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Report Round 3 Open

Early round has started

At nine o’clock sharp, chief arbiter Frans Peeters started the early round of today. So round 3 is under way, with most of the boards already taken. Round 4 will start at 15.00 this afternoon, while the 2 match games will begin at the regular time: 14.00 h.

Verhoef is going for an early kill

Pieter Verhoef from Arnhem is about to punish a wrong treatment of the Caro-Kann by Daniel Kutchoukov.

Verhoef-Kutchoukov

12.Bf4

Threatening something nasty on f7.

12…Ndf6?

He probably should have gone for the lesser evil with 12…Nxe5.

13.Nf5!

Why wait? Of course the knight cannot be taken due to 14.Nxc6+.

13…Bf8

And now Pieter is probably contemplating 14.Nc4 and putting something on d6.

Tomilova wins exchange

Young Indian talent Rakshitta Ravi is in trouble. Against Russian WIM Elena Tomilova she lost the exchange due to a simple but still rather nice trick:

Rakshitta-Tomilova

18…Bxe2! 19.Qxe2 Nd4 20.Qd2 Rxc3

Winning the exchange due to the fork on e2. Rakshitta played 21.Qxd4 and is floundering on.

Rakshitta Ravi

A funny thing happened…

… early in the game between Yannick Husers and mega-talent Machteld van Foreest.

Husers-Van Foreest

Here Machteld played the correct 10…Nf2+! 11.Rxf2 Bxf2 12.Qxf2 fxe5 13.d3

But now:

13…Df6?

The strong follow-up was 13…Nc6! and Black wins a piece back; White can’t put anything on e3 on account of the 14…d4 fork.

Here Yannick thought for some time while Machteld was cruising through the playing hall as usual. Then he took his bishop and with some force plunged it…

14.Bf4?

Arthur Maters and Kevin Brands, playing on the board next to Husers and Van Foreest, were looking at the neighbouring board for several long seconds in amazement before continuing their own game. After a while Machteld came back and played 14…exf4. Now 15.Nxd5 was much less strong than it would have been one move earlier, when it would have been very good for White!: 14.Nxd5 Qf7 15.h3! Bxf3 16.Qxf3 Qxf3 17.Bxf3 Rxf3 18.Nxc7 Rf8 19.Nxa8 Rc8 when in the end White remains a healthy pawn up. Instead, Husers is now an exchange behind for a pawn, but we have no doubt that this game will see more crazy developments.

This is not Yannick Husers

Bas de Boer wins

The first actual result of the day (earlier William Shakhverdian and Max van de Pavoordt settled for a quick draw) was in favour of Bas de Boer, who convincingly beat Belgian FM Roel Hamblok. De Boer won a piece and then, instead of defending it, crashed through on the kingside.

Romanov wins an exchange

Evgeny Romanov seems to be heading for a win against Thomas Beerdsen, the Dutch IM who made it to the finals last year. Romanov built a strong centre and after Beerdsen opened the kingside with 20…f5, tactical opportunities started to appear not for him but for the Russian GM. Now an exchange is lost on f8.

Elegant win with a hiccup by Nico Zwirs

Nico Zwirs from Apeldoorn, who already has 2 IM-norms in his pocket, seems to be in good shape again. Today he won an elegant game against Dries Wedda. But there was big hole in it!

Zwirs-Wedda

This looks pretty chaotic, but White’s attack comes much earlier:

30.Qxh6+?!?

As Nico explained, winning was 30.g6 fxg6 31.Qxh6+ Bxh6 32.Rxh6+ Qh7 33.Rxh7+ Kxh7 34.Rh1#.

30…Bxh6 31.Rxh6+ Kg8 32.Rdh1??

In view of Black’s possibility on move 34, here White should have opted for 32.Rg6+! Kf8 33.Bxd6+ Qxd6 34.Rh6!!. With this silent move White forces 34…Kg8 and wins after 35.Bxf7+ Kxf7 36.Rxd6 with his strong pawns.

32…Qxc2+ 33.Ka1 Re1+ 34.Rxe1

34…Nd1??

34…Nc4! covers the crucial pawn on d6. After 35.Bxf7+ Kf8 there is no check with the Bf4-bishop anymore.

Now White has a pretty finish:

35.Bxf7+! Kf8

35…Kxf7 36.Re7+ Kg8 37.Rg7+ is mate next move.

36.Bxd6+ 1-0

It’s mate in two again after 36…Kxf7. Olé!

Good draw for Van Delft

Dmitry Kryakvin is the first GM who yields a draw in this tournament. Van Delft got a good position with black, but the game petered out into a drawn rook ending.

Eelke de Boer resigned early against Indian IM Shyaamnikhil. Perhaps he could have played on a bit, but he must have been fed up with his unpleasant position.

A sneaky trick

17-year-old German FM Valentin Buckels just won after Serbian WIM Mila Zarkovic went wrong in an extremely sneaky position:

Zarkovic-Buckels

Here, 32.Nd4? was not possible due to 32…d5!, but White could have played a trick herself with 32.Rxc5! dxc5 33.Ne7+, which is almost equal. Instead, 32.Qc3? was immediately losing after 32…Rxc6.

Some accidents

Two Indian players were quite unfortunate this morning. First, IM P Iniyan thought, in a winning position, that he had a strong zwischenzug against Erik Sparenberg:

Iniyan-Sparenberg

Here White played 30.Nd5, where 30.Qxb1 would have won. The game move allowed 30…Qe1+ 31.Kg2 and now the long diagonal is blocked too: 31…Be4+ 32.Rf3 Bxf3+ 33.Kxf3… while the other one is opened!: 33…e4+ 0-1.

His countryman P Karthikeyan was very close to a draw against Gadir Guseinov.

Karthikeyan-Guseinov

What could possibly go wrong here for White? Well…

39.Bd6??

39.Qe4 was a draw.

39…Bg1+ 40.Kg3 Qe1+ 41.Kf3 Qf2+ 42.Ke4 Qd4+ 43.Kf3 Qd3+

And White resigned. Some guys need very little material to give mate!

22 oktober 2018
Verslag Ronde 3 Open

Early round has started

At nine o’clock sharp, chief arbiter Frans Peeters started the early round of today. So round 3 is under way, with most of the boards already taken. Round 4 will start at 15.00 this afternoon, while the 2 match games will begin at the regular time: 14.00 h.

Verhoef is going for an early kill

Pieter Verhoef from Arnhem is about to punish a wrong treatment of the Caro-Kann by Daniel Kutchoukov.

Verhoef-Kutchoukov

12.Bf4

Threatening something nasty on f7.

12…Ndf6?

He probably should have gone for the lesser evil with 12…Nxe5.

13.Nf5!

Why wait? Of course the knight cannot be taken due to 14.Nxc6+.

13…Bf8

And now Pieter is probably contemplating 14.Nc4 and putting something on d6.

Tomilova wins exchange

Young Indian talent Rakshitta Ravi is in trouble. Against Russian WIM Elena Tomilova she lost the exchange due to a simple but still rather nice trick:

Rakshitta-Tomilova

18…Bxe2! 19.Qxe2 Nd4 20.Qd2 Rxc3

Winning the exchange due to the fork on e2. Rakshitta played 21.Qxd4 and is floundering on.

Rakshitta Ravi

A funny thing happened…

… early in the game between Yannick Husers and mega-talent Machteld van Foreest.

Husers-Van Foreest

Here Machteld played the correct 10…Nf2+! 11.Rxf2 Bxf2 12.Qxf2 fxe5 13.d3

But now:

13…Df6?

The strong follow-up was 13…Nc6! and Black wins a piece back; White can’t put anything on e3 on account of the 14…d4 fork.

Here Yannick thought for some time while Machteld was cruising through the playing hall as usual. Then he took his bishop and with some force plunged it…

14.Bf4?

Arthur Maters and Kevin Brands, playing on the board next to Husers and Van Foreest, were looking at the neighbouring board for several long seconds in amazement before continuing their own game. After a while Machteld came back and played 14…exf4. Now 15.Nxd5 was much less strong than it would have been one move earlier, when it would have been very good for White!: 14.Nxd5 Qf7 15.h3! Bxf3 16.Qxf3 Qxf3 17.Bxf3 Rxf3 18.Nxc7 Rf8 19.Nxa8 Rc8 when in the end White remains a healthy pawn up. Instead, Husers is now an exchange behind for a pawn, but we have no doubt that this game will see more crazy developments.

This is not Yannick Husers

Bas de Boer wins

The first actual result of the day (earlier William Shakhverdian and Max van de Pavoordt settled for a quick draw) was in favour of Bas de Boer, who convincingly beat Belgian FM Roel Hamblok. De Boer won a piece and then, instead of defending it, crashed through on the kingside.

Romanov wins an exchange

Evgeny Romanov seems to be heading for a win against Thomas Beerdsen, the Dutch IM who made it to the finals last year. Romanov built a strong centre and after Beerdsen opened the kingside with 20…f5, tactical opportunities started to appear not for him but for the Russian GM. Now an exchange is lost on f8.

Elegant win with a hiccup by Nico Zwirs

Nico Zwirs from Apeldoorn, who already has 2 IM-norms in his pocket, seems to be in good shape again. Today he won an elegant game against Dries Wedda. But there was big hole in it!

Zwirs-Wedda

This looks pretty chaotic, but White’s attack comes much earlier:

30.Qxh6+?!?

As Nico explained, winning was 30.g6 fxg6 31.Qxh6+ Bxh6 32.Rxh6+ Qh7 33.Rxh7+ Kxh7 34.Rh1#.

30…Bxh6 31.Rxh6+ Kg8 32.Rdh1??

In view of Black’s possibility on move 34, here White should have opted for 32.Rg6+! Kf8 33.Bxd6+ Qxd6 34.Rh6!!. With this silent move White forces 34…Kg8 and wins after 35.Bxf7+ Kxf7 36.Rxd6 with his strong pawns.

32…Qxc2+ 33.Ka1 Re1+ 34.Rxe1

34…Nd1??

34…Nc4! covers the crucial pawn on d6. After 35.Bxf7+ Kf8 there is no check with the Bf4-bishop anymore.

Now White has a pretty finish:

35.Bxf7+! Kf8

35…Kxf7 36.Re7+ Kg8 37.Rg7+ is mate next move.

36.Bxd6+ 1-0

It’s mate in two again after 36…Kxf7. Olé!

Good draw for Van Delft

Dmitry Kryakvin is the first GM who yields a draw in this tournament. Van Delft got a good position with black, but the game petered out into a drawn rook ending.

Eelke de Boer resigned early against Indian IM Shyaamnikhil. Perhaps he could have played on a bit, but he must have been fed up with his unpleasant position.

A sneaky trick

17-year-old German FM Valentin Buckels just won after Serbian WIM Mila Zarkovic went wrong in an extremely sneaky position:

Zarkovic-Buckels

Here, 32.Nd4? was not possible due to 32…d5!, but White could have played a trick herself with 32.Rxc5! dxc5 33.Ne7+, which is almost equal. Instead, 32.Qc3? was immediately losing after 32…Rxc6.

Some accidents

Two Indian players were quite unfortunate this morning. First, IM P Iniyan thought, in a winning position, that he had a strong zwischenzug against Erik Sparenberg:

Iniyan-Sparenberg

Here White played 30.Nd5, where 30.Qxb1 would have won. The game move allowed 30…Qe1+ 31.Kg2 and now the long diagonal is blocked too: 31…Be4+ 32.Rf3 Bxf3+ 33.Kxf3… while the other one is opened!: 33…e4+ 0-1.

His countryman P Karthikeyan was very close to a draw against Gadir Guseinov.

Karthikeyan-Guseinov

What could possibly go wrong here for White? Well…

39.Bd6??

39.Qe4 was a draw.

39…Bg1+ 40.Kg3 Qe1+ 41.Kf3 Qf2+ 42.Ke4 Qd4+ 43.Kf3 Qd3+

And White resigned. Some guys need very little material to give mate!

22 oktober 2018
Shankland beats Svidler, no upsets yet in the Open

FInd all photos here. Photos by Harry Gielen: opening and day 2.

Summarizing today: it was a very interesting start of both matches. After some original play in both games, White was better in both Shankland-Svidler and Fedoseev-Van Foreest. But how much better was differing with almost every move. In the end Van Foreest held the draw by a great effort, while Svidler couldn’t make it against Shankland.

In the Open group there were again no surprises, although the work is becoming harder for the grandmasters. The only small upset was Eelke de Boer’s win against Indian IM P Iniyan, but this can hardly be a surprise because the 15-year-old player from Groningen is having a very good year so far.

Today the four match players were presented to the Open players and the public by tournament director Loek van Wely before the first round of the matches, and the second round of the Open. Van Wely presented former Dutch champion Jorden van Foreest for his fourth match here, praised rising star Fedoseev for his fighting mentality, called Peter Svidler an ‘extremely gifted player who keeps a high level despite not working a lot on his chess’, and last but not least another ‘rising star’, Sam Shankland, the current US champion as well as American Continental champion. Shankland made his final GM norm years ago by making a short draw against… Van Wely, in Berkeley 2011.

The tournament director also presented Hans Pees, CEO of the company DGT, which provides all the live boards for the matches, the Open, and a few boards of the Amateur tournament as well – without asking anything in return! Pees was going to make the first move on the board of Shankland-Svidler, but Sam was so eager to make his first move that he had already started before Pees could reach the board.

Peter Svidler also seemed a little surprised that Sam Shankland was moving so fast! (photo Harry Gielen)

Both games started with 1.d4 and Shankland answered Svidler’s notorious 2…g6, aiming for his pet Grünfeld, with 3.f3.

Hilwerda on the attack…?

It seems that 15-year-old Jonas Hilwerda will be in the picture again today. His opponent, Kasper Bleeker, wanted to grab the centre with 10…f5, probably assuming that 11.Bxf5 was no good in view of 11…Rf8. However, Hilwerda captured anyway, and after the rook move he can make a promising piece sac with 12.Qh5+ g6 13.Bxg6+ after which the black king will be chased all over the board.

New paths in the ‘Grünfeld’

Can we still call it that? The game Shankland-Svidler is following a completely untrodden path already. When the American took on c5 instead of playing the more ‘regular’ 4.d5, Svidler reacted with the gambit 4…e6 5.Be3 b6!?.

This move was first played by Grischuk against Caruana at the Baku Grand Prix in 2014! Caruana didn’t accept the pawn immediately and played 6.Nc3, and after 6…Ba6 the same moves were played as here: 7.cxb6 axb6 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4. Shankland-Svidler is without the moves 6.Nc3 Ba6, and on move 8, after 8.Bh4, Svidler played the totally novel 8…d5!?. Highly interesting stuff from the outset!

Principled Nimzo struggle

The other match game, Fedoseev-Van Foreest, is also interesting.

Fedoseev (right) and Van Foreest receive the final instructions from arbiter Frans Peeters (mid) (photo Harry Gielen)

The young man from St Petersburg treated a Nimzo-Indian carefully with the slow development moves 5.Nge2, 6.Bd2 and 7.Ng3. This gave Van Foreest the chance to play the interesting 5…Re8, with possibilities of pushing his d-pawn to d4, when White’s king may get into trouble. After 10…e5 a critical position was reached:

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

11.Qd2

White can also hold after 11.Qh4 d4! 12.0-0-0 Ng4 13.Qxd8 Rxd8 14.Be1, but after 14…Nc6 Black is fine.

11…Nc6

Now 11…d4? doesn’t quite work because of 12.0-0-0!, although Black may even have good compensation for the pawn after 12…Nc6 13.exd4 exd4 14.Bxd4 Nxd4 15.Qxd4 Qa5. But also the text looks good for Black.

12.b4!?

An interesting idea that was also suggested in commentator Robert Ris’ audience. The intention is 12…d4 13.Bb2 and after 13…dxe3 14.fxe3!? when White’s bishop pair will start to tell despite his structural deficit. The computer prefers the more natural 12.cxd5. But that might become boring after 12…Qxd5 13.Qxd5, and that wasn’t in the contract for both players!

First point of the day for Kryakvin

Russian GM Dmitry Kryakvin fairly quickly beat local FM Luuk van Kooten in round 2 of the Open. ,,My opponent just gave a pawn”, Kryakvin explained. He modestly didn’t add that White was already in trouble anyway: in the queenless middlegame Black’s pieces were much more active than White’s.

Safarli follows suit

Eltaj Safarli also won quickly with black: another local hero, Stefan Colijn, had to resign after 22 moves. Safarli gave a pawn for active piece play.

Colijn-Safarli

Here the Azeri GM played the fluid 14…Nd7! and after 15.h3 Ne5 16.Qa6 Be6 17.Qxa7 Nxc4 not only did Black gain his pawn back, but the foundation under White’s position had been blown away. The rest was smooth sailing for Safarli.

Slight plus for Shankland

Sam Shankland has managed to hold on to the pawn Peter Svidler gambited in the opening. There was some Black counterplay against the e3-pawn, but Black’s d5-pawn was always going to fall. In the endgame with 2 rooks + knight on both sides Svidler has some Benko-like counterplay for the pawn, but will it be enough to hold?

Much more equal is the other match game. Vladimir Fedoseev allowed his Bc3 to be exchanged for Black’s strong knight on c6, losing the bishop pair, after which the position looked quite equal. There followed some careful manoeuvring, but so far our Dutch hope seems to be doing very nicely with black (equalizing that is, of course).

The four match players before the start of the round. To the left tournament director Loek van Wely (photo Harry Gielen)

First Dutch wins: De Boer and Kevlishvili

Eelke de Boer en Robby Kevlishvili chalked up the first Dutch wins of this round: De Boer (15) as well as Kevlishvili (17) went pawn-grabbing in the right way and converted coolly. Kevlishvili was even four pawns up in the final position. Both players are on 2/2 right now.

>A turnaround in the matches?

There seems to be a slow turnaround going on in both matches. Whereas Peter Svidler looks to be increasing his chances for a draw in the double-rook ending with a pawn less, Vladimir Fedoseev has started to grind in the R+P ending against Jorden van Foreest, and now it looks as if the Dutchman is going to have to give a pawn as too many of his foot-soldiers are loose.

Amin on his way to win

Top-seed Bassem Amin has met with some very tough resistance from German player Robert Baskin, who is playing for the second consecutive time here, I believe. Under pressure, Baskin sacrificed his queen for rook + knight and seemed to be putting up a kind of fortress, but with some careful manoeuvring the Egypt GM forced a decisive breakthrough:

Amin-Baskin

Everything is now exactly in the right place for 58.e4! and Black had to take with the rook (58…dxe4? 59.Qf5+; 58…Nxe4 59.Qxd5 and Black has to stay on the e-file to defend the knight and so has to give up the a6-pawn anyway):

58…Rxe4 59.Kxa6

And White’s b-pawn should decide.

Bassem Amin in full concentration (during round 1)

Tough resistance by ladies

The (grand-)masters don’t get their pawns easily against various lady players. Gadir Guseinov and Evgeny Romanov were always better against Anna Warakomska and Elena Tomilova respectively, but Erik van den Doel had almost nothing for a long time against Sonja Maria Bluhm, Jorden van Foreest’s girlfriend, although the pressure is now mounting in the rook + opposite-coloured bishops ending. Thomas Beerdsen is also having a very long day against Serbian WIM Tijana Blagojevic. Now the Dutch IM has rook plus a- and c-pawn versus rook, which looks to be winning since Black is passive and White’s pawns are far advanced. But it’s really hard to say in this endgame.

Update: in the end Beerdsen did bring home the point.

Another turnaround…?

It looks like there has been another shift. Jorden van Foreest is defending tenaciously and seems to be close to equality again, whereas Peter Svidler now has his pawn on h6 endangered. He cannot well defend it as then his king comes under fire of the two white rooks…

Amin wins, and Van den Doel too?

Robert Baskin has had to resign against Bassem Amin in a hopeless endgame of queen versus knight + two pawns. Erik van den Doel has, with the patience of an angel, collected two pawns and seems to be winning too now.

Another tough day for Erik van den Doel

Van Foreest keeps the draw

After a great defensive effort, Jorden van Foreest held the draw with black against Fedoseev. The endgame was very tricky.

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

Here White probably missed his best chance to advance his e-pawn with 50.e5! (instead of the game move 50.Rb8) 50…Rc7 (50…Nxa3 51.e6 Re7 52.Rc5, catching the knight. Then White follows up with Nf7+ and Ke5, pushing the e-pawn through) 51. e6 Kg7 52. a4 Kf6 and now Black gets pushed back with 53.Rb8 followed by e3-e4 etc.

Both players thought after the game that five moves later…

55.e5 was not good at this point ‘as this pawn becomes weak’. The alternative 55.Rd8! would have given better winning chances, e.g. 55…Nc5 56.e5+ Kf5 57.Kh4 Nd7 58.Rc8! when 58…g5+ looks best (due to the pin on either the 5th or the 7th rank), and now 59.Nxg5 Rxe5 60.e4+ Kg6 61.Rg8+ Kf6 62.Kxh5. After 55…Kf7 White had to trade the rooks and there was no win.

A very tense game in which Van Foreest played, in any case, the opening and the endgame well. ‘I gave him too many chances in the opening’, Fedoseev said. And Van Foreest: ‘I was in a bit of time-trouble and panicked a little. In the end I held the game but I don’t know if it was because of my good defence or because of his bad play.’

Fedoseev and Van Foreest at the onset of their hard-fought draw.

Shankland wins!

The result was known already some time ago… but we’ve made some analysis of this incredibly tricky double-rook endgame – for what it’s worth. Unfortunately the players were quickly gone so we couldn’t get any reactions from them (yet).

Shankland-Svidler

32.fxg4

Stronger may have been 32.Ke2! with the idea 32…Nxh2 33.Rf8 Ra7 (33…f5 34.g3+ Ke5 35.Re8+ Re6 36.f4+ Kxe4 37.Rxe6+; or 33…f6 34.Rxf6+ Rxf6 35.Nxf6 Kg3 36.Ke1) 34.Rfd8 Re7 35.g3+ Kf5 36.Kf2 and Black has to give material.

32…Kxe4 33.a4 Rac5 34.h3 Rc3 35.Re8+ Kf4 36.Rd4+ Kg5 37.Re5+ Kf6 38.Rb5 Rc2+ 39.Kg3 Re6 40.Rd3 Kg7

Threatening 41…Ree2… but is it really a threat?

41.Kh2

Here even something like 41.Rf3 Ree2 42.Rxb6 g5 43.Rf1 was possible (41.Kf3 g5 42.g3 Rh2 is less clear).

41…Rb2 42.h4

Tickling Black on the kingside. It’s surprising how irritating this can be, even though it doesn’t bring any immediate dividends.

42…Ree2 43.Rg3 Re6 44.h5 Rd6 45.Rb4 g5

Some experts ventured that Black perhaps should not have reacted with this move. Now the h6-pawn becomes just a tiny bit weaker.

46.Rb5

46…f6?

Opening the door for the white rooks! Shankland is quick to take profit.

47.Rc3! Re2 48.Rb4 Kf7 49.Rbc4

49.Rc7+ Re7 50. Rxe7+ should be winning too. In the single-rook ending Black has much less chances to draw, in general, because he cannot create counter-threats against the white king.

49…Ke6 50.Rc8 Rdd2 51.Rg3 Kf7 52.Rh8 Rf2 53.Rh7+

And Black resigned because of 53…Kf8 54.Rb7 Rd6 55.Rc3 Rd8 56.Rcc7 etc.

The sole winner of today!

22 oktober 2018
Shankland beats Svidler, no upsets yet in the Open

Vind alle toernooifoto’s van dag 2 hier. Foto’s van Harry Gielen: opening en dag 2.

Summarizing today: it was a very interesting start of both matches. After some original play in both games, White was better in both Shankland-Svidler and Fedoseev-Van Foreest. But how much better was differing with almost every move. In the end Van Foreest held the draw by a great effort, while Svidler couldn’t make it against Shankland.

In the Open group there were again no surprises, although the work is becoming harder for the grandmasters. The only small upset was Eelke de Boer’s win against Indian IM P Iniyan, but this can hardly be a surprise because the 15-year-old player from Groningen is having a very good year so far.

Today the four match players were presented to the Open players and the public by tournament director Loek van Wely before the first round of the matches, and the second round of the Open. Van Wely presented former Dutch champion Jorden van Foreest for his fourth match here, praised rising star Fedoseev for his fighting mentality, called Peter Svidler an ‘extremely gifted player who keeps a high level despite not working a lot on his chess’, and last but not least another ‘rising star’, Sam Shankland, the current US champion as well as American Continental champion. Shankland made his final GM norm years ago by making a short draw against… Van Wely, in Berkeley 2011.

The tournament director also presented Hans Pees, CEO of the company DGT, which provides all the live boards for the matches, the Open, and a few boards of the Amateur tournament as well – without asking anything in return! Pees was going to make the first move on the board of Shankland-Svidler, but Sam was so eager to make his first move that he had already started before Pees could reach the board.

Peter Svidler also seemed a little surprised that Sam Shankland was moving so fast! (photo Harry Gielen)

Both games started with 1.d4 and Shankland answered Svidler’s notorious 2…g6, aiming for his pet Grünfeld, with 3.f3.

Hilwerda on the attack…?

It seems that 15-year-old Jonas Hilwerda will be in the picture again today. His opponent, Kasper Bleeker, wanted to grab the centre with 10…f5, probably assuming that 11.Bxf5 was no good in view of 11…Rf8. However, Hilwerda captured anyway, and after the rook move he can make a promising piece sac with 12.Qh5+ g6 13.Bxg6+ after which the black king will be chased all over the board.

New paths in the ‘Grünfeld’

Can we still call it that? The game Shankland-Svidler is following a completely untrodden path already. When the American took on c5 instead of playing the more ‘regular’ 4.d5, Svidler reacted with the gambit 4…e6 5.Be3 b6!?.

This move was first played by Grischuk against Caruana at the Baku Grand Prix in 2014! Caruana didn’t accept the pawn immediately and played 6.Nc3, and after 6…Ba6 the same moves were played as here: 7.cxb6 axb6 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4. Shankland-Svidler is without the moves 6.Nc3 Ba6, and on move 8, after 8.Bh4, Svidler played the totally novel 8…d5!?. Highly interesting stuff from the outset!

Principled Nimzo struggle

The other match game, Fedoseev-Van Foreest, is also interesting.

Fedoseev (right) and Van Foreest receive the final instructions from arbiter Frans Peeters (mid) (photo Harry Gielen)

The young man from St Petersburg treated a Nimzo-Indian carefully with the slow development moves 5.Nge2, 6.Bd2 and 7.Ng3. This gave Van Foreest the chance to play the interesting 5…Re8, with possibilities of pushing his d-pawn to d4, when White’s king may get into trouble. After 10…e5 a critical position was reached:

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

11.Qd2

White can also hold after 11.Qh4 d4! 12.0-0-0 Ng4 13.Qxd8 Rxd8 14.Be1, but after 14…Nc6 Black is fine.

11…Nc6

Now 11…d4? doesn’t quite work because of 12.0-0-0!, although Black may even have good compensation for the pawn after 12…Nc6 13.exd4 exd4 14.Bxd4 Nxd4 15.Qxd4 Qa5. But also the text looks good for Black.

12.b4!?

An interesting idea that was also suggested in commentator Robert Ris’ audience. The intention is 12…d4 13.Bb2 and after 13…dxe3 14.fxe3!? when White’s bishop pair will start to tell despite his structural deficit. The computer prefers the more natural 12.cxd5. But that might become boring after 12…Qxd5 13.Qxd5, and that wasn’t in the contract for both players!

First point of the day for Kryakvin

Russian GM Dmitry Kryakvin fairly quickly beat local FM Luuk van Kooten in round 2 of the Open. ,,My opponent just gave a pawn”, Kryakvin explained. He modestly didn’t add that White was already in trouble anyway: in the queenless middlegame Black’s pieces were much more active than White’s.

Safarli follows suit

Eltaj Safarli also won quickly with black: another local hero, Stefan Colijn, had to resign after 22 moves. Safarli gave a pawn for active piece play.

Colijn-Safarli

Here the Azeri GM played the fluid 14…Nd7! and after 15.h3 Ne5 16.Qa6 Be6 17.Qxa7 Nxc4 not only did Black gain his pawn back, but the foundation under White’s position had been blown away. The rest was smooth sailing for Safarli.

Slight plus for Shankland

Sam Shankland has managed to hold on to the pawn Peter Svidler gambited in the opening. There was some Black counterplay against the e3-pawn, but Black’s d5-pawn was always going to fall. In the endgame with 2 rooks + knight on both sides Svidler has some Benko-like counterplay for the pawn, but will it be enough to hold?

Much more equal is the other match game. Vladimir Fedoseev allowed his Bc3 to be exchanged for Black’s strong knight on c6, losing the bishop pair, after which the position looked quite equal. There followed some careful manoeuvring, but so far our Dutch hope seems to be doing very nicely with black (equalizing that is, of course).

The four match players before the start of the round. To the left tournament director Loek van Wely (photo Harry Gielen)

First Dutch wins: De Boer and Kevlishvili

Eelke de Boer en Robby Kevlishvili chalked up the first Dutch wins of this round: De Boer (15) as well as Kevlishvili (17) went pawn-grabbing in the right way and converted coolly. Kevlishvili was even four pawns up in the final position. Both players are on 2/2 right now.

>A turnaround in the matches?

There seems to be a slow turnaround going on in both matches. Whereas Peter Svidler looks to be increasing his chances for a draw in the double-rook ending with a pawn less, Vladimir Fedoseev has started to grind in the R+P ending against Jorden van Foreest, and now it looks as if the Dutchman is going to have to give a pawn as too many of his foot-soldiers are loose.

Amin on his way to win

Top-seed Bassem Amin has met with some very tough resistance from German player Robert Baskin, who is playing for the second consecutive time here, I believe. Under pressure, Baskin sacrificed his queen for rook + knight and seemed to be putting up a kind of fortress, but with some careful manoeuvring the Egypt GM forced a decisive breakthrough:

Amin-Baskin

Everything is now exactly in the right place for 58.e4! and Black had to take with the rook (58…dxe4? 59.Qf5+; 58…Nxe4 59.Qxd5 and Black has to stay on the e-file to defend the knight and so has to give up the a6-pawn anyway):

58…Rxe4 59.Kxa6

And White’s b-pawn should decide.

Bassem Amin in full concentration (during round 1)

Tough resistance by ladies

The (grand-)masters don’t get their pawns easily against various lady players. Gadir Guseinov and Evgeny Romanov were always better against Anna Warakomska and Elena Tomilova respectively, but Erik van den Doel had almost nothing for a long time against Sonja Maria Bluhm, Jorden van Foreest’s girlfriend, although the pressure is now mounting in the rook + opposite-coloured bishops ending. Thomas Beerdsen is also having a very long day against Serbian WIM Tijana Blagojevic. Now the Dutch IM has rook plus a- and c-pawn versus rook, which looks to be winning since Black is passive and White’s pawns are far advanced. But it’s really hard to say in this endgame.

Update: in the end Beerdsen did bring home the point.

Another turnaround…?

It looks like there has been another shift. Jorden van Foreest is defending tenaciously and seems to be close to equality again, whereas Peter Svidler now has his pawn on h6 endangered. He cannot well defend it as then his king comes under fire of the two white rooks…

Amin wins, and Van den Doel too?

Robert Baskin has had to resign against Bassem Amin in a hopeless endgame of queen versus knight + two pawns. Erik van den Doel has, with the patience of an angel, collected two pawns and seems to be winning too now.

Another tough day for Erik van den Doel

Van Foreest keeps the draw

After a great defensive effort, Jorden van Foreest held the draw with black against Fedoseev. The endgame was very tricky.

Fedoseev-Van Foreest

Here White probably missed his best chance to advance his e-pawn with 50.e5! (instead of the game move 50.Rb8) 50…Rc7 (50…Nxa3 51.e6 Re7 52.Rc5, catching the knight. Then White follows up with Nf7+ and Ke5, pushing the e-pawn through) 51. e6 Kg7 52. a4 Kf6 and now Black gets pushed back with 53.Rb8 followed by e3-e4 etc.

Both players thought after the game that five moves later…

55.e5 was not good at this point ‘as this pawn becomes weak’. The alternative 55.Rd8! would have given better winning chances, e.g. 55…Nc5 56.e5+ Kf5 57.Kh4 Nd7 58.Rc8! when 58…g5+ looks best (due to the pin on either the 5th or the 7th rank), and now 59.Nxg5 Rxe5 60.e4+ Kg6 61.Rg8+ Kf6 62.Kxh5. After 55…Kf7 White had to trade the rooks and there was no win.

A very tense game in which Van Foreest played, in any case, the opening and the endgame well. ‘I gave him too many chances in the opening’, Fedoseev said. And Van Foreest: ‘I was in a bit of time-trouble and panicked a little. In the end I held the game but I don’t know if it was because of my good defence or because of his bad play.’

Fedoseev and Van Foreest at the onset of their hard-fought draw.

Shankland wins!

The result was known already some time ago… but we’ve made some analysis of this incredibly tricky double-rook endgame – for what it’s worth. Unfortunately the players were quickly gone so we couldn’t get any reactions from them (yet).

Shankland-Svidler

32.fxg4

Stronger may have been 32.Ke2! with the idea 32…Nxh2 33.Rf8 Ra7 (33…f5 34.g3+ Ke5 35.Re8+ Re6 36.f4+ Kxe4 37.Rxe6+; or 33…f6 34.Rxf6+ Rxf6 35.Nxf6 Kg3 36.Ke1) 34.Rfd8 Re7 35.g3+ Kf5 36.Kf2 and Black has to give material.

32…Kxe4 33.a4 Rac5 34.h3 Rc3 35.Re8+ Kf4 36.Rd4+ Kg5 37.Re5+ Kf6 38.Rb5 Rc2+ 39.Kg3 Re6 40.Rd3 Kg7

Threatening 41…Ree2… but is it really a threat?

41.Kh2

Here even something like 41.Rf3 Ree2 42.Rxb6 g5 43.Rf1 was possible (41.Kf3 g5 42.g3 Rh2 is less clear).

41…Rb2 42.h4

Tickling Black on the kingside. It’s surprising how irritating this can be, even though it doesn’t bring any immediate dividends.

42…Ree2 43.Rg3 Re6 44.h5 Rd6 45.Rb4 g5

Some experts ventured that Black perhaps should not have reacted with this move. Now the h6-pawn becomes just a tiny bit weaker.

46.Rb5

46…f6?

Opening the door for the white rooks! Shankland is quick to take profit.

47.Rc3! Re2 48.Rb4 Kf7 49.Rbc4

49.Rc7+ Re7 50. Rxe7+ should be winning too. In the single-rook ending Black has much less chances to draw, in general, because he cannot create counter-threats against the white king.

49…Ke6 50.Rc8 Rdd2 51.Rg3 Kf7 52.Rh8 Rf2 53.Rh7+

And Black resigned because of 53…Kf8 54.Rb7 Rd6 55.Rc3 Rd8 56.Rcc7 etc.

The sole winner of today!

22 oktober 2018
Report Round 1
Simul Nick Schilder

The very popular Dutch singer Nick Schilder from the duo Nick & Simon gave a simul this morning against around 30 young players at the McDonald’s in Hoogeveen. As expected, a lot of girls turned up to play chess with Nick! Later this afternoon he will open the tournament at the De Tamboer theatre in the Hoogeveen city centre.

Nick had had good fun at the exhibition: ‘There was certainly some talent around, and there was a good atmosphere’, he said. ‘It’s great that the owner has already been supporting this event for 22 years.’ With so many opponents to face in 1.5 hours, things became hectic. Christine Namaganda (from the movie ‘Queen of Katwe’) and tournament director Loek van Wely stepped in to help Nick, who is a pretty good chess player, to keep up the pace. There were a few draws and even one young winner.

Round 1 Open has started!

Round 1 of the Open started a little late today. Some of the boards were already occupied…

Here, Nick Schilder is playing an offhand game with Christine Namaganda, who by the way is the actress who played the opponent that the ‘Queen of Katwe’ had to beat in the movie of the same name.

Tournament director Loek van Wely welcomed all the players. Chief arbiter Frans Peeters announced that all 42 games of the Open group will be transmitted live every day. He asked the players to stop the clocks immediately at the end of their game, so that the last move can be recorded (and no further moves). A bye can be requested, but if a player has taken a bye he can no longer apply for the finales, which will take place after round 7 between the highest 4 players in the ranking.

Drawing of lots for the matches

Sorry, we’ve been absent for a while due to the fact that the official opening of the Hoogeveen Matches was held elsewhere. You can read more about that later on this site. The drawing of lots had the following result for the first round, which will be played tomorrow:
Sam Shankland-Peter Svidler
Vladimir Fedoseev-Jorden van Foreest

Some bizarre moments

Dutch GM Erik van den Doel was a bit surprised by the strong play of 13-year-old Indian girl Rakshitta Ravi. ‘I was worse for a while’, Van den Doel admitted. As far as move 30 the young Indian girl – yet another big talent to watch? had some pressure on the seasoned Dutchman’s position. Then, as these things go, she went astray with 30.Bb7? and slowly lost control.

Fresh Dutch IM Max Warmerdam also had a hard time against 15-year-old talent Jonas Hilwerda. Then the young player from Groningen suffered from a horrible short-circuit.

Warmerdam-Hilwerda

Here Jonas played 25… Bxg5, a good move but with the wrong

intention: ‘After 26. Bxf8 for some reason I thought my rook was on b8, and I wanted to play a nice trick: 26…Qf7!!. When I saw what was wrong I had already touched my queen.’ But it gets worse. After 26…Qc8 (26…Bg6 would have been the ‘normal’ move) 27.Qg3 Black sacrificed his queen with 27…Qxf8, and eventually lost. However, 27…Qd7 or 27…Qe6 would still have been OK for Black! He just threatens to take on f8 with the rook, and otherwise he will have time to retreat his bishop.

Just a few small surprises

The grandmasters did their job today in the first round – no upsets to speak of. But several young players did quite well today, bridging some big Elo-differences. Feline Waardenburg held Ron Hoffman to a draw, and so did Max van de Pavoordt against Rob Bertholee, as well as Duncan Klaren against IM Migchiel de Jong and William Shakhverdian against seasoned Indian player Ojas Kulkarni, who has played in a lot of Dutch tournaments recently.

Even better did Marcel Winkels, who beat the theoretically much stronger Marijn den Hartog, and the same went for Loek van der Hagen against Irishman David Murray.
21 oktober 2018
Verslag Ronde 1
Simul Nick Schilder

The very popular Dutch singer Nick Schilder from the duo Nick & Simon gave a simul this morning against around 30 young players at the McDonald’s in Hoogeveen. As expected, a lot of girls turned up to play chess with Nick! Later this afternoon he will open the tournament at the De Tamboer theatre in the Hoogeveen city centre.

Nick had had good fun at the exhibition: ‘There was certainly some talent around, and there was a good atmosphere’, he said. ‘It’s great that the owner has already been supporting this event for 22 years.’ With so many opponents to face in 1.5 hours, things became hectic. Christine Namaganda (from the movie ‘Queen of Katwe’) and tournament director Loek van Wely stepped in to help Nick, who is a pretty good chess player, to keep up the pace. There were a few draws and even one young winner.

Round 1 Open has started!

Round 1 of the Open started a little late today. Some of the boards were already occupied…

Here, Nick Schilder is playing an offhand game with Christine Namaganda, who by the way is the actress who played the opponent that the ‘Queen of Katwe’ had to beat in the movie of the same name.

Tournament director Loek van Wely welcomed all the players. Chief arbiter Frans Peeters announced that all 42 games of the Open group will be transmitted live every day. He asked the players to stop the clocks immediately at the end of their game, so that the last move can be recorded (and no further moves). A bye can be requested, but if a player has taken a bye he can no longer apply for the finales, which will take place after round 7 between the highest 4 players in the ranking.

Drawing of lots for the matches

Sorry, we’ve been absent for a while due to the fact that the official opening of the Hoogeveen Matches was held elsewhere. You can read more about that later on this site. The drawing of lots had the following result for the first round, which will be played tomorrow:
Sam Shankland-Peter Svidler
Vladimir Fedoseev-Jorden van Foreest

Some bizarre moments

Dutch GM Erik van den Doel was a bit surprised by the strong play of 13-year-old Indian girl Rakshitta Ravi. ‘I was worse for a while’, Van den Doel admitted. As far as move 30 the young Indian girl – yet another big talent to watch? had some pressure on the seasoned Dutchman’s position. Then, as these things go, she went astray with 30.Bb7? and slowly lost control.

Fresh Dutch IM Max Warmerdam also had a hard time against 15-year-old talent Jonas Hilwerda. Then the young player from Groningen suffered from a horrible short-circuit.

Warmerdam-Hilwerda

Here Jonas played 25… Bxg5, a good move but with the wrong

intention: ‘After 26. Bxf8 for some reason I thought my rook was on b8, and I wanted to play a nice trick: 26…Qf7!!. When I saw what was wrong I had already touched my queen.’ But it gets worse. After 26…Qc8 (26…Bg6 would have been the ‘normal’ move) 27.Qg3 Black sacrificed his queen with 27…Qxf8, and eventually lost. However, 27…Qd7 or 27…Qe6 would still have been OK for Black! He just threatens to take on f8 with the rook, and otherwise he will have time to retreat his bishop.

Just a few small surprises

The grandmasters did their job today in the first round – no upsets to speak of. But several young players did quite well today, bridging some big Elo-differences. Feline Waardenburg held Ron Hoffman to a draw, and so did Max van de Pavoordt against Rob Bertholee, as well as Duncan Klaren against IM Migchiel de Jong and William Shakhverdian against seasoned Indian player Ojas Kulkarni, who has played in a lot of Dutch tournaments recently.

Even better did Marcel Winkels, who beat the theoretically much stronger Marijn den Hartog, and the same went for Loek van der Hagen against Irishman David Murray.
21 oktober 2018
Big things in not so big places

The trailer of the movie ‘Queen of Katwe’ starts with a question by the main character, Fiona: ,,Can you do big things from such a small place?” Although Hoogeveen isn’t exactly a ‘small place’, it isn’t a very big place either. And still, big things are happening here, as Bert van der Haar, chairman of the Stichting Schaaktoernooi N.O.-Nederland (Foundation of Chess Tournament Northeast Netherlands) explained to the audience during the opening of this 22nd Hoogeveen Chess tournament: ,,At this moment we are the second chess tournament in the Netherlands. We want to turn Hoogeveen more and more into the chess city of our country, and we will start with placing big outdoor chess sets at each of the 37 primary schools here in the area.” Van der Haar warmly welcomed the four match players, mayor Karel Loohuis of Hoogeveen, and the former mayors Willem Eurlings and Sytze Faber, who were also present, as well as the two guests of honour, Christine Namaganda and Nick Schilder.

Mayor Loohuis said that it was still a special thing for him to open this tournament: ,,I don’t think there is any place in the world where a chess tournament is held in a city hall. I am very proud of the organisation, the volunteers, and the sponsors.” He singled out one story about one of the 32 sponsors who have united themselves under the name ‘Corps32’: ,,McDonald’s (where Nick Schilder gave a simultaneous display for youth players this morning, PB) is the biggest tourist attraction in Hoogeveen, with more than 900,000 visitors every year.” Loohuis fully agreed with the plan to stimulate chess in schools: ,,Children will learn better if, besides the regular subjects, they are also taught music and play sports – also chess.” He said that Hoogeveen could be more assertive: ,,This tournament has a good reputation internationally, and the website is visited by people from all over the world.”

Tournament director Loek van Wely showed a number of videos that illustrated well why it is such a great thing to teach chess to children, adding: ,,One can never be a good chess player unless one can use one’s chess skills in other areas as wel.” He showed the trailer of the American movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, and after that the trailer of Queen of Katwe, in which the tournament’s guest of honour, Christine Namaganda, plays the toughest opponent of main protagonist Fiona. Christine, who has played for Uganda at four Olympiads already, visited several schools in the cities of Hoogeveen and Meppel in the past few days. ,,Life as a chess player in Uganda is not easy”, Namaganda said. ,,It is not a joke. You have to use the chance when you get it. I’ve visited many countries already, but in the Netherlands everything is different. In other places you just hurry from the hotel to the playing hall and back, but here you also get the time to move around.”

Christine Namaganda. Photo: Frans Peeters

As a foretaste of what was coming later, Van Wely then showed a hilaric video where two Americans played blitz on a big board: real ‘condition chess’, for not only did they have to carry the big pieces around, they also had to run to the clock after every move. Next, Van Wely announced a great ambition: ,,At our 25-year jubilee (in 2021, PB) we want to invite the World Champion to play chess here in Hoogeveen.”

There followed an interview with Nick Schilder in which Van Wely posed the popular Dutch singer some tricky questions. Is Nick a chess-playing singer or a singing chess player? Lately, Nick’s focus is more on singing, ,,but there are times that I spend more hours on chess.” When asked about his Elo-rating as a singer, he replied modestly: ,,I think that opera tenors are the real grandmasters. I am a professional, though, so let’s say I’m a FIDE master.” Nick once said you need not be intelligent to be a good chess player, but at this occasion he explained what he had really meant by that: ,,Bobby Fischer once said that anyone could become a chess master. I’m trying to make chess a little less highbrow. In order to derive pleasure from chess, you don’t need to be enormously talented, or sit in the attic studying for hours.” Nick has another great ambition in the area of chess: he supports Anish Giri in his efforts to fight for the world title. ,,By beating him, as you did once?”, Van Wely asked. ,,Yes, that was a wake-up call for him, and he’s doing better now”, Schilder laughed.

After this, the four match players were introduced to the audience, also with videos. It turns out that the American champion, Sam Shankland, once featured in a reality show where famous Americans had to survive in the jungle. The audience saw Shankland very sturdily sporting an axe, but getting it stuck in a tree behind him. ,,Anyway it’s good that chess players have the balls to do such things”, Van Wely praised. Shankland admitted that he used to dream of winning the US title as a kid, but had suffered a reality check after a few years – he was never going to make it. And so he was overjoyed when he did make it early this year, ahead of the elite players Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura. About his opponent, Peter Svidler, he said: ,,He didn’t play well for a couple of games recently, so Peter will be extra motivated for this match.”

Sam Shankland. Photo: Frans Peeters

Of Svidler, Van Wely showed a cricket video, which is one of several hobby’s of the 8-fold Russian champion besides chess. He is also an avid Hearthstone player and a popular commentator at big chess events where he isn’t playing himself. And still, without working too hard on it, a top-10 player? ,,Not anymore”, said Svidler with his characteristic flair of putting things in perspective. ,,And I can’t really play cricket – don’t let this video put you off.”

The new star, Vladimir Fedoseev, is so fresh that Van Wely didn’t even have a ‘compromising’ video of him. The young Russian briefly talked about his career so far: ,,I had a few good results in 2017, and became a bit famous, but not yet as famous as my team captain, Peter Svidler.” He also knew why he was invited: ,,Yes, because I have an aggressive style, just like Jorden van Foreest.” Van Wely stressed that his match with the young Dutchman would have to be bloody, and Fedoseev more or less promised as much: ,,Anyway I hope it will be a match with some good chess.”

About Jorden, the first part of the Dutch documentary ‘De Stelling van Foreest’ (‘The position/theorem of Van Foreest’) was showed, in which he introduces himself. ,,At that time, just after your Dutch title, you dreamed of the world title”, Van Wely said. ,,Yes, but I also had a reality check”, Jorden replied. ,,I don’t have much of a chance. I will now focus more on chess, though. After this match with Fedoseev I will play in the A-group of the Tata Steel tournament in January. I hope to prove that I can still play a nice game.”

The opening ceremony ended with a demo blitz game between Christine Namaganda and Nick Schilder on a big board on the stage. The Ugandese was at a disadvantage because she was wearing high heels, so she got some help from Loek van Wely. Nevertheless she got into trouble against Schilder, who was jumping athletically over the pieces and also played well, winning the game.

After that there was a drawing of lots for the matches, resulting in the following pairing for the first round:

Vladimir Fedoseev-Jorden van Foreest

Sam Shankland-Peter Svidler

And that’s how we will continue tomorrow!

Photos by Frans Peeters: here.

21 oktober 2018
Grote dingen in niet zo grote steden

De trailer van de film ‘Queen of Katwe’ begint met de vraag van hoofdpersoon Fiona: ,,Can you do big things from such a small place?” Al is Hoogeveen nou niet echt een ‘small place’, heel groot is de stad ook niet. En toch gebeuren hier big things. Dat legde Bert van der Haar, voorzitter van de Stichting Schaaktoernooi N.O.-Nederland, uit aan het publiek tijdens de opening van dit 22ste Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi: ,,Wij zijn momenteel het tweede schaaktoernooi van Nederland. Wij willen Hoogeveen meer en meer de schaakstad van Nederland maken, en we beginnen met bij elke van de 37 lagere scholen hier in de omgeving een groot buitenschaakspel te plaatsen.” Van der Haar heette speciaal de vier matchspelers, burgemeester Karel Loohuis en de aanwezige oud-burgemeesters Willem Eurlings en Sytze Faber, en de twee eregasten Christine Namaganda en Nick Schilder welkom.

Burgemeester Loohuis zei het nog steeds bijzonder te vinden om dit toernooi te openen: ,,Er is volgens mij geen plek ter wereld waar een schaaktoernooi in een gemeentehuis wordt gehouden. Ik ben bijzonder trots op de organisatie, de vrijwilligers en de sponsors.” Eén verhaal van de 32 sponsors die zijn verenigd in Corps32 haalde hij eruit: ,,McDonald’s (waar vanochtend Nick schilder een jeugdsimultaan gaf, PB) is de grootste toeristische attractie van Hoogeveen, met ruim 900.000 bezoekers per jaar.” Loohuis stemde volmondig in met het plan het schaken op scholen te stimuleren: ,,Kinderen gaan beter leren als er naast de vakken ook muziek wordt gegeven en als er sport wordt beoefend, en dat geldt ook voor denksport.” Hij zei dat Hoogeveen nog wel wat assertiever mocht worden – met een knipoog naar zanger Nick Schilder: ,,Wat dat betreft kunnen we nog wel wat leren van Volendam. Dit toernooi staat internationaal hoog aangeschreven en de website wordt bezocht door mensen uit de hele wereld.”

Toernooidirecteur Loek van Wely liet een aantal video’s zien die mooi illustreerden waarom het zo mooi is om kinderen te leren schaken, en voegde toe: ,,Je bent pas echt een goede schaker als je je schaakskills ook kunt gebruiken op andere gebieden.” Hij liet de trailer van de Amerikaanse film Searching for Bobby Fischer zien, en daarna de trailer van Queen of Katwe, waarin eregast Christine Namaganda de grootste tegenstander van hoofdrolspeelster Fiona speelt. Christine, die voor Oeganda al op vier Olympiades heeft gespeeld, bezocht in de afgelopen dagen scholen in Hoogeveen en Meppel. ,,Leven als schaker in Oeganda is niet makkelijk”, zei Namaganda. ,,Kinderen moeten hun kans grijpen als ze die krijgen. Ik heb al veel landen bezocht, maar Nederland is anders. Normaal rennen wij van het hotel naar de speelzaal, hier wordt ook de tijd genomen voor andere dingen.”

Christine Namaganda. Foto: Frans Peeters

Als voorproefje van wat komen ging liet Van Wely vervolgens een hilarisch filmpje zien waarin twee Amerikanen snelschaakten op een groot bord: echt ‘conditieschaak’ want er moet niet alleen met grote stukken worden gesjouwd maar na elke zet volgt er ook een run op de klok. Daarna sprak Van Wely een grote ambitie uit: ,,Bij ons 25-jarige jubileum (in 2021, PB) willen we de wereldkampioen uitnodigen in Hoogeveen.”

Er volgde een interview met Nick Schilder waarin Van Wely wat stekelige vragen stelde. Is Nick een schakende zanger of een zingende schaker? De laatste tijd blijkt Nick’s focus meer op het zingen te liggen, ,,maar er zijn tijden dat ik ook wel meer tijd aan schaken besteed.” Gevraagd naar zijn Elo-rating als zanger bleef hij bescheiden: ,,Ik denk dat opera-tenors de echte grootmeesters zijn. Ik ben wel professioneel, dus laten we zeggen FIDE-meester.” Nick had ooit gezegd dat je niet intelligent hoeft te zijn om goed te kunnen schaken, en nuanceerde dat bij deze gelegenheid een beetje: ,,Bobby Fischer heeft ooit gezegd dat iedereen schaakmeester kon worden. Ik probeer het hoogdrempelige er een beetje af te halen. Om plezier aan het schaken te beleven hoef je geen enorm talent te hebben of uren op je zolderkamertje te zitten.” Wel heeft Nick een andere grote ambitie op schaakgebied: hij ondersteunt Anish Giri op diens weg naar de wereldtitel. ,,Door hem te verslaan, zoals je een keer hebt gedaan?”, vroeg Van Wely. ,,Ja, dat was een wake-up call, nu gaat het beter met Anish”, lachte Schilder.

Hierop werden de vier matchspelers aan het publiek gepresenteerd, ook met videootjes. De Amerikaanse kampioen Sam Shankland blijkt ooit in een reality-serie te hebben meegespeeld waarin bekendheden in de jungle moesten overleven. Het publiek zag hoe Shankland een bijl zwaaide voor een stoere slag en daarmee in een boom achter hem bleef steken. ,,Toch goed dat schakers de balls hebben om dit te doen”, prees Van Wely. Shankland gaf toe dat hij vroeger wel droomde van een Amerikaanse titel, na een aantal jaren een reality check kreeg dat hij dat nooit zou redden, en dat zijn vreugde des te groter was toen het begin dit jaar wel lukte, voor de wereldtoppers Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So en Hikaru Nakamura. Over zijn tegenstander Peter Svidler zei hij: ,,Die heeft een paar mindere partijen gespeeld bij de European Club Cup, dus die zal wel extra gemotiveerd zijn voor deze match.”

Sam Shankland. Foto: Frans Peeters

Van Svidler toonde Van Wely een cricketfilm, één van meerdere hobby’s van de achtvoudig Russisch kampioen naast het schaken. Verder is er nog het spel Heartstone en commentaar geven bij grote schaaktoernooien waaraan hij zelf niet meedoet. En toch, zonder er erg veel voor te doen, een top-10 schaker? ,,Niet meer”, zei Svidler met karakteristiek relativeringsvermogen. ,,En in cricket ben ik ook niet goed. Laat je niet afschrikken door dat filmpje.”

De nieuwe ster Vladimir Fedoseev is zo vers dat Van Wely nog geen ‘compromitterend’ filmpje van hem had. De jonge Rus vertelde kort iets over zijn carrière: ,,Ik heb in 2017 een paar goede resultaten behaald en ben een beetje beroemd geworden, maar nog lang niet zo beroemd als mijn teamcoach Peter Svidler.” Hij bleek ook te beseffen waarom hij was geïnviteerd: ,,Ja, omdat ik een agressieve speelstijl heb, net zoals Jorden van Foreest.” Van Wely drukte hem op het hart dat zijn match tegen de jonge Nederlander ‘bloederig’ moest worden, en dat beloofde Fedoseev min of meer. ,,Ik hoop er wat moois van te maken, in ieder geval.”

Van Jorden werd het eerste deel getoond van de documentaire ‘De Stelling van Foreest’ waarin hij zichzelf voorstelt. ,,Je droomde net na de Nederlandse titel twee jaar geleden van de wereldtitel”, zei Van Wely. ,,Ja, maar ik heb ook een realitycheck gehad”, zei Jorden. ,,Ik heb er weinig kans op. Ik ga nu focussen op schaken. Nu de match met Fedoseev, en in januari ben ik uitgenodigd voor de A-groep van het Tata Steel-toernooi. Ik hoop te bewijzen dat ik nog wel een aardig potje kan schaken.”

De opening werd afgesloten met een demonstratievluggertje van Christine Namaganda tegen Nick Schilder op het grote bord. De Oegandese was in het nadeel omdat ze op hoge hakken liep, en werd geholpen door Loek van Wely. Desondanks ging ze de mist in tegen de atletisch over stukken springende en ondertussen toch goed nadenkende Schilder, die eerst een stuk en later de partij won. Daarna volgde de loting voor de matches, die de volgende kleurverdeling opleverde:

Vladimir Fedoseev-Jorden van Foreest
Sam Shankland-Peter Svidler

En daarmee gaan we morgen verder!

Foto’s bij Frans Peeters: hier.

20 oktober 2018
Nick Schilder opent Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi en geeft jeugdsimultaan

Het Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi wordt dit jaar geopend door Nick Schilder. De zanger uit Volendam is op zaterdag 20 oktober de hele dag op uitnodiging aanwezig bij het schaaktoernooi in Hoogeveen. ‘s Morgens geeft hij de traditionele jeugdsimultaan bij McDonald’s.

Dat Schilder, bekend van het duo Nick & Simon, een keer het toernooi zou komen openen, was altijd al duidelijk. Naast een succesvolle zanger is hij ook een goede schaker: ,,Ik vind het een eer dat ik gevraagd ben om het Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi te openen. Het is toch een van de meest gerenommeerde toernooien in Nederland. Ik heb er nog nooit bij kunnen zijn, maar ik volg het wel elk jaar.”

Nick Schilder speelt tegen kinderen in Wijk aan Zee. Foto: Alina l’Ami

De opening is om 16.30 uur in theater De Tamboer in Hoogeveen. Voorafgaand aan de opening geeft Nick Schilder dus een jeugdsimultaan. Deze begint om 9.30 uur bij McDonald’s in Hoogeveen. Schilder wordt tijdens deze simultaan bijgestaan door Christine Namaganda uit Oeganda. Namaganda heeft een schaakschool in Oeganda en heeft een rol gespeeld in de Disneyfilm Queen of Katwe. Zij is dit jaar de speciale gast van het toernooi. Ze gaat onder andere op bezoek bij een aantal scholen in Hoogeveen. Er is plaats voor maximaal 40 kinderen bij de simultaan. Opgeven kan via secretariaat@hoogeveenchess.nl.

Foto: Queen of Katwe (2016)

Het 22ste Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi kent een recordaantal deelnemers. Momenteel staan er 251 schakers uit 21 landen op de deelnemerslijst. De amateurs en de open groep beginnen op zaterdag 20 oktober aan het toernooi.

Topattracties van het Hoogeveen Schaaktoernooi zijn twee matches. Dit jaar speelt de jonge Nederlandse grootmeester Jorden van Foreest tegen de iets oudere Russische topspeler Vladimir Fedoseev, en komt achtvoudig Russisch kampioen Peter Svidler uit tegen de Amerikaanse kampioen Sam Shankland. Voor het open toernooi hebben zich al 91 deelnemers uit allerlei landen aangemeld. Bovenaan de lijst staat de kampioen van Afrika, de sterke Egyptische grootmeester Bassem Amin. Ook de winnaar van vorig jaar, Roeland Pruijssers, is weer van de partij.

11 oktober 2018
Players’ portraits Hoogeveen 2018

Jorden van Foreest (30 April 1999)

Jorden was the European U-14 Champion in 2013, and conquered the grandmaster title already in 2015. The 2nd great-grandson of the former Dutch champions Dirk and Arnold van Foreest won the Dutch title himself in 2016. After narrow defeats against Jan Timman and Ivan Sokolov, Jorden won his first match in Hoogeveen last year, after a playoff against Adhiban Baskaran. In the Germany Bundesliga he crushed top players like Baadur Jobava, Andrei Volokitin and Ernesto Inarkiev. At the World Junior Championship in Tarvisio he came shared 4th, and in June he came clear first at the HSG Open. Jorden has made another big step forward, and it will be interesting to see how he will fare against the new heavyweight player Vladimir Fedoseev.

Vladimir Fedoseev (16 February 1995)

In recent years he invariably ended on one of the top places in strong tournaments. Vladimir Fedoseev’s first great victory was winning the illustrious Aeroflot Open in Moscow, in 2017. Later that year he came second in the Dortmund super-tournament, and shared first in the European Championship in Minsk (third on tiebreak). Fedoseev is known for his thorough preparation and his fantastic, original discoveries. His optimism behind the board may have stood in the way of even greater successes so far. But the young Russian is on the verge of claiming his place in the world chess elite, and we will surely see and hear a lot from him in the coming years.

Peter Svidler (17 June 1976)

Leningrad-born Svidler has been playing in the world top since the 1990s, and he is also involved in a kind of competition with our tournament director Loek van Wely: both are 8-time champions of their countries. Only Svidler’s country is the chess superpower Russia! Among his many tournament successes, his victory in the 2011 World Cup stands out. Besides a top chess player, Svidler is also a lover of culture and cricket. He speaks better English than many a native speaker, and if he doesn’t compete in a top tournament then chess fans will be hanging onto his every word during his commentary sessions. The experienced and amiable Russian is taking on an upcoming young American – just like Boris Spassky did 46 years ago against Bobby Fischer!

Sam Shankland (1 October 1991)

Shankland, who just turned 27, surprised friend and foe earlier this year by conquering the American national title ahead of the world top players Fabiano Caruana (Magnus Carlsen’s challenger), Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura, with a fantastic 8½/11 score and attractive attacking play. Still, this result didn’t appear out of the blue. In 2008 Shankland already shared first prize in the U-18 World Championship, on his 19th he was awarded the grandmaster title, and in 2011 he came third in the American Championship. He won various open tournaments, and won the gold medal as the reserve player for the USA at the Tromsø Olympiad in 2014. But so far 2018 has been Shankland’s definitive breakthrough year, and so we are quite curious how he will fare against a seasoned lion like Peter Svidler.

17 juli 2018