The leading positions in the open group are constantly changing. Each day one of the players wins and takes the lead, before, like a crab in a bucket he is pulled back by the teeming masses below him. Today Jan Werle was the head crab, who was dragged down by his shears by Abhijeet Gupta.
Werle played a system he had recently also played against Migchiel de Jong in a team game. But if he will stick to this line is not clear. ‘It’s rather passive for Black’, he said.
Gupta - Werle
Gupta controls the centre, but a breakthrough there will not yield him much. Now he starts an action on the kingside. Gupta himself thought that here or on the next move, Black should perhaps have played ...h7-h5. ‘But I didn’t want to give you the g5-square’, Werle said. It is difficult for Black to choose the right defensive plan with such a beginning attack on his king.
17.h4 Bg7 18.Qe3 De7 19.h5 Rfd8
Gupta suggested the unprejudiced 19...gxh5. Now Werle considered 20.Ne2. After 20...Rfd8 21.Nf4 Bh6 the black position looks a little crooked, but the situation is far from clear, and possibly this would have been better than what happens now.
20.h6 Bf8 21.Ne5 c5 22.Nb5 Nc6 23.Ng4 e5!
For now, Black handles the defence well.
24.Qxc5 bxc5?!
24...Rxd1+ 25.Rxd1 Bc8! would have eased Black’s pain. After 26.Rd6 Bxg4 27.Rxc6 bxc5 of 26.Qf3 Bxg4 27.Qxg4 Qxc5 White still has a little more space, but the attack is gone.
25.Rd5!
Painful.
25...Bc8 26.Rdxc5 Bxg4 27.Rxc6
The same action, but now Black has lost a pawn during the process, and he hasn’t managed to swap two rooks.
27...Qb4
Accelerating the end, which may not have been unwelcome for Werle here.
28.Nc7 Tac8 29.Nd5 Qxa4 30.Rxc8 Bxc8 31.Qg5
Winning an exchange, and after this Werle saw no reason to continue.
At board two and three, the Dutch white players missed some chances. I give the following fragments with thanks to Robert Ris.
L’Ami - Pavlidis
L’Ami sacrifices his d-pawn for an offensive along the seventh rank:
27.Rac1! Rxd4 28.Re7?
Strong was 28.h5! in order to keep the bishop on f5, and only then to put the rooks on the seventh rank.
28...g6 29.Bh3
Interesting was 29.Rcc7!? gxf5 30.Rxb7 Rxb7 31.Rxb7. White wins his pawn back in this rook ending and keeps a slightly better structure, but L’Ami thought it was too little.
29...Re4 30.Rd7 Tee8 31.Bg2
Now on 31.Rcc7 Black has 31…Bc8!, and White has to give perpetual check. After the text move the game peters out quickly to a draw.
Sipke Ernst and Benjamin Bok took a little more time to reach the same result.
Ernst - Bok
Ernst had a nice initiative after the opening. Bok had defended tenaciously, but in this position White still has a clear advantage because of the many weak black pawns.
28.Bb2?!
With 28.f3!, White could keep his own pawn skeleton intact.
28...Qh1+ 29.Ke2 Qxg2 30.Bxf6 gxf6
Now it really looks bad, but after
31.Rxa7 Qxh3 32.Qxc5+ Kg8
The black king was relatively safe, and the worst was behind Bok. Although Ernst kept on trying for a long time, the balance wasn’t broken anymore.
‘From below’ Arghyadip Das and Neelotpal Das (not brothers) joined the pursuers with victories over G.N. Gopal and Alexander Shabalov. There will still be a lot of teeming in the crab bucket in the coming two rounds.
