Report Round 3 Matches & Rounds 3/4 Open

Ten players took a bye for this early third round of the Open (the matches will start as usual at 14.00h this afternoon), which meant the number of players was uneven and Onno Elgersma also has a bye. Unluckily for him, as he's staying in a house with 4 other youth players who all got out of bed early this morning.

Enrico Vroombout won the brilliancy prize in Round 2 - unfortunately he is one of the bye-takers so he can collect his prize later!

As we slowly opened our eyes we saw a few weird Sicilians. Ivo Maris played 2...Nf6 (the Nimzo-Sicilian), Richard Hendriks played 3.Nc3 and 4.e5, and Dick de Graaf, against Machteld van Foreest, must have thought 'What the hell' and played 2.b4.

It's past 10 o'clock, and two players still haven't showed up: Carsten Stanetzek from Bonn, and Dutch GM Harmen Jonkman. This means these two players have lost their game by forfeit (against resp. GM Orest Gritsak and youth player Jonas Hilwerda).

15(14??)-year-old Luis Engel, who scored 5/9 in the latest German Championships and made an IM norm there, is playing fearlessly against the established GM Roeland Pruijssers. With 16.Be7 (not only threatening the Rf8 but also to play the devastating 17.Nh4) he won the exchange for a pawn, while Pruijssers was also forced to trade queens. How is the young German talent's technique??

Dinara Saduakassova's play again makes a smooth impression today. She allowed a doubling of her pawns in a Paulsen Sicilian, getting an open file. Now her bishops and rooks are looking murderous against White's king.

Lucas van Foreest seems to be losing a piece. Siem van Dael has quite calmly developed a kingside attack and is threatening mate after 20.Rg4. Now Black has to play ...Rg8 and ...Bf3, putting the bishop on h5 and trading queens. But White can play Bd3 and Rh4, and take on h5 after which Black first has to take on h6 and White can take back with the rook, winning a piece.

Siem van Dael

Jakob Pajeken has resigned against the Kazach top talent. The German player sacrificed his knight to avert various threats of winning his queen, but soon realized that Black's attack still can't be warded off. Also Mateusz Paszewski has won - a Botvinnik Slav quickly went very wrong for his opponent, Amir Nicolai.

And Van Dael has indeed won a piece according to the procedure sketched above. He played the crucial move 23.Bd3 quite quickly. Now he has to make the switch from attacking to converting - always quite difficult!

I was going to write that Stefan Kuipers, who was a pawn down against Sipke Ernst, missed a nice chance in the following position:

Here Kuipers could have played 26...Bxd4! 27.exd4 Rhd8 and then with ...Qb5 cut off White's king, while threatening ...Rc4. This looks very dangerous for White. However Black played 26...Rhd8 first, and after 27.Ra1 Qf5 there followed 28.Nd3?!. Probably Ernst should have played 28.Ke1, for now Black did strike with 28...Bxd4!. It's starting to look very interesting for Black!

While Lucas van Foreest is fighting for his life, his little sister Machteld has just scored her second point, with a tremendously sharp counter against Dick de Graaf.

De Graaf-M.van Foreest

Black has defended well and still has her extra pawn, so now De Graaf tries some bluff:

22.Bxh7+ Kxh7 23.Rh3+ Kg8 24.Ng6

24...Ne3!

A very strong counter. White simply doesn't have enough attacking material.

25.Rxd8+ Rxd8 26.Rxe3 Bxe3 27.Qh5 Qxc2

Fearlessly played, though of course everything wins now.

28.Ne7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Kf7 0-1

2 out of 3 by a ten-year-old -- a record?

Stefan Kuipers just collapsed in a very promising position.

Here Ernst made a mistake by playing

30.Ra4?

According to the computer, 30.Rhe1 followed by Re3 still defends. Ernst thought with hindsight he should have played 30.f3 but then 30...Rcd8 31.Ra3 Rxd3+ 32.Qxd3 Rxd3+ 33.Rxd3 Qe5! is nice for Black.

30...Rxa4

Much stronger was 30...Qxf2+ 31.Kd1 and now 31...Rdd8 (31...Rd6 looks more logical but this gives White the opportunity to play 32.Rxa7+ Kxa7 33.Qa3+ Kb7 34.Qxd6 Qc2+ 35.Ke1 Re8+ 36.Ne5 Qe4+ 37.Kf2 and perhaps escape) 32. Re1 Qxg3 {and Black is having a field day. 'I looked at this move all the time', said Kuipers, 'and I can't explain why I didn't play it.'

31.Qxa4 Rd8 32.Qb3 Qxf2+ 33.Kc3

33...Rxd3+?

Kuipers panics. After moves like 33...Qxg2 or 33...Qf5 nothing is clear yet.

34.Kxd3 Qxg3+ 35.Kc4 Qg4+ 36.Kc3 1-0

Siem van Dael has converted very nicely against Lucas van Foreest.

Lucas van Foreest is not happy with his position...

Roeland Pruijssers has completely taken over against Luis Engel and now looks just winning. On board 1 the struggle between IMs Casper Schoppen and Xu Xiangyu is very tense and is still looking balanced.

Xu Xiangyu has very cleverly countered after Casper Schoppen may have gone too far with 35.Qg8. Black put the thumbscrews on the c2- and c1-points, which forced Casper to give his queen. It doesn't look very holdable for the young Dutchman.

... it turned out to be holdable for White after all; Schoppen managed to create a fortress with rook and knight vs queen. The result is not yet given on the site, but it's a draw.

Again two 1.d4 openings in the matches, again a Nimzo and a QGA, like in the first round. But otherwise everything is different. Ivanchuk and Wei Yi are now playing a kind of Ragozin, and in the QGA of Adhiban and Van Foreest the queens are still on the board.

Gert Ligterink just spent the first hour of his commentary session on the morning game between Dick de Graaf and Machteld van Foreest. Fascinating stuff! In more than one way...

The first wins in the Open already: Aan Sikka and Laurens van Twillert both won their games with white.

Dinara Saduakassova has started well against Sipke Ernst. Machteld van Foreest has made an interesting pawn sacrifice against Stefan Colijn, but is it correct...?

Very interesting developments in the game Adhiban-Van Foreest. On move 17 the Indian piled up the pressure with 17.Qc4.

Now Van Foreest played

17...Rc8

17... a5 looks dangerous but may have been possible, e.g. 18.Nxe6 Rxd1+ 19.Nxd1 Bxe3 20.Nxg7+ Kf8 21.Nxe3 Kxg7 22.Nf5+ Kf8 23.Qc1 (23.Ba2!? Nxa2 24.Qxa2 Nxe4 25.Qa3+ Qc5 26.Rd4 Bc6 27.Qxc5+ Nxc5 28.Rc4 Rg8 29.f3 Bxf3 30.g3 with a slight edge for White) and now e.g. 23...h5 24.Qg5 Rg8 25.Qh6+ Ke8 26. Qf4 Kd7 27. Qd2+ ends in a draw!

18.Nxe6 Bxe3 19.Nxg7+ Kf8 20.Qxb4+ Kxg7

21.Qxb6

A quite subtle refinement here may be the immediate 21.e5! Bxf2+ (no choice!) 22.Kh1 Qxb4 23.Rxb4 Rb8 24.exf6+ and Black cannot take back due to 25.Rf4+.

21... Bxb6 22. Rb4 Rc6 23. e5 Re8 24. exf6+ Rxf6

Now Van Foreest was down a pawn for the third time in the match, but this time he got quite good play for it.

Now the game Ivanchuk-Wei Yi also runs wild. Wei Yi sacked a rook on move 18, drawing White's king to d4 on a full board! The computers think it's no good... but what about the humans?

And suddenly Jorden is also winning! His bishop pair was very strong, and Adhiban's 30.Kf2? was a blunder - he should have traded rooks first, though Black already had the upper hand. The Indian must have missed 31...Bc5+ and the trick 32...Bxg2+.

The Marriage Room of the town hall has exploded!

Here's a short reconstruction of the bizarre finish to the Ivanchuk-Wei Yi game:

18...Rxe3!???!

A flabbergasting move. He could have played it one move earlier, before 17...g5 18.Bg3, in order to have ...Qe5+ in the end, but then White has 18.Bxf6! in between.

19.Kxe3 d4+ 20.Kxd4

The white king leads his men into the battle.

'What was he thinking...?'

20...Re5 21.Bd3 Be6

22.Qxb7!

Ivanchuk played this almost a tempo, but it was the move Wei Yi had overlooked: 'I just looked at 22.Rc8+ Kg7 23.Nc4. Then I wanted to take" (23.Qa3 Qb6+ 24.Kc3 Ra5 25.Qd6 Nd5+ 26.Kc2 Ne3+ 27.Kc3 is a draw! The king cannot go to b1 in view of the bishop check on a2): 23...Bxc4. Now 24. Bxc4 is no good due to 24...Qd2+ but 24.R8xc4 Rd5+ 25.Ke3 Nc5 26.Rxc5 also wins for White.

Now the white king is surrounded by enemy pieces, but where are the checks?

22... Kg7 23.Ne4 Nd5 24.Bxe5+ Nxe5 25.Rc5

And before the white king could reach the fifth rank, Wei Yi resigned...

A meltdown, as our tournament director would say.

We carry on from the position after move 24 in the previous comment:

25.Kh1

After the liquidation with 25.Ne4 Bxe4 26.Rxe4 Rxe4 27.Bxe4 Rxf2 28.Kh1 Rxb2 Black has all the fun.

25...Rfe6 26.h4 Bc7

Threatening mate.

27.f4 Ba8 28.Kg1?

A mistake, though not yet a fatal one. Better was 28.Rc4 or 28.Kh2.

28...Ba5!

29.f5

'Actually he was lucky to have this move after his first mistake', Van Foreest said.

29...Re1+

30.Kf2??

He had to play 30.Rxe1 Rxe1+ 31.Kf2 when Black is a little better after 31...Bxb4 32.Kxe1 Bxg2.

30...Bxb4 31.Rxe1

And now...

31...Bc5+ 32.Kf1 Bxg2+ 33.Kxg2 Rxe1

And this endgame was hopeless for White.

Van Foreest had been under pressure earlier on, but he hadn't really worried: 'Some of my pieces were hanging, but I didn't see a win for him. Anyway, I had no choice but to go in for those Nxe6 lines, otherwise I would have been clearly worse.'

Something bizarre also happened on board 3 of the Open. Uksini Bardhyl resigned in a winning position!

Here Xu Xiangyu played

24.Nxh7!?

And Black threw in the towel. Instead he could have won with 24...Qb4 25.Nf6+ Kf8 26.Nxd5 Qxa4. These moves appeared on the live broadcast, but it must have been because Xu showed them to Uksini!

White has to give the house to avoid mate: 27.Nc3 Rxc3! 28.bxc3 Qa2+ 29.Kc1 b2+ 30.Kd1 and now 30...Nc5! 31.Bc2 Rb8 wins for Black.

Xu Xiangyu

Dinara Saduakassova from Kazachstan is the sole leader in the Open after round 4. She defeated the hardened GM Sipke Ernst in a game that was stunning in the sense that she never lost control.

'I didn't expect him to play this line of the Nimzo', Saduakassova said right after the game. 'Maybe the liquidation with 9...dxc4 and 10...dxc3 wasn't the best. I had the two bishops and a good structure. Then I tried to make problems for him on the a-file. He defended well and created some counterchances, but with Ra2-f2 I made trouble for him on f7.' Saduakassova has made it look very easy up till now. But that was just appearances: 'It wasn't easy at all', the 20-year-old smiled.