Baklan wins Hypercube Blitz in Utrecht

Hypercube Blitz tournament Utrecht 2010

Ever since the 1970s the Dutch chess club ‘Utrecht’ has been organizing tournaments. In the last decade this was the Hypercube Blitz Tournament. This year for the eleventh time and held in the National Mindsport Centre Den Hommel in Utrecht. During the first half of the day there are qualifying rounds, and as a result in the afternoon groups of more or less equal strength are formed. The average rating this year was nearly 2100, and that’s pretty strong for a local tournament.

Vladimir Baklan

In the A group the player with the highest rating Vladimir Baklan, from the Ukraine, won the tournament, two points ahead of Andrei Orlov. Baklan won his games against all grandmasters, made four draws and lost two. Remarkable enough the losses were against two Dutch youngsters: in round seven against Etienne Goudriaan (16th) and in round nine he lost against Floris van Assendelft (17th).

Andrei Orlov

Andrei Orlov started very badly with three losses in a row after the first game. After the fourth game he played well and very relaxed. “Do you want a draw” asked Bosboom in round eight with a lost position but a lot more seconds on the clock. Orlov looked up, smiled in his own time, replied a loud “Nein” and played on. The game ended in a draw after all.

Dutch grandmaster Erik van den Doel, third place

Erik van den Doel finished third. He was in the top of the tabel all the time. He even could have been second, had he won his last game against Bosboom.

Victor Mikhalevski took fourth place

Final standing (after 19 rounds)

Picture gallery

By Fred Lucas

The winner: Vladimir Baklan

A part of the playing hall

Table with half the A-group

Table with the other half

Maarten Etmans who – amongst others – started organizing the tournament in the 70’s

Blitz monster Manuel Bosboom

Vladimir Epishin played a dramatic tournament. In the morning he had the habit of putting on his coat and cap after every game, and taking it all off again before the next game. In the afternoon he started with two losses, and after six rounds he was on two points. He then thought he better quit the tournament and looked for the tournament director Jos Nooijen. After discussion and some thought Epishin went back to the playing hall and asked the arbiter if it was allright if he went for a smoke. When he came back he never pulled off his coat and cap again. And the playing hall was getting hot in the afternoon!

Tournament director Jos Nooijen listening to Vladimir Epishin

Vladimir Epishin

Dennis de Vreugt against Vladimir Epishin – two seconds left for Epishin

10-year-old Belgian talent Nicola Capone, rating 1800

Dutch player FM Matthew Tan rated 2348

Andrei Orlov

Erik van den Doel's thumb up to show the arbiter he has won his game against Andrei Shchekachev

Jack Blanchard, Amsterdam, who surprised a few by qualifying for the A group

Andrei Shchekachev smiling after he noticed he blundered

Dutch photographer Fred Lucas publishes pictures at least once a week at the above site

Links Official tournament site 2009: Playchess in Holland , and both hands in blitz To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light. This program also gives you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.