A group

Today in round 6, the Groninger Sergey Tiviakov could take the sole lead if he’d beat Maksim Chigaev with the white pieces. We know Sergey likes to obtain a small plus and very gradually improve his position. Does this mean it is wise to ignore your instincts (if we are to believe commentator Grisja Kodentsov) and play a boring opening, trade queens, and even part with the bishop pair? The game answers this question.

Around move 35 black had obtained a blockade on the light squares d5 and e4. Unfortunately these blockades consisted of knights which could be kicked away. When on top of that black had to sacrifice his second bishop for a knight, the hunt was on. Therefore, Tiviakov has a solid lead with 5.5 points from 6 games.

Jinshi Bai trails half a point behind. He won his white game where black had an extra bishop, albeit a bad one, and his light squares were extremely solid. The remains of a Stonewall could be recognized. With patience and gloves of silk on his hands Jinshi converted his position into a win. Tomorrow the numbers 1 and 2 of the rankings will go head to head in the game Bai – Tiviakov.

Peter Ypma continues to surprise. Who else would take the liberty to play b6 and Bb7 against a Chinese IM? Seemingly effortlessly he guided the position to equality, with a draw as a logical consequence. Meanwhile the game of Jan Werle, also from Groningen, was a small tragedy. White, P. Karthikeyan from India, seemed to play a little too risky, as far as we could tell in the commentary room. We thought black would simply be up material after 23. Rcd1 f6!. However, the move 23. Qb8! was incredible. Nothing could stop 24. Rxf8 followed by 25. Qxc7. Maybe the risky 25. … Rxa2 could have been possible? Both players ended up with a queen, rook and bishop, but white had an extra a-pawn. The queen and bishop ending would be losing for black, and it seemed practical to keep the bishops and try to exchange the c-pawn for the b-pawn. The rook ending from the game (3 vs 3 on the kingside and an extra a pawn for white) should be close to drawn if black can play h5. Should white be able to play h5 himself, it would be lost. Unfortunately Jan couldn’t prevent this and white won the ending convincingly.

The Russians Gleizerov and Popov played a Kings-Indian that is the dream of any white player. Black’s queen tucked away on b8, white even had the privilege of taking over the king-side initiative with 31. fxg4!! (perhaps black could have complicated the game with 31. Qd8!?) and 32. g3!.

 

 Sipke Ernst beat Nico Zwirs and can set his eyes on the leaders. Against a Kings-Indian Defense he did not play c4, resulting in a Pirc-like position. A shiny black knight on c4 was being undermined by 25. Nd5!, which initiated the collapse of black’s position. Black would have liked to play 26. … Nd6, but 27. Nxe5 goes unpunished. The desperate attempt to thrust the e-pawn down the board didn’t amount to anything; Sipke remained tactically alert and traded down to a won position.

Analysing in the playing hall is fastest..; Sipke Ernst and Nico Zwirs

 

. Soumya against Gao was an, allegedly, fashionable Najdorf with g6 and Bg7. The white pieces didn’t seem to know where to go, whereas the black knights both found their way to c4. Subsequently a pawn joined the fray at c3. When finally the queen arrived at a2, the demise of white’s king was inevitable. Sometimes chess seems so easy.

The game Zeyu Cheng versus Chakkravarty showed a nice idea in the opening: b6, b5, xc4 and xb3 while allowing Bxa8. Usually one cannot make so many pawn moves in the opening without compromising one’s position, but this time it seemed to work fine. The resulting end game was slightly better for black due to his control over the centre and the weak white b pawn, but technically challenging nonetheless. Why white decided to part with his e-pawn by playing 47. e4 is a mystery to me. How does black make progress if white doesn’t do anything? Perhaps he counted on 49. Ra3+ winning the rook, missing 49. … Rxc2. Now black traded down, built a bridge and won.

Hugo ten Hertog played a kind of Kings Indian Attack against Max Warmerdam. The latter sacrificed two pawns for very vague, if not invisible, compensation. Ten Hertog needed only to not bunder to take home the full point, which indeed happened. Nick Maatman, the king slayer of round 1, tried long and hard to beat his SISSA team mate Hing Ting Lai. Nick sacrificed a pawn in a Catalan opening to splinter Hing Tings pawn structure. He won back the pawn, but the position seemed close to equality. Interesting seemed 34.e5+ Rg6 35.e6 Kg8 , followed not by 36.e7 Re6, but 37.xf7+, or perhaps the play could be improved earlier in the game by 21.Nxb6 cxb6 22.Qxc6. White seems to be more active and the d-pawn runs faster than back’s b-pawn. The games this round were mostly instructive. Tomorrow we will see Tiviakov defend his lead against Bai, Sipke back on the top boards, and who knows Krasenkow can also find his way there again.

B group

Tiredness seems to be taking its toll in the B group; at least for some people. A couple of games saw some blunders like losing a game a piece up, huge material losses at move 11 or even blundering mate in 1. At the highest board however, tiredness has not yet arrived. At approximately 5PM your reporter asked the arbiters to bring the forms of board 1 and 3 as soon as they had ended in order to start on the report. Little did he know that these games would last for a 100 moves until 6:45PM. Truth be told, the last 40 moves aren’t really worth watching. But before that a lot happened and if Tycho would have managed to keep the pressure in the centre for a few more moves he might have had some real winning chances. Instead he got a small advantage until the time trouble after which the moves are so unclear that we can’t decipher them. The final moves were all about actually finishing the drawn equal bishop ending.

Finally, a peaceful end to the game between Onno and Tycho

 

At the top board, Edwin allowed Edim to continue his dream of winning the tournament. That’s to say; Edim was a little worse during most of the game, but he was able to hold to the point where Edwin started to make mistakes to turn a pawn up ending into a slightly worse position. Meaning that Edwin had to defend for 40 moves on increment in a previously better ending.

Edim still holding off Edwin, Arthur is watching his rivals

 

Edim is now in the lead with Fons van Hamond, since the latter won a piece with a nice (openings) trick. This trick brought an end to the streak of wins and draws of young Arthur Maters. All in all it was a powerful game with a nice finish, but really it was over after 12… d4.

Upon asked the question whether his confidence had grown due to retaining the lead after playing 3 of the rating favorites, Edim came up with a rather interesting answer. He mentioned that he might rather play the strong Jelic and van Hamond, since they are way more predictable than Onno and Arthur. Psychologically and strategically it’s easier to prepare for the older players; “When playing Bruno or Fons I can usually steer the game towards the type of position I like to play, with the youngsters this is not so easy,” according to Edim. Let’s see what happens in Edim – Onno tomorrow.

Some light entertainment to end with: look at the way Minko finished his game to join the first group of chasers. After move 21 by white, we’ve reached a very complex position. Minko found the right moves and ended the game in a couple of moves.

Compact

Most typical for the first two rounds of this years Compact tournament is the fact that rating doesn't seem to count for anything. We've collected some photos for you

The top-boards of the Compact tournament.

 

I'd swear I was better? Amir Nicolai

 

Joris Admiraal en Arjan Dwarshuis (formaly) northern talent

 

How to finish him off?! Jasper Beukema

 

SISSA-camp musician Paul van Velthoven won his game today.

 

Entertainment prizes

Todays winners: Tijmen Hofstra <1800 (day-report round 5 for the game) and Aradhya Garg for the combined games of round 4 and 5.

What else? Sports!

Today, the (young) participants of our tournament had the chance to play some footbal. Many gave it a try.