After round 5, this morning, three Indians are leading the Open. This round, the two Frisians Sipke Ernst and Migchiel de Jong upheld the Dutch honour, as well as Thomas Beerdsen – they all won their games. Jan Werle didn’t manage to get past Lucas van Foreest.
On the top board, the expected draw was realized within half an hour. 29 moves were made by Babu Lalith and Abhijeet Gupta in those 30 minutes. A well-known version of the once so notorious Botwinnik Variation ended in perpetual check.
On board 2, an Indian had to bite the dust. With black, Sundar Shyam beat S. Nitin in a technical game, and joined the leaders on 4½ point.
Jan Werle also seemed to be heading for a technical victory over Lucas van Foreest, but something went wrong.
Werle - L van Foreest
40.h4?
‘Here I should have shouldered off his king with 40.Ke5!’, said Werle during lunch. Of course, 40.Ke6 is less good in view of 40...h4. After the shouldering of the black king White does play h3-h4, and then the bishop is no game for the king, knight and pawn.
40...Kf6 41.c6 Ke7
Otherwise 42.c7!.
42.Pxf5+ Kf6 43.Pd6 Ke7 44.Pe4 Lc7 45.a4 g6 46.Kc4 Ke6 47.Kb5 Kd5 48.Pc3+ Kd6 49.Pe4+ Kd5 50.Pf6+ Ke6
51.Ph7
Another crucial moment. Couldn’t White play 51.Pe8 here? Werle feared that in that case a quick ...g6-g5 could become dangerous. And so it does, but still there seems to be a win for White thanks to a couple of bizarre knight jumps: 51...Lxg3 52.Ka6 and now:
A) 52...g5? 53.hxg5 h4 54.Pg7+! Kd5 55.Pf5 Kxc6 (or 55...Le5 56.Pxh4 Kxc6 57.g6) 56.g6 Le5 57.Pxh4;
B) 52...Kf5 53.Pg7+! (53.Kxa7 g5 54.Pg7+ Kg6 55.Pxh5! gxh4 56.Pxg3 hxg3 is a drawn queen ending) 53...Kg4 54.Pe6! Kxh4 55.Pc5! g5 56.Kxa7 g4 57.Kb7 Ld6 58.Pe4 g3 (otherwise the white a-pawn is faster) 59.Pxd6! g2 60.c7 g1D 61.c8D and with the extra knight, this should win.
51...Kd6
Now White does not manage to get the favourable constellation on the board any more.
52.Pg5 Kd5 53.Ph7 Lxg3 54.Pf6+ Ke6 55.Pe4 Le5 56.a5 Kd5 57.Pf6+ Ke6 58.Pd7 Lc7 59.Pf8+ Kd6 60.Pxg6
60...a6+! 61.Kxa6 Kxc6 62.Pe7+ Kc5 63.Pf5 Kb4 64.Pd4
And of course Lucas now opts for the most humoristic way to draw:
64...Lxa5 65.Pc6+ Kc5 66.Pxa5 Kd5 67.Kb5 Ke4 68.Pc6 Kf5 69.Kc4 Kg4 70.Kd3 ½–½
Lucas van Foreest. Photo: Lennart Ootes
Sipke Ernst was shaking his head after his victory over Harsha Bharathakoti. ‘It was quite dubious’, he said. ‘I sacrificed two pawns, but I’d missed 18...Pc5, and after that I didn’t have enough compensation. But you know how it is – there will always be another chance.’ And Ernst didn’t have to wait long.
Ernst - Bharathakoti
25...Lc7?
Too passive! It would have been better to give back some material for an initiative: 25...Th4! 26.Lxb6+ Pxb6 27.fxe5 Lxe5 28.Lxb7 Ta7 29.Pb4 (29.Lxa6 Ld6! 30.Le2 Ta5 and Black obtains a strong attack) 29...Tf4+ 30.Kg2 Txb7 31.Pc6+ Kd7 32.Pxe5+ Kd6 33.Pd3 Tf5 34.h4 Pd5 with a clear advantage.
26.Pb4! exf4 27.Txc7!?
A beautiful little move. Objectively, possibly 27.Lxb7 was strongest, for example: 27...Pe5+ 28.Ke4 Te8 (after 28...Ta7 29.Lxb6 White captures everything, and at the end the knight on e5 is hanging) 29.Lxa8 Pxa8 30.Lxc7+ Pxc7 31.Kxf4 and White remains an exchange up after 31...a5 32.Pc6+.
27...Pe5+?
Things are getting too complicated for Bharathakoti. Better was 27...Kxc7 28.Pd5+ Kd6 29.Pxb6 and now 29...Pe5+ 30.Kxf4 Th4+ 31.Kg3 Txe4 32.Pxa8 Te3+ 33.Kg2 Te2+ 34.Kg3 Txb2, and with three pawns for the piece, Black has good chances to draw.
28.Kxf4
His own zwischenschach now costs Black material – in most cases it is the other way around.
28...Kxc7 29.Kxe5 Tae8+ 30.Kxd4 Th4 31.Te1 f5 32.gxf6 gxf6
Black is just too late with this. The finish of the game nicely shows the power of the minor pieces:
33.Pd5+ Kb8 34.Lxb6 f5 35.Lc7+ Ka7 36.Lb6+ Kb8 37.Lc7+ Ka7 38.Pf6 Tc8
39.Lg3! Txh3 40.Te3 Td8+ 41.Ld5 Ka8 42.Ta3
And Black resigned. The threat is 43.Txa6 mate, and 42...Ka7 fails to 43.Lb8+.
Sipke Ernst. Photo: Lennart Ootes
Ernst and Migchiel de Jong, who beat K. Rathnakaran with black in a good game, are now on 4 points – half a point behind the leading threesome. Thomas Beerdsen also reached 4 by beating Sander Taams.
In this round, Liam Vrolijk made a good impression again. With a strong exchange sacrifice he posed problems for Leonardo Valdes Romero, but the latter defended tenaciously and an epic fight ensued where Black barely managed to hold the draw. Andries Mellema achieved the same result against grandmaster Sundararajan Kidambi.
Liam Vrolijk. Photos: Lennart Ootes
In the meantime we had already seen many shorter draws, and also a quick and quite unexpected win of a piece.
Colijn - Cornelisse
Black has just captured on d4, which proves unwise for a highly surprising reason.
16.e5! Pxe5
So as not to lose a piece, he would have had to play something like 16...Lxf3 17.exf6 Le2 here, but then Black is not to be envied after 18.fxg7 Kxg7 19.Df5 and 20.Le4. But who would expect...
17.Pxe5 Lxg2
18.Pef3!
Winning a piece!
Not much later, Black resigned.
Eesha Karavade. Foto: Lennart Ootes
Simon Bensaid. Foto: Lennart Ootes
