Shankland scores first in Hoogeveen

by Macauley Peterson
10/22/2018 – The 22nd edition of the traditional "Schaaktoernooi" started over the weekend in the Dutch town of Hoogeveen. 82 players participate in the Open where the top seed is the Egyptian Grandmaster Bassem Amin. But there are also two matches on offer, typically featuring rising stars and veteran players. This year Samuel Shankland (USA) meets Peter Svidler (Russia) and Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia) is pitted against Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands). The tournament director is GM Loek van Wely. | Photos: hoogeveenchess.nl

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An open and two matches

Peter Svidler's rough patch which started in the European Club Cup continued in the first game in Hoogeveen, and the eight-time Russian Champion has now lost five of his last seven games. On Sunday, in the first game of his six-game match, he lost to Sam Shankland in an unusual King's Indian.

Svidler sacrificed a pawn in the opening, following the lead of his friend and compatriot Alexander Grischuk, who played the same 4...e6 and 5...b6 (a novelty at the time) against Fabiano Caruana in the FIDE Grand Prix in Baku in 2014. 

 

The game continued 6.cxb6 axb6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4. Caruana and Grischuk had inserted 6.Nc3 Ba6 which was at least equal for black and Grischuk went on to win. Without the knight yet on c3, Svidler continued with 8...d5 accepting an isolated d-pawn in exchange for a lead in development.

Peter Svidler

Svidler all smiles before the game | Photo: Harry Gielen

Svidler won back the pawn, but after exchanging a pair of minor pieces his d-pawn became weak and dropped off after 19...Ne5:

 

The immediate 20.Nxd5 is not possible due to 20...Nxf3+ 21.gxf3 Nxd5 which would leave Black with an edge, but Shankland played 20.Nf4 and there's no saving the d5-pawn. Shankland consolidated his advantage in a double-rook ending which he converted without major problems in 53 moves. 

In the other match, Vladimir Fedoseev outrates his young opponent by nearly 100 Elo points but his first attempt with the white pieces ended in a draw. The game was an offbeat line in the Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein variation, in which Van Foreest fully equalised by move 15.

 

Black played the zwischenzug 13...d4 and had no problems after 14.bxc6 dxc3 15.Qxc3 bxc6.

van Foreest

The elder of two young Van Foreest grandmasters (his brother Lucas recently earned the title!) | Photo: Harry Gielen

The only briefly alarming moments for the Dutch rising star came in the rook and knight ending when down a passed e-pawn, Fedoseev hesitated to advance it long enough for Van Foreest to organise a defence. 

 

Here Fedoseev went for the immediate 50.Rb8, but 50.e5 looks to be almost a zugzwang, as the pawn is threatening to advance to e6 making way for Ke5 (when the black knight moves) and if 50...Rc7 then 51.Rb8 is stronger as the black king doesn't have the g7 square due to a looming fork on e6. After 51...Re7 52.e6 Black is suddenly facing a mating net if he's not careful.

Instead, Fedoseev's king was forced back to g3, while van Foreest's got active:

 

White is now threatening to advance the e-pawn, but van Foreest determined the knight ending was holdable after 54...Re7 55.e5+ Kf7 56.Rxe7 Kxe7, and the players shook hands ten moves later.

Game 1 of both matches

 

Hoogeveen Open 2018

In the Open, two rounds were played over the weekend with no surprising results. All the rating favourites are through to the third round with perfect scores.

Bassem Amin

Bassem Amin (2686) during the first round | Photo: Hoogeveen Chess

Loek van Wely

Loek van Wely checks in on celebrity guest Nick Schilder (in green) | Photo: Hoogeveen Chess

Standings after Round 2

Rk. Name  TB1 
1 Amin Bassem 0
2 Safarli Eltaj 0
3 Romanov Evgeny 0
4 Kryakvin Dmitry 0
5 Guseinov Gadir 0
6 Van Den Doel Erik 0
7 Pruijssers Roeland 0
8 Kevlishvili Robby 0
9 De Boer Eelke 0
10 Kuipers Stefan 0

All Open games Rounds 1-2

 

Schedule

Date Hoogeveen
Matches
Hoogeveen
Open
Amateur
Tournament
Saturday 20 October 2018 Opening 1st round (14.00) 1st round (10.00 / 14.30)
Sunday 21 October 2018 1st round (14.00) 2nd round (14.00) 2nd round (9.30 / 14.00)
Monday 22 October 2018 2nd round (14.00) 3rd round (9.00) +
4th round (15.00)
3rd round (9.30 / 14.00)
Tuesday 23 October 2018 3rd round (14.00) 5th round (14.00) 4th round (9.30 / 14.00)
Wednesday 24 October 2018 Rest day 6th round 14.00) 5th round (9.30 / 14.00)
Thursday 25 October 2018 4th round (14.00) 7th round (14.00) 6th round (9.30 / 14.00)
Friday 26 October 2018 5th round (14.00) 8th round (14.00) 7th round (9.30 / 14.00)
Saturday 27 October 2018 6th round (12.00)
+ closing
9th round (12.00) 8th round (9.30 / 14.00)

Links


Macauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.

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