Auteur: Peter Boel

De Apeldoornse meester Nico Zwirs schopte het vandaag tot de finale van het Open Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi. Hij drukte in de halve finale het 15-jarige Indiase talent Bharath Subramaniyam volledig van het bord in een puike partij. De andere finaleplaats werd bepaald in een versnelde tiebreak omdat de Armeense grootmeester Robert Hovhannisyan en de Russisch-Noorse grootmeester Evgeny Romanov in hun reguliere partij het punt deelden. In de twee beslissende snelschaakpartijen was Hovhannisyan oppermachtig, en hij speelt morgen om de toernooiwinst tegen Zwirs.

‘Open 8’ op onze website)

 

In de ‘rest’ van het Open toernooi kwamen zes spelers bovenaan te staan, onder wie de Nederlanders Thomas Beerdsen, Sipke Ernst en Nick Maatman. De laatste twee speelden vandaag onderling remise.

Uitslagen Final Four:
Zwirs-Bharath 1-0
Romanov-Hovhannisyan remise (tiebreak 0-2)

Stand aan kop Open na 8 ronden:
Fernandez, Moroni, Ernst, Maatman, Beerdsen, Ismail 6 punten

Slotronde Final Four:
Hovhannisyan-Zwirs (voor de toernooiwinst)
Romanov-Bharath (voor de derde plaats)

 

Live blog in Engels:

 

Semi-final Four

The crossfinals of the ‘Final Four’ in the Open have juist started in the room where the two matches finished yesterday. Today we have the semifinals: if any of the games is drawn, there will be a blitz play-off like in the matches yesterday.

 

Some risk

Bharath took a lot of time for his tenth move, 10…Nf6, and indeed it involves some risk. White can now take on b5 twice and switch to the kingside while Black is still recovering his pawn.

The other Final Four game sees a quite curious pawn structure in which Black’s development looks just a little smoother than White’s (Romanov’s). But that is because of Black’s outpost on e4 which can also easily become weak.

Romanov (left) vs Hovhannisyan

 

Evgeny Romanov and Robert Hovhannisyan have engaged in a Reversed Sicilian whereas Nico Zwirs and Bharath Subramaniyam are playing an ‘unreversed’ one. The Indian has opted for a Kan Variation with an early 5…b5. As a consequence, Zwirs has castled short.

 

Machteld on the attack

Some developments in the battle for the Women’s prize:

Machteld van Foreest-Bhakti Kulkarni

The situation is sharpening. Probably Kulkarni should have kept the position closed here with 12…f4. After the game move 12…fxe4 13.Rxe4, 13…d5?! didn’t work very well (perhaps 13…Bf5!?) after White’s reply 14.Bg5!.

14…Nf6? This looks already losing. She could have tried the queen sacrifice 14…dxe4 15.Bxd8 exf3 16.Bxc7 fxg2 and after taking on d4 the white position does contain some targets for Black, but probably White is better. But now 15.Rxe5! Nxe5 16.dxe5 looked already quite decisive. Black didn’t lose a piece after 16…Bxf2+ 17.Kh1 h6 but her kingside is smashed open. Just the way Machteld likes it!

Machteld van Foreest facing the camera

 

Nico Zwirs looks in great shape; Bharath’s king is still uncastled and White has pressure. The game Romanov-Hovhannisyan is a heavy equalish strategic struggle, with some features of the Berlin Wall we have discussed a lot in the past week!

Nico Zwirs

 

Draw in the Final Four

Evgeny Romanov and Robert Hovhanissyan have stopped their strategic struggle and shared the point. This means they will play a blitz tiebreak for a place in the final, roughly ten minutes after the other Final Four game, between Zwirs and Bharath, has finished.

Romanov standing

 

Beerdsen wins

Jaap Vogel has resigned quite quickly, as soon as he lost a pawn for no compensation on move 21. Beerdsen was still wondering what he was going to do after 22.Bxa3 Qxa3 23.Rb7, but 23…Qa1+ and 24…Qxd4 looks convincing enough; Black’s a-pawn will be running very fast. Former Dutch Championship player Vogel (74) is arguably the most experienced guy around here, so he knows better than to spend too much energy on such a position against an IM!

 

Machteld strikes

Machteld van Foreest wins the queen and forces Bhakti Kulkarni to resign. What a powerful game this was by the World’s No. 3 U16!

 

Zwirs wins!

Nico Zwirs just qualified for the final after a magnificent game. At the end, Bharath Subramaniyam could hardly move a piece.

This means that Zwirs has reached the final. The other finalist will be determined in a blitz playoff between Evgeny Romanov and Robert Hovhannisyan that is starting soon!

 

Hovhannisyan blitzes through to final

Robert Hovhannisyan has just beaten Evgeny Romanov 2-0 in the blitz playoff for the final tomorrow. Both games were set up quite solidly and were, of course, nervy affairs. In Game 1, a London System, Hovhannisyan gradually built up the pressure and when Romanov sacrificed his knight to go for the a-pawn, it quickly ended with a mating net.

The two GMs with arbiters Frans Peeters and Angelique Osinga (left)

In the second game, a Reversed English like in today’s regular game, Hovhannisyan sprang a surprise on his opponent with the original 9…Rg8!?. It may have wrongfooted Romanov just a bit, since he couldn’t find a good plan. The Armenian GM was ganging up on the white e-pawn when Romanov made a sortie with his queen. Hovhannisyan kept his cool and caught White’s strongest piece in a few moves, after which Romanov immediately resigned: 2-0!

 

Tomorrow the finals will look as follows:

Hovhannisyan-Zwirs for first place

Romanov-Bharath for third place.

 

Six players leading in ‘Rest’

The games between Daniel Fernandez as well as Sipke Ernst and Nick Maatman have ended in draws after cautious and prolonged fights. The only player, besides Thomas Beerdsen, able to catch on was the low-rated Belgian Tamer Ismail, who is playing a great tournament so far. His opponent Henning Holinka was much better, but played a too optimistic piece sacrifice that cost him a full point.

Tamer Ismail

These players are all on six points, and in all probability one of them will take first place of the ‘Rest’ tomorrow.

De twee matches van het Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi zijn vandaag beslist. Via een nieuwe zege versloeg Lucas van Foreest de gelauwerde Engelsman Luke McShane met maar liefst 4-2. ‘Lucas speelde gewoon zeer goed,’ gaf McShane sportief toe. De andere match eindigde in 3-3 en werd beslist met een tiebreak van twee snelschaakpartijen. Hierin was de Belg Daniel Dardha, die vijf jaar geleden wereldkampioen snelschaken was onder veertien jaar, de sterkste. Hij won de eerste partij overtuigend en verdedigde sterk nadat Max Warmerdam zijn kansen in de tweede partij niet pakte. Het was buigen of barsten voor Warmerdam, en het werd barsten.

Bij het Open toernooi hebben zich na zeven ronden vier spelers geplaatst voor de kruisfinales die in de komende twee dagen plaatsvinden. De deelnemers van deze ‘Final Four’ zijn de pas 15-jarige grootmeester uit India Bharath Subramaniyam en de in Noorwegen wonende Russische grootmeester Evgeny Romanov (die vanmiddag snel remise speelden tegen elkaar), de Armeense grootmeester Robert Hovhannisyan en de Nederlandse meester Nico Zwirs.

Eindstanden matches:
Warmerdam-Dardha 3-3 (Dardha wint 2-0 in tiebreak)
Van Foreest-McShane 4-2

Stand aan kop Open na 7 ronden:
1.GM Bharath (IND), GM Romanov (NOR) 6
3.GM Hovhannisyan (ARM), Zwirs 5½ (naar Final Four)
5.GM Fernandez (ENG), GM Moroni (ITA), GM Ernst, IM Maatman 5½
9.Holinka (DUI), IM Beerdsen, FM Clemens, Ismail (BEL), FM Vogel 5

Indeling Final Four:
Zwirs-Bharath
Romanov-Hovhannisyan

 

Blog in het Engels:

 

A crucial day

Today is a crucial day in the tournament. The matches conclude with the sixth and final games both, and in both matches everything is still possible.

In the seventh round of the Open, the first four players qualify for the ‘Final Four’, after which they will play two knock-out matches for tournament victory, tomorrow and Saturday, in the room where the matches are still being played right now.

Theere are a couple of players who cancelled today due to illness. One positive consequence of IM Nico Zwirs having no opponent is that he has been found prepared to do this round’s commentary!

 

More changes

Daniel Dardha is again trying something new today. After the Semi-Tarrasch of round 4, he went for an Orthodox Queen’s Gambit to which Max Warmerdam replied with an exchange on d5 and a London System-like set-up with Bf4 and h2-h3.

The game between Lucas van Foreest and Luke McShane was again, like in round 4, a King’s Indian. Only now, after Van Foreest’s 5.h3, McShane didn’t play 5…0-0 and 6…Na6 but the more regular 5…Nbd7. Van Foreest remained consistent by castling long.

 

Warmerdam and Dardha go for blitz

Max Warmerdam and Daniel Dardha made a short draw today, meaning the match is tied and they will have a blitz playoff (3 minutes + 2 second per move) of 2 games. If this ends 1-1, they play on and whoever wins next, wins the match.

This meant that instead of zero commentators, we suddenly had three today! Both players gave a quick explanation of their game. It turned out that Max had mixed up the moves in the opening. He had wanted to start with 6.Bf4 and after 6…c6 play 7.h3, but instead started with 6.h3 which allowed Dardha to play …c7-c5 in one move. ‘Now I was just a tempo short,’ said Max, ‘and I had to watch out not to get worse.’

Daniel could have tried …Dd8-b6 on move 8 or one move later, to profit from White’s tempo loss, but after dxc5 Qxb2 Rc1 (in both cases), Dardha said, ‘I wasn’t sure if Max had maybe prepared something here.’ So the fear of Warmerdam’s preparation is certainly there! Max was glad, after losing yesterday, that he could make a quick draw: ‘When I had mixed up the move order I was wondering a bit what I was doing.’

Zwirs asked both players, who had played four games against each other before this, how they looked back on the match. For Dardha it was his first match ever, Warmerdam had played a few for the Dutch Championship last year, and a short one in September. ‘Apart from game 1 I haven’t been able to show much with White,’ Max said. ‘Yesterday may have taught me something about how to react to draw offers. If I’d accepted Daniel’s one yesterday, the situation would have been quite different today.’

Daniel said: ‘The day before I came to Hoogeveen, right after the European Club Cup, my second told me he was ill. I’ve checked a few things myself but more 1.e4 openings. during the match I came to realize that a loss can have so much impact on a match. I felt under pressure in the first three games, but I think I made a good comeback in the final three.’

 

A bit slow?

Daniel Dardha and Max Warmerdam continued their act with a joint analysis of the still running encounter between Lucas van Foreest and Luke McShane. The difference with the King’s Indian of two days ago was not so much the position of Black’s knight (which went to c5 anyway, only now via d7) but more that Black postponed short castling, which gave him more time to react to White’s plans. For instance, 9.f3 would now have been les attractive due to 9…Nh5, and so Van Foreest put his knight on f3. Max thought at first that Van Foreest’s plan with 13.a3 and 14.Ka2 was a bit slow; ‘I play the King’s Indian with Black, and generally you should play faster with White in this type of position.’

McShane’s reaction 14…Ra6 here was to the point and quite instructive. Not only is it the only way to create play against White’s king (…b7-b5 will be hard to realize) but the rook may also go to f6 one day or help in the defence.

 

Quick draw on board 1 Open

With a quick draw, Bharath Subramaniyam and Evgeny Romanov secured their qualification for the Final Four in the last two days of the tournament. 15-year-old Bharath is from Chennai, India’s chess city No. 1, and is coached there by the successful trainer RB Ramesh. He has been a GM since January, and is quite happy the way things are going in this tournament so far.

Daniel Fernandez has just beaten German player Jakob Weihrauch quite quickly, and the English GM may also have a small chance of reaching the Final Four. But he has many rivals!

Bharath Subramaniyam — a new Indian chess superstar…?

 

Beerdsen in trouble

Thomas Beerdsen seems about to be losing his high ranking. He had allowed his rook to be locked in on b6 with a clever manoeuvre by Robert Hovhannisyan (putting his bishop on b5) and his other pieces do no cooperate well either. Now, after 30…Nd2, 31.f4 looks winning for White.

 

McShane misses a funny chance

Lucas van Foreest has slowly built up a big advantage against Luke McShane. There was one hiccup right after Lucas allowed the advance of Black’s e5-pawn.

Here McShane tried the violent 28…b5 after which things are fine again for the leading Dutchman, but he had a very nice trick in 28…Bd7!. Now he has a very slow way to conquer the misplaced bishop on a4: …b7-b6 and …c6-c5 – nothing White can do about it!

 

Ganging up for place 4 in the Open

It looks like quite a lot of players are going to end up on 5½ points — two of the players with the highest average rating of the opponents ‘cut-1’ will qualify for the Final Four.

Besides Zwirs and Hovhannisyan, Sipke Ernst and Nick Maatman are now also on 5½. Ernst outplayed Eelke de Boer with Black in a Najdorf.

Sipke Ernst in yesterday’s game

 

Nick Maatman won a pawn against John Cornelisse and won another one after a tactical skirmish.

Nick Maatman

 

Luca Moroni and R Ashwath are still fighting for a last chance. The Italian GM looks winning with his mighty central pawn mass while Black’s passed queenside pawns are under control.

 

Van Foreest also wins last game

Lucas van Foreest also won the last game, in which Luke McShane had to force something, and it didn’t work. His fleeting chance on move 28 didn’t alter the fact that the game was going Van Foreest’s way. ‘I suppose I could have played …f5-f4 somewhere to slow down White’s attack,’ said McShane, ‘but that would also have increased the chances of a draw. After White took on d6 with the rook I thought I might have some practical chances…’ but Van Foreest was firmly in control by now after his slight slip. ‘The engine likes this opening line for White,’ he simply said, and that ought to be enough. ‘Lucas wasn’t lucky or anything,’ McShane said a few moments later to a chess fan, ‘he just played very well.’

A 4-2 win in his debut match — a fabulous performance for Lucas van Foreest!

 

Dardha wins match in tiebreak

Daniel Dardha showed today that he hadn’t become World Blitz Champion U14 five years ago for nothing. In the blitz playoff with Max Warmerdam he looked tense, but alert, and he took his chances marvellously. With 2-0 he won the tiebreak, and the match.

In Game 1 of the tiebreak Dardha built up pressure on the queenside, while also controlling the d-file. This last factor eventually decided the game when he allowed Warmerdam to take his pawn on a3 but broke through to the black king on d7: 1-0.

Warmerdam had to strike back with White, and with the Vienna Game he came quite far. The Dutchman was gradually opening roads against the black king.

In this position, White could have kept a large advantage with 28.Qg3+ Kh8 29.Kf1! — quite a hard move to find in blitz, of course. 29…Rg8 is defended and now White controls all the important squares. After 28.Kh1 Dardha immediately seized his chance with 28…Re6! and now Black was OK. In the following, Max gave the pawn on h6 but could have gotten good winning chances with Qa8 on several occasions. After he failed to do that, there were ways to give a perpetual but of course that was no use to him. That meant that Dardha, who was now playing very fast, could cruise to victory and 2-0 in the tiebreak.

 

Final Four

With Luca Moroni’s win over R Ashwath, the following players have qualified for the Final Four:

1. Bharath Subramaniyam
2. Evgeny Romanov
3. Robert Hovhannisyan
4. Nico Zwirs

Despite winning on forfeit today, that game counted as a real game for the tiebreak, and so he had a better tiebreak than Moroni, Ernst, Fernandez and Maatman.

Nico Zwirs in action today

 

Prizegiving

During a short prizegiving ceremony for the matches in the Marriage Room of the city hall, tournament director Loek van Wely asked Luke McShane, whom he called ‘a gentleman and a fighter’, what had gone wrong in his match. ‘Well,’ the Englishman said,’ everything was very nice here, I have no excuses. Lucas simply played an excellent match. He was better in most of the games.’

The winner, Lukas van Foreest, thought that ’time use had a lot of influence on our match. In the first game I had two minutes against Luke’s twenty, and it went wrong for me. In the games I won, he was in time-trouble, and made the wrong decisions in difficult situations. At 1-1 Luke played very ambitiously with the King’s Indian, which he also played in the last game. If he had remained solid, things might have gone differently. On this level, the King’s Indian is just not so good objectively.’

Lucas’ near chess future looks as follows: he’s going to play for the Netherlands in the FIDE World Team Championship in Jerusalem from 19 November, and hasn’t decided yet if he will play in the Dutch national championship from 21 December.

Max Warmerdam was also asked where things had gone wrong for him in the match. His explanation: ‘If I’d accepted that draw offer yesterday, then I would have gone into the final round with a one-point lead. But I was also playing for rating. After yesterday’s game I felt quite exhausted. When I mixed up the move-orders in today’s game, I was glad to draw.’ Warmerdam will also be on the Dutch team in Jerusalem, and has already agreed, as a champion, to play the Dutch Championship.

The eventual winner, Daniel Dardha, said he was a bit ‘out of morale’ after his loss in Game 3. ‘But I’m glad I managed to hang on mentally, and happy that yesterday I managed to win an ending that was objectively 0.00. From there on, everything went well.’

Via een welhaast ongelooflijke eindspelzege tegen Max Warmerdam heeft Daniel Dardha de match in de vijfde ronde gelijkgetrokken. Warmerdam behandelde het eindspel te optimistisch en had te laat in de gaten dat niet hij maar zijn tegenstander op winst kon spelen. Op zet 85 werd dat de Nederlander uiteindelijk fataal. De partij uit de andere match, tussen Luke McShane en Lucas van Foreest, was uren eerder al in remise geëindigd nadat beide heren nieuwe wegen hadden verkend in het labyrint van de Berlijnse Variant van het Spaans, die slechts zeer zelden eindigt in winst van een der beide partijen.

Geen van beide matches is dus beslist. Morgen wordt hier de laatste ronde gespeeld.

In het Open toernooi versloeg, nadat de vijfde ronde al ’s ochtends was gespeeld, in de zesde ronde Thomas Beerdsen medekoploper Eelke de Boer en reikte tot de derde plaats. De 15-jarige Indiase grootmeester Bharath Subramaniyam en de Russisch-Noorse grootmeester Evgeny Romanov pakten via overwinningen de koppositie. Morgen wordt in de zevende ronde uitgemaakt welke vier spelers naar de kruisfinales gaan voor de toernooizege. De overige spelers gaan dan in de twee laatste ronden onder elkaar verder voor de prijzen van de ‘best of the rest’.

Stand in matches (na 5 ronden):
Warmerdam-Dardha 2½-2½
Van Foreest-McShane 3-2

Stand aan kop in Open (na 6 ronden)
1.Bharath, Romanov 5½
3.Beerdsen 5
4. 11 spelers met 4½ punt

 

Blog in Engels:

 

Round 5 has started!

A tough day today for the Open players — 2 rounds! This morning 82 players started at 9.00h already (apart from those who are still hurrying towards the town hall at this moment), and round 6 will start, at the same time as the two match games, at 15.00h.

On board 1, Eelke de Boer faces the four years younger but 200 Elo points higher rated Bharath Subramaniyam.

Remember folks – even if you’re not entirely awake, don’t start fiddling with your opponent’s king!

 

Early morning slipup

There’s always one – Roger Labruyère just ‘absent-mindedly’ took a pawn on d4 with his queen on move 8, and now after 10.Ne5 he can resign.

 

No queens left on boards 1 and 2

The queens have come off on both boards 1 and 2; in both cases the White players, Eelke de Boer and Robert Hovhannisyan, look to have a solid advantage.

 

Thomas Beerdsen strikes!

Trust Thomas Beerdsen to find the most promising tactic in a position. Against Paul Hummel, the IM from Apeldoorn just struck home as follows after the weakening move 18…a6:

19.Rf7! Nxf7

19…Rd7 20.Rxg7 Rxg7 21.Qxg4+ Nxg4 22.Bxd6 wins more prosaically for White, with a piece up.

If 19…Rg8 20.Na4 Black will go down to the weakness of his dark squares.

20.Qxg4+ Qd7 21.Na4! Qxg4 22.Nb6 mate – bravo!

 

Hovhannisyan looks to be winning

Robert Hovhannisyan has been steering very prosaically towards a winning bishop ending, in which Daniel Fernandez’ bishop is tied to the weak pawn on a7. If Black pushes his e-pawn there will be skewers on the h2-b8 diagonal after White brings up his king to b5. This looks like a matter of time.

Robert Hovhannisyan

 

The struggle between De Boer and Bharath on board 1 remains tense. Structurally, Black is better, but White’s pieces are more active and De Boer still has a slight initiative.

 

Veteran Jaap Vogel on +2

Jaap Vogel won his second game in a row after three short draws. The 74-year-old veteran from Deventer, former Dutch Open champion, is still a very active player. Today, Tim Brouwer had no chance against him. Also the significantly younger Machteld van Foreest has just hauled in the loot after outplaying Christiaan Mol; the evil Bc6 spelled the downfall of White’s king. And Roger Labruyère has tried to get back in the game for a bit, but Henning Holinka made no mistake and finished off efficiently.

 

Hovhannisyan wins, De Boer misses first great chance

Robert Hovhannisyan brought home his endgame advantage. ‘It might have been an interesting indgame if Fernandez had found a better defence,’ the Armenian GM said. It’s not easy to find one though!

There was one moment on board one where De Boer could have obtained a winning advantage:

De Boer-Bharath

Here De Boer shouldn’t have worried about that b-pawn and instead of 28.Be6 should have played 28.Rdd7 when after 28…Rxb3+ 29.Kg2 Rb2+ 30.Kg3 Black has to give a piece. After the text, a highly tactical phase ensued in which Black’s 33…Kg7? was inaccurate, bringing his own king into the open and allowing the later 36.Bxh5 after which White is better again.

Bharath Subramaniyam H

 

Moroni held to a draw

Not always does the stronger player win in the ending: against Luca Moroni, Dutch player John Cornelisse was never really in danger in an opposite-coloured bishops ending with a pawn less. Evgeny Romanov has also had a pawn less for a while against tournament revelation Jakob Weihrauch, but the German could not prevent Black’s king walking to b2 and collecting an important pawn there. This looks winning for the Norway-based GM.

Romanov with Weihrauch in front

 

Draw on board 1

It’s a draw after all!

Eelke de Boer told us he had missed the reply 36…Bf6+! after 36.Bxh5 after which things became complicated. The moment where he thought he let his advantage slip came on the notorious (well, in the old increment-less days…) 39th move.

Here, De Boer played 39.e5 when Bharath very cleverly escaped to a draw with the manoeuvre 39…Rff2! followed by …Rg2. White can make no progress since he has to avoid the mate threat …g6-g5.

De Boer thought he should have played 39.Kg3 but what can White do after 39…Rb2 other than repeat with 40.Kh4 ? He could even have snacked a pawn with 39.Rxa7, but that runs into the same rook manoeuvre …Rff2-g2 and White can’t make progress — almost study-like! If necessary, Black even has a tempo with …Rg1.

19-year-old De Boer is having a great tournament anyway, after a 2-year pause. ‘For no particular reason,’ he said, ‘it was just that with corona not much was going on and I didn’t much feel like playing. Before this tournament I did, though I haven’t really prepared.’

 

Endgames, endgames

Local player Andries Mellema and Adrian Clemens are doing well, both drawing in opposite-coloured bishop endgames (eventually) against, respectively, IM Nick Maatman and FM Onno Elgersma.

German player Sebastian Mueer has been better for hours but is now facing the curious endgame of two bishops vs knight against Tamer Ismail. It’s a win, and it can be done within 40 moves, the experts say. Can it be done on the board? The Tablebases say a win in 25 after 90…Kc8. The 50 moves are over on move 121 but in the meantime White will win the knight somewhere, so then the counting can start anew.

Mueer-Ismail after 90…Kc8

For what it’s worth, the quickest tablebase line is to try and force the black king away from the knight and conquer the knight: 91.Be1 Kd8 92.Bd2 Kc8 93.Bf1 Kb7 94.Bg2+ Kb6 95.Bg5 Kb5 96.Bd8 Ka6 97.Be4 Ka7 98.Kc7 Ka6 99.Kxb8 and then we can all do it, but these first seven moves…

 

Mueer-Ismail

On move 99 Mueer manages to catch Black’s knight, so this looks good for him.

And it’s done – well played by Mueer (on the right)!

 

That’s a quite short break for us – back with you at three o’clock on this same blog, for the sixth round of the Open and the fifth round of the matches!

 

More new stuff

The four match players keep deviating. Today, in round 5, Daniel Dardha played 1.d4 for the first time, and after 1…Nf6 went for the Trompowsky. After 2…d5 and 3…c5 Warmerdam took back with the g-pawn after the trade on f6, which resulted in an interestingly unbalanced structure.

Luke McShane and Lucas van Foreest again played the Berlin Ruy Lopez, but this time McShane deviated early with 5.Re1, a line which is more popular nowadays than the old ‘Berlin Wall’ line 5.d4. After 5…Nd6 6.Bf1 Be7 7.Nxe5 Nxe5 8.Rxe5 0-0 9.d4 Bf6, the game Yoo-Robson in the twelfth round of the American Championship saw the highly interesting exchange sacrifice 10.Bd3 only yesterday, but the Englishman went for the standard 10.Re1.

 

Mellema sacs a piece vs GM Ernst

Our apologies — our website has been out of order for sometime. Hopefully we’ll be alright from here on.

Here’s a nice position to resume our reports with. In a Winawer French against local hero Andries Mellema, GM Sipke Ernst played the rather careless 11.a4 which allowed an irritating knight sortie to b4:

Causing a problem Ernst solved in original style with 13.Kd2.

Two moves later the position was as follows:

Now Mellema could have tried the quiet way with 15…Nbc6, when the damage to White has been done, but instead he bravely went for the promising piece sac 15…fxe5!?.

Andries Mellema

 

Mueer accelerates

Sebastian Mueer probably had enough of long games after his marathon one against Ismail this morning. Against GM Daniel Fernandez, he is already deep in a rook ending after only two hours of play — unfortunately this one is quite lost for him!

Daniel Fernandez (right), earlier today vs Hovhannisyan

 

The Berlin

Even though Luke McShane played another line of the Berlin today, the 5th match game with Lucas van Foreest still ended in a draw. Van Foreest, in a good mood, joked against his opponent: ‘I was sick of playing the Berlin all the time, but I knew you would probably be more sick of it.’ Mc Shane had to laugh.

Both players are very harmoniously discussing the Berlin not only on but also off the board, and they’re not ready yet. ‘There are so many plans for both sides,’ Lucas said. Both players understand that people think the Berlin Wall is boring. ‘Probably since the queens come off so early,’ Luke said. ‘Then people just turn off their minds and say it’s boring. While here you have a position which is very unbalanced after ten moves: with different pawn structures and bishop pair versus bishop+knight, etcetera. The problem is that the games don’t look exciting, but there is a great richness in ideas.’

About the game itself: McShane thought 13…a5 was a clever move, waiting for White to show his hand. In the following position he was at a loss.

‘Actually I didn’t want to play 17.Qb3 here because the queen doesn’t look so good here. But after the reply …b7-b6 I might put something on b5. If I’d played something like 17.Be3 Nf6 18.h3 (or 18.f3) 18…Qe8 then in every line I found something good for Black. He gets some pressure on my a4- and d5-pawns.’

Three moves later we arrive at the following position:

Here McShane played 20.Nb5 and Van Foreest was relieved. He wasn’t quite sure of 20.Bb5, but in the post mortem this turned out to be harmless: 20…Re8 21.h3 (trying to control the board!) 21…h6 22.Bxd7 Qxd7 23.Bxf6 Bxf6 and now 24.Qc4 actually favours Black slightly after 24…Qf5!, since after 25.Nb5 Re7 White can’t take on c7. Better seems to be 24.Qb5 but this is equal.

McShane thought Black’s previous move 19…Qe7 was good. ‘I would have liked to make some trades after e.g. 19…Qe8 20.Nb5, have my bishop on b5 and keep the black rook from e8, which might have given me something to play for.’

A funny moment could have arisen a little later:

Here McShane took on f6, while on the retreat 22.Bc1 Lucas had prepared a little joke: 22…Bh6! with the point 23.Bxh6 Ng4 24.g3 Qh5, winning back the piece — still with a 0.00 position!

 

Drawing margins

Daniel Dardha won a pawn with a little trick in the early middlegame, but Max Warmerdam wasn’t really worried since he had the bishop pair and active play. When Dardha forced the exchange of one of the bishops, Warmerdam had a little trick of his own, winning back the pawn and even keeping some pressure. Now he is even a pawn up in a bishop vs knight ending, but since he still has that doubled f-pawn any winning chances seem to be illusory. Max is still playing on for a bit, probably just to show Daniel who’s the boss.

This might well be the first day with two draws in the matches.

 

Round-up of the Open

Bharath Subramaniyam is playing very strongly again, and he has been better against Robert Hovhannisyan for hours. The young Indian makes a great impression in this tournament.

On board 2, Evgeny Romanov attacked Nico Zwirs almost from the word go. The IM from Apeldoorn managed to stay afloat, but could never really escape from the pressure and eventually collapsed around move 40.

Thomas Beerdsen is back in business; he pushed Eelke de Boer back with an interesting exchange sacrifice.

Beerdsen-De Boer

27.Rxe6!? was already promising and eventually winning, but even more convincing would have been 27.Nxg7! Nxg7 28.Qxh6 Qf8 29.Bf6, e.g. 29…Rc6 30.Re7 and now 30…Bc8 31.Re8! would have been a nice finish.

Luca Moroni beat Machteld van Foreest with Black. He managed to trade his queen for two rooks which in the end proved stronger.

Luca Moroni

 

Andries Mellema didn’t manage to push through his attack against Sipke Ernst. The latter said, ‘After 16…e4 or 16…exd4 instead of his 16…0-0? I thought I would be totally dead.’ Two moves later, after 17.Rf3 Nf5?! 18.dxe5 Qxe5 White was OK again already, and after that it went from bad to worse for Mellema.

Sipke Ernst

 

A big surprise is the play of John Cornelisse, who came on 4½ today by beating the talented Arthur de Winter. The latter again succumbed to a vulnerable rook on b8.

 

Bharath wins!

And the 15-year-old Indian now shares the lead with Evgeny Romanov in the Open.

 

Dardha draws even

After a real seasnake of a game, Daniel Dardha has drawn even in his match with Max Warmerdam. The latter thought he could exchange rooks on move 33 and play for a win, ‘but in the resulting endgame it’s Black who has to watch out.’

It probably went definitely wrong on move 63.

Here Warmerdam played 63…Kxa4? after which the king is too far away, and the knight gets too many squares. 63…Be3 might still have been good for a draw. Dardha finished off with good technique.

Na een enerverende vierde ronde vielen vandaag er aardig wat beslissingen. Lucas van Foreest en Luke McShane speelden een hyperscherpe Koningsindische partij, waarin de Engelsman McShane in de slotfase hard onderuitging na een blunder. Daarmee nam Van Foreest de leiding in de match. In de andere tweekamp wist Daniel Dardha Max Warmerdam te verrassen in de opening. Met zwart kreeg de Belg uiteindelijk een voordeeltje, maar na één onnauwkeurigheidje was dat alweer vervlogen: remise.

De Groningse jeugdspeler Eelke de Boer (19) pakte in het Open toernooi de kop samen met Bharath Subramaniyam. De Indiase grootmeester is pas 15 maar op die leeftijd kent zijn land al vele sterke titelhouders. De Boer kreeg de overhand tegen de Italiaanse grootmeester Luca Moroni met een sterk kwaliteitsoffer en liet niet meer los. Eén piepklein kansje kreeg Moroni, maar in tijdnood greep hij die niet.

Stand in matches:
Warmerdam-Dardha 2½-1½
Van Foreest-McShane 2½-1½

Stand aan kop in Open toernooi:
1.De Boer, Bharath (IND) 4
3.Zwirs, Hovhannisyan (ARM), Romanov (NOR), Weihrauch (DUI), Fernandez (ENG), Ashwath (IND) 3½

Foto’s: klik hier.

Live blog in Engels:

Surprise, surprise!

Both Dutchmen in the matches were in for a surprise today. On Max Warmerdam’s 1.d4, Daniel Dardha replied 1…d5 and went for a Semi-Tarrasch in which he took back on d5 with the knight. It looked like Warmerdam had to readjust; instead of the usual 6.e4 he went for 6.g3, but Dardha’s answers kept coming a tempo. This line is also well-known, but the question is whether Warmerdam had anticipated the arising position type for today.

In the other match something happened that we hadn’t seen in years of matches here in Hoogeveen: a King’s Indian! After 2…g6 (!?), Lucas van Foreest was also forced to contemplate for a while; all four players in these matches do this by looking away from the board. The dilemma becomes philosophical rather than concrete: first they have to choose their variation and they are probably not sure what their opponent has prepared there (this is all pure speculation, of course!).

On the flexible 5.h3/6.Be3, McShane came up with the even more flexible 6…Na6. Van Foreest quickly castled queenside which means we may be in for some excitement!

 

Hippopotamus

Yesterday we paid homage to the walrus, today we see a fully-fledged Hippopotamus in the game Heemskerk-Reulink in the Open. With the set-up a6/b6/d6/e6/g6/h6 and Bb7/Nd7/Ne7/Bg7, Black is supposed not to do ‘anything’ really, and in that respect Reulink’s move 11…f5 looks, let’s say, rather provocative…

 

Warmerdam-Dardha

Many pieces are coming off and the position looks dead equal; Dardha has spent only three minutes on this. What’s happening? Is anything actually happening?

 

Wow!

In the following position, Lucas van Foreest played a move that looks really crazy:

14.b4!? All or nothing!

Your first impulse here would be to play the piece sac 14…a5!? but that doesn’t seem to be so good. Another idea is 14…Na6 15.a3 Nc7 and 16…a5, but White can defend with his pieces and then start pushing his kingside pawns. However, why didn’t Lucas do that right away?

Anyway, McShane didn’t think long and replied 14…Na4 15.Nxa4 bxa4 which should also give him play against the white king. It looks, though, as if something will have to be sacrificed in the centre eventually.

 

Brave exchange sac Eelke de Boer

We were told that Eelke de Boer hasn’t been playing chess for some time. Perhaps that is something more players should do. He is on 3 out of 3 in the Open, and today he has made a brave and promising-looking exchange sacrifice against GM Luca Moroni:

20.Rxb4! The logical consequence, of course, of his previous move 19.Ra1-a4. 20…Bxb4 21.Qxb4

The result reminds a little of that famous game between Kasparov and Shirov, Horgen 1994:

Only with Eelke’s game it’s a bishop on b7 that is awfully placed. Not to mention the black king caught in the middle!

 

Exchange win Romanov

GM Evgeny Romanov has not sacrificed an exchange, but gained one against IM Bhakti Kulkarni and this looks completely over. Quite a strange way to win, Kasparov would say…

 

Fernandez and Ashwath crash through

English GM Daniel Fernandez is completely outplaying German player Henning Holinka, and Ashwath is just winning a rook in broad daylight against Dutch hope Arthur de Winter. The Indian first repeated the position once, but that didn’t leave Black any hope of anything better. De Winter has already resigned.

 

Dardha in the driver’s seat

A pawn sacrifice in a heavy-piece ending by Max Warmerdam, who offered a draw on move 17, has not really worked out. The position still appears to be even since even if Black can hold his extra e4-pawn, the rook ending is a draw. But this is definitely Daniel’s best chance so far in the match.

 

Lucas misses a great chance

The concept of Lucas van Foreest has worked out fine, and he seems to have just missed a chance at a massive advantage.

Van Foreest-McShane

Instead of the game move 31.Rhc1 he could have played 31.Nb2!, with the idea to (eventually) put the knight on c4, which is a positional disaster for Black. After the text, things are becoming tactically extremely messy, as often happens with positional disasters for Black in the KID.

 

Sharp defence by Moroni

Luca Moroni is defending very well against Eelke de Boer, as could be expected. He has given back the exchange, is now a pawn behind, but has found good counterchances along the a8-h1 diagonal.

 

McShane blunders!

Luke McShane has just made a horrible mistake. After Van Foreest’s interposition 38.Rd4 he should have taken with the queen, 38…Qxd4+, with an approximately equal ending. After 38…cxd4?? 39.Qd6! it is immediately over; perhaps the Englishman had missed that after 39…Re8 40.h6, 40…Qe5 is not possible due to 41.Qxe5 with mate on the back rank?!

 

Post mortem Van Foreest-McShane

Yes, McShane had missed 39.Qd6 after 39…cxd4. ‘I thought he had to play something like 40.Rd1 there.’

It was a typical KID, not the position but in the sense that Black was ‘positionally busted’ (McShane) but still found all kinds of ways to get play. ‘I thought 16…Ne8 was really cool,’ said Lucas van Foreest, ‘just taking your time to play …f7-f5 and create some space.’

The Dutchman had seen the strong 31.Nb2 but thought he had an extra move with 31.Rc1. ‘But then he came up with the genius reply 31…Re2.’

After that, as we saw, the game was completely open again, until Luke’s tragic miss on move 39.

 

Warmerdam holds

Max Warmerdam didn’t have any real problems holding today, but Daniel Dardha agreed that ’this was my best try so far, at least finally I could push him around for a bit.’

It could have been more than a bit if the Belgian had found mainly one strong move, as Warmerdam explained. ‘I had missed 26…Qb8,’ said the Dutchman. ‘I was counting on 26…Qc6 when I have 27.Qf3.’ One move later Dardha missed his best chance.

Instead of the game move 27…R2c3 he should have played 27…R8c5, according to Warmerdam. ‘Then I would have had a really tough job keeping the draw. Black is still a pawn up and my rooks are not well positioned.’

After the text, White had to play 28.Qg5 as after 28.Raxb5 Qxb5 29.Rxb5 Rxe3 30.fxe3 dxe4 31.Rb4 Black can protect the e4-pawn now with 31…Re8 (this is the difference with 27…R8c3?) and this could still be a nasty rook ending for White since Black’s king may penetrate White’s position over the light squares.

Now, instead of 28…dxe4, Warmerdam was still a bit apprehensive of 28…b4 29.Rxd5 b3, but after 30.Qf6, putting the queen on the right diagonal, White seems to be OK. In the rest of the game it was clear that Dardha was going to have to give back his e-pawn. He tried to develop an attack in the meantime, but Warmerdam was able to avert it.

Dardha: his best chance so far…

 

De Boer wins!

Eelke de Boer’s exchange sacrifice has led to a sensational win against Luca Moroni. We left the game while the Italian GM was just busy creating counterchances.

42…Re7? With clear intentions: Black threatens 43…Rd7 and 44…Qh1+. However, White comes first here with 43.Qd8! and now if 43…Rd7, 44.Qf6+ Kg8 45.Qg5+ Kh8 46.Rh3!, defending and attacking at the same time; White wins. Moroni gave the check on h1 immediately but now his rook was very badly placed and in the end he had to resign due to material loss.

A tremendous game by the 19-year-old Groningen player, catapulting him into the lead. He will probably have to share it with the Indian GM Bharath Subramaniyam, who is also making a strong impression and whose win in a rook ending against Onno Elgersma appears to be a matter of time now.

 

Another upset by Weihrauch

Another sensation of the tournament so far is the low-rated German junior player Jakob Weihrauch. After beating IM Thomas Beerdsen in round 2, Weihrauch also got the better of GM Sipke Ernst today.

Jakob Weihrauch

 

Ernst missed a win on move 36 and that was immediately fatal for him.

Instead of 36.Ng5?, leading to a lost ending after 36…Qxf4+, White could have created a deadly mate threat with 36.g4! here. Perhaps short of time, Ernst may have feared for his king after 36…Rxh3+, but after 37.Kxh3 fxg4+ 38.Kxg4 or even 38.Kh4 there are no problems for White; he’s just a rook up.

 

Bharath joins lead in Open

Next to Eelke de Boer, Bharath Subramaniyam is the second player with a full 100 percent score after four rounds in the Open. The Indian GM indeed defeated Onno Elgersma.