The big India-Netherlands match started today in the Open group in the town hall, while the four match players were still busy merrily drawing lots. Thirteen Indians we counted in this group – we may have missed one or two. Today we will present four. Three of them defeated their Dutch opponents – one lost, but it took a German opponent. Hence the title of this piece: Rest of the World.
Of the four we will show you here, three were Indian grandmasters, paired with three talented young players from the Netherlands, who haven’t reached that level yet. So the real struggle between the enormous delegation from India and the other nationalities is still ahead.
Abhijeet Gupta defeated Ron Hoffman on first board in a tough game. That other surge of open tournaments, Chanda Sandipan (who was victorious in Dieren this summer), played a little more frivolously.
Chandipan - Nguyen
White is enjoying his pawns, and he increases the pleasure with a strong exchange sacrifice:
19.Rxa4 bxa4 20.Bxa6
20.c6 was possibly even stronger – this could also have been played on the previous move.
20...Rc7 21.b5 dxc5 22.dxc5 a3 23.c6 Nb6 24.Qb3 Bb2 25.Rd1 Ra7 26.Bc5 Rd8 27.Rxd8+ Qxd8 28.Bxa3 Bxa3 29.Qxa3 Qd1+ 30.Kh2 Qe2 31.Qc5
The black queen may be actively placed, but the rest of Black’s pieces are in abominable positions, pressed together by the aggressive white pawns.
31...Rxa6 32.bxa6 Qxa6 33.Qxe7!
A decisive piece sacrifice.
33...Qxa5 34.Ne5 Qa2 35.Qd8+
Good enough, of course, but 35.Nd7! would have decided the issue right away. As it was, Black resigned on move 43.
One of our greatest female talents, Maaike Keetman, initially put up some good resistance against Babu Lalith. But when tactical tricks started to appear in the position, things went wrong.
Keetman - Lalith
Black is already doing very well here.
22...Qb6!
With a particularly nasty threat. The only remedy to it turns out to be 23.Nb1 – well…
23.Kf1 Qxf2+!
And White resigned, as she will lose a piece on d2.
Debashis Das entertained us with a couple of sharp games last year. The trick he put on the board was the nicest we are able to show you today.
Bas de Boer - Debashis
After his previous move, 28.Rg1-g4, De Boer offered a draw. That is always a reason to take another good look at the position.
28...Qxg4! 29.fxg4 Rf1+ 30.Kg2
Unfortunately, 30.Rxf1 Rxf1+ 31.Kg2 fails to 31...Ne3+ – everything fits like clockwork, and Black ends up being an exchange ahead.
30...Rxe1 31.Bxd5 cxd5
This looks tenable for White, but it is typically an endgame in which two cooperating rooks have many more possibilities than the lone queen, and Debashis proved this convincingly.
Doktor Axel Fehr had a little more luck than these Dutch youngsters.
Fehr - Karavade
Fehr has made a pawn sacrifice that wasn’t quite a success. Karavade now tries to liberate herself violently – which is understandable, but probably not the best option:
16...e5?! 17.f5! Bxf5 18.e4 Be6?
Black should have carried on with 18...Bxh3! 19.exd5 (19.Bxh3 Nf4 is even more difficult for White, as Black can take on g5 with the queen, and will then keep his dark-squared bishop for the attack) 19...Nxg2 20.Kxg2 Rad8 and now White cannot very well take on c6 in view of 21...Rd4, when Black also threatens to play 21...cxd5 22.Nxd5 Bc5! 23.Qxc5 Qe4+ with a strong attack.
19.exd5 cxd5 20.Nxd5
And with the white bishop still on g2, Black’s attack was insufficient. On move 36 the first surprising result (1–0) was realized.
There were five more results ranging from mildly to quite surprising in the first round. Derk Kouwenhoven defeated the Scotsman Jonathan Grant, and Sander Taams made a good debut with a victory over Enrico Vroombout. Oleg Romanishin could do no better than draw against Peter Mijnheer. Lucas van Foreest, whose elder brother Jorden will start his match with Ivan Sokolov tomorrow, only managed to draw with Simon Elgersma, and Tyro Bekedam nicely held the draw against IM Migchiel de Jong.
