Benjamin Bok wins Groningen Open

by Klaus Besenthal
1/2/2018 – Have you ever imagined being away at Christmas time and maybe just playing chess somewhere in the world? At the chess festival in the Dutch city of Groningen you had a chance — they played a round even on Christmas Eve. The winner of the strong A-Open on New Year's Eve eve was local hero GM Benjamin Bok, followed by Israeli GM Evgeny Postny | Photo: Harry Gielen

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Bok and Postny tie

Groningen is located in the north of the Netherlands, not far from the German border. The 55th edition of the chess festival attracted 62 players including ten grandmasters to the top A-Open. But in Groningen, in addition to the A-Open, there were a dozen other tournaments, in which one could play, including shorter ones for those who preferred to spend Christmas at home. So there's something for everyone.

Benjamin Bok did not lose a single game in the A-Open, which is usually a prerequisite for winning an open tournament at all. The 22-year-old Dutch grandmaster managed this feat in Groningen with a strong 7.0 / 9  score. But it was close, as the runner-up Evgeny Postny from Israel, equalled his point tally. Bok narrowly took first place on tiebreak scores.

In the penultimate round, Bok scored a key win against GM Dmitry Kryakvin.

 

38.Rd1 was good enough for Bok, who went on to win in 58 moves, but 38.Nd5! would have ended the game in style. 38...exd5 loses the queen after 39.R1c6, and 38...Rg7 would be met by 39.Bxf6 crushing!


The magic of chess tactics

Chess Tactics are the art of combat command. When tactics dominate concrete action is required immediately in order to put a plan into practice or to grab an opportunity. However in complicated positions and with determined resistance basic tactics are often insufficient and intuition, imagination and precision are necessary.


GM Maxim Turov also remained undefeated, but the Russian made one more draw than the two winners.

Benkamin Bok

Benjamin Bok (left) against IM Stefan Juipers in Round 9 has further Elo rating improvement in store for 2018 | Photo: Harry Gielen

Final standings A-Open

Rank Name Score Fed. Rating TPR 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 GM Bok, Benjamin 7.0 NED 2601 2687 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½
2 GM Postny, Evgeny 7.0 ISR 2581 2656 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1
3 GM Turov, Maxim 6.5 RUS 2618 2632 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½
4 GM Kislinsky, Alexey 6.5 CZE 2513 2548 0 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½
5 IM Kuipers, Stefan 6.5 NED 2440 2511 1 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 1 1 ½
6 GM Tiviakov, Sergei 6.0 NED 2583 2593 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½
7 GM Plat, Vojtech 6.0 CZE 2567 2611 1 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½
8 GM Pruijssers, Roeland 6.0 NED 2543 2527 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 1 ½ ½
9 IM Beerdsen, Thomas 6.0 NED 2419 2450 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 0 1 1 ½
10 Rahul Srivatshav P 5.5 IND 2331 2526 1 0 1 1 ½ 1 0 ½ ½
11 GM Anurag, Mhamal 5.5 IND 2488 2451 1 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 ½
12 GM Kryakvin, Dmitry 5.5 RUS 2580 2483 1 1 1 0 ½ 1 0 1 0
13 GM Ernst, Sipke 5.5 NED 2532 2474 1 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 0 1
14 FM Warmerdam, Max 5.5 NED 2356 2396 1 ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½
15 IM Schoppen, Casper 5.5 NED 2395 2414 1 1 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1
16 FM Stoyanov, Tsvetan 5.5 FID 2242 2393 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 1
17 IM De Jong, Migchiel 5.5 NED 2331 2375 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½
18 IM Van Foreest, Lucas 5.5 NED 2481 2377 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 ½ 1
19 IM Kathmale, Sameer 5.5 IND 2264 2415 1 0 1 ½ 0 1 1 0 1
20 IM Zelbel, Patrick 5.5 GER 2456 2277 ½ ½ 0 1 1 1 0 ½ 1

... total 62 players.

Young and old players

A good mix of young and old | Photo: Harry Gielen

Girls

Boys and girls | Photo: Harry Gielen

All available games

 

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

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Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

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