Group A

In what was the last round to be played at the first playing venue, the Postillion Hotel in Haren, many attractive games full of fighting chess were seen (note: the rest of the tournament will be played at the familiar Sportcentrum RUG & Hanze). Ulybin - Zwirs became a wild tactical battle in a King's Indian, where White soon got the upper hand because of his active minor pieces. Ulybin found all the forcing lines, starting with a queen sacrifice to gain material. Black had no chance and quickly saw all his other pieces disappear from the board.

Mikhail Ulybin (courtesy of Harry Gielen)

 

Sergei Tiviakov faced a Catalan against Upadhyaya Anwesh. White went for a tempting double piece sacrifice which was objectively correct, but hard to follow up. The Indian IM soon went astray which allowed Tiviakov back into the game. Being a piece up, Sergei had no problems converting to a win.

Noteworthy was the northern derby between IM Lucas van Foreest and Nick Maatman. Out of the opening Black reached a positionally comfortable advantage. Nick's pieces were poised against the white King, ready to break open the position. However, Black's own King wasn't completely safe either. Underestimating this, Maatman went wrong with 25...hxg4? after which Van Foreest's attack was much quicker.

Lucas van Foreest (courtesy of Harry Gielen)

 

Another brutal game was GM Maksim Chigaev's victory over FM Max Gedajlovic. Chigaev stormed with his pawns on the king side, not bothering to castle. The infiltration along the h-file was simply devastating. White had to find some accurate defensive moves, but his king proved to be completely safe - bringing home the full point after that was an easy task.

Krasenkow clearly had not yet recovered from his previous losses. Against regular participant of the tournament Paul-Peter Theulings, although being up a pawn for a long time, he didn't manage to win. A shaky start also befalls local grandmaster and former winner of the tournament, Sipke Ernst. After a draw and a loss against lower rated opponents in the first rounds, he would have welcomed a win against Ruud van Meegen (2183), but had to settle for a draw.

Three players now share the lead with three out of three: Guanchu Liu, Mikhail Ulybin and Lucas van Foreest. On the menu tomorrow is Liu - Ulybin, whereas Van Foreest is paired against his trainer Sergei Tiviakov on board two.

The games from the first ten boards:

 

Group B

In the other group, affairs in the top are becoming clear. On board one, Fons van Hamond pushed with white against the young Onno Elgersma in a French, but was unable to reach any real advantage as Onno kept defending well. On the second board Edim Salihbegovic took on Bruno Jelic. A solid English proved to be a good opening choice. In a relatively balanced middlegame White didn't mind exchanging queens as Black's isolated d-pawn would always be a liability. This pawn indeed perished, and when Jelic accidentily allowed the rooks to be swapped, resignation followed. Joan Reinders won against Egbert Huizinga, which means that Salihbegovic and Reinders now share the lead.

Games of the day round 2

The prizes for game of the day for round two are awarded to Simon Elgersma (2070) who won against Wim Heemskerk (2217) from group A, and to Yannic Husers (1785) for his victory against Thomas Moerman (1822) in group B.