Shankland scores first in Hoogeveen

An open and two matches

Peter Svidler's rough patch which started in the European Club Cup continued in the first game in Hoogeveen, and the eight-time Russian Champion has now lost five of his last seven games. On Sunday, in the first game of his six-game match, he lost to Sam Shankland in an unusual King's Indian.

Svidler sacrificed a pawn in the opening, following the lead of his friend and compatriot Alexander Grischuk, who played the same 4...e6 and 5...b6 (a novelty at the time) against Fabiano Caruana in the FIDE Grand Prix in Baku in 2014. 

Know the Terrain Vol.6: Isolated Queen's Pawn

In this DVD, Sam Collins examines the Isolated Queen's Pawn (IQP) and associated structures. Using games almost exclusively from grandmaster praxis in the last two years, Collins explains all of the major ideas for playing with and against the IQP.

The game continued 6.cxb6 axb6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4. Caruana and Grischuk had inserted 6.Nc3 Ba6 which was at least equal for black and Grischuk went on to win. Without the knight yet on c3, Svidler continued with 8...d5 accepting an isolated d-pawn in exchange for a lead in development.

Svidler all smiles before the game | Photo: Harry Gielen

Svidler won back the pawn, but after exchanging a pair of minor pieces his d-pawn became weak and dropped off after 19...Ne5:

The immediate 20.Nxd5 is not possible due to 20...Nxf3+ 21.gxf3 Nxd5 which would leave Black with an edge, but Shankland played 20.Nf4 and there's no saving the d5-pawn. Shankland consolidated his advantage in a double-rook ending which he converted without major problems in 53 moves. 

A lifetime repertoire: Play the Nimzo Indian

This DVD provides everything you need to know to be able to play one of the most classical openings with Black, the Nimzo-Indian, arising after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4. Nearly every World Championship and top tournament features the Nimzo-Indian.

In the other match, Vladimir Fedoseev outrates his young opponent by nearly 100 Elo points but his first attempt with the white pieces ended in a draw. The game was an offbeat line in the Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein variation, in which Van Foreest fully equalised by move 15.

Black played the zwischenzug 13...d4 and had no problems after 14.bxc6 dxc3 15.Qxc3 bxc6.

The elder of two young Van Foreest grandmasters (his brother Lucas recently earned the title!) | Photo: Harry Gielen

The only briefly alarming moments for the Dutch rising star came in the rook and knight ending when down a passed e-pawn, Fedoseev hesitated to advance it long enough for Van Foreest to organise a defence. 

Chess Endgames 9 - Rook and Minor Piece

Endings with rook and minor piece against rook and minor piece occur very frequently, even more often than rook endings, yet there's not much literature on them. This endgame DVD fills this gap. The four different material constellations rook and knight vs rook and knight, rooks and opposite coloured (and same coloured ) bishops and rook and bishop vs rook and knight are dealt with. In view of the different material constellations Karsten Mueller explains many guidelines like e.g. "With knights even a small initiative weighs heavily".

Here Fedoseev went for the immediate 50.Rb8, but 50.e5 looks to be almost a zugzwang, as the pawn is threatening to advance to e6 making way for Ke5 (when the black knight moves) and if 50...Rc7 then 51.Rb8 is stronger as the black king doesn't have the g7 square due to a looming fork on e6. After 51...Re7 52.e6 Black is suddenly facing a mating net if he's not careful.

Instead, Fedoseev's king was forced back to g3, while van Foreest's got active:

White is now threatening to advance the e-pawn, but van Foreest determined the knight ending was holdable after 54...Re7 55.e5+ Kf7 56.Rxe7 Kxe7, and the players shook hands ten moves later.

Game 1 of both matches

Hoogeveen Open 2018

In the Open, two rounds were played over the weekend with no surprising results. All the rating favourites are through to the third round with perfect scores.

Bassem Amin (2686) during the first round | Photo: Hoogeveen Chess

Loek van Wely checks in on celebrity guest Nick Schilder (in green) | Photo: Hoogeveen Chess

Standings after Round 2

All Open games Rounds 1-2

Schedule

Links

• Official site
• Full results (Chess-Results)