Blog will start late in the afternoon
This afternoon we are visiting the National Astronomic Institute and the Dwingeloo Telescope with the four match players, who are having a free day. This means there will be no live-blogging until late in the afternoon, when we intend to make a round-up of the most important developments in the Open group.
We're back from a wonderful trip to ASTRON in Dwingeloo! Re-starting the blog, the first important result we can mention is that Pier Luigi Basso has just beaten Harmen Jonkman. There was a weird pawn constellation on the b-file (two sets of doubled pawns!) and Basso won a pawn with a petit combinaison. In a tricky position he managed to hold onto it and win.
In front of a big crowd, Javokhir Sindarov and Sipke Ernst are playing a fascinating game on board 1. Ernst has put some big guns on the b-file, but Sindarov countered with an attck on the exposed black king. On move 30 he missed (or rejected?) 30.Rd3 after which he would have been an exchange up, and one move later he should perhaps have gone for the slightly worse ending after 31.Rdxe7 etc. After 31.Rxc7? Ernst could preserve his bishop and organize his defence.
You wouldn't believe it but Board 1 has ended in a draw. 'White has a fortress,' Sipke Ernst said. 'I looked at the position for maybe 5 minutes and saw no way to get through. The engine of course says it's winning for Black but it doesn't give any winning plan. I would need one more pawn to break through, say on h6, and even then it would have been difficult.' Sindarov offered the draw, which indicates that he was fully aware of the fortress idea.
Earlier on...
Ernst had missed 30.Rd3. 'I looked at 30.Rb1 and saw that 30...Qb5 then holds.' (because Rd3 is not possible now) 'This is quite nasty...'
It looks like Jan Werle has spoiled the win this time after another strong performance. His time-trouble move 39.Rg3? gave Black the chance to organize his defence by moving the king back to g7 and putting his queen on d4 just in time.
Kirchei also played a very good game all afternoon, but she probably went wrong on move 32. She went for the wrong pawn with 32.Rgg6!? whereas 32.Rf6! would have made Black's defence still difficult because the Rg7 can take the b-pawn later. For some reason the engine gives 32.Kg2 and only then 33.Rf6 as even better.
Menno Okkes survived a Sicilian sacrifice against the young Norwegian Tor Fredrik Kaasen and converted the extra piece in the endgame to a point. Moksh Amit Doshi took one of Nichita Morozov's pawns that had strayed too far and converted that in a knight ending. Casper Schoppen came back from two tough defeats with a breakthrough in a complicated French Defence against Herman Grooten.
Nikhil Dixit has been playing quite well but he is about to get busted in the endgame now by Roeland Pruijssers. Dixit has now sacrificed his knight but normally that shouldn't help.
Fourteen-year-old Viktoriia Kirchei didn't do any crazy things after her missed win, and drew against Akash Ganesan. She realized that perhaps she had missed a win somewhere, but 'I'm happy with the draw.'
Dixit has indeed resigned against Pruijssers.
Liam Vrolijk is not having a cheerful tournament so far. He gained 3 points for the 'small exchange' against Jonas Hilwerda, but then played a few too tame moves and now suddenly his king is threatened with a mating net!
Jonas Hilwerda (16) could hardly believe his luck after his win against Liam Vrolijk: 'Actually all I could do was play my king from e7 to e8 and vice versa. I think his 57.b3 was bad - I could exchange pawns and enter the a-file with my rook.' Actually Vrolijk may not have been doing that well in that position anyway, since Black had the possibility to play ...Rd7.
After six rounds, ten participants still have a chance to qualify for the four-player playoff that starts after round 7. On board 1 today, Javokhir Sindarov and Sipke Ernst played a fascinating game which ended in a draw although Ernst was a rook up against two pawns. It turned out that the young Uzbek had a fortress. On board 2 and 3, Jan Werle and Viktoriia Kirchei missed wins against Thomas Beerdsen and Akash Ganesan respectively.
As a result, no less than seven players are now on 4.5 points. Sindarov has 5.5, Ernst and Werle 5. Werle is playing Sindarov tomorrow, and Ernst faces Italian GM Pier Luigi Basso, who is one of the seven contenders.
