Afek - Hilwerda

Today's big question was whether Jonas Hilwerda could come back from being one game down against Yochanan Afek. With the white pieces in the first game of the second day he went for it. In a Sicilian a queen swap led to an early endgame and by pushing his c-pawn forward instead of opening lines against the black king, Afek got an advantage. Jonas defended well, and after an inaccuracy by black he managed to win a pawn reaching a won rook endgame in the process. But time wasn't on his side. The young player missed a mate in two and had to expect defeat as he saw his last seconds tick away. Then Afek showed his sportsmanship by offering a draw, which was of course gladly accepted.

 

Game four again showed an early endgame. White reached a nice position, and decided to sac an exchange. Afek's pieces were well placed, but Jonas defended well. White eventually wins his exchange back, but the resulting knight endgame is favourable for black. In time trouble the player from Israel erroneously lets go of his b-pawn, and Jonas takes the full point after Afek had been flagged.

After the match the veteran praised Jonas' play. Jonas showed appreciation for Yochanan's sportsmanship. The youngster had prepared well by going through some of his opponent's games with IM Migchiel de Jong. All in all a very exciting match with a fair result.

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Group A

One of the most exciting matches of today was Vrolijk - Van Foreest. Liam Vrolijk tried to start a kingside attack after Lucas had started to expand on the queenside. Unfortunately for the white player, his efforts proved to be insufficient as he tried multiple interesting sacrifices. Probably, there was a draw in a very difficult line for either player to calculate and in the end, Lucas capitalized on his material advantage.

After this game, only 6 players are on 2/2. Surprising is that rating favourite Krasenkow again failed to win after his first round defeat to FM Maatman. Today, he lost to Ruotong Chu and already it is looking to become a very difficult tournament for the top seed.
GM Gleizerov tried for 80 moves against FM Ivo Maris but he never managed to get a winning advantage in an endgame with an extra pawn for white. In the end, Maris sacrificed the exchange to get a drawn ending.

For the second day in a row, GM Jan Werle was the last one to finish his game. Luckily for him, he did manage to win this time around and he is now shared second on 1.5/2.

 

Group B

The young players on 1 out of 1 in the B-group had a tough time today. Of these youngsters only Onno Elgersma managed to score a full point. He’s joined in first place by the favorites Van Hamond and Jelic and the 5th, 11th and 13th seed. Jelic had to take on 9-year old talent Machteld van Foreest and showed that there’s still room for improvement for the talented Dutch girl. In a lightning-quick attack Jelic crushed the defensive line the young lady had built for her king.

More surprising was the last player to join the leaders, Yannic Husers. His game was almost flawless though, and if he can keep up this level of play, he might be able to really trouble the favourites.

 

Games of the day round 1

The prizes for game of the day were awarded to two players: Arjan Dijkstra for his win against Mishra Swayams in the A group, and to Erwin Kok for his win against Bert-Jan Melchers in the 4-person round robins.