Vind alle foto's hier.
With the famous Dutch arbiter Geurt Gijssen as a special visitor, the two match games have just started. Peter Svidler and Sam Shankland opted for a Symmetrical English Opening...
whereas Jorden van Foreest and Vladimir Fedoseev played a Najdorf with 6.Be2 and 7.f4.
The commentary starts in roughly half an hour with Jeroen Bosch, Dutch IM and author of 'SOS' fame.
Shankland still seems to be in his preparation, even though Svidler played the surprising 11.Bb5!?, inviting 11...a6, an old idea of famous Russian coach Yuri Razuvaev which has never been repeated since 1994. Shankland's 14...f6!?, covering some important dark squares but also creating some weaknesses, was still quickly played but is quite a remarkable idea.
The Sicilian on the other board promises to become sharp. Jorden van Foreest thought long about the crucial move 10.g4, and Vladimir Fedoseev's reply 10...d5 is surprising. Many players would blindly go 10...b5 here.
A smooth start of the second round of this day. The only player who hasn't arrived yet is the black player on first board, Evgeny Romanov, who is (supposed to be) playing Gadir Guseinov.
Update: Romanov arrived a few minutes late and now finds himself behind an O'Kelly Sicilian by transposition.
Erik van den Doel and Eltaj Safarli took a free afternoon with a 5-move draw. On the rest of the boards it seems that the players just want to play. IM Iniyan seems to be in danger again, as it looks like White (Enrico Vroombout) comes first on the queenside in this chain struggle in the King's Indian.
Young Loek van der Hagen (Loek II??) is experiencing the latent dangers that are lurking in the modest-looking Queen's Pawn set-up played by Frenchman Hector Giacomini. Loek's 10...f5? was premature, as he has just found out.
Giacomini-Van der Hagen
Here he had to pull the emergency brake with 13...Qg6, as the game move 13...Nb6? fails to the nice 14.Bf7! Rxf7 15.Qh5 and this is basically over!
Hector Giacomini
Sam Shankland seems to be on the verge of losing after he played 20...Ke7 in a fairly open position. After 20...Kf7 the problem would be Bxg6+ in many cases, but that might have been preferable above the game continuation. After 21...Bd6 and the exchange of bishops, the area around the black king looks pretty airy. Are we witnessing the resurrection of Peter Svidler here? He played 23.Rfd1 quickly and confidently.
Jorden van Foreest has carefully surrounded the perky d5-pawn and conquered it. He is now a pawn up, but it's doubled on the f-file and Fedoseev has some compensation.
Peter Svidler equalled the score in his match with Shankland with a quite convincing and attractive win today. The following moment was crucial:
Svidler-Shankland
Svidler said that after his bad stretch it was pleasant to be pressing again. 'This is a very topical line which I don't know much about. He obviously knew much more. Black should be OK in general.' Shankland had indeed prepared very carefully, but mostly the positions without 11.Bb5 and 11...a6. 'With the pawn on a6 there are some subtle differences' -- mostly, that the b7-pawn becomes weaker.
15.c4!
This is a dynamic move that Shankland hadn't considered in his preparations: 'I still think Black should be OK here, but I have to find some accurate moves.'
15...b6
Svidler: 'I thought 15...Nxc4 16.Qxb7 Bb5 should be OK for Black.' After 17.Bf4 (17.Re1, which Svidler had planned, may be easier for Black, he will be playing 17...Qd7 anyway) 17...Qd7 and White is still a bit better.
16.c5 bxc5 17.dxc5 Bxc5 18.Bxa6 Rb8
18...Rc6 might have been more precise, according to Svidler. After 19.Bb5 Rd6 20.Bh6 Kf7 Black may be able to solve his problems.
19.Qc2 Qb6 20.Bd3
'This was very awkward for Black', said Svidler.
20...Ke7
Now White always has the threat of Qc2-d2-Qh6, but after 20...Kf7 there is always Bxg6+ hanging in the air.
21.Bf4 Bd6
21... Rbc8 looked more tenacious, when after 22.Qe2 (or first 22.Rab1) the black king should go to f7 anyway.
After 22.Bxd6+ Qxd6 23.Rfd1 Black couldn't find any way to make his pieces cooperate, and Svidler finished off with a number of careful moves, in the meantime walking a couple of miles through the playing hall. When it was over, he uttered a few sighs of relief.
Jorden van Foreest was clearly better for a while, while Fedoseev was searching for counterchances with his queen and knight. He had played quite carefully all afternoon, but then 42.b5? slipped out of his hand, and after this too optimistic push the b-pawn only became a weakness. Protecting it with 44.c4 weakened his king again. It looks like also this second hard-fought game will end in a draw.
Bassem Amin's game was again quite prematurely finished, just like this morning against Robby Kevlishvili. But this time the result was positive for him. Indian IM Shyaamnikhil was clearly worse, but he resigned the game at a pretty early stage. Roeland Pruijssers had some luck in his game against his teammate Nico Zwirs from Apeldoorn. Zwirs seemed OK, even better for a while,
Pruijssers-Zwirs
Black should be fine after 28...gxf5 29.Bxf5 Rc7 30.g6 Kf8 followed by taking on b3, but he played 28...Nxb3? immediately, after which he was nailed to the wall with the zwischenzug 29.f6!, imprisoning the black bishop. This eventually turned out fatal for him.
Nico Zwirs
