Round 6: The Round Where the Draw Came Faster Than the Coffee

Yesterday, René—who is still gratefully milking his one-time election as "Zealander of the Day"—devoted part of his daily report to the Zeeland dialect. As a fellow imported Zealander, I can reassure readers that speaking, or even understanding, Zeelandic is by no means a requirement for enjoying a pleasant stay in Zeeland. To be honest, I hardly understand any of it myself. Fortunately, these days the dialect seems largely confined to caretakers at my school and retirees in the smaller villages.

Now to the order of the day: the sixth round of the Scheldemond Chess Tournament. With four rounds remaining, the battle for the top places is becoming increasingly intriguing. Do you opt for a quick draw and a relatively quiet evening, or do you try to land a serious blow against one of your direct rivals? With only small rating differences on the top four boards, both strategies are perfectly defensible.

I didn't arrive at the playing hall until an hour after the games had started. As expected, at least one game had already ended in a so-called grandmaster draw: L'Ami versus Sadhwani.

Upon entering, I also noticed that René had been rather unfortunate with his seat this round. Barely a metre away, and directly in his line of sight, sat a player providing a rather remarkable rear view—with at least ten centimetres of exposed cleavage, albeit from the back. I'll spare the reader the details, but let's just say it wasn't exactly the most relaxing backdrop for following the games. Perhaps it works like the famous pink elephant paradox: as soon as someone tells you not to think about something, that's exactly what you do. So for the next ten seconds, try not to imagine what René had to look at all evening. Poor René.

Incidentally, that same René finds it remarkable that I follow the games on Lichess using the 3D boards. I, on the other hand, find it remarkable that anyone would insist on 2D. After all, when you're sitting at a real chessboard, you don't see the pieces in two dimensions either. Perhaps it's simply a generational difference—or perhaps I just have a unique perspective on the matter. In any case, with two complimentary drink vouchers in my pocket as compensation for my hard work as tournament reporter, I decided it wasn't worth starting an argument.

Around 8:15 p.m. it became clear that Round 6 was shaping up to be the round of grandmaster draws. Board 2 (L'Ami–Sadhwani), Board 3 (Ikonnikov–Chanda), Board 4 (Hausrath–Beukema), and Board 7 (Sievers–Beeke) all ended peacefully after just 10, 14, 10, and 14 moves respectively. Apparently, moves 10 and 14 are particularly popular moments to sign the peace treaty.

Of course, the players undoubtedly had good reasons, but for spectators—and especially for the tournament reporter—there wasn't much to enjoy. The positive side is that it creates room for other participants to make an appearance in the daily report.

At 8:30 p.m. yet another grandmaster draw was added to the list. The Germany-versus-France encounter between Weller and Munschi ended after only thirteen moves. I would have liked to point out to the gentlemen that offering a draw is generally considered more fashionable on move 10 or 14, but unfortunately my command of both German and French proved insufficient.

Board 6

Local hero Joey "MasterKroket" Grochal has now firmly established himself among the tournament leaders. The player from Goes, a multiple-time Zeeland champion, is the strongest Zeeland player in the field. Although he has since abandoned his ambition of earning the International Master title, his playing strength has certainly not suffered. In a recent interview with the PZC, Grochal warned about the rise of the new generation. Thanks to modern training methods, young players have access to enormous amounts of knowledge and can often play far above what their ratings suggest.

MasterKroket Grochal - Sparenburg  (picture: Tina Rouwendal)

In Round 6 he "fortunately" faces Erik Sparenburg. Born in 1983, Sparenburg certainly doesn't belong to the category of youthful prodigies Grochal warned about. Whether that guarantees the player from Goes a quiet evening, however, remains to be seen over the board.

The game developed into a King's Indian Defence, an opening in which Grochal, to my knowledge, has mastered numerous variations. This time the Petrosian Variation appeared on the board. I once dared to play the King's Indian against Grochal during the infamous Oliebollen Tournament in Souburg and was completely outplayed straight from the opening. A similar scenario seemed to unfold here. Grochal clearly understood the typical plans and subtleties better than his opponent and soon established a powerful pawn centre.

However, Grochal is also capable of spectacular blunders—a fact he regularly documents with admirable self-deprecation (or frustration) on his personal blog—and eventually let his advantage slip away.

Grochal - Sparenburg 

In the following position, Grochal played 23.d6, but after 23...c5 his impressive central pawn mass disappeared almost instantly. A stronger continuation would have been 23.c5. After 23...cxd5, White has the powerful exchange sacrifice 24.Rxf6!. Black then faces an unpleasant choice. After 24...Kxf6 25.exd5, White has sufficient compensation for the exchange, while 24...d4 is met by 25.Qb3 Be6 26.Rxe6 Rxe6 27.Bc4 Rf6 28.Bd5, again leaving White with ample compensation. Following the game continuation 23.d6 c5, peace was soon agreed.

Board 9

Agter - Kamphuis

One moment from the game Agter–Kamphuis deserves special mention. Agter has just played 32.Rxg7, leaving Black with an interesting dilemma: how should the rook be captured?

• With the knight
• With the bishop
• With the king

Stockfish evaluates these three options—in random order—as: good, very bad, and catastrophically bad. I'll leave the position hanging for now and return to the correct answer later in this report.

Board 10

On Board 10, Daniël Zevenhuizen—who only a few days ago graduated as a fully qualified philosophy teacher—attempted to preserve his unbeaten record. His opponent was none other than an Arena International Master (AIM).

In an Exchange Spanish, Daniël (whom I may address on a first-name basis) spent a remarkable amount of time in the opening. That actually fits his philosophy of chess rather well. I vividly remember beating him dozens of times in blitz games years ago, whether in our log cabin in Dieren or our apartment in Vlissingen. Not because I consistently obtained better positions—quite the contrary, in fact—but because Daniël, constantly struggling with the clock, kept searching for the most beautiful or objectively strongest move, while a pragmatic solution would often have served him much better. Perhaps it's the philosopher in him: always searching for the truth on the chessboard while the clock ticks away mercilessly.

In the following position, however, Daniël had made life unnecessarily difficult for himself. AIM Wonder Dutre could have seized a large advantage with 24...f5. After 25.f3 Qe2 26.Qxe2 Rxe2, Black would have obtained a highly pleasant position, with both the rook and almost the knight deeply penetrating White's camp.

Zevenhuizen - Dutre

Instead, 24...Nf4 was played, allowing an (intentional?) simplifying sequence: 25.Qf3! Qxf3 26.gxf3 c5 27.Bxf4 gxf4 28.Rxh6 Re2 29.Kg2 c4 30.Rc6 Rxb2 31.Rxc7 Rb3 32.Rc5, after which Daniël was ultimately able to secure a relieved draw.

Board 9 (The Answer)

Agter - Kamphuis

The correct answer was 32...Bxg7!. Although Black sacrifices a pawn, after 33.Ncxd6 Rxc1+ 34.Bxc1 Nxd6 35.Nxd6 Bf1 36.Kg1 Bd3, Black has sufficient compensation. The bishop pair and White's weakened kingside structure, with doubled f-pawns, provide enough counterplay to maintain equality.

In the game, however, Kamphuis chose 32...Kxg7, a move that Stockfish mercilessly evaluates as worse than simply bad. After 33.Rg1+ Kh6, White needed to find 34.Nxe5!. For example, 34...Rc7 35.Ng5! Bc8 36.Nd3 would have left White with an excellent position.

Instead, the game continued 34.Ncxd6 Nxd6 35.Bxd6 Bxd6 36.Nxd6 Rc5 37.Nf7+ Kh5 38.Ng5, after which complete equality had been restored. One mitigating circumstance for Agter is that he had only five minutes left on his clock by move 34, whereas Kamphuis still enjoyed a comfortable fifty minutes.

But the game was far from over. In the following position, Black once again faces a difficult decision: how should the bishop be saved? Once again, I'll leave the reader with a small quiz.

Agter - Kamphuis

What should Black do?

• Retreat the bishop to c8.
• Retreat the bishop to d7.
• Something else.

The answer will follow later in this report.

Daniel Fernandez - Max Warmerdam (picture: Tina Rouwendal)

Board 1

First of all, compliments to Daniel Howard Fernandez and Max Warmerdam for producing a long and entertaining battle. They fought hard throughout, with former tournament winner Fernandez eventually emerging victorious.

Objectively, nothing dramatic has happened in the following position, although White can certainly claim a slightly more pleasant game thanks to the extra space. I'm nowhere near strong enough to evaluate grandmaster subtleties in detail myself, so I'm happy to rely on Stockfish's guidance. The engine recommends 28...Nab8, or even the preparatory 28...Rf5 29.h4 Nab8. The idea is to reroute the knight to c6, where it helps keep the position closed while establishing an excellent outpost on d4.

Daniel Fernandez - Max Warmerdam

Instead, Warmerdam played 28...Nac5?, and after 29.Nd5 Ne4 30.Nc7!!, he suddenly faced serious problems. The seemingly active counterattack 30...Rxf2+ looks tempting but fails to the calm 31.Ke3. Black may win the bishop on h2, but White then obtains a winning position after 32.Ne6+. The alternative 31...Nxd6 also fails because of 32.Bxe5.

Board 9 (Answer to the Second Quiz)

Agter - Kamphuis

The correct move was 38...Kh4!. I must admit this is anything but an obvious choice, but the underlying idea is surprisingly logical. At first glance, White appears to have an excellent position after 39.Nxh3 Kxh3 40.Rd1, but appearances are deceptive. White cannot make progress after 40...Rc7 41.d6 Rd7.

Black possesses two important assets. First, there is the constant threat of a back-rank mating attack, forcing White's rook to remain on the first rank. Secondly, White's king has no freedom to move, as doing so would abandon the h-pawn. As a result, Black's position holds comfortably.

In the actual game, however, Black played 38...Bc8?, after which 39.Ne4 gave Agter a winning position. This time he did not let the opportunity slip away and converted his advantage in convincing fashion.

Report by Ricardo Klepke