Anish Giri wins Dutch Championship

While the Dutch women's championship was played as a double round-robin tournament with only four participants, the open group (in which only men participated) was played in a knockout format. Thirteen players were invited or qualified. Anish Giri, Jorden van Foreest and defending champion Erwin l'Ami were seeded for the quarter-finals.

The tournament was held at the Utrecht Football Stadium to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the association. The format followed that of the World Cup. Each match began with two classical games, and if these mini-matches ended in a 1-1 draw, a play-off with shortened time-controls followed.

In the quarter-finals, the top three seeds all won their matches. Max Warmerdam also reached the semi-finals but there lost to Giri. In the second semi-final, Jorden van Foreest defeated Erwin l'Ami.

So the two best Dutch players, Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest, met in the final.

The two classical games were disappointing. The first game, in which Giri had White, saw an Italian and ended in a draw after 25 moves.

In the second game the players tried the Italian again, though this time Jorden van Foreest had the white pieces. But the result was the same: draw, this time after only 23 moves.

Apparently, both players wanted a tie-break to decide the match.

The first play-off game, in which Giri played with White, saw another Italian and another draw, but lasted much longer than the two classical games. After 77 moves the players agreed to a draw - in a rook ending Jorden van Foreest was a pawn up, but that was not enough to win.

In the second game of the tie-break Jorden van Foreest "surprised" his opponent by going for the Spanish and not the Italian. In an Anti-Berlin with d3 Giri spiced things up by castling queenside. Eventually he reached a won endgame, but then blundered the game away and suddenly had to fight for a draw. But now it was van Foreest's turn to give the win away, and thus this game also ended in a draw.

Two more tie-break had to be played. After trying the Spanish with White in game two Jorden van Foreest ruefully returned to the Italian in game 3, but without success. Giri won a one-sided game.

A draw in the fourth game made Giri Dutch Champion 2023.

All games

Tournament page...