For days we have been desperately asking ourselves who could break the supremacy of the Great Moghuls of Hoogeveen. It took a Van Foreest to do it. Lucas stole a point from Babu Lalith in this penultimate round. The Indian finally lost his self-control and went too far. Abhijeet Gupta saw this, and not much later agreed a draw with Chanda Sandipan. The winner of last year is leading again – but in the final round he will face Lucas van Foreest with Black. And the latter can play for tournament victory as well as his second GM norm. If he doesn’t manage, he will have his second IM norm in any case.
Lucas van Foreest. Foto: Lennart Ootes
Van Foreest - Lalith
17...Qf6!?
Lalith is ambitious and goes on the attack. The younger Van Foreest (15) thought that 17...Qd7 was better, but then White has a little something after 18.Qg5.
18.Nxb5 Nf4 19.f3 Qh4!?
19...Bxf3 20.gxf3 Qh4 is already a draw, for example: 21.Nxd4 c5!.
19...Qh6! was the most dangerous move. After the reply 20.Kf1 (20.Kh1 or 20.Kh2 comes down to the same) 20...Bxf3 21.gxf3 Qxh3+ 22.Kg1 Qg3+
analysis diagram
A) 23.Kf1? Qxf3+ 24.Kg1 (24.Qf2 Qh1+ 25.Qg1 Qh3+ 26.Kf2 Qf5 27.Nxd4 Nxd3+ 28.Ke3 Qh3+ 29.Kd2 Nxe1) 24...Nh3+ 25.Kh2 Nf2 (threatening 26...Qh1+ 27.Kxf2 Qh2+) 26.Re7 Ng4+ 27.Kg1 Ne3 28.Re4 Qf1+ 29.Kh2 Qf5! and due to the threat of a fork Black wins back the knight on b5;
B) 23.Kh1! Qxf3+ 24.Kh2 Qh5+ 25.Kg1 (25.Kg3 Qh3+ 26.Kxf4 Qh6+) 25...Qg4+ 26.Kh1 Qh4+ 27.Kg1.
There will come a time when grandmasters like Babu Lalith will be glad to take such a draw against Lucas van Foreest.
20.Nxd4
‘There was nothing else’, Lucas said. 20.Qf2 fails to 20...Qg5! and again the knight on b5 falls.
20...Qg3?
Lalith misses a devious little move. Here, necessary was 20...Nxh3+ 21.gxh3 Qxd4+ 22.Kg2, and now 22...Qf6! equalizes. ‘I am a pawn ahead, but Black has good drawing chances due to my weakened king’s position’, Van Foreest said.
21.Kf1! c5
21...Qh2 22.Qf2 Nh5 23.Nf5 amounts to the same.
22.Nf5 Qh2 23.Qf2 Nh5 24.Qxc5
It’s over.
24...Bxf3 25.gxf3 Qxh3+ 26.Kg1
No more checks.
26...g6
27.Bxf7+! 1–0
Grandmasters Werle and Romanishin pushed back Jonkman and De Jong respectively, and will face each other tomorrow on board 3. Apart from this, the norm chances are important. Except for Lucas van Foreest, Rakesh Kumar Jena (who is also 15!) has already made an IM-norm too. Casper Schoppen (14!) can score an IM norm by beating Hugo ten Hertog tomorrow, and Mees van Osch has to beat K. Rathnakaran with Black for the same result. And let’s not forget Maaike Keetman! She has already collected 5 points, and tomorrow we will see how far she gets against grandmaster Debashis Das.
Let’s close the day with some light stuff. The following game had an entertaining finish.
Hendriks - Hoffman
28.Rxc3 Bg7
28...Qxc3? 29.Bb2.
29.Re3 Bxf3!
Opening many lines and diagonals. 30.Rxf3 is not allowed due to 30...Qe1+.
30.Bxd7 Qb6 31.Qf2 Bd4
32.Bb2
Obstruction, pin and half cross-pin? Perhaps Dolf Wissmann knows...
32...Qxb2 33.Re8+ Rxe8 0–1
Van Dael - Boersma
Never allow a black bishop on the a7-g1 diagonal if your king is on h1...
29...Rh3! 30.d6+ e6 31.Qxe6+ Kh8 0–1
And then there was this.
Bos - Bensaid
This position with two cornered knights occurred after 18 moves – another record? Of course the game was drawn later on.
We will leave it at this for today – we will spare you the way Jan van der Veen mated Andries Mellema in 26 moves with knight and bishop.
Demre Kerigan. Foto: Lennart Ootes
Gupta. Foto: Lennart Ootes
Stefan Colijn. Foto: Lennart Ootes
