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Today, in an all-decisive final round, Peter Svidler consolidated his match win over Sam Shankland with a fairly quiet draw: 3½-2½. After another long draw between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden van Foreest (3-3), the Russian and the Dutchman had to play a tiebreak, which was won 2-1 by Fedoseev after a tense fight.

Bassem Amin won the Open by directly beating Dmitry Kryakvin in the final today, when the Russian GM allowed a decisive combination in a slightly worse position. The battle for third place had to be decided in a playoff as Erik van den Doel and Eltaj Safarli drew their ‘regular’ game. Azeri GM Safarli won the tiebreak by 1½-½, achieving third place.

The ‘Best of the Rest’ in the Open were four players this time. Roeland Pruijssers missed a win against Thomas Beerdsen and they drew, as did Valentin Buckels against P Karthikeyan. This allowed Gadir Guseinov to catch up on 6½ points. 13-year-old Rakshitta Ravi from India won a WIM-norm, and the rating prize was won by Dutchman Frans Konings.

Tournament director Loek van Wely opened the final round of the Matches, the final and consolation final of the Open, and the ‘rest’ of the Open and said he hoped we would be closing off with an exciting last day.

Van Wely gave book prizes to nine winners of beautiful or spectacular games: Loek van der Hagen (round 1 vs David Murray)…

Loek I congratulating Loek II

Max Warmerdam (vs Erik Sparenberg, round 2), Henry Li (vs Rob Bertholee, round 2), Jonas Hilwerda (vs Kasper Bleeker, round 2), Nico Zwirs (vs Dries Wedda, round 3; ‘not completely correct but I liked it very much’), David Miedema (vs Jens Ingebretsen, round 5), Emma de Vries (vs Kasper Bleeker, round 5)…

Loek with Emma de Vries

Eltaj Safarli (vs P Karthikeyan, round 6), P Iniyan (vs Roel Hamblok, round 6), and finally Kasper Bleeker (vs Yannic Husers, round 8).

Peter Svidler opened with 1.c4 and after 1…g6 went for the same line he had already faced twice here in Hoogeveen, but deviated himself with 5.Qa4.

Vladimir Fedoseev may have surprised Jorden van Foreest with 6…e5 after 6.Be2 in the Najdorf. Before he had opted for the Scheveningen set-up with …e7-e6. With same-side castling the position is relatively quiet for an open Sicilian.

In the final of the open, Bassem Amin went for an ambitious set-up in a Closed Sicilian with f2-f4. In the ‘consolation final’, the struggle for third prize in the Open, Erik van den Doel is playing a Torre against Eltaj Safarli instead of the London Systems he tried yesterday against Dmitry Kryakvin in the semi-final and the second playoff game.

Mila Zarkovic and Tijana Blagojevic adorned our playing field only for a very short time today. The computer had paired the two Serbian WIMs against each other, with an ultra-quick draw as a result. They did play 22 moves in an Exchange Ruy Lopez.

The final game of the Open was shockingly short when Dmitry Kryakvin made a losing mistake on move 24:

Amin-Kryakvin

In this slightly worse position Kryakvin blundered with 24…Bb7?? and now after the crushing reply 25.Qe8+! there is always a fork check on e6: 25…Rxe8 26.Rxe8+ Rf8(26…Kg7 27.Ne6+) 27.Rxf8+ Kxf8 28.Ne6+ Kf7 29.Nxc5 Bxg2+ 30.Kxg2 and the Russian GM had had enough.

Congratulations to the super-GM from Egypt, who was always in the top of the rankings and was never really in trouble: a fully deserved tournament victory!

Bassem Amin in a characteristic pose

The struggle for third place goed on. Eltaj Safarli offered a draw already early, Erik van den Doel first refused but then, on move 17, he decided to go for the blitz playoff anyway. Will he do better than yesterday against Kryakvin?

Erik van den Doel

With his careful strategy, Jorden van Foreest seemed to have a little something, but when he lost some time with the manoeuvre 21.Bg4 and 22.Bf3 Vladimir Fedoseev got full-fledged counterplay on the queenside, which seems to be enough compensation for the strong white knight on d5.

On move 14, after the queens had been exchanged, Peter Svidler played an interesting move:

14.Bf4!?

Just ignoring the attack on the b3-pawn.

If 14…Bxb3 15.Nd2 and now on 15…a4 (on 15…Bc2 there is 16.e5 with the same problem) 16.Nxb3 (16.Ra3? e5! is too slow) 16…axb3 17.e5! is strong, as Gert Ligterink explained in the commentary room. On 17…Nh5 18.Be3 Black has problems, and after 17…Ng4 18.h3 Nh6 White can push first g3-g4 and later d4-d5.

Shankland didn’t take the b-pawn – he did this only on move 22, after White had cashed the a-pawn first.

Between Gert Ligterink’s comments the prize-giving of Amateur Group II took place. The winners were:

1 Oseb Merkan 7 points out of 9

Oseb Merkan

2 Wouter Lardinois 6½

3 Matthijs Dijkstra, Pierre Smeets 6

5 Gijs van Dongen, Govert Pellikaan, Fons van Hamond 5½

The rating prize went to Coert Joost (4½ point).

Gadir Guseinov achieved 6½ points today with a victory over Robert Baskin. The young German was attacking, but probably over-reached with his imposing pawn centre and lost not long after. Will the Azeri GM catch up with the 3 leaders?

Gadir Guseinov

Will Machteld van Foreest (11) become the strongest woman player in this tournament? It is still possible after her fabulous 4½ points in the last 5 rounds, but she will have to beat Simon Elgersma with black (and Sonja Maria Bluhm as well as Rakshitta Ravi will have to lose). The position doesn’t seem to make this very probable, but you never know…

Vladimir Fedoseev is slowly increasing the pressure on the white position, and the people in the press room are expecting a long squeeze. The game Svidler-Shankland looks very equal, but the American is going to have to try something to save the match!

Sam Shankland

Peter Svidler is consolidating – he has won Black’s c5-pawn and is now a pawn up in a rook ending – so unless an earthquake happens he should be winning the match 3½-2½.

Peter Svidler yesterday

The position in Van Foreest-Fedoseev seems dead equal again.

As every day, first Svidler and Shankland were finished, and after that, Van Foreest and Fedoseev. Today both games again ended in draws. In the Svidler-Shankland game there were many interesting sidelines with all those minor pieces flying around. The gist was, as Svidler said: ‘I can try to force a draw but I am better and I don’t wanna beg for it.’ So with a pawn up in the rook endgame he didn’t have to, and so he won the match 3½-2½.

Fedoseev didn’t manage to get anything concrete either, despite trying for a long time. This means that Jorden van Foreest has really increased his defensive abilities and shown that he can hold up against a world top player. The match will be decided by blitz games. Shankland was wondering when he was relaxing after the game: ‘How many draws will they make in the blitz before someone finally wins…?’ We’ll soon see!

‘What opening will I play later on in the blitz playoff…? ‘

Two thrilling tiebreaks just decided third place in the open and match victory between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden van Foreest.

First Erik van den Doel en Eltaj Safarli battled it out. Like yesterday, Van den Doel played very well but still didn’t make it somehow. In the first game he was winning when he knocked down some of Safarli’s pieces with his move 49…Ne2. Whether he was adjusting him in his own time or not, the Azeri, who had only 3 seconds left, immediately sat back, exclaiming ‘This is not possible!’ Chief arbiter Frans Peeters gave Safarli 10 seconds extra, and Van den Doel seemed to go on to win but blundered a rook just before move 50.

Van den Doel (White) vs Safarli

In the second game, Van den Doel was pressing with white, but when time ran low he sacked a piece. Safarli could perhaps even have won but decided the match with a perpetual.

In the first game in the other tiebreak, Fedoseev started with 1.b3 and showed some real powerplay. However Van Foreest defended very coolly. Vladimir started looking for a new plan and ‘suddenly’ lost on time.

In the second game, the Russian played a Hippopotamus with black. Now Van Foreest was pressing, winning a pawn and playing fast, natural moves. However when he won 2 more pawns with a fork trick the result was that his knight got caught on d8. It was still highly unclear with 4 pawns for a piece, but Fedoseev converted excellently with 10 seconds to go after just about every move.

Game 3 again started with 1.b3. After a while Fedoseev won an exchange for a pawn, but this was the sign for Van Foreest to start an attack on the white king. Just when the Russian had his defence organized, Van Foreest blundered with …h4? and lost soon after.

Fedoseev (White) vs Van Foreest

Fedoseev was getting ready for a fourth game, but then he heard that he had already won the match! After the 1-1 tie it was sudden death. So he won the match 5-4.

The Open ended in a four-way tie today. Gadir Guseinov quite quickly beat Robert Baskin, while 17-year-old Valentin Buckels (who already became an IM at the FIDE congress on 6 October) drew P Karthikeyan. The battle between Roeland Pruijssers and his teammate Thomas Beerdsen would decide everything. Pruijssers was always better with white, and Beerdsen sacked an exchange to get some play. On move 35 White would have been winning if he had played 35.g4!. ‘I thought 35.f5 was winning too but I overlooked something’, Pruijssers said, and then it turned out just to be a stupid move. In the end I could play for an attack but that might also have misfired, so I opted for the perpetual.’

Roeland Pruijssers (left) vs Thomas Beerdsen

This meant that Guseinov, Beerdsen, Buckels and Pruijssers ended in a tie on 6½ point.

Rakshitta Ravi lost today from a probably winning position, missing a WGM norm. The 13-year-old from Chennai still has a WIM-norm, but that was small consolation. With a draw, Machteld van Foreest (11) drew even with her, as well as Elena Tomilova and Sonja Maria Bluhm as the highest-ending woman players, all on plus-1!

The rating prize goes to FM Frans Konings, who ended a wonderful tournament on a 6/9 score.

Find all photos here.

Today, in an all-decisive final round, Peter Svidler consolidated his match win over Sam Shankland with a fairly quiet draw: 3½-2½. After another long draw between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden van Foreest (3-3), the Russian and the Dutchman had to play a tiebreak, which was won 2-1 by Fedoseev after a tense fight.

Bassem Amin won the Open by directly beating Dmitry Kryakvin in the final today, when the Russian GM allowed a decisive combination in a slightly worse position. The battle for third place had to be decided in a playoff as Erik van den Doel and Eltaj Safarli drew their ‘regular’ game. Azeri GM Safarli won the tiebreak by 1½-½, achieving third place.

The ‘Best of the Rest’ in the Open were four players this time. Roeland Pruijssers missed a win against Thomas Beerdsen and they drew, as did Valentin Buckels against P Karthikeyan. This allowed Gadir Guseinov to catch up on 6½ points. 13-year-old Rakshitta Ravi from India won a WIM-norm, and the rating prize was won by Dutchman Frans Konings.

Tournament director Loek van Wely opened the final round of the Matches, the final and consolation final of the Open, and the ‘rest’ of the Open and said he hoped we would be closing off with an exciting last day.

Van Wely gave book prizes to nine winners of beautiful or spectacular games: Loek van der Hagen (round 1 vs David Murray)…

Loek I congratulating Loek II

Max Warmerdam (vs Erik Sparenberg, round 2), Henry Li (vs Rob Bertholee, round 2), Jonas Hilwerda (vs Kasper Bleeker, round 2), Nico Zwirs (vs Dries Wedda, round 3; ‘not completely correct but I liked it very much’), David Miedema (vs Jens Ingebretsen, round 5), Emma de Vries (vs Kasper Bleeker, round 5)…

Loek with Emma de Vries

Eltaj Safarli (vs P Karthikeyan, round 6), P Iniyan (vs Roel Hamblok, round 6), and finally Kasper Bleeker (vs Yannic Husers, round 8).

Peter Svidler opened with 1.c4 and after 1…g6 went for the same line he had already faced twice here in Hoogeveen, but deviated himself with 5.Qa4.

Vladimir Fedoseev may have surprised Jorden van Foreest with 6…e5 after 6.Be2 in the Najdorf. Before he had opted for the Scheveningen set-up with …e7-e6. With same-side castling the position is relatively quiet for an open Sicilian.

In the final of the open, Bassem Amin went for an ambitious set-up in a Closed Sicilian with f2-f4. In the ‘consolation final’, the struggle for third prize in the Open, Erik van den Doel is playing a Torre against Eltaj Safarli instead of the London Systems he tried yesterday against Dmitry Kryakvin in the semi-final and the second playoff game.

Mila Zarkovic and Tijana Blagojevic adorned our playing field only for a very short time today. The computer had paired the two Serbian WIMs against each other, with an ultra-quick draw as a result. They did play 22 moves in an Exchange Ruy Lopez.

The final game of the Open was shockingly short when Dmitry Kryakvin made a losing mistake on move 24:

Amin-Kryakvin

In this slightly worse position Kryakvin blundered with 24…Bb7?? and now after the crushing reply 25.Qe8+! there is always a fork check on e6: 25…Rxe8 26.Rxe8+ Rf8(26…Kg7 27.Ne6+) 27.Rxf8+ Kxf8 28.Ne6+ Kf7 29.Nxc5 Bxg2+ 30.Kxg2 and the Russian GM had had enough.

Congratulations to the super-GM from Egypt, who was always in the top of the rankings and was never really in trouble: a fully deserved tournament victory!

Bassem Amin in a characteristic pose

The struggle for third place goed on. Eltaj Safarli offered a draw already early, Erik van den Doel first refused but then, on move 17, he decided to go for the blitz playoff anyway. Will he do better than yesterday against Kryakvin?

Erik van den Doel

With his careful strategy, Jorden van Foreest seemed to have a little something, but when he lost some time with the manoeuvre 21.Bg4 and 22.Bf3 Vladimir Fedoseev got full-fledged counterplay on the queenside, which seems to be enough compensation for the strong white knight on d5.

On move 14, after the queens had been exchanged, Peter Svidler played an interesting move:

14.Bf4!?

Just ignoring the attack on the b3-pawn.

If 14…Bxb3 15.Nd2 and now on 15…a4 (on 15…Bc2 there is 16.e5 with the same problem) 16.Nxb3 (16.Ra3? e5! is too slow) 16…axb3 17.e5! is strong, as Gert Ligterink explained in the commentary room. On 17…Nh5 18.Be3 Black has problems, and after 17…Ng4 18.h3 Nh6 White can push first g3-g4 and later d4-d5.

Shankland didn’t take the b-pawn – he did this only on move 22, after White had cashed the a-pawn first.

Between Gert Ligterink’s comments the prize-giving of Amateur Group II took place. The winners were:

1 Oseb Merkan 7 points out of 9

Oseb Merkan

2 Wouter Lardinois 6½

3 Matthijs Dijkstra, Pierre Smeets 6

5 Gijs van Dongen, Govert Pellikaan, Fons van Hamond 5½

The rating prize went to Coert Joost (4½ point).

Gadir Guseinov achieved 6½ points today with a victory over Robert Baskin. The young German was attacking, but probably over-reached with his imposing pawn centre and lost not long after. Will the Azeri GM catch up with the 3 leaders?

Gadir Guseinov

Will Machteld van Foreest (11) become the strongest woman player in this tournament? It is still possible after her fabulous 4½ points in the last 5 rounds, but she will have to beat Simon Elgersma with black (and Sonja Maria Bluhm as well as Rakshitta Ravi will have to lose). The position doesn’t seem to make this very probable, but you never know…

Vladimir Fedoseev is slowly increasing the pressure on the white position, and the people in the press room are expecting a long squeeze. The game Svidler-Shankland looks very equal, but the American is going to have to try something to save the match!

Sam Shankland

Peter Svidler is consolidating – he has won Black’s c5-pawn and is now a pawn up in a rook ending – so unless an earthquake happens he should be winning the match 3½-2½.

Peter Svidler yesterday

The position in Van Foreest-Fedoseev seems dead equal again.

As every day, first Svidler and Shankland were finished, and after that, Van Foreest and Fedoseev. Today both games again ended in draws. In the Svidler-Shankland game there were many interesting sidelines with all those minor pieces flying around. The gist was, as Svidler said: ‘I can try to force a draw but I am better and I don’t wanna beg for it.’ So with a pawn up in the rook endgame he didn’t have to, and so he won the match 3½-2½.

Fedoseev didn’t manage to get anything concrete either, despite trying for a long time. This means that Jorden van Foreest has really increased his defensive abilities and shown that he can hold up against a world top player. The match will be decided by blitz games. Shankland was wondering when he was relaxing after the game: ‘How many draws will they make in the blitz before someone finally wins…?’ We’ll soon see!

‘What opening will I play later on in the blitz playoff…? ‘

Two thrilling tiebreaks just decided third place in the open and match victory between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden van Foreest.

First Erik van den Doel en Eltaj Safarli battled it out. Like yesterday, Van den Doel played very well but still didn’t make it somehow. In the first game he was winning when he knocked down some of Safarli’s pieces with his move 49…Ne2. Whether he was adjusting him in his own time or not, the Azeri, who had only 3 seconds left, immediately sat back, exclaiming ‘This is not possible!’ Chief arbiter Frans Peeters gave Safarli 10 seconds extra, and Van den Doel seemed to go on to win but blundered a rook just before move 50.

Van den Doel (White) vs Safarli

In the second game, Van den Doel was pressing with white, but when time ran low he sacked a piece. Safarli could perhaps even have won but decided the match with a perpetual.

In the first game in the other tiebreak, Fedoseev started with 1.b3 and showed some real powerplay. However Van Foreest defended very coolly. Vladimir started looking for a new plan and ‘suddenly’ lost on time.

In the second game, the Russian played a Hippopotamus with black. Now Van Foreest was pressing, winning a pawn and playing fast, natural moves. However when he won 2 more pawns with a fork trick the result was that his knight got caught on d8. It was still highly unclear with 4 pawns for a piece, but Fedoseev converted excellently with 10 seconds to go after just about every move.

Game 3 again started with 1.b3. After a while Fedoseev won an exchange for a pawn, but this was the sign for Van Foreest to start an attack on the white king. Just when the Russian had his defence organized, Van Foreest blundered with …h4? and lost soon after.

Fedoseev (White) vs Van Foreest

Fedoseev was getting ready for a fourth game, but then he heard that he had already won the match! After the 1-1 tie it was sudden death. So he won the match 5-4.

The Open ended in a four-way tie today. Gadir Guseinov quite quickly beat Robert Baskin, while 17-year-old Valentin Buckels (who already became an IM at the FIDE congress on 6 October) drew P Karthikeyan. The battle between Roeland Pruijssers and his teammate Thomas Beerdsen would decide everything. Pruijssers was always better with white, and Beerdsen sacked an exchange to get some play. On move 35 White would have been winning if he had played 35.g4!. ‘I thought 35.f5 was winning too but I overlooked something’, Pruijssers said, and then it turned out just to be a stupid move. In the end I could play for an attack but that might also have misfired, so I opted for the perpetual.’

Roeland Pruijssers (left) vs Thomas Beerdsen

This meant that Guseinov, Beerdsen, Buckels and Pruijssers ended in a tie on 6½ point.

Rakshitta Ravi lost today from a probably winning position, missing a WGM norm. The 13-year-old from Chennai still has a WIM-norm, but that was small consolation. With a draw, Machteld van Foreest (11) drew even with her, as well as Elena Tomilova and Sonja Maria Bluhm as the highest-ending woman players, all on plus-1!

The rating prize goes to FM Frans Konings, who ended a wonderful tournament on a 6/9 score.

Here is a delayed message from yesterday’s round, about the game between Dutchman Maurice Schippers and 14-year-old Norwegian talent Jens Ingebretsen, who by the way is doing excellently so far with 4/7.

Schippers – Ingebretsen

Black played 51…Qg5+ here and the game ended in a draw.

As Thomas Beerdsen pointed out, Black had an amazing win with 51…c1Q 52.d8Q Qcg5+ 53.Qxg5 hxg5+ 54.Kh5 Qe6!!

55.Kxg5 e3! 56.fxe3. White has no useful queen moves! So Black wins with 56…Qg8+ or even 56…f2 first.

Would you say Magnus would have spotted this at 14…?

The 5th round of the matches has started, but there are technical problems with the live boards. Vladimir Fedoseev opened with 1.e4, Van Foreest replied 1…c5 and after 2.Nf3 d6 Fedoseev thought for a while before playing 3.d4. After 3…cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 the Russian started to think again for several minutes. During those minutes Sam Shankland pointed out to the arbiters that the clock for his game wasn’t running, it turned out they hadn’t pushed the button hard enough. With chief arbiter Frans Peeters the time was ‘reconstructed’ (Peter Svidler took a walk because at one point, after Ne5 in the Fianchetto Grünfeld, he had thought for 2 minutes) and the game continued. Only after this did Fedoseev decide on 6.h3.

Needless to say we’re doing everything we can to show you the games online games again!

Today the semi-finals of the Open started. Bassem Amin is playing Eltaj Safarli (a Scotch game) and Erik van den Doel confronted Dmitry Kryakvin with a London System.

Unfortunately Roel Hamblok had to withdraw from the tournament, which means that his opponent, 13-year-old Rakshitta Ravi from Chennai, has no opponent today. It didn’t have any consequences for a possible WFM title, as she has already passed the 2200 border earlier this year. ‘But I didn’t apply for it’, the young Indian girl said. ‘I want to obtain the WIM title.’ She can do this tomorrow, in the last round of this event. Probably the only thing she needs for this is a titled opponent, and since she will have 5/8 after today this chance is quite large.

Rakshitta Ravi in yesterday’s round, sitting beside the opponent she should have been playing today, Roel Hamblok

Rakshitta has made WIM norms earlier this year in Cappelle-la-Grande (March) and in Pardubice (July). She will be playing more tournaments in Europe after this. ‘I have full-time leave from school and I make my exams in writing’, she explained.

Commentator GM Ivan Sokolov called the contest between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden van Foreest ‘a thematic match’.

Commentator Ivan Sokolov

Today the Russian opted for Fischer’s move 6.h3 against the Najdorf move 5…a6, which has a less good reputation in the Scheveningen. So, Jorden replied not 6…e6 but 6…g6, to turn it into a not-too-dangerous Dragon for Black. After 12.Nd5 the former Dutch champion allowed the damaging of his pawn structure by the capture on f6. Now Black’s only weakness is d6, but he does have active play on the half-open c- and e-files for it. Sokolov explained that if Black had taken on d5 himself, then after 13.exd5 Bxd4 14.Qxd4 Black does have the half-open c-file again, but it is White who has the e-file, with pressure on the e7-pawn, and eventually he can push his h-pawn to harass the lone black king.

Fedoseev (left) vs Van Foreest

Ivan had expected something sharper from Shankland, in view of his match situation, than the Fianchetto against Svidler’s Slav/Grünfeld set-up. 8…b6 is a move Magnus Carlsen has played, but it’s less well known than 8…e6 wih the idea …Nfd7, which was played 5 or 6 times by Kasparov against Karpov in their World Championship matches. Even though White played 7.Ne5 and later 13.Nf3, as well as 10.Qa4 and later 14.Qd1, he still had a small development advantage as Black could not well play …Nc6 due to e2-e4, with complications that often favour White. An interesting fight ‘under the surface’ for the centre.

Shankland (left) vs Svidler

Bassem Amin has built up a good edge against Eltaj Safarli, mainly because of his pressure on the d5 isolani. Van den Doel’s London System has yielded him, quite characteristically for this line, somewhat freer play but Black seems to have no worries as he is very solid.

In this game, Black’s weak d6-pawn has now been exchanged for White’s weak e4-pawn, and as a result the endgame looks pretty drawish. But we know for sure that Fedoseev (or perhaps both players?) will be trying some more.

Stefan Kuipers, the ‘Best of the Rest’ from the open last year, won’t be able to repeat that success himself. Today he tried to fool Indian IM P Karthikeyan, but instead got fooled himself.

Kuipers-Karthikeyan

Coming from the Tiger’s Modern Black is already doing quite well here, for example because 15.Qxd6?? is not possible as the queen is lost after 15…e5 and 16…Nc8. But Kuipers saw another tactical trick in the position:

15.dxc5? dxc5 16.Bxc5? Nxc5 17.Bxb5+

With queen plus 2 pawns for rook + 2 pieces, that was the idea. However when you calculate deeply, sometimes you overlook simple things…

17…Ncd7 0-1

Stefan Kuipers

Today’s draw between Sam Shankland and Peter Svidler looked pretty placid, but under the surface horrible things had been going on.

First, it seems that Shankland missed a very quick win:

Shankland-Svidler

Black’s last move, 13…Qe7, turns out to have been quite a mistake as some time after the game Shankland discovered 14.Nd1! with the threat of 15.Rc7, and after 14…b5 15.Qa5! is very strong, e.g. after 15…Nc6 16.Qc7 ‘Black can just resign’, Shankland sighed. ‘It seems that we’re not in the best shape.’

Svidler: ‘Now, after 14.Qd1, indeed I cannot play 14…Nc6 because of 15.e4, so I wanted to play 14…Rc8 and …Nf6.

14…Rc8

15.Qd2

After this move the position was just completely dead, according to both players. Svidler: ‘I was panicking here because I saw some crazy lines. For example, 15.e4 dxe4 16.Ng5 and here I had been planning 16…f5 but it turns out that 17.Ncxe4 is more or less winning.’ After 17…Rxc1 18.Rxc1 fxe4 19.Nxe4 Black has no good moves, e.g. 19…Nc6 20.Nd6 or 19… h6 20. Rc7 Bd5 21.Nc3 Bxg2 22.Kxg2 g5 23.Qf3.

The players also talked about 17.Qb3 Re8 18.Bf1 but here Black is OK after 18…b5 or even better 18…Kh8.

Instead of 16…f5, however, 16…Nc6 is playable, e.g. 17.Ncxe4 e5 ‘and I thought this was bad for me, but it seems to be OK’, Svidler concluded.

Another, still crazier idea he had seen was 15.Nxd5!? exd5 16.Rxc8+ Bxc8 17.Rc1 Bb7 18.Rc7 Ra7 and Black is completely paralysed, but there is no immediate win in sight for White either. When the engine more or less confirmed his suspicions, Svidler said: ‘OK, I’m glad I’m apparently not a complete idiot.’

Bassem Amin has reached the final by outplaying Eltaj Safarli, who went wrong just after the opening.

Amin-Safarli

In this position, Safarli regretted having played 10…h6 (‘I should have gone 10…Re8’) after the reply 11.Be3 Bxe3 12.Qxe3,

but here probably 12…d5 was too wild an attempt to free himself. 12…Re8 may still have been OK.

After 13.0-0-0 Amin could press the isolani and eventually won, incidentally also passing the 2700 limit again.

Bassem Amin (left) vs Eltaj Safarli

The position in the game Erik van den Doel-Dmitry Kryakvin is equal but there is still some tension. The Dutch GM made his 40th move with 1.19 minute to go and then very coolly left the board to get a cup of coffee. He was apparently pretty sure he had indeed made 40 moves!

Ivan Sokolov was wondering why Vladimir Fedoseev kept playing on against Jorden van Foreest. ‘It wasn’t even necessary for Jorden to allow what is happening now, but it’s still a draw’, he said. About the Guseinov-Warmerdam draw he was also wondering: ‘Max had achieved just about everything Black wants in a Ruy Lopez’, our commentator said. ‘The only thing White had was 200 Elo points more. If he ever wants to beat these guys, now is the time. Or does he want to beat them from a bad position?’

Max Warmerdam (left) during his game with teammate Thomas Beerdsen yesterday

German aspiring IM Valentin Buckels is leading after a good victory against P Iniyan, together with Thomas Beerdsen who beat his teammate Nico Zwirs after gaining a ‘small exchange’. Roeland Pruijssers is on his way to joining these two leaders. He was under pressure by Eelke de Boer for a while, but then the young player from Groningen slackened, and lost an exchange. He still had some compensation for a while, but things seem to be very much going Pruijssers’ way now.

Valentin Buckels (17)

The second semi-final, between Erik van den Doel and Dmitry Kryakvin, ended in a draw. The playoff will take place in the Wedding Room of the town hall: Kryakvin starts with white, minimally 2 blitz games, 3 minutes each and 2 seconds added per move!

After a nerve-wracking playoff Dmitry Kryakvin has reached the final, where he will be facing Bassem Amin with black. Erik van den Doel certainly had his chances though. After a difficult opening in Game 1, which took him quite some time,

… the Dutchman came back in the game and even outplayed his Russian rival in the endgame. But when he had gained a pawn for which Kryakvin had to give his knight, a theoretical draw ensued in which Black’s extra bishop was not enough for the win.

In game 2 a London System came on the board just like in the regular game between these two players today.

Van den Doel had a little something with white, but again used up too much time and when he could only just defend his two bishops with his rook, his time had already run out.

Kryakvin and his wife Elena Tomilova were over the moon. ‘So much money depending on one blitz game!’ Dmitry gasped.

The draw between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden van Foreest today was a pretty bloodless affair. ‘I should have played 9.a4 instead of 9.0-0 to prevent his counterplay with …b7-b5’, Fedoseev said. ‘His 12…Bb7 in reply to my 12.Nd5 was good, he just gets immediate pressure on my e4-pawn. After that it was just probably 0.00 all the time.’

Tomorrow Jorden can take a last shot at winning this tough match, in his final White game.

Vladimir Fedoseev (left) and a small piece of Jorden van Foreest

Today the excitement mainly came from the very tense blitz playoff between Dmitry Kryakvin and Erik van den Doel. In the end the Russian won 1½-½ and so qualified for the final against Bassem Amin, who beat Eltaj Safarli earlier today.

There was not a lot of excitement in the 6.h3 Sicilian of Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden Fedoseev, where the Dutchman equalized pretty easily with black with a few to-the-point moves. Then Fedoseev tried for a long time to squeeze water out of a stone, but he didn’t manage: the score in this match is 2½-2½ going into the last round.

The game Shankland-Svidler also became a quite placid affair after White’s 15th move, but one move earlier the American had missed an enormous chance, as he discovered later. Svidler had seen a few wild and crazy lines, but alas none of those came on the board: also a draw, and a 3-2 lead for Svidler.

Here is a delayed message from yesterday’s round, about the game between Dutchman Maurice Schippers and 14-year-old Norwegian talent Jens Ingebretsen, who by the way is doing excellently so far with 4/7.

Schippers – Ingebretsen

Black played 51…Qg5+ here and the game ended in a draw.

As Thomas Beerdsen pointed out, Black had an amazing win with 51…c1Q 52.d8Q Qcg5+ 53.Qxg5 hxg5+ 54.Kh5 Qe6!!

55.Kxg5 e3! 56.fxe3. White has no useful queen moves! So Black wins with 56…Qg8+ or even 56…f2 first.

Would you say Magnus would have spotted this at 14…?

The 5th round of the matches has started, but there are technical problems with the live boards. Vladimir Fedoseev opened with 1.e4, Van Foreest replied 1…c5 and after 2.Nf3 d6 Fedoseev thought for a while before playing 3.d4. After 3…cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 the Russian started to think again for several minutes. During those minutes Sam Shankland pointed out to the arbiters that the clock for his game wasn’t running, it turned out they hadn’t pushed the button hard enough. With chief arbiter Frans Peeters the time was ‘reconstructed’ (Peter Svidler took a walk because at one point, after Ne5 in the Fianchetto Grünfeld, he had thought for 2 minutes) and the game continued. Only after this did Fedoseev decide on 6.h3.

Needless to say we’re doing everything we can to show you the games online games again!

Today the semi-finals of the Open started. Bassem Amin is playing Eltaj Safarli (a Scotch game) and Erik van den Doel confronted Dmitry Kryakvin with a London System.

Unfortunately Roel Hamblok had to withdraw from the tournament, which means that his opponent, 13-year-old Rakshitta Ravi from Chennai, has no opponent today. It didn’t have any consequences for a possible WFM title, as she has already passed the 2200 border earlier this year. ‘But I didn’t apply for it’, the young Indian girl said. ‘I want to obtain the WIM title.’ She can do this tomorrow, in the last round of this event. Probably the only thing she needs for this is a titled opponent, and since she will have 5/8 after today this chance is quite large.

Rakshitta Ravi in yesterday’s round, sitting beside the opponent she should have been playing today, Roel Hamblok

Rakshitta has made WIM norms earlier this year in Cappelle-la-Grande (March) and in Pardubice (July). She will be playing more tournaments in Europe after this. ‘I have full-time leave from school and I make my exams in writing’, she explained.

Commentator GM Ivan Sokolov called the contest between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden van Foreest ‘a thematic match’.

Commentator Ivan Sokolov

Today the Russian opted for Fischer’s move 6.h3 against the Najdorf move 5…a6, which has a less good reputation in the Scheveningen. So, Jorden replied not 6…e6 but 6…g6, to turn it into a not-too-dangerous Dragon for Black. After 12.Nd5 the former Dutch champion allowed the damaging of his pawn structure by the capture on f6. Now Black’s only weakness is d6, but he does have active play on the half-open c- and e-files for it. Sokolov explained that if Black had taken on d5 himself, then after 13.exd5 Bxd4 14.Qxd4 Black does have the half-open c-file again, but it is White who has the e-file, with pressure on the e7-pawn, and eventually he can push his h-pawn to harass the lone black king.

Fedoseev (left) vs Van Foreest

Ivan had expected something sharper from Shankland, in view of his match situation, than the Fianchetto against Svidler’s Slav/Grünfeld set-up. 8…b6 is a move Magnus Carlsen has played, but it’s less well known than 8…e6 wih the idea …Nfd7, which was played 5 or 6 times by Kasparov against Karpov in their World Championship matches. Even though White played 7.Ne5 and later 13.Nf3, as well as 10.Qa4 and later 14.Qd1, he still had a small development advantage as Black could not well play …Nc6 due to e2-e4, with complications that often favour White. An interesting fight ‘under the surface’ for the centre.

Shankland (left) vs Svidler

Bassem Amin has built up a good edge against Eltaj Safarli, mainly because of his pressure on the d5 isolani. Van den Doel’s London System has yielded him, quite characteristically for this line, somewhat freer play but Black seems to have no worries as he is very solid.

In this game, Black’s weak d6-pawn has now been exchanged for White’s weak e4-pawn, and as a result the endgame looks pretty drawish. But we know for sure that Fedoseev (or perhaps both players?) will be trying some more.

Stefan Kuipers, the ‘Best of the Rest’ from the open last year, won’t be able to repeat that success himself. Today he tried to fool Indian IM P Karthikeyan, but instead got fooled himself.

Kuipers-Karthikeyan

Coming from the Tiger’s Modern Black is already doing quite well here, for example because 15.Qxd6?? is not possible as the queen is lost after 15…e5 and 16…Nc8. But Kuipers saw another tactical trick in the position:

15.dxc5? dxc5 16.Bxc5? Nxc5 17.Bxb5+

With queen plus 2 pawns for rook + 2 pieces, that was the idea. However when you calculate deeply, sometimes you overlook simple things…

17…Ncd7 0-1

Stefan Kuipers

Today’s draw between Sam Shankland and Peter Svidler looked pretty placid, but under the surface horrible things had been going on.

First, it seems that Shankland missed a very quick win:

Shankland-Svidler

Black’s last move, 13…Qe7, turns out to have been quite a mistake as some time after the game Shankland discovered 14.Nd1! with the threat of 15.Rc7, and after 14…b5 15.Qa5! is very strong, e.g. after 15…Nc6 16.Qc7 ‘Black can just resign’, Shankland sighed. ‘It seems that we’re not in the best shape.’

Svidler: ‘Now, after 14.Qd1, indeed I cannot play 14…Nc6 because of 15.e4, so I wanted to play 14…Rc8 and …Nf6.

14…Rc8

15.Qd2

After this move the position was just completely dead, according to both players. Svidler: ‘I was panicking here because I saw some crazy lines. For example, 15.e4 dxe4 16.Ng5 and here I had been planning 16…f5 but it turns out that 17.Ncxe4 is more or less winning.’ After 17…Rxc1 18.Rxc1 fxe4 19.Nxe4 Black has no good moves, e.g. 19…Nc6 20.Nd6 or 19… h6 20. Rc7 Bd5 21.Nc3 Bxg2 22.Kxg2 g5 23.Qf3.

The players also talked about 17.Qb3 Re8 18.Bf1 but here Black is OK after 18…b5 or even better 18…Kh8.

Instead of 16…f5, however, 16…Nc6 is playable, e.g. 17.Ncxe4 e5 ‘and I thought this was bad for me, but it seems to be OK’, Svidler concluded.

Another, still crazier idea he had seen was 15.Nxd5!? exd5 16.Rxc8+ Bxc8 17.Rc1 Bb7 18.Rc7 Ra7 and Black is completely paralysed, but there is no immediate win in sight for White either. When the engine more or less confirmed his suspicions, Svidler said: ‘OK, I’m glad I’m apparently not a complete idiot.’

Bassem Amin has reached the final by outplaying Eltaj Safarli, who went wrong just after the opening.

Amin-Safarli

In this position, Safarli regretted having played 10…h6 (‘I should have gone 10…Re8’) after the reply 11.Be3 Bxe3 12.Qxe3,

but here probably 12…d5 was too wild an attempt to free himself. 12…Re8 may still have been OK.

After 13.0-0-0 Amin could press the isolani and eventually won, incidentally also passing the 2700 limit again.

Bassem Amin (left) vs Eltaj Safarli

The position in the game Erik van den Doel-Dmitry Kryakvin is equal but there is still some tension. The Dutch GM made his 40th move with 1.19 minute to go and then very coolly left the board to get a cup of coffee. He was apparently pretty sure he had indeed made 40 moves!

Ivan Sokolov was wondering why Vladimir Fedoseev kept playing on against Jorden van Foreest. ‘It wasn’t even necessary for Jorden to allow what is happening now, but it’s still a draw’, he said. About the Guseinov-Warmerdam draw he was also wondering: ‘Max had achieved just about everything Black wants in a Ruy Lopez’, our commentator said. ‘The only thing White had was 200 Elo points more. If he ever wants to beat these guys, now is the time. Or does he want to beat them from a bad position?’

Max Warmerdam (left) during his game with teammate Thomas Beerdsen yesterday

German aspiring IM Valentin Buckels is leading after a good victory against P Iniyan, together with Thomas Beerdsen who beat his teammate Nico Zwirs after gaining a ‘small exchange’. Roeland Pruijssers is on his way to joining these two leaders. He was under pressure by Eelke de Boer for a while, but then the young player from Groningen slackened, and lost an exchange. He still had some compensation for a while, but things seem to be very much going Pruijssers’ way now.

Valentin Buckels (17)

The second semi-final, between Erik van den Doel and Dmitry Kryakvin, ended in a draw. The playoff will take place in the Wedding Room of the town hall: Kryakvin starts with white, minimally 2 blitz games, 3 minutes each and 2 seconds added per move!

After a nerve-wracking playoff Dmitry Kryakvin has reached the final, where he will be facing Bassem Amin with black. Erik van den Doel certainly had his chances though. After a difficult opening in Game 1, which took him quite some time,

… the Dutchman came back in the game and even outplayed his Russian rival in the endgame. But when he had gained a pawn for which Kryakvin had to give his knight, a theoretical draw ensued in which Black’s extra bishop was not enough for the win.

In game 2 a London System came on the board just like in the regular game between these two players today.

Van den Doel had a little something with white, but again used up too much time and when he could only just defend his two bishops with his rook, his time had already run out.

Kryakvin and his wife Elena Tomilova were over the moon. ‘So much money depending on one blitz game!’ Dmitry gasped.

The draw between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden van Foreest today was a pretty bloodless affair. ‘I should have played 9.a4 instead of 9.0-0 to prevent his counterplay with …b7-b5’, Fedoseev said. ‘His 12…Bb7 in reply to my 12.Nd5 was good, he just gets immediate pressure on my e4-pawn. After that it was just probably 0.00 all the time.’

Tomorrow Jorden can take a last shot at winning this tough match, in his final White game.

Vladimir Fedoseev (left) and a small piece of Jorden van Foreest

Today the excitement mainly came from the very tense blitz playoff between Dmitry Kryakvin and Erik van den Doel. In the end the Russian won 1½-½ and so qualified for the final against Bassem Amin, who beat Eltaj Safarli earlier today.

There was not a lot of excitement in the 6.h3 Sicilian of Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden Fedoseev, where the Dutchman equalized pretty easily with black with a few to-the-point moves. Then Fedoseev tried for a long time to squeeze water out of a stone, but he didn’t manage: the score in this match is 2½-2½ going into the last round.

The game Shankland-Svidler also became a quite placid affair after White’s 15th move, but one move earlier the American had missed an enormous chance, as he discovered later. Svidler had seen a few wild and crazy lines, but alas none of those came on the board: also a draw, and a 3-2 lead for Svidler.