14:16 Decisive round starts
Today it will be decided which four players will qualify for the semifinals that start tomorrow. Thomas Beerdsen en Roeland Pruijssers, who are facing each other on the top board, have the best chances. Arbiter Frans Peeters announced that between players with an equal score the TPR will be decisive for these qualifications.
Tournament director Loek van Wely gave the comouter percentages for Ivanchuk and Wei Yi in the previous two rounds:
Round 4: Ivanchuk 74%, Wei Yi 49%
Round 5: Ivanchuk 46%, Wei Yi 57%
There were a few amazing results in round 5 of the Open: Machteld van Foreest scored 81%, and the tournament leader Roeland Pruijssers 85%. The winner however was Jonathan Carlstedt with 88%. For round 6, Pruijssers had the best score with no less than 91%.
Dick de Graaf won the game prize for his highly entertaining game with Migchiel de Jong from yesterday. Harmen Jonkman got a special prize for missing an artistic mate in 3 against Lucas van Foreest (see yesterday's live blog).
14:39 Sicilian and Italian battles rage on
For the third time in the matches, Van Foreest and Adhiban play the Italian, and Wei Yi and Ivanchuk play a 2...e6 Sicilian.
Instead of 5...d6 Adhiban now chose the more direct 5...0-0 6.0-0 d5, the choice of many top players these days. A line came on the board that Van Foreest has had on the board with black, against Delchev. But instead of 10.Nbd2 the Dutchman opted for the risky pawn grab with 10.b4, 11.b5 and 12.Rxe5. Game on!
In the Taimanov with 6.Nxc6 Ivanchuk again went for the usual set-up with ...qc7 and ...d5. Instead of Re1 and e4-e5, the line Wei Yi chose in Game 4, he has now taken a sharper, more open set-up with 9.Qe2 and 11.f4. Now, after 13.Bg3, Ivanchuk can also go for a risky pawn grab with 13...Qb6+.
15:17 Draw on board 1
Not unexpectedly, Thomas Beerdsen and Roeland Pruijssers, who are teammates at MuConsult Apeldoorn, just agreed on a quick draw. With that, Pruijssers has qualified for the semifinals and Beerdsen has a very big chance to do so.
Thomas Beerdsen
Commentator Hans Böhm briefly interviewed Thomas about the situation. The draw wasn't pre-arranged, the latter said. 'I wanted to try for a win but when the position quieted down and Roeland offered the draw, I accepted. I know I cannot obtain a GM-norm if I play the semifinals (since for a norm you have to play 9 games in one tournament, and the semifinals are regarded as a separate tournament, PB), but that chance wasn't too big anyway since my average opposition wasn't too good. Besides I want to aim as highly as possible, GM-norms I will get anyway, I hope.'
15:20 Saduakassova on a roll again
Things are already looking good again for Dinara Saduakassova. In a KI a tactical liquidation has taken place, which left Black, young Luis Engel, with a shattered pawn structure.
15:56 Things are getting hot for Ivanchuk
Wei Yi is making a good attempt to draw even in the match. With 18.Bd7 and 19.e6 he has driven a wedge into the black position, splitting Ivanchuk's pieces into two groups. And Black's king is starting to feel the draft.
Full concentration...
16:09 Ernst looks to be winning
Sipke Ernst has crowned a liquidation with the win of an exchange, and he has big compensation for it too. If he wins he will have 5 points, which is probably not enough to reach the semifinals.
Sipke's opponent, Ivo Maris, in better times.
16:12 Wei Yi is winning
Wei Yi is going to collect Ivanchuk's kingside pawns - it looks hopeless for the Ukraine genius!
17:08 Wei Yi crashes through!
Vasily Ivanchuk has had to resign. The Ukraine GM looked totally crushed after he resigned. 'A complete collapse', he said.
Wei Yi said immediately after the game: 'Instead of 22...h5 he could have tried 22...Nf6.'
Here Ivanchuk played 22...h5? after which his kingside was laid bare for the white bishop and queen. Instead, 22...Nf6! was possible: 23.Bxh6 Nxd7 24.exd7 Rf7 and if Tf1-f3-h3 then the king goes back to g8. 'This was an excellent chance. It's still very unclear', Ivanchuk sighed. 'I stopped calculating after 23.Bxh6. How could I miss this? White may be slightly better, but it's still playable.'
Wei Yi agreed that this line would still have been very unclear. 'Especially as I was in time-trouble', he added.
The match will now be decided with, in the first instance, two blitz games with a time control of 3 minutes and a 2-seconds increment. Of course the other game, Van Foreest-Adhiban, has to be finished first.
Wei Yi has taken a seat in the audience, awaiting his turn to play blitz!
16:55 A second playoff?
Jorden van Foreest has managed to keep his extra pawn, but Adhiban's attack along the light squares looks dangerous. Still, if Jorden gets in Rd8 this looks like a draw - which would mean a second blitz playoff!
17:10 It's blitz!
Van Foreest-Adhiban was also drawn as expected. That means we're going to blitz on two boards. The playoffs will be played in turns. First Ivanchuk-Wei Yi will start at 17.20h, then Van Foreest-Adhiban at 17.30h. The time control is 3 minutes and 2 seconds' increment. Keep posted for our live coverage!
18:14 Ivanchuk and Van Foreest win playoffs
Vasily Ivanchuk and Jorden van Foreest were both too strong in blitz for their opponents. The playoffs alternated between the two boards, in front of quite a big audience.
In the first game Wei Yi won a pawn but got under pressure and used a lot of time. Ivanchuk ended up a few pawns to the good and missed (or didn't want to play) the pseudo sacrifice Rxf5 for a lot of moves. When he finally played it, it was soon over.
Jorden van Foreest opened the first game with the London System, and overpowered Adhiban with white and won a piece.
In the return game Ivanchuk played the Scandinavian with black. Both sides castled queenside, but after Ivanchuk's 14...e5 break in the centre White was in trouble. He couldn't keep defending the knight on f5 and after 18...b5 Wei Yi shook his head and resigned.
A remarkable recovery by Ivanchuk!
Adhiban was slowly working on an attack in the final game of the other match when Van Foreest started grabbing some pawns. 24...Nxc3 was incredible - White could just take the knight. And two moves later 27.Qd7 would have won on the spot. After this Van Foreest was really on fire and countered very sharply to the win: also 2-0! So Jorden van Foreest has finally won his first match in Hoogeveen.
18:41 Saduakassova and Kollars qualify for the semifinals
Dinara Saduakassova and Dmitrij Kollars both won their game today and so have qualified for the semifinals, which will start tomorrow. Should be quite interesting! Their opponents will be, as mentioned before, Roeland Pruijssers and Thomas Beerdsen.
And... Machteld van Foreest won her fourth game! She countered well against Alef Boer's furious attack and remained material up. This means she has drawn level with her brother Lucas... the big showdown may still be in the offing!
19:35 Paintings for the match winners
At the prizegiving of the matches, Vasily Ivanchuk and Jorden van Foreest received a painting of them and their opponents made by the Dutch artist Frans Drummen.
The 'losers' got another prize: Wei Yi and Adhiban Baskaran will be playing a Basque match tomorrow in the Marriage Room, while Ivanchuk is going to play checkers with Jan Groenendijk tomorrow at the province house in Assen.
'It was nice to see Vasily play the Sicilian', Van Wely said. 'You asked me - I had no choice!' Ivanchuk replied laughingly. 'Only in blitz I allowed myself a Scandinavian'. And yes, it brought him success.
'Hoogeveen is a very nice place', the Ukrainian said after his remarkable recovery. 'It was a big pleasure to be here.'
19:42 Pairings for semifinals Open
The pairings for the semifinals of the open tournament, that will be played tomorrow, are:
Pruijssers-Beerdsen
Kollars-Saduakassova
