Daniel Fernandez wins Zeeland Open, cheater caught with smartphone

Thrilling final rounds

In the first few rounds, no player was able to clearly pull away, and this led to an exciting final spurt in the HZ University of Applied Sciences Chess Tournament.

In the seventh round, GM Erwin L'Ami from the Netherlands and last year's winner GM Samvel Ter-Sahykyan from Armenia met at the top board. L'Ami played for a win for a long time and finally had to accept a draw after 114 moves in an ending with queen and pawn against queen. As the other games on boards 2 to 4 also ended in draws and one or two games were decided on the following boards, 5 players went into the eighth round leading with 6 points, while 11 players had 5½ points.

The Shining Sveshnikov Sicilian

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Erwin L'Ami

The penultimate round again brought only draws on the first four boards, with individual games being quite contested and Erwin L'Ami in particular again playing somewhat riskily, sacrificing an exchange and probably being happy with the draw in the end. The Russian GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov, who has competed in every edition of the Vlissingen tournament for many years, and the English GM Daniel Fernandez joined the lead with 6½ points before the final round. I first noticed GM Fernandez at the 2019 European Chess Club Cup in Montenegro (Ulcinj) in one of the three evening blitz tournaments, which he won.

The final round again brought only draws on the first three boards, with GM L'Ami once more having the upper hand against GM Ikonnikov, but having to accept a repetition of moves. The game between GM Daniel Hausrath and last year's winner surprisingly ended in an unspectacular draw after just 21 moves in the middlegame (despite White's pair of bishops and passed pawns). On board 3, the game between IM Azarya Jodi and GM Antonios Pavlidis was fought out to a drawn rook ending until move 57, but also ended in a draw. GM Daniel Fernandez took advantage of the moment against IM Arthur De Winter, who had been on course to become GM for a long time during the tournament.

GM Fernandez used his more active king with black in a rook ending and even got to checkmate his opponent. He was the only player to reach 7½ points and thus became the sole tournament winner. Remarkably, after a rather slow start and three draws in the entire tournament, he "only" met one GM (draw against GM Koen Leenhouts in round 6) and secured the tournament victory by winning back-to-back games in rounds 8 and 9.

The 18-year-old FM Eelke De Boer achieved his third and final IM norm with a good 6½-point performance, no lost games and a TPR of 2470.

Eelke de Boer secured the IM title

For the young WFM Kata Karacxonyi from Hungary, who stood very well against GM Hausrath for a long time and won in rounds 8 and 9, it was unfortunately not enough for a WIM norm despite a great performance. She did not play against a single titleholder above WFM.

Just missed the norm: Kata Karacxonyi

Weapons against the Caro Kann Vol. 1 & Vol. 2

Vol. 1: Panov and Two Knights

The tournament was well organised as usual, but a cheating case made the headlines. A Dutch amateur player with an Elo rating of around 1700 had played very strongly in the first few rounds and, after being suspected by an FM, was then placed under observation by the arbiters and later scanned with a metal detector on his way to the toilet. A beep did not result from the watch on the player's wrist, as he claimed, but was triggered by a smartphone that the player had hidden in his sock. The player was immediately excluded from the tournament and reported to the Dutch Chess Federation. The organisers refrained from publishing the name, but you can see who it might be in how the standings progressed round by round.

The catering and the surroundings of the tournament at the Zeeland University of Applied Sciences were, as always, ideal. What was remarkable at this tournament - something I have never seen elsewhere - was the presence of a Dutch illustrator, who drew beautiful cartoons on her tablet live during the tournament.

The cartoonist at work

Final standings

...232 players

All available games

The next Zeeland Open is likely to take place again in the first week of August in 2025.

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