 17.Nxc8 Raxc8 18.Rxd2. But this is what Robin should have tried, since now she gets crushed on the kingside.

15…exd5 16.Qxd5+ Kh8 17.hxg6 Nf6

18.Rxh7+!

Of course. Mate is inevitable.

18…Nxh7 19.Qh5 Bxb2+ 20.Kxb2 Rf7 21.gxf7 Qe6 22.Bxf3 Qf6+ 23.Bd4 e5 24. Rh1 1-0

The young German women’s champion was glad she bounced back after losing against Casper Schoppen yesterday. ‘But I haven’t set any goals for this tournament. If you want to end on 5 or 6 points you’re thinking “Oh, now I need three more points” all the time, and not focussing on the game at hand. Better take it one day at a time.’

Ivo Maris is putting up a big fight against Elo favourite Davorin Kuljasevic on board 1. Black had pressure on the c4-pawn, but White always had something in return. In the end the beleaguered pawn fell, but now White has gained the a4-pawn for it. A very slight edge for Black… will Maris be able to hold?

Jorden van Foreest has defended tenaciously, but now a knight ending is reached in which the a5-pawn also goes. How can the young Dutchman save himself from this?

Worries for the young Dutchman…

Machteld van Foreest just scored her first win in a big open. In a difficult position she cleverly started a permanent attack on the bishop of Axel Fehr, whereupon the latter sacked the bishop and ended up in a totally lost endgame.

It turned out that Machteld even had more ambitious plans… “If he had gone back with the bishop to c6 I would have gone after his rook and pushed my h-pawn”, she said. Her opponent Axel Fehr very graciously congratulated the 10-year-old and said ‘Gut gespielt.’

The knight ending was hopeless, and Jorden van Foreest has resigned after some tough defending.

Once more about the crucial moment in the game:

The reason why Adhiban hadn’t played 16.Bxh6 was that he thought Black had 16…Nb3. But right after the players were asked about this, Van Foreest cried: ‘Ah, now I do have 17.Nh4, and now I have exactly what I wanted!’ Both players had missed this. 17…Qe6 for instance is no use in view of 18.Qg5. So Black has to trade queens and White has a nice advantage.

 

Ivo Maris has held GM Davorin Kuljasevic to a draw on the top board. ‘It was very tough’, the Dutchman said. ‘I was a little worse all the time, I couldn’t do much and had to wait. But fortunately there was no way through for him. Maybe early on, when he traded the h-pawns (after move 29, PB), he should have played …g7-g6 and …f7-f5 instead, to create a second front. Then e4 becomes weak too. As it went, I could fool around a little on the edge of the board, and keep him busy.”

We’re off again! Today both match games started with 1.e4, which we more or less expected with Wei Yi and Jorden van Foreest playing White. And in spite of Wei Yi’s reputation as a Sicilian slayer, Vasily Ivanchuk did take up the challenge and played 1…c5. Bravo!

There were no games in the Open yesterday that were beautiful enough to deserve the brilliancy prize. But Dinara Saduassakova did win a prize: all her moves against Alef Boer coincided for no less than 100% with the first choice of the strong ChessBase computer!

The first decision is here: Jan Boersma won by forfait against Pieter Hopman, who wanted a bye in the second round.

Tania Sachdev ‘put the lights out’ in the playing hall yesterday because she failed to convert a good piece sacrifice and had to work very hard for the point. Today she may finish earlier, as she already has a big advantage right after the opening. It looks as if Amir Nicolai may have forgotten about Qa4 checks when he played 8…c5, and after 9.Nxc4 there are also checks on d6 in the air.

Tania Sachdev may be pipped at the post, since Lara Schulze looks to be winning in a violent attack on the king of Robin Duson, who bravely started the game with a Dragon Sicilian.

Jonathan Carlstedt also looks to be in big trouble against his countryman Carsten Stanetzek, who already won a crazy game from Onno Elgersma yesterday.

The youngest member of the Van Foreest clan, Machteld, is having a hard time against Axel Fehr with white in a sharp Sicilian. But we also applaud her bravery to go in for this sharp Najdorf.

Strange things are starting to happen in the game Van Foreest-Adhiban. The Indian put his knight on the rim, and the young Dutchman could on move 16 have taken twice on h6 and covered the c4-pawn by 18.Nd2. Instead Van Foreest also put his knight on the rim: 16.Nh4!?, when after Black’s reply 16…Qh5 White cannot well take on h6, and c4 is hanging. The result is now that Van Foreest has lost a healthy pawn, just like yesterday.

Wei Yi and Ivanchuk are engaged in a sharp struggle. The provocative pawn capture 19…Qxb2 was predicted by our commentator of today, Robert Ris, who called it ‘just a move Ivanchuk would play’. Tournament director Loek van Wely joined the analysis, and said after the pointed reply 20.Bxb5, ‘Maybe this is a good time to leave you alone with your audience.’ However Black remained alive with active play. Even stronger, Loek van Wely commented: ‘It’s hard to imagine this can be anything for White’.

Thomas Beerdsen just started a furious attack with the rook sacrifice 24.Nf5 against Jakob Pajeken. His assault on the black king with knight and queen looks dangerous, but unfortunately there is no engine to be found that thinks it’s anything. It just looks losing for White! After 27…Rf5 Black can always give that rook for the annoying knight.

The second game between the Chinese and the Ukraine top GMs also ended peacefully with a perpetual. Wei Yi had played this line four years ago versus Alexei Shirov: “Then I castled long instead of short. Maybe after Black played 12…d5 I had some chances.” The sharp 17.Nf5 didn’t quite work out; the computer suggests trying something on the queenside with 17.a4 or even 17.Qb4.

“18…g6 was a good move”, said Wei Yi. “After that it was probably a draw. Maybe Black even had a little something after taking on b2, but it was not enough to win.” Ivanchuk agreed about the last bit: “I’m not sure if I had anything there.”

A few not unexpected decisions at the top of the Open group. Xu Xiangyu pressed against Stefan Colijn and won a queen, after which the conversion didn’t take very long. Roeland Pruijssers replied to a furious attack by Joost Wempe with a vicious counter, and Sipke Ernst defeated a young player from the same province of Frisia with a petit combinaison:

Here Ernst introduces the decisive trick: 28…Qg5 29.Nxd6 29.Tf1 was necessary, to prevent the following onslaught. 29…f5 30.Nf2 Nhf4 31.exf4 Nxf4 With attack on g2 and e2/c1. After 32.Qxf5+ Qxf5 33.Nxf5 Ne2+ Ernst hauled in the loot.

The young German talent Dmitrij Kollars won a quite technical game today, while his coach, Jonathan Carlstedt, went down against Carsten Stanetzek.

We received some comments by Lara Schulze on her combinative win against the young Dutch girl Robin Duson.

Schulze-Duson

14…Nxf3

‘This was a trap’, Schulze said. ‘Black cannot take this pawn.’ She should have played the thematic 14…Nc4.

15.Nd5!

A great counter. If Black now takes the queen White gets

a very favourable endgame with the bishop pair: 15…Nxd2 16.Nxe7+ Kf7 17.Nxc8 Raxc8 18.Rxd2. But this is what Robin should have tried, since now she gets crushed on the kingside.

15…exd5 16.Qxd5+ Kh8 17.hxg6 Nf6

18.Rxh7+!

Of course. Mate is inevitable.

18…Nxh7 19.Qh5 Bxb2+ 20.Kxb2 Rf7 21.gxf7 Qe6 22.Bxf3 Qf6+ 23.Bd4 e5 24. Rh1 1-0

The young German women’s champion was glad she bounced back after losing against Casper Schoppen yesterday. ‘But I haven’t set any goals for this tournament. If you want to end on 5 or 6 points you’re thinking “Oh, now I need three more points” all the time, and not focussing on the game at hand. Better take it one day at a time.’

Ivo Maris is putting up a big fight against Elo favourite Davorin Kuljasevic on board 1. Black had pressure on the c4-pawn, but White always had something in return. In the end the beleaguered pawn fell, but now White has gained the a4-pawn for it. A very slight edge for Black… will Maris be able to hold?

Jorden van Foreest has defended tenaciously, but now a knight ending is reached in which the a5-pawn also goes. How can the young Dutchman save himself from this?

Worries for the young Dutchman…

Machteld van Foreest just scored her first win in a big open. In a difficult position she cleverly started a permanent attack on the bishop of Axel Fehr, whereupon the latter sacked the bishop and ended up in a totally lost endgame.

It turned out that Machteld even had more ambitious plans… “If he had gone back with the bishop to c6 I would have gone after his rook and pushed my h-pawn”, she said. Her opponent Axel Fehr very graciously congratulated the 10-year-old and said ‘Gut gespielt.’

The knight ending was hopeless, and Jorden van Foreest has resigned after some tough defending.

Once more about the crucial moment in the game:

The reason why Adhiban hadn’t played 16.Bxh6 was that he thought Black had 16…Nb3. But right after the players were asked about this, Van Foreest cried: ‘Ah, now I do have 17.Nh4, and now I have exactly what I wanted!’ Both players had missed this. 17…Qe6 for instance is no use in view of 18.Qg5. So Black has to trade queens and White has a nice advantage.

 

Ivo Maris has held GM Davorin Kuljasevic to a draw on the top board. ‘It was very tough’, the Dutchman said. ‘I was a little worse all the time, I couldn’t do much and had to wait. But fortunately there was no way through for him. Maybe early on, when he traded the h-pawns (after move 29, PB), he should have played …g7-g6 and …f7-f5 instead, to create a second front. Then e4 becomes weak too. As it went, I could fool around a little on the edge of the board, and keep him busy.”

Hoogeveen Chess 2017 has begun! Both the two matches and the Open got the signal from chief arbiter Frans Peeters at 14.03h. 37 brand new DGT smartboards are running to give you all the live games from the Open, and of course the clashes between Vasily Ivanchuk and Wei Yi, and between Adhiban and Jorden van Foreest (both of which started with 1.d4).

Tournament director Loek van Wely announced that there will be semi-finals and a final in the Open between the four highest-ranked players after 7 rounds. And there will be daily prizes: for the most interesting game “which doesn’t have to be good”. There will also be prizes for the player whose moves are identical with the first choice of the computer, but also a prize for the lowest percentage. “We are always watchful for cheaters, so if you see anything suspicious, come to us and we’ll take care of it in a very discrete way.”

By the way, all four match players have agreed that all six games will be rated, unlike the final game Hou Yifan-Short last year!

In a QG Accepted Adhiban and Van Foreest have already traded queens. This doesn’t mean a short and boring draw in general, there’s still lots of play in this position. We’ll have to have a little patience.

The character of the Nimzo-Indian on the board of Ivanchuk and Wei Yi looks to be pretty strategic. A wise decision by Ivanchuk? We’ll see – Wei Yi is not only a deadly tactician but also a quite strong technician.

Christiaan Molenaar is already in trouble against Ukraine GM Orest Gritsak. With the bishop on g5 in the Dutch, 3…h6? invited a trade which has left the black kingside position full of holes, and the possibility of 5.Nh4 is a telltale sign.

On the next board, the position of Alef Boer against Dinara Saduakassova also looks precarious. The move 7…e5 from the girl talent from Kazachstan was clever: fixing the e4-pawn and tying down White’s pieces. Next, after 8…Bc5, White’s king was already in trouble. White should probably have played 9.d4, but that looks shaky too.

Wow! Just when I told you we’d have to be a little patient, Adhiban has sacked a knight on b5! The idea is known in such positions, but here it appears to be new.

11.Nxb5!? axb5 12.Bxb5 and if now 12…Bd7 then 13.Rxd7! Kxd7 14.Ne5+, which is still highly unclear after 14…Kc7 15.Nxc6 Nd5. After a long thought Jorden put his bishop on b7, but now after 13.Bb2 the c-file is, let’s say, a little vulnerable.

We could already see it coming – in no time Alef Boer’s king was being chased all over the board by Dinara Saduakassova and the Dutchman had to resign on move 18. The 20-year-old player from Kazachstan, who was World Girls’ Champion under 20, under 18 and under 14, said that her opponent had played some strange moves in the opening. “Later, instead of 10.h3 maybe 10.Na4 was possible, with interesting play. Now, after 10…Nh5 I already had a big advantage.” Saduakassova said she was glad to be here in Hoogeveen, and would like to play one day in the ‘Marriage Room’ where the matches are held! Well, she’s still on schedule.

 

In the commentary room Joris Brenninkmeijer was looking at this position:

Here the position after 14…Ne4 was analysed for a while, until a spectator (using an engine…) came up with the fabulous move 15.Ng5!, which wins in all lines.

Jorden van Foreest must have seen this too, since he opted for 14…Nd7, which loses a pawn for Black.

The queens have also been exchanged in Ivanchuk-Wei Yi. The position looks very drawish now, with both sides having a strong minor piece and some weaknesses. Who knows the ending might still become interesting and we may even see queens reappear. We just have to be a little patient… oh no, forget I said that!

Lucas van Foreest has a lively game (as usual) against Bas de Boer. On move 11 something curious happened.

Instead of the desperado 11…Nxd5?! Black could have played 11…Qxe2 12.Re1 Ne4 13.Rxe2 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Ba6 with a difficult game for White, as Joris Brenninkmeijer analysed.

On move 21 Black could have played 21…Ng6 first instead of 21…Qh3, keeping some advantage. Maybe because of this, something went technically wrong with this live board on move 23… some strange rook moves appeared. It’s been repaired by our digital wizard Lennart Ootes.

We just witnessed it from close by… after Axel Fehr’s move 25.Qd1 against Stefan Kuipers all White’s pieces were on the back rank.

Just around that time Kuipers’ colleague IMs Schoppen and Carlstedt won their games, as did GM Gritsak. Christiaan Molenaar had sacrificed his pawn to fill the holes on his kingside, which looked like a wise decision. Unfortunately he never saw the pawn back.

No spectacular happenings on the first four boards. Wim Heemskerk, Dick de Graaf, Erik Sparenberg and Andries Mellema are putting up some stiff resistance, but it looks like they are slowly being ground down by their superiors in Elo, resp. Davorin Kuljasevic, Xu Xiangyu, Sipke Ernst, and Roeland Pruijssers.

 

Davorin Kuljasevic

Jorden van Foreest sacrifices the exchange in order to try and set up a fortress with the bishop on e6 – also White’s e5-pawn is weak. Is this Black’s best practical chance?

Ivanchuk and Wei Yi are battling it out in a rook ending where the equilibrium still does not seem to be broken.

The rook ending in Ivanchuk-Wei Yi remained undecided: on move 43 the peace treaty was signed. The Chinese had had no problems in the Classical Nimzo with the straightforward 6…d5 (instead of the more common 6…b6). “I think 10…Nc6 was an interesting move”, he said, “aiming for …e6-e5. After that Black was OK.” We hope to get some comments from Ivanchuk later on, but at this point he is still immersed in several games from the Open..

After Jorden’s exchange sac the game quickly petered out to a draw. “I should not have allowed it”, Adhiban said. “I had seen it, but not in combination with Black’s 27…e5, which makes it better. So probably I should have played 27.Rb4 instead of 27.Rc7.” Van Foreest wiped his forehead: “This was a narrow escape.” And a quite elegant one at that. “It feels like a victory.”

Adhiban’s 11.Nxb5 sacrifice turned out to be improvisation over the board, he had thought about it for 30 minutes. “I wanted to play 11.Be2 first”, he said. Was it correct? Both players couldn’t tell, but in any case it’s food for theoreticians – we’ve seen that the line leads to many beautiful motifs.

After Brenninkmeijer’s suggestion 13…Ke7 instead of 13…0-0…

Adhiban had planned to play 14.Rac1, when 14…Ne4 can follow. Now 15.Ng5 is not fatal for Black since after 15…Nxg5 16.Rxc5 he has 16…Rhd8!, using back-rank motifs to save himself. Then 17.Tdc1? is no good on account of 17…Ne4 18.Rxc6 Bxc6 19.Rxc6 Rxa2.

A highly interesting start of this match!

Although not much seemed to happen in the Ivanchuk-Wei Yi game today, a lot of things went on under the surface. “It was an interesting game”, commented Ivanchuk. “I was surprised by 10…Nc6 and spent a lot of time on my reply. I’m not sure if I had anything anywhere. I didn’t see any real chances in the rook ending either.” It was Wei Yi’s elegant 29…f5 that kept the balance.

 

Andries Mellema has allowed himself to be mated in a lost ending. This game was more or less equal for a long time. The resistance of Erik Sparenberg also seems to be broken now. But Dick de Graaf is playing very tenaciously against Xu Xiangyu. Is he in for a repetition of last year, when he played very well, beating GM Harmen Jonkman to get on 3 out of 4 before going down in the next round to GM Chanda Sandipan…? Or will Xu bring home this tense endgame after all?

Boards 2 and 3 finally ended in wins for the favourites. Erik Sparenberg could have saved himself the via dolorosa he travelled against Sipke Ernst, and Dick de Graaf had to resign against Xu Xiangyu in the end. The black knight on e5 turned out to be too strong. The last game to end was Van der Veen-Tania Sachdev, where the Indian IM’s 3 pawns were stronger in the endgame than White’s knight.

See you (or rather you see us) tomorrow!

Hoogeveen Chess 2017 has begun! Both the two matches and the Open got the signal from chief arbiter Frans Peeters at 14.03h. 37 brand new DGT smartboards are running to give you all the live games from the Open, and of course the clashes between Vasily Ivanchuk and Wei Yi, and between Adhiban and Jorden van Foreest (both of which started with 1.d4).

Tournament director Loek van Wely announced that there will be semi-finals and a final in the Open between the four highest-ranked players after 7 rounds. And there will be daily prizes: for the most interesting game “which doesn’t have to be good”. There will also be prizes for the player whose moves are identical with the first choice of the computer, but also a prize for the lowest percentage. “We are always watchful for cheaters, so if you see anything suspicious, come to us and we’ll take care of it in a very discrete way.”

By the way, all four match players have agreed that all six games will be rated, unlike the final game Hou Yifan-Short last year!

In a QG Accepted Adhiban and Van Foreest have already traded queens. This doesn’t mean a short and boring draw in general, there’s still lots of play in this position. We’ll have to have a little patience.

The character of the Nimzo-Indian on the board of Ivanchuk and Wei Yi looks to be pretty strategic. A wise decision by Ivanchuk? We’ll see – Wei Yi is not only a deadly tactician but also a quite strong technician.

Christiaan Molenaar is already in trouble against Ukraine GM Orest Gritsak. With the bishop on g5 in the Dutch, 3…h6? invited a trade which has left the black kingside position full of holes, and the possibility of 5.Nh4 is a telltale sign.

On the next board, the position of Alef Boer against Dinara Saduakassova also looks precarious. The move 7…e5 from the girl talent from Kazachstan was clever: fixing the e4-pawn and tying down White’s pieces. Next, after 8…Bc5, White’s king was already in trouble. White should probably have played 9.d4, but that looks shaky too.

Wow! Just when I told you we’d have to be a little patient, Adhiban has sacked a knight on b5! The idea is known in such positions, but here it appears to be new.

11.Nxb5!? axb5 12.Bxb5 and if now 12…Bd7 then 13.Rxd7! Kxd7 14.Ne5+, which is still highly unclear after 14…Kc7 15.Nxc6 Nd5. After a long thought Jorden put his bishop on b7, but now after 13.Bb2 the c-file is, let’s say, a little vulnerable.

We could already see it coming – in no time Alef Boer’s king was being chased all over the board by Dinara Saduakassova and the Dutchman had to resign on move 18. The 20-year-old player from Kazachstan, who was World Girls’ Champion under 20, under 18 and under 14, said that her opponent had played some strange moves in the opening. “Later, instead of 10.h3 maybe 10.Na4 was possible, with interesting play. Now, after 10…Nh5 I already had a big advantage.” Saduakassova said she was glad to be here in Hoogeveen, and would like to play one day in the ‘Marriage Room’ where the matches are held! Well, she’s still on schedule.

 

In the commentary room Joris Brenninkmeijer was looking at this position:

Here the position after 14…Ne4 was analysed for a while, until a spectator (using an engine…) came up with the fabulous move 15.Ng5!, which wins in all lines.

Jorden van Foreest must have seen this too, since he opted for 14…Nd7, which loses a pawn for Black.

The queens have also been exchanged in Ivanchuk-Wei Yi. The position looks very drawish now, with both sides having a strong minor piece and some weaknesses. Who knows the ending might still become interesting and we may even see queens reappear. We just have to be a little patient… oh no, forget I said that!

Lucas van Foreest has a lively game (as usual) against Bas de Boer. On move 11 something curious happened.

Instead of the desperado 11…Nxd5?! Black could have played 11…Qxe2 12.Re1 Ne4 13.Rxe2 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Ba6 with a difficult game for White, as Joris Brenninkmeijer analysed.

On move 21 Black could have played 21…Ng6 first instead of 21…Qh3, keeping some advantage. Maybe because of this, something went technically wrong with this live board on move 23… some strange rook moves appeared. It’s been repaired by our digital wizard Lennart Ootes.

We just witnessed it from close by… after Axel Fehr’s move 25.Qd1 against Stefan Kuipers all White’s pieces were on the back rank.

Just around that time Kuipers’ colleague IMs Schoppen and Carlstedt won their games, as did GM Gritsak. Christiaan Molenaar had sacrificed his pawn to fill the holes on his kingside, which looked like a wise decision. Unfortunately he never saw the pawn back.

No spectacular happenings on the first four boards. Wim Heemskerk, Dick de Graaf, Erik Sparenberg and Andries Mellema are putting up some stiff resistance, but it looks like they are slowly being ground down by their superiors in Elo, resp. Davorin Kuljasevic, Xu Xiangyu, Sipke Ernst, and Roeland Pruijssers.

 

Davorin Kuljasevic

Jorden van Foreest sacrifices the exchange in order to try and set up a fortress with the bishop on e6 – also White’s e5-pawn is weak. Is this Black’s best practical chance?

Ivanchuk and Wei Yi are battling it out in a rook ending where the equilibrium still does not seem to be broken.

The rook ending in Ivanchuk-Wei Yi remained undecided: on move 43 the peace treaty was signed. The Chinese had had no problems in the Classical Nimzo with the straightforward 6…d5 (instead of the more common 6…b6). “I think 10…Nc6 was an interesting move”, he said, “aiming for …e6-e5. After that Black was OK.” We hope to get some comments from Ivanchuk later on, but at this point he is still immersed in several games from the Open…

After Jorden’s exchange sac the game quickly petered out to a draw. “I should not have allowed it”, Adhiban said. “I had seen it, but not in combination with Black’s 27…e5, which makes it better. So probably I should have played 27.Rb4 instead of 27.Rc7.” Van Foreest wiped his forehead: “This was a narrow escape.” And a quite elegant one at that. “It feels like a victory.”

Adhiban’s 11.Nxb5 sacrifice turned out to be improvisation over the board, he had thought about it for 30 minutes. “I wanted to play 11.Be2 first”, he said. Was it correct? Both players couldn’t tell, but in any case it’s food for theoreticians – we’ve seen that the line leads to many beautiful motifs.

After Brenninkmeijer’s suggestion 13…Ke7 instead of 13…0-0…

Adhiban had planned to play 14.Rac1, when 14…Ne4 can follow. Now 15.Ng5 is not fatal for Black since after 15…Nxg5 16.Rxc5 he has 16…Rhd8!, using back-rank motifs to save himself. Then 17.Tdc1? is no good on account of 17…Ne4 18.Rxc6 Bxc6 19.Rxc6 Rxa2.

A highly interesting start of this match!

Although not much seemed to happen in the Ivanchuk-Wei Yi game today, a lot of things went on under the surface. “It was an interesting game”, commented Ivanchuk. “I was surprised by 10…Nc6 and spent a lot of time on my reply. I’m not sure if I had anything anywhere. I didn’t see any real chances in the rook ending either.” It was Wei Yi’s elegant 29…f5 that kept the balance.

 

Andries Mellema has allowed himself to be mated in a lost ending. This game was more or less equal for a long time. The resistance of Erik Sparenberg also seems to be broken now. But Dick de Graaf is playing very tenaciously against Xu Xiangyu. Is he in for a repetition of last year, when he played very well, beating GM Harmen Jonkman to get on 3 out of 4 before going down in the next round to GM Chanda Sandipan…? Or will Xu bring home this tense endgame after all?

Boards 2 and 3 finally ended in wins for the favourites. Erik Sparenberg could have saved himself the via dolorosa he travelled against Sipke Ernst, and Dick de Graaf had to resign against Xu Xiangyu in the end. The black knight on e5 turned out to be too strong. The last game to end was Van der Veen-Tania Sachdev, where the Indian IM’s 3 pawns were stronger in the endgame than White’s knight.

See you (or rather you see us) tomorrow!

photos: Lennart Ootes

The chairman of the tournament committee, Bert van der Haar, welcomed the match players and other visitors to the 21st Hoogeveen Chess Tournament, yesterday afternoon in the Tamboer theatre in Hoogeveen. He especially welcomed the mayor of Hoogeveen, Karel Loohuis, Thierry Baudet, leader of the Dutch political party Forum for Democracy, and the former mayor of Hoogeveen, Sytze Faber, who has played such a major role in establishing this event. Van der Haar mentioned the new sponsor group called ‘Corps 32’, which has given the tournament a big injection: ‘Hopefully this will grow into a ‘Corps 64’ – which coincides nicely with the number of squares on the chess board.’ He said that Hoogeveen is the second-biggest tournament in the Netherlands, and that he hoped that someday it will be the biggest. Van der Haar was looking forward to seeing the ‘showpiece of the day’, the chess game between Karel Loohuis/Loek van Wely and Thierry Baudet/Jorden van Foreest. ‘I hope our mayor wins’, quipped the chairman. 

 

The tournament director, Loek van Wely, thanked the main sponsors: the municipality of  Hoogeveen, the province of Drenthe, and ‘Corps 32’, as well as all the others involved. He claimed that this tournament aims to be progressive, with new technological gadgets. For example, all the participants in the Open group will be playing on wireless live-boards – which is a first worldwide, by courtesy of the Dutch company DGT. Also, on the ChessBase website it will be made visible in how far the moves of the players are identical with the first choices of strong chess computers. This may become a device to identify ‘cheaters’.

 

Next, Van Wely presented the participants of the two matches: ‘World Rapid Chess Champion and possible future World Checkers Champion Vasily Ivanchuk, possible future World Champion Wei Yi, the number 3 – or 4 – of India Adhiban Baskaran, a very friendly person and an attractive player’, and finally the 18-year-old Dutch top talent Jorden van Foreest. ‘This is your third and last chance’, he sternly told the latter. ‘Not winning is not an option.’ No pressure on the young grandmaster from Groningen.

 

Now the announced blitz game between the two duos started. Tournament director Van Wely cheered his partner with the white pieces, mayor Loohuis, on with remarks like ‘That’s it, forward, nice and aggressive, now it’ll be over soon.’ A little later he changed his tune somewhat, saying: ‘Now the draw is in sight.’ And, you’ve guessed it, shortly afterwards the talented black players had won the game. 

Baudet, the fourth Dutch politician to open the Hoogeveen Chess Tournament, after Fred Teeven, Jetta Klijnsma and Eric Smaling, explained in his opening speech why chess appeals to him so much: ‘On the board we see exactly the same things as these brilliant top players see, and yet we will always lose every game against them. That’s what makes this game so magical.’ He also appreciated the fact that on the chess board every mistake is punished mercilessly: ‘There is no excuse when you lose, you yourself are responsible. That is a lesson for politicians.’ He also mentioned that a small mistake early on in a chess game can have grave consequences much later on. ‘Politicians are never concerned with the effects of their policy in the long term: where are we going? where are we as a country? Russia and China, for instance, which are also top countries in chess, spend much more thought on this than we do here.’ Baudet called it impressive what his ‘running mate’  Van Wely had accomplished with this tournament: ‘I hope this will inspire many people to start playing chess too.’

 

Van Wely started the drawing of lots for the matches by showing the famous video where Ivanchuk took a short break from a checkers game with Baadur Jobava to collect his first prize in the World Rapid, last year in Qatar. Then he asked what the GM from Ukraine would prefer: beating Wei Yi in the chess match, or beating the young Dutch top checkers player Jan Groenendijk in their demonstration game on Saturday 27 October in Assen. After some hesitation, Ivanchuk replied: “Both, if possible.” Wei Yi was asked what would happen if nobody ever played the Sicilian against him any more. “Then I would have 100 Elo points less”, the young Chinese said. Will Ivanchuk, who drew White for the first game, take up this challenge this week?
 

Adhiban was rebutted by Van Wely for the fact that he still doesn’t have a 2750 Elo rating, as he once promised. “I never gave a time frame”, the Indian laughed. “But like Wei Yi I am also very dangerous.” “We want coffeehouse play”, Van Wely ordered. Something like what he had showed in the duo demonstration game, or in the blitz game with Jorden van Foreest a little later, which, admittedly, he won. Van Foreest announced he would try hard to grab the final chance given to him this week by the tournament committee. Otherwise his younger brother Lucas might come and take his place. So, there was a lot of fighting spirit already. Adhiban was the man who drew White, and so the pairings for tomorrow are: