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The Hoogeveen Chess Tournament starts on Saturday, October 15 (opening ceremony) and ends on Saturday, October 22 2016. The tournament consists of the Hoogeveen Matches, the Hoogeveen Open and two amateur tournaments. All tournaments will take place in the attractive town hall of the Dutch city of Hoogeveen. In the chess café, well-known commentators will analyse the games with the audience. The games can also be followed live on Playchess and on the official website.
Hoogeveen Matches: Hou Yifan vs Nigel Short, Jorden van Foreest vs Ivan Sokolov.
Hoogeveen Open: Nine rounds will be played, with space for approximately 84 players who must have a minimal rating of 2000. The Hoogeveen Open is an international tournament, and consequently (grand-) master norms can be achieved. There is a total prize fund of €7,500 with a 1st prize of €3,000.
Amateur toernaments: Group I (= afternoon group): for players with a rating up to 2100. Group II (= morning group): also for players with a rating up to 2100. Each group can contain a maximum of 84 players. They play eight rounds. 1st prize for both groups is €250 each.
Rate of play: 40 moves in 90 minutes, 30 minutes extra time + an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
All photos by Lennart Ootes
Short vs. Hou Yifan
We start off with the main event, in which the English player takes the lead just before halftime. The game showed that even a couple of imprecisions in the Catalan are enough to get into real trouble. Short's technique was flawless.
Nigel Short is pretty famous for a certain king march, and today he does it again
[Event "Short-Hou Yifan m"] [Site "Hoogeveen NED"] [Date "2016.10.18"] [Round "3"] [White "Short, Nigel D"] [Black "Hou, Yifan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E06"] [WhiteElo "2670"] [BlackElo "2649"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "99"] [EventDate "2016.10.16"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. g3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 {Yifan has traditionally never been scared of going for solid lines, such as the open Catalan.} 7. Qc2 a6 8. Qxc4 b5 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. Bf4 (10. Bd2 {has volumes of theory dedicated to it, and 10.Bg5 is also popular, but Bf4 will always remain a try. It is completely out of fashion, however.}) 10... Nc6 11. Nc3 Nb4 12. Qc1 Qc8 {Interestingly, this move is already a novelty. Perhaps Yifan wasn't aware of the old theory, but I doubt that this move will make replace the more common and already tested 12...Rc8} (12... Rc8 13. Rd1 Nbd5 14. Nxd5 Bxd5 { eventually led to an Anand win in Carlsen-Anand, 2008.}) 13. a3 Nbd5 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 (14... Bxd5 15. Qxc7 {doesn't work anymore, clearly.}) 15. Bg5 {Short finds a way to keep pressure. Now Black cannot play c5, which is mildly annoying, and trading the dark-squared bishops is strategically bad.} f6 16. Bd2 c5 {Black plays her break, but because of the weakness of e6 this doesn't equalize fully.} 17. Ba5 f5 (17... cxd4 18. Nxd4 {already creates problems on e6.}) 18. dxc5 Qxc5 $6 {this makes life a lot easier for Short, as we will see soon} (18... Bxc5 19. Qd2 {keeps an edge.}) 19. Qxc5 Bxc5 20. Ng5 {If only that pawn was back on f7...} Rfe8 21. Rad1 {Here is the rub. Defending the knight on d5 is not as trivial as it seems. The bishop on a5 defends d8, while the knight on g5 is threatening to take on the next move. Black loses a pawn in every variation, now she must choose how to do it.} Ba7 $6 22. Nxe6 { A bit rushed.} (22. e3 $1 {Eliminates the problems with the e2 pawn, and now the win of the pawn is cleaner than in the game.}) 22... Rxe6 23. Rxd5 Rxe2 24. Bc3 {Short must have seen this far, realized he is winning a pawn, and felt he had enough to convert. However the rook on e2 is a bit annoying.} Bc6 $1 { The best way to continue survival. The bishop covers d7.} 25. Rxf5 Bxg2 26. Kxg2 Rf8 $6 (26... Rd8 {was another try, but this is obviously unpleasant.}) 27. Rxf8+ Kxf8 28. Kf3 $1 Rc2 29. Ke4 $1 {Nice technique. The bishop endgame is hopeless, so f2 is untouchable.} Re2+ (29... Rxf2 30. Rxf2+ Bxf2 31. Bd4 $1 Be1 32. Kd5 {and the pawns on the queenside fall like flies.}) (29... Bxf2 30. Kd3 $18) 30. Kd5 Kf7 31. Kc6 Re6+ 32. Kb7 $1 {The king march is complete. On b7 White's king paralyzes the enemy rook and is completely safe. The rest is easy for Nigel.} Bc5 33. Rd1 g5 34. Rd5 Be7 35. f4 gxf4 36. gxf4 Rh6 37. f5 Rxh2 38. Kxa6 Rc2 39. Rd7 Ke8 40. Rd2 Rxd2 41. Bxd2 h5 42. Kxb5 {Three passed pawns usually beat one.} h4 43. Kc6 Bf6 44. b4 Be5 45. Be3 h3 46. Bg1 Kf7 47. a4 Kf6 48. a5 Kxf5 49. a6 Bd4 50. Bh2 {Black is helpless against b4-b5, while playing Be5 loses.} (50. Bh2 Be5 51. a7) 1-0
Yifan is dealt the first blow, she has a day to prep and try to turn things around
Sokolov - van Foreest
Meanwhile the bloodbath in the other section continues. Sokolov's handling of the King's Indian with white was simply superb.
Good old style relaying
Van Foreest will need to review this book more carefully
How Sokolov got to this position, not even he knows
Open Section
The open section is still dominated by the Indian players. Gupta and Lalith are the clear leaders, a full point ahead of the field. Lalith impressively defeated both Shyam and Ernst. Since Lalith and Gupta have already played each other, they will have to wait and see if one of the other players can knock their rival out of contention with three rounds left to go.
Leonardo Valdes is all the way from Costa Rica! His performance so far has been not good, however
Abhijeet Gupta in clear lead, and clear control
Sipke Ernst is in the pack of close followers
| Rank | Name | Score | Fed. | Rating | TPR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Gupta, Abhijeet | 5.5 | IND | 2626 | 2812 |
| 2 | GM Lalith Babu M R | 5.5 | IND | 2586 | 2819 |
| 3 | GM Sandipan, Chanda | 4.5 | IND | 2593 | 2469 |
| 4 | GM Shyam, Sundar M. | 4.5 | IND | 2552 | 2517 |
| 5 | GM Ernst, Sipke | 4.5 | NED | 2540 | 2536 |
| 6 | IM Karavade, Eesha | 4.5 | IND | 2421 | 2406 |
| 7 | IM Nitin, S. | 4.5 | IND | 2410 | 2429 |
| 8 | GM Werle, Jan | 4.0 | NED | 2555 | 2508 |
| 9 | GM Debashis, Das | 4.0 | IND | 2478 | 2357 |
| 10 | IM Ten Hertog, Hugo | 4.0 | NED | 2468 | 2366 |
Results taken from the official website - top ten shown
| Date | Matches | Hoogeveen Open | Amateur | Analysis |
| Sat. 15 Oct. | opening | Round 1 (14.00) | R1 (10.00/14.30) | |
| Sun. 16 Oct. | Round 1 (14.00) | Round 2 (14.00) | R2(9.30/14.00) | Jop Delemarre |
| Mon. 17 Oct. | Round 2 (14.00) | Rround 3 (14.00) | R3 (9.30/14.00) | Gert Ligterink |
| Tues. 18 Oct. | Round 3 (14.00) | Round 4 (14.00) | R4 (9.30/14.00) | Hans Bohm |
| Wed. 19 Oct. | Rest day | R5 (9.00) + R6 (15.00) | R5 (9.30/14.00) | |
| Thurs. 20 Oct. | Round 4 (14.00) | Round 7(14.00) | R6 (9.30/14.00) | Cor van Wijgerden |
| Fri. 21 Oct. | Round 5 (14.00) | Round 8 (14.00) | R7 (9.30/14.00) | Robert Ris |
| Sat. 22 Oct. | R6 (12.00), closing | Round 9 (12.00) | R8 (9.30/14.00) | Joris Brenninkmeijer |
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