Auteur: Peter Boel

Already yesterday evening it became clear that Moksh Amit Doshi (16) has achieved his 7th IM norm here in Hoogeveen, with an overscore of 1 point with still one round to go.

Congratulations, Doshi! You can even go for the tournament win today!

After the announcement of Frans Peeters that the prizegiving will today be held at 19.00 in the Chess Cafe, the round started. In the matches we have two new openings! Abdumalik has now put a King’s Indian on the board, which if not a wise choice is in any case an exciting one.

Alireza Firouzja promised to go wild, and lived up to his promise: he played the Budapest Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5!?. Roeland Pruijssers told us that yesterday evening Firouzja had been playing in the Arena Kings online tournament, and reached the final, where he lost to Hikaru Nakamura.

Firouzja (left)

Roeland Pruijssers has taken the gamble by drawing quickly with Casper Schoppen on top board of the ‘rest Open’. Now Moksh Amit Doshi can become the sole winner, but for that he will have to beat Thomas Beerdsen with black. Their position is even according to the engine, but everything is possible.

The Final duel Sindarov-Ernst is captivating. After a ‘kind of’ Exchange Spanish Ernst has more or less equalized. His queenside structure was slightly worse but this was barely noticed because the doubled c-pawns controlled crucial squares. Now the structure is solved, and Black has some pressure on the e4-pawn.

In the game for third place, Viktoriia Kirchei has gained the bishop pair but it looks like Jan Werle has better squares for his minor pieces.

It promises to become quite exciting in the game Cori-Firouzja. With 10…a5 and 11…Ra6 Black introduced what Viktor Moskalenko called the ‘Drimer Rook’ in his book The Fabulous Budapest Gambit. Cori could have kept the rook in its cage but decided to allow it on h6, and now after 15.Qa8, 15…Qh4 is not possible due to 16.Bxe5.

Jan Timma has started a remarkable plan on the king’s wing against Zhansaya Abdumalik’s King’s Indian, and Zhansaya has reacted with the principled 14…f4. This also promises to be a gripping finale.

An enormous success for Sipke Ernst. He just beat Javokhir Sundarov with black, in a highly convincing way. ‘I was just playing along, actually,’ the 40-year-old grandmaster said in his own self-deprecating way. ‘Then he came up with 17.d4, which was in fact very good. If he had continued with d4-d5 I might have been in some trouble. As it went, I got quite active play. Then his e4-pawn went off and he started to exchange the wrong pieces. The queen ending was hopeless for him.’

Congratulations, Sipke!

It looks as if experience is going to beat youth in the playoffs of the Open. Jan Werle has picked up a pawn on b7 without actually having to make a lot of concessions for it, and is now just a pawn up with a better position.

Doshi has drawn even with Roeland Pruijssers with a solid draw; these two players are the shared winners of the ‘rest Open’. And of course Doshi has his 7th IM-norm, but you knew that already.

Viktoriia Kirchei has indeed resigned. After 35.Rxf8+ Black loses even more material, so Viktoriia Kirchei threw in the towel.

Jan Werle (photo Lennart Ootes)

Congratulations, Jan! And also Viktoriia, who has made a very strong impression here, and will go far!

Timman’s action on the king’s wing has not been very successful. Zhansaya Abdumalik was already a bit more equal than the Dutchman, but after 28.d6 things became more problematic for Timman. Now in the ending this pawn will just be lost, and Abdumalik may be heading for a playoff – that would be the only one this year!

Firouzja won a fabulous last game from Jorge Cori Tello. They were just analysing their game – we will show you later!

Akash Ganesan finished with a flourish by beating Gevorg Hautjunyan in the attack.

Akash-Harutjunyan

Here Harutjunyan went wrong with 18…Re8? where 18…f5! would have forced White to take on e5 with the queen. As it went, White won quickly in the attack with 19.Qxh7+.

Jorge Cori Tello and Alireza Firouzja started analysing on one of the boards opposite the Chess Cafe. Firouzja told he had played the Budapest in blitz games before, not in classical chess. ‘But I think it’s very interesting.’ Cori had chosen a sharp line against it, ‘but in fact I didn’t know it was that sharp!’ he laughed.

Jorge Cori

Cori-Firouzja

In this position White could have held the Drimer rook in its cage with 11. Na4 instead of 11. Bb2. ‘But then I can just play 11…Bf8 with a normal position,’ Firouzja said.

Later the position became extremely complicated.

Instead of the game move 25. Qc4+ here there was a win with 25. Ng5!! Rxg5 26. Qh4 f4 27. Qxg5 Bxc5 28. Bc4+ Kh8 29. Ke2 and Black can’t make any progress, e.g. 29… Bxe3 30. Rd8. A line pointed out by Firouzja’s father, who claims he can’t play chess – but he did spot the line on his mobile!

As it went, White could not get enough counterchances and lost.

Jan Timman has saved the draw, and with it match victory. He got into trouble because of a Fingerfehler on move 21.

Timman-Abdumalik

After Abdumalik had taken on g3, Timman intended to play 21.Qd3, which was indeed better. But before he knew it he had taken back on g3, and then slowly got into trouble. However he managed to hold in the pawn-down ending. Abdumalik gave her illustrious opponent a nice present afterwards in the pressroom.

Elsewhere on our website we have an interview with draughts World Champion Aleksandr Georgiev, who played a very good tournament in the Amateur group. In a while we will add a short interview with Viktoriia Kirchei, who caused such a stir in this tournament, and her father Sergey.

Machteld van Foreest rounded off a quite good tournament with a plus score: Siem van Dael, who was in bad shape, opened with 1.h2-h4, then not too much happened (Siem sacrificed a pawn but didn’t get a lot for it) and then he got mated on f4.

Machteld van Foreest (photo Lennart Ootes)

These are the names of the winners of the different Hoogeveen events. Alireza Firouzja beat Jorge Cori Tello in another crazy game to end the match on 4.5-1.5. Jan Timman had some problems today after a mistake against Zhansaya Abdumalik’s King’s Indian but held the draw and the match: 3.5-2.5. Sipke Ernst stopped the unstoppable today, beating Javokhir Sindarov with black in the final. And in the remainder of the Open tournament, Roeland Pruijssers and Moksh Amit Doshi ended on top by both making a draw in the final round.

Already yesterday evening it became clear that Moksh Amit Doshi (16) has achieved his 7th IM norm here in Hoogeveen, with an overscore of 1 point with still one round to go.

Congratulations, Doshi! You can even go for the tournament win today!

After the announcement of Frans Peeters that the prizegiving will today be held at 19.00 in the Chess Cafe, the round started. In the matches we have two new openings! Abdumalik has now put a King’s Indian on the board, which if not a wise choice is in any case an exciting one.

Alireza Firouzja promised to go wild, and lived up to his promise: he played the Budapest Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5!?. Roeland Pruijssers told us that yesterday evening Firouzja had been playing in the Arena Kings online tournament, and reached the final, where he lost to Hikaru Nakamura.

Firouzja (left)

Roeland Pruijssers has taken the gamble by drawing quickly with Casper Schoppen on top board of the ‘rest Open’. Now Moksh Amit Doshi can become the sole winner, but for that he will have to beat Thomas Beerdsen with black. Their position is even according to the engine, but everything is possible.

The Final duel Sindarov-Ernst is captivating. After a ‘kind of’ Exchange Spanish Ernst has more or less equalized. His queenside structure was slightly worse but this was barely noticed because the doubled c-pawns controlled crucial squares. Now the structure is solved, and Black has some pressure on the e4-pawn.

In the game for third place, Viktoriia Kirchei has gained the bishop pair but it looks like Jan Werle has better squares for his minor pieces.

It promises to become quite exciting in the game Cori-Firouzja. With 10…a5 and 11…Ra6 Black introduced what Viktor Moskalenko called the ‘Drimer Rook’ in his book The Fabulous Budapest Gambit. Cori could have kept the rook in its cage but decided to allow it on h6, and now after 15.Qa8, 15…Qh4 is not possible due to 16.Bxe5.

Jan Timma has started a remarkable plan on the king’s wing against Zhansaya Abdumalik’s King’s Indian, and Zhansaya has reacted with the principled 14…f4. This also promises to be a gripping finale.

An enormous success for Sipke Ernst. He just beat Javokhir Sundarov with black, in a highly convincing way. ‘I was just playing along, actually,’ the 40-year-old grandmaster said in his own self-deprecating way. ‘Then he came up with 17.d4, which was in fact very good. If he had continued with d4-d5 I might have been in some trouble. As it went, I got quite active play. Then his e4-pawn went off and he started to exchange the wrong pieces. The queen ending was hopeless for him.’

Congratulations, Sipke!

It looks as if experience is going to beat youth in the playoffs of the Open. Jan Werle has picked up a pawn on b7 without actually having to make a lot of concessions for it, and is now just a pawn up with a better position.

Doshi has drawn even with Roeland Pruijssers with a solid draw; these two players are the shared winners of the ‘rest Open’. And of course Doshi has his 7th IM-norm, but you knew that already.

Viktoriia Kirchei has indeed resigned. After 35.Rxf8+ Black loses even more material, so Viktoriia Kirchei threw in the towel.

Jan Werle (photo Lennart Ootes)

Congratulations, Jan! And also Viktoriia, who has made a very strong impression here, and will go far!

Timman’s action on the king’s wing has not been very successful. Zhansaya Abdumalik was already a bit more equal than the Dutchman, but after 28.d6 things became more problematic for Timman. Now in the ending this pawn will just be lost, and Abdumalik may be heading for a playoff – that would be the only one this year!

Firouzja won a fabulous last game from Jorge Cori Tello. They were just analysing their game – we will show you later!

Akash Ganesan finished with a flourish by beating Gevorg Hautjunyan in the attack.

Akash-Harutjunyan

Here Harutjunyan went wrong with 18…Re8? where 18…f5! would have forced White to take on e5 with the queen. As it went, White won quickly in the attack with 19.Qxh7+.

Jorge Cori Tello and Alireza Firouzja started analysing on one of the boards opposite the Chess Cafe. Firouzja told he had played the Budapest in blitz games before, not in classical chess. ‘But I think it’s very interesting.’ Cori had chosen a sharp line against it, ‘but in fact I didn’t know it was that sharp!’ he laughed.

Jorge Cori

Cori-Firouzja

In this position White could have held the Drimer rook in its cage with 11. Na4 instead of 11. Bb2. ‘But then I can just play 11…Bf8 with a normal position,’ Firouzja said.

Later the position became extremely complicated.

Instead of the game move 25. Qc4+ here there was a win with 25. Ng5!! Rxg5 26. Qh4 f4 27. Qxg5 Bxc5 28. Bc4+ Kh8 29. Ke2 and Black can’t make any progress, e.g. 29… Bxe3 30. Rd8. A line pointed out by Firouzja’s father, who claims he can’t play chess – but he did spot the line on his mobile!

As it went, White could not get enough counterchances and lost.

Jan Timman has saved the draw, and with it match victory. He got into trouble because of a Fingerfehler on move 21.

Timman-Abdumalik

After Abdumalik had taken on g3, Timman intended to play 21.Qd3, which was indeed better. But before he knew it he had taken back on g3, and then slowly got into trouble. However he managed to hold in the pawn-down ending. Abdumalik gave her illustrious opponent a nice present afterwards in the pressroom.

Elsewhere on our website we have an interview with draughts World Champion Aleksandr Georgiev, who played a very good tournament in the Amateur group. In a while we will add a short interview with Viktoriia Kirchei, who caused such a stir in this tournament, and her father Sergey.

Machteld van Foreest rounded off a quite good tournament with a plus score: Siem van Dael, who was in bad shape, opened with 1.h2-h4, then not too much happened (Siem sacrificed a pawn but didn’t get a lot for it) and then he got mated on f4.

Machteld van Foreest (photo Lennart Ootes)

These are the names of the winners of the different Hoogeveen events. Alireza Firouzja beat Jorge Cori Tello in another crazy game to end the match on 4.5-1.5. Jan Timman had some problems today after a mistake against Zhansaya Abdumalik’s King’s Indian but held the draw and the match: 3.5-2.5. Sipke Ernst stopped the unstoppable today, beating Javokhir Sindarov with black in the final. And in the remainder of the Open tournament, Roeland Pruijssers and Moksh Amit Doshi ended on top by both making a draw in the final round.

Again we have two Sicilians in the matches. Abdumalik-Timman started again with a 6.h3 Najdorf, as in the two previous games. Now, after 6…e6 7.g4, Timman harked back to 7…d5, the move that had such disastrous consequences for him in Game 1. This time, Abdumalik was the one to deviate: after 8.exd5 Nxd5 with the solid 9.Nde2. No accidents – now we have a game where Black looks quite solid and White’s pawn on g4 looks somewhat odd.

Firouzja and Cori Tello put a Sveshnikov Sicilian on the board this time. That’s a new one for this event. Cori thought for some time about 6…d6, and even for a pretty long time about 9…gxf6 – not, of course, about with which piece he was going to take back, but more about what will happen afterwards.

The semi-finals just started with Javokhir Sindarov-Viktoriia Kirchei and Ernst-Werle. All four qualifiers were scanned and searched before the game; nothing was found and the games started without incident.

In the first semi-final, Sindarov played a Closed Ruy Lopez with an early a2-a4 (on move 7). After 11…a5 the young Uzbek seems to have a pleasant advantage. The alternative was 11…Nxd5 and if 12.exd5 Na5.

The two ‘Frisians’ Sipke Ernst and Jan Werle (neither of them lives in Frisia anymore) have a topical Catalan on the board. Ernst has now castled queenside, which looks quite daring. It doesn’t look like a quick draw – neither does board 1!

Commentator Robert Ris gave some nice explanations of the Sveshnikov from Firouzja-Cori.

Firouzja played 15.Qh5 here.

In the past, players like Kramnik and Radjabov had played 15. Qf3, when Black has the interesting 15… d5. A move which, in fact, came on the board in the only Sveshnikov commentator Robert Ris ever played with black – against one of the spectators in the room, Richard Hendriks! The point is 16. exd5 e4 17. Qe3 Qa7! and White is in big trouble. Nice memories for Robert! White has to play 16. cxd5 fxe4 17. Bxe4 (17. Qxe4 f5) 17… Rb8 (17… f5? 18. d6) and now e.g. 18. Rad1 Rb6.

White’s bishops are very dangerous, certainly now that the queens are off, and Jan Timman is hanging on by a thread. After his ingenious defensive move 18… Na5…

Abdumalik-Timman

… it looked to commentator Robert Ris that 19. Ba3 would have been strong. But Black seems to have a good defence in 19… Rfc8 20. Bb4 Nc6! 21. Rxb7 Nxb4 and Black wins back one of the c-pawns.

Abdumalik played 19.a4 and after 19… Rac8, 20. Ba3 again seemed interesting. But now Black would have had 20… Nc4! 22. Rxb7 a5 23. Be7 Rd2 and this is also enough for equality.

Ris found the way Abdumalik played not dynamic enough for this type of position, however, and he may be right in that respect.

Sipke Ernst may have surprised Jan Werle in the opening. After his 14.0-0-0…

… Werle reacted in a seemingly logical way with 14…e5 and 15…Be6 whereas 14…Ng4 followed by 15…Nxe3 has been the preference of his colleague grandmasters. Then White also gets chances by doubling rooks on the d-file but Black gets counterchances against White’s weak pawns.

As it went Sipke increased his pressure and now Werle is in trouble.

GM Gevorg Hatutjunyan beat Manush Shah quite quickly in the ‘rest open’ with a devastating attack. He allowed Black to take on g2 but that was nothing compared to his own attack on Black’s king, which was crowned by a ‘petit fourchette combinaison’ with 28.Bb5+.

Liam Vrolijk’s win over Siem van Dael also looked attractive. His move 20.Nxf7 amounted to the sacrifice of a ‘small exchange’ but it was clear that Black could not survuve the attack with major pieces that followed immediately afterwards.

Erick Takawira was lucky today. In a good pawn-up position, Leandro Slagboom’s 22.Nc5?? immediately lost a piece to 22…Rb6.

On first board, Roeland Pruijssers is defending a slightly worse position against Pier Luigi Basso.

Jan Timman was slightly better in the end position because of White’s exposed king, but settled for a draw: ‘I’m a bit tired, and we already had several long games,’ he admitted. ‘Besides it would have been very difficult to win.’

Both players agreed that the line under discussion is quite interesting. ‘There are some very nice exchange sacrifices in the position,’ said Timman without giving away anything further. The Dutch great-grandmaster played it safe not only by taking the draw, but also by playing 11…Bxc3 instead of 11…Nxc3 12.Nxc3 bxc3 13.Qc7. ’14.Qf3 was a bad move,’ Abdumalik said – it was more or less a loss of time. Timman recalled that 14. Rb1 had been played – his preparation had been thorough.

Even without queens there were enough tactics left:

Timman played the sound 21…f6 here, when 21… Rxc3 22. Bg5 f6 23. Rxe5 Ba2 would have led to ‘some crazy lines’, as Abdumalik said. ‘But Black can defend in all the lines, although it can be difficult,’ Timman added. As it went the game quickly petered out to 2R’s + B vs 2R’s + B with a high drawing probability.

Jorge Cori Tello’s recovery is remarkable. With black in the Sveshnikov he has played well and acquired a slight advantage with his bishop pair, thanks to the standard trick 16…e4 and …Bxb2. Whether it is enough for a win is questionable, but here a quite different player is at work than in the first three rounds.

Viktoriia Kirchei is playing excellently again. From the following position things could have gone very wrong for Javokhir Sindarov:

White played 29. Nxc7? here after which the Russian girl could have brilliantly replied 29… Ncd4! with the big threat of 30… Nc2, when the white queen can no longer defend her king. Of course also 30. cxd4 exd4 would lose for White.

Thomas Beerdsen has also recovered from his defeat against the indomitable Viktoriia Kirchei. He survived a sacrificial attack by 15-year-old Onno Elgersma and remained a piece up. Grandmaster Romanishin and Jonkman have drawn, and Pruijssers has survived the worst against Basso and is now trying to win a pawn-up rook ending.

Alireza Firouzja has survived the worst and has even kept his extra (doubled) pawn. This looks like a draw, which would mean match victory for the Iranian.

Local hero Andries Mellema has 7 out of 7 in the Amateur I group and can no longer be caught by his rivals. For Hoogeveen boy Mellema it’s the third time he has won an Amateur group here!

After surviving Viktoriia Kirchei’s initiative (and she missed her big chance) Javokhir Sindarov managed to consolidate and when Kirchei played 37…e4 that made it easier for the one-year-younger Uzbek. He left the playing hall quickly but he must have been quite relieved!

Viktoriia Kirchei resigns

After the draw agreement Firouzja and Cori analysed the bishops of opposite colours endgame for quite a while. Cori thought he was still in some danger there.

Firouzja had got confused in the opening – ‘I don’t yet know what, but I think 15.Qh5 was bad.’ 15.Qf3 was known, as we saw before, but it was only after 19.f3 (19.cxb5) that Black could take over with 19…h5 and 20…Qe5.

After Black took on b2…

… Firouzja was very glad to have 23. Nb1, as after 23. Nc2 bxc4 24. Bxc4 Bxe4 things would have looked more grim for him. Now Firouzja thought 23… b4 would have been better than the game move 23… bxc4, because the possibility of a passed pawn on the queenside combined with the bishop pair would have been daunting for White.

Was Cori satisfied with the 1.5 point he obtained in the past few days? ‘Mmm…’ ‘Okay, I suppose it could have been better,’ we tried. ‘Could have been worse too!’, the Peruvian replied. Still, these 1.5 points were fully deserved.

The match has been decided, and when chief arbiter Frans Peeters confirmed to Firouzja that the final game won’t be rated (according to the rules), the Iranian reacted ‘OK, then we can go wild!’

Jan Werle has been deperately vying for counterchances for a few hours now but so far Sipke Ernst is very soundly nursing his advantage to a win. He is two pawns up. Are we getting a Sindarov-Ernst final? Their game in the ‘regular’ tournament was exciting enough.

16-year-old Moksh Amit Doshi probably has an IM-norm already – we will look for confirmation later! This would be already his 7th IM norm – so the only thing he needs is 2400 Elo points.

Today the Indian beat German IM Georg Seul by sackin a pawn on the queenside, for which he got an initiative on the kingside. He played very strongly there and eventually won an exchange, and the game. Doshi is also in the race for victory in the ‘rest Open’ – he is on 6.5 now. Pruijssers can draw even but for that he will have to win a pawn-plus rook ending from Pier Luigi Basso.

Casper Schoppen is on 5.5 now. He beat Nichita Morozov, who played 26…f6 which turned out to be a slight weakening. With iron logic Schoppen encircled the f6-pawn and won it, and the game.

Pruijssers has won the rook ending, and is now with Doshi on 6.5.

Sipke Ernst has made it to the final with a fine game. He was always much better, but Jan Werle kept fighting for his life for several hours. It wasn’t enough – in the end Ernst’s c-pawn, shielded by his extra knight, decided the issue.

Today, Jan Timman settled for a draw in a slightly better position against Zhansaya Abdumalik: ‘We’ve already had a few long games,’ the grandmaster from Arnhem said. So the final decision in this match will fall tomorrow. Alireza Firouzja and Jorge Cori Tello also drew after an interesting fight, which means that Firouzja has already won the match with 3½ points. So tomorrow the Iranian can play freely – as if he wasn’t doing that already!

In the semi-finals of the Open, 13-year-old grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov had a lot of trouble beating 14-year-old Viktoriia Kirchei, who even missed a big chance towards the end of the game. In the other semi-final, Sipke Ernst bested Jan Werle after a heavy struggle. In the ‘rest Open’, Roeland Pruijssers and the 16-year-old Indian are leading with 6½ point.

Again we have two Sicilians in the matches. Abdumalik-Timman started again with a 6.h3 Najdorf, as in the two previous games. Now, after 6…e6 7.g4, Timman harked back to 7…d5, the move that had such disastrous consequences for him in Game 1. This time, Abdumalik was the one to deviate: after 8.exd5 Nxd5 with the solid 9.Nde2. No accidents – now we have a game where Black looks quite solid and White’s pawn on g4 looks somewhat odd.

Firouzja and Cori Tello put a Sveshnikov Sicilian on the board this time. That’s a new one for this event. Cori thought for some time about 6…d6, and even for a pretty long time about 9…gxf6 – not, of course, about with which piece he was going to take back, but more about what will happen afterwards.

The semi-finals just started with Javokhir Sindarov-Viktoriia Kirchei and Ernst-Werle. All four qualifiers were scanned and searched before the game; nothing was found and the games started without incident.

In the first semi-final, Sindarov played a Closed Ruy Lopez with an early a2-a4 (on move 7). After 11…a5 the young Uzbek seems to have a pleasant advantage. The alternative was 11…Nxd5 and if 12.exd5 Na5.

The two ‘Frisians’ Sipke Ernst and Jan Werle (neither of them lives in Frisia anymore) have a topical Catalan on the board. Ernst has now castled queenside, which looks quite daring. It doesn’t look like a quick draw – neither does board 1!

Commentator Robert Ris gave some nice explanations of the Sveshnikov from Firouzja-Cori.

Firouzja played 15.Qh5 here.

In the past, players like Kramnik and Radjabov had played 15. Qf3, when Black has the interesting 15… d5. A move which, in fact, came on the board in the only Sveshnikov commentator Robert Ris ever played with black – against one of the spectators in the room, Richard Hendriks! The point is 16. exd5 e4 17. Qe3 Qa7! and White is in big trouble. Nice memories for Robert! White has to play 16. cxd5 fxe4 17. Bxe4 (17. Qxe4 f5) 17… Rb8 (17… f5? 18. d6) and now e.g. 18. Rad1 Rb6.

White’s bishops are very dangerous, certainly now that the queens are off, and Jan Timman is hanging on by a thread. After his ingenious defensive move 18… Na5…

Abdumalik-Timman

… it looked to commentator Robert Ris that 19. Ba3 would have been strong. But Black seems to have a good defence in 19… Rfc8 20. Bb4 Nc6! 21. Rxb7 Nxb4 and Black wins back one of the c-pawns.

Abdumalik played 19.a4 and after 19… Rac8, 20. Ba3 again seemed interesting. But now Black would have had 20… Nc4! 22. Rxb7 a5 23. Be7 Rd2 and this is also enough for equality.

Ris found the way Abdumalik played not dynamic enough for this type of position, however, and he may be right in that respect.

Sipke Ernst may have surprised Jan Werle in the opening. After his 14.0-0-0…

… Werle reacted in a seemingly logical way with 14…e5 and 15…Be6 whereas 14…Ng4 followed by 15…Nxe3 has been the preference of his colleague grandmasters. Then White also gets chances by doubling rooks on the d-file but Black gets counterchances against White’s weak pawns.

As it went Sipke increased his pressure and now Werle is in trouble.

GM Gevorg Hatutjunyan beat Manush Shah quite quickly in the ‘rest open’ with a devastating attack. He allowed Black to take on g2 but that was nothing compared to his own attack on Black’s king, which was crowned by a ‘petit fourchette combinaison’ with 28.Bb5+.

Liam Vrolijk’s win over Siem van Dael also looked attractive. His move 20.Nxf7 amounted to the sacrifice of a ‘small exchange’ but it was clear that Black could not survuve the attack with major pieces that followed immediately afterwards.

Erick Takawira was lucky today. In a good pawn-up position, Leandro Slagboom’s 22.Nc5?? immediately lost a piece to 22…Rb6.

On first board, Roeland Pruijssers is defending a slightly worse position against Pier Luigi Basso.

Jan Timman was slightly better in the end position because of White’s exposed king, but settled for a draw: ‘I’m a bit tired, and we already had several long games,’ he admitted. ‘Besides it would have been very difficult to win.’

Both players agreed that the line under discussion is quite interesting. ‘There are some very nice exchange sacrifices in the position,’ said Timman without giving away anything further. The Dutch great-grandmaster played it safe not only by taking the draw, but also by playing 11…Bxc3 instead of 11…Nxc3 12.Nxc3 bxc3 13.Qc7. ’14.Qf3 was a bad move,’ Abdumalik said – it was more or less a loss of time. Timman recalled that 14. Rb1 had been played – his preparation had been thorough.

Even without queens there were enough tactics left:

Timman played the sound 21…f6 here, when 21… Rxc3 22. Bg5 f6 23. Rxe5 Ba2 would have led to ‘some crazy lines’, as Abdumalik said. ‘But Black can defend in all the lines, although it can be difficult,’ Timman added. As it went the game quickly petered out to 2R’s + B vs 2R’s + B with a high drawing probability.

Jorge Cori Tello’s recovery is remarkable. With black in the Sveshnikov he has played well and acquired a slight advantage with his bishop pair, thanks to the standard trick 16…e4 and …Bxb2. Whether it is enough for a win is questionable, but here a quite different player is at work than in the first three rounds.

Viktoriia Kirchei is playing excellently again. From the following position things could have gone very wrong for Javokhir Sindarov:

White played 29. Nxc7? here after which the Russian girl could have brilliantly replied 29… Ncd4! with the big threat of 30… Nc2, when the white queen can no longer defend her king. Of course also 30. cxd4 exd4 would lose for White.

Thomas Beerdsen has also recovered from his defeat against the indomitable Viktoriia Kirchei. He survived a sacrificial attack by 15-year-old Onno Elgersma and remained a piece up. Grandmaster Romanishin and Jonkman have drawn, and Pruijssers has survived the worst against Basso and is now trying to win a pawn-up rook ending.

Alireza Firouzja has survived the worst and has even kept his extra (doubled) pawn. This looks like a draw, which would mean match victory for the Iranian.

Local hero Andries Mellema has 7 out of 7 in the Amateur I group and can no longer be caught by his rivals. For Hoogeveen boy Mellema it’s the third time he has won an Amateur group here!

After surviving Viktoriia Kirchei’s initiative (and she missed her big chance) Javokhir Sindarov managed to consolidate and when Kirchei played 37…e4 that made it easier for the one-year-younger Uzbek. He left the playing hall quickly but he must have been quite relieved!

Viktoriia Kirchei resigns

After the draw agreement Firouzja and Cori analysed the bishops of opposite colours endgame for quite a while. Cori thought he was still in some danger there.

Firouzja had got confused in the opening – ‘I don’t yet know what, but I think 15.Qh5 was bad.’ 15.Qf3 was known, as we saw before, but it was only after 19.f3 (19.cxb5) that Black could take over with 19…h5 and 20…Qe5.

After Black took on b2…

… Firouzja was very glad to have 23. Nb1, as after 23. Nc2 bxc4 24. Bxc4 Bxe4 things would have looked more grim for him. Now Firouzja thought 23… b4 would have been better than the game move 23… bxc4, because the possibility of a passed pawn on the queenside combined with the bishop pair would have been daunting for White.

Was Cori satisfied with the 1.5 point he obtained in the past few days? ‘Mmm…’ ‘Okay, I suppose it could have been better,’ we tried. ‘Could have been worse too!’, the Peruvian replied. Still, these 1.5 points were fully deserved.

The match has been decided, and when chief arbiter Frans Peeters confirmed to Firouzja that the final game won’t be rated (according to the rules), the Iranian reacted ‘OK, then we can go wild!’

Jan Werle has been deperately vying for counterchances for a few hours now but so far Sipke Ernst is very soundly nursing his advantage to a win. He is two pawns up. Are we getting a Sindarov-Ernst final? Their game in the ‘regular’ tournament was exciting enough.

16-year-old Moksh Amit Doshi probably has an IM-norm already – we will look for confirmation later! This would be already his 7th IM norm – so the only thing he needs is 2400 Elo points.

Today the Indian beat German IM Georg Seul by sackin a pawn on the queenside, for which he got an initiative on the kingside. He played very strongly there and eventually won an exchange, and the game. Doshi is also in the race for victory in the ‘rest Open’ – he is on 6.5 now. Pruijssers can draw even but for that he will have to win a pawn-plus rook ending from Pier Luigi Basso.

Casper Schoppen is on 5.5 now. He beat Nichita Morozov, who played 26…f6 which turned out to be a slight weakening. With iron logic Schoppen encircled the f6-pawn and won it, and the game.

Pruijssers has won the rook ending, and is now with Doshi on 6.5.

Sipke Ernst has made it to the final with a fine game. He was always much better, but Jan Werle kept fighting for his life for several hours. It wasn’t enough – in the end Ernst’s c-pawn, shielded by his extra knight, decided the issue.

Today, Jan Timman settled for a draw in a slightly better position against Zhansaya Abdumalik: ‘We’ve already had a few long games,’ the grandmaster from Arnhem said. So the final decision in this match will fall tomorrow. Alireza Firouzja and Jorge Cori Tello also drew after an interesting fight, which means that Firouzja has already won the match with 3½ points. So tomorrow the Iranian can play freely – as if he wasn’t doing that already!

In the semi-finals of the Open, 13-year-old grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov had a lot of trouble beating 14-year-old Viktoriia Kirchei, who even missed a big chance towards the end of the game. In the other semi-final, Sipke Ernst bested Jan Werle after a heavy struggle. In the ‘rest Open’, Roeland Pruijssers and the 16-year-old Indian are leading with 6½ point.