GM Ladva grabs Groningen

Chess Festival Groningen

The city of Groningen in the northeast corner of the Netherlands is home to 200,000 residents, including around 30,000 students from the University of Groningen. Located a few kilometres from the German border it was once an independent city-state and a regional powerhouse still known as the "metropolis of the North". The chess festival was first held in 1963 so it, like the city, has a long tradition. This year, in addition to the main tournament, there were half a dozen other tournaments — a suitable event for every taste was on offer.

Once again in 2018, a significant number of titled players could be found on the starting list of the main tournament, including GMs Michal Krasenkow (2630), Sergey Tiviakov (2613) and Sipke Ernst (2539). Krasenkow was upset in the fourth round by IM Casper Schoppen, and suffered a further defeat in the eighth round at the hands of FM Nick Maatman, which knocked the Elo-favourite out of the running for first place. 

Scandinavian with 3...Qd6

The Scandinavian with 3...Qd6 could just as well be called “The Tiviakov System”. On this DVD GM Sergei Tiviakov shows you everything you need to know to be able to play 3...Qd6 yourself at once.

Tiviakov made it to the top table in the final round but his ten-move draw against Schoppen left a clear opening for Estonian Grandmaster Ottomar Ladva.

Sergey Tiviakov (in red) was uninspired against Caspar Schoppen | Photo: Harry Gielen

The 21-year-old Ladva took down the Dutchman Maatman after a long endgame. Ladva had compensation for a pawn, but not more, until his opponent suddenly tried to get active and ended up giving up material, leaving Ladva with connected passed pawns and only the problem of activating his king. 

Chess Endgames 2 - Rook Endgames

With this second volume of his endgame training series, grandmaster and endgame expert Dr Karsten Mueller continues to lay the solid foundations for the last phase of the game.
Part II is dedicated exclusively to rook endgames: rook versus pawn, rook and pawn versus rook, rook and rook pawn versus rook, rook and two connected pawns versus rook.

Ladva liberated his monarch with 66.Rf5 Rb1 67.Ra5+ Kb6 68.Rb5+ Kc6 69.Kf3 and went on to win, thus securing tournament victory.

Ottomar Ladva (left) showed a great will to win in the last-round against Nick Maatman | Photo: Harry Gielen

He was joined by 16-year-old Dutch IM Liam Vrolijk who also had two pawns more in his endgame against GM Roeland Pruijssers, after Pruijssers jettisoned his h-pawn in hopes of winning the b-pawn: 

Chess Endgames 9 - Rook and Minor Piece

Endings with rook and minor piece against rook and minor piece occur very frequently, even more often than rook endings, yet there's not much literature on them. This endgame DVD fills this gap. The four different material constellations rook and knight vs rook and knight, rooks and opposite coloured (and same coloured ) bishops and rook and bishop vs rook and knight are dealt with. In view of the different material constellations Karsten Mueller explains many guidelines like e.g. "With knights even a small initiative weighs heavily".

Vrolijk was not deterred: 63.Ng7+ Ke7 64.Nxh5 Nh6+ 65.Ke4 Rb1 66.Rd4. It took 20 moves of manoeuvring before White could begin advancing his pawns, and until the 111th move before he finally overcame the resistance of his GM opponent.

Vrolijk (left) against Pruijssers | Photo: Harry Gielen

Results of the final round

Final standings

... 59 players

All available games

Translation from German and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson

Links

• Official site