Coffeehouse Chess

photos: Lennart Ootes

The chairman of the tournament committee, Bert van der Haar, welcomed the match players and other visitors to the 21st Hoogeveen Chess Tournament, yesterday afternoon in the Tamboer theatre in Hoogeveen. He especially welcomed the mayor of Hoogeveen, Karel Loohuis, Thierry Baudet, leader of the Dutch political party Forum for Democracy, and the former mayor of Hoogeveen, Sytze Faber, who has played such a major role in establishing this event. Van der Haar mentioned the new sponsor group called ‘Corps 32’, which has given the tournament a big injection: ‘Hopefully this will grow into a ‘Corps 64’ – which coincides nicely with the number of squares on the chess board.’ He said that Hoogeveen is the second-biggest tournament in the Netherlands, and that he hoped that someday it will be the biggest. Van der Haar was looking forward to seeing the ‘showpiece of the day’, the chess game between Karel Loohuis/Loek van Wely and Thierry Baudet/Jorden van Foreest. ‘I hope our mayor wins’, quipped the chairman. 

 

The tournament director, Loek van Wely, thanked the main sponsors: the municipality of  Hoogeveen, the province of Drenthe, and ‘Corps 32’, as well as all the others involved. He claimed that this tournament aims to be progressive, with new technological gadgets. For example, all the participants in the Open group will be playing on wireless live-boards – which is a first worldwide, by courtesy of the Dutch company DGT. Also, on the ChessBase website it will be made visible in how far the moves of the players are identical with the first choices of strong chess computers. This may become a device to identify ‘cheaters’.

 

Next, Van Wely presented the participants of the two matches: ‘World Rapid Chess Champion and possible future World Checkers Champion Vasily Ivanchuk, possible future World Champion Wei Yi, the number 3 – or 4 – of India Adhiban Baskaran, a very friendly person and an attractive player’, and finally the 18-year-old Dutch top talent Jorden van Foreest. ‘This is your third and last chance’, he sternly told the latter. ‘Not winning is not an option.’ No pressure on the young grandmaster from Groningen.

 

Now the announced blitz game between the two duos started. Tournament director Van Wely cheered his partner with the white pieces, mayor Loohuis, on with remarks like ‘That’s it, forward, nice and aggressive, now it’ll be over soon.’ A little later he changed his tune somewhat, saying: ‘Now the draw is in sight.’ And, you’ve guessed it, shortly afterwards the talented black players had won the game. 

Baudet, the fourth Dutch politician to open the Hoogeveen Chess Tournament, after Fred Teeven, Jetta Klijnsma and Eric Smaling, explained in his opening speech why chess appeals to him so much: ‘On the board we see exactly the same things as these brilliant top players see, and yet we will always lose every game against them. That’s what makes this game so magical.’ He also appreciated the fact that on the chess board every mistake is punished mercilessly: ‘There is no excuse when you lose, you yourself are responsible. That is a lesson for politicians.’ He also mentioned that a small mistake early on in a chess game can have grave consequences much later on. ‘Politicians are never concerned with the effects of their policy in the long term: where are we going? where are we as a country? Russia and China, for instance, which are also top countries in chess, spend much more thought on this than we do here.’ Baudet called it impressive what his ‘running mate’  Van Wely had accomplished with this tournament: ‘I hope this will inspire many people to start playing chess too.’

 

Van Wely started the drawing of lots for the matches by showing the famous video where Ivanchuk took a short break from a checkers game with Baadur Jobava to collect his first prize in the World Rapid, last year in Qatar. Then he asked what the GM from Ukraine would prefer: beating Wei Yi in the chess match, or beating the young Dutch top checkers player Jan Groenendijk in their demonstration game on Saturday 27 October in Assen. After some hesitation, Ivanchuk replied: “Both, if possible.” Wei Yi was asked what would happen if nobody ever played the Sicilian against him any more. “Then I would have 100 Elo points less”, the young Chinese said. Will Ivanchuk, who drew White for the first game, take up this challenge this week?
 

Adhiban was rebutted by Van Wely for the fact that he still doesn’t have a 2750 Elo rating, as he once promised. “I never gave a time frame”, the Indian laughed. “But like Wei Yi I am also very dangerous.” “We want coffeehouse play”, Van Wely ordered. Something like what he had showed in the duo demonstration game, or in the blitz game with Jorden van Foreest a little later, which, admittedly, he won. Van Foreest announced he would try hard to grab the final chance given to him this week by the tournament committee. Otherwise his younger brother Lucas might come and take his place. So, there was a lot of fighting spirit already. Adhiban was the man who drew White, and so the pairings for tomorrow are: