4th Leiden Chess Tournament

by ChessBase
7/19/2010 – For the fourth consecutive year, the Leiden Chess Tournament was held at the Mind Sports Center in Leiden, Netherlands. Erik Van den Doel seemed poised to run away with the event, before lightning struck in the last two rounds, allowing Pedrag Nikolic an unexpected opportunity to take the laurels. We bring you the report complete with videos and test positions.
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From July 9 to July 18, the 4th Leiden Chess Tournament was held in the Mind Sports Center in Leiden, Netherlands. The event was comprised of two tournaments, the A event, for players rated over 1850 Elo, and the B event, for players under 1900 Elo. Both tournaments were nine rounds played at 40 moves in 90 minutes, plus 30 minutes knockout, with a 30 second increment per move as of the first move.

The A event had 97 players, including five grandmasters, five international masters, and seven FIDE masters vying for the 1750 Euro first prize. GM Erik Van den Doel looked as if he were going to run away with the tournament, with an impressive 6.5/7 start, but two consecutive losses in the final rounds left him with a bittersweet fourth place. First through third were GM Pedrag Nikolic, GM Sergei Tiviakov, and IM Eelke Wiersma, all with 7.0/9.

# Player Pts Rtng Perf. WWe BH SB
1 GM Nikolic, Predrag 7.0 2592 2618 +0.49 53.5 40.25
2 GM Tiviakov, Sergei 7.0 2623 2608 +0.08 52.5 39.5
3 IM Wiersma, Eelke 7.0 2405 2536 +1.39 50.5 39.5
4 GM Van Den Doel, Erik 6.5 2591 2533 -0.32 55.0 37.5
5 IM Slingerland, Fred 6.5 2397 2518 +1.61 54.0 37.5
6 IM Wohl, Aleksandar H. 6.5 2375 2391 +0.36 50.5 34.75
7 GM Gofshtein, Leonid 6.5 2521 2462 -0.30 50.5 33.5
8 GM Van Der Wiel, John 6.5 2467 2410 -0.32 48.5 33.75
9 FM Bezemer, Arno 6.5 2322 2347 +0.46 48.0 33.0
10 Michielsen, Joost 6.5 2397 2308 -0.75 42.0 30.0
11 IM Lalith, Babu M.R. 6.0 2502 2377 -1.12 52.5 34.0
12 IM Kaufman, Raymond 6.0 2333 2411 +1.06 49.5 30.0
13 FM Erwich, Frank 6.0 2333 2267 -0.61 46.0 28.5
14 Vistisen, Lars 6.0 2143 2286 +1.69 43.5 25.75
15 FM Wantola, Ivo 6.0 2309 2243 -0.53 43.0 28.25
16 Ducarmon, Quinten 6.0 2225 2301 +0.88 43.0 26.0


Anne Haast about to face Erik Van den Doel.

The B event had 49 players, and was won by Stef Van der Zon (1691) who took home 500 Euros for his effort.

# Player Pts Rtng Perf. WWe BH SB
1 Van Der Zon, Stef 7.5 1691 1962 +3.10 43.5 34.5
2 Sanders, Catheleijne 7.0 1751 1926 +1.95 49.0 37.75
3 Noordijk, Ed 6.5 1675 1849 +2.18 48.0 34.5
4 Van der Lende, Nathalie 6.5 1719 1835 +1.39 46.0 31.5
5 Kirana, Nancy 6.0 1845 1802 -0.46 49.0 31.25
6 Polak, Alexander 6.0 1737 1803 +0.77 47.5 28.75
7 Van den Bosse, Bart 6.0 1737 1785 +0.50 42.0 28.0
8 Bekker, Michael 5.5 1651 1820 +2.08 52.5 28.5
9 Leentvaar, Coen 5.5 1686 1728 +0.71 48.0 27.5
10 Van den Berg, Jaap 5.5 1719 1742 +0.22 45.5 23.75
11 Braggaar, Wessel 5.5 1749 1733 -0.15 43.0 23.25
12 Gravemaker, Robin Anne 5.5 1335 1674 +3.57 37.5 19.75
13 Matai, Rudi 5.5 1798 1641 -1.39 34.0 20.75
14 Kerkvliet, Sebastiaan 5.0 1749 1743 -0.09 48.5 24.0
15 Spierings, Ben 5.0 1660 1797 +1.32 46.0 23.5
16 Van der Tol, Henk 5.0 1608 1659 +0.62 41.5 20.75
17 Baak, Karl 5.0 1770 1671 -1.18 41.5 20.0
18 Egberts, Kees 5.0 1603 1752 +1.65 41.0 20.25
19 Rekelhof, Martin 5.0 1749 1664 -1.05 40.5 21.75
20 Van Herpen, Max 5.0 1557 1619 +0.86 36.5 16.5

A couple of videos introducing the top players as well as the rest of the field were posted.


Overview of the top players at the 4th Leiden Chess Tournament.


Overview of other players at Leiden.

We chose a few tricky positions from the tournament to test your tactical vision. The answers are at the bottom.


1) White to play and win.


2) White is already better. How does he
cement his advantage?


3) White to play and win.

Solutions to positions:

1) 1.Nxe6+! fxe6 2.Rg4+ Kh6 [2...Kh7?? 3.Rh1+ Rh5 4.Rxh5#] 1-0

2) 1.Nxd5! Nxd5 2.e4! Bxe4 3.Nxe4 Qd8 4.Nc5+-

3) 1.Rxb7!! Rxb7 2.Bxc6 Qe6 3.Rb4 Rdb8 4.Rb6! Threatening 5.Bxb7+ and 6.Rxe6. 4...Qa2 5.Rxb7 Rxb7 6.Qb4+-

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