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All participants
After four rounds Anish Giri and Loek van Wely, the two favorites to win the title, were equal first. Both had won two games and had drawn two. But in the next two rounds Giri continued to win - against Sipke Ernst and Erwin l'Ami - whereas van Wely won against Benjamin Bok in round six but had to content himself with a draw in round five against Sergei Tiviakov, and thus before the seventh and final round van Wely was half a point behind Giri.
In the final round Giri had the black pieces against Robin van Kampen and had nothing against a quick draw. Now Loek van Wely "only" needed to win his game against Sipke Ernst to share first place with Giri.
Van Wely played with Black and had chances to win. In a double rook endgame with opposite colored bishops he had a small plus which led White to sacrifice an exchange. However, in time trouble both sides missed good chances. While White advanced his pawns on the kingside Black put his trust on his passed b-pawn which was supported by a rook. With hardly any time left on the clock White then missed a study-like draw, but Black returned the compliment by missing a win. After another mistake Black even squandered the draw and suffered a bitter loss in a crucial game.
With this loss of his closest rival Anish Giri won tournament and title.
All games
The participants of the Dutch Women's Championship played as if they did not know that drawing games is not against the law. In total 28 games were played, but only five ended with a draw. Four of these five draws were played by Bianca De Jong-Muhren, who drew against Anna Haast, Tea Lanchava, Lisa Hortensius and Iozefina Paulet. Lisa Hortensius and Anna-Maja Kazarian took care of the fifth draw - but only after fighting for 96 moves.
The Women's Championship started as a race between 13 times Dutch Women's champion Zhaoqin Peng, Tea Lanchava, and Anne Haast. Before the fifth round these three shared the lead. But in the fifth round Haast won against Peng to take the sole lead because Tea Lanchava conceded half a point in round five - against Bianca De Jong-Muhren.
Anne Haast
In the final round Haast could afford to draw against De Jong-Muhren to finish first half a point ahead of Peng.
All games
Robin van Kampen, Loek van Wely, Erwin l'Ami and Merijn van Delft relax with a couple of blitz games
Photos: Tournament page
