Round 8 in Beautiful Zeeland

August 9, 2026

First of all, a word of reassurance for chess lovers who have spent the past few days anxiously checking their push notifications, fearing a headline along the lines of “Imported Zealander lynched by horde of furious caretakers after writing about the Zeeland dialect in a chess tournament report.” Fortunately, the coarsening of society has not yet reached beautiful Zeeland. Or perhaps caretakers simply do not read chess reports. That could be it as well. In any case, it had already been agreed before the tournament that the sixth round would be Ricardo’s final report.

We have now reached the eighth round of the Scheldemond Tournament. The round began with four players sharing the lead.

On board one, Raunak Sadhwani and Max Warmerdam agreed to a draw after just 10 moves. Sadhwani apparently needed to recover from yesterday’s exertions against Fernandez. But, to be fair, he had also drawn his previous games in 10 and 15 moves. I had heard that Sadhwani was very motivated to play in Vlissingen because he wants to put himself in the spotlight for Tata Steel in Wijk aan Zee. So when I told him that I would be writing a few of the daily reports, I asked whether there was anything I could write to give him some publicity. All I got was a shy, noncommittal smile and a few more drags on his cigarette. Come on, Raunak, a little self-promotion is perfectly fine! They want to see iron men in Wijk! My advice: tomorrow, fight for first place until at least move 135.

On board two, the other two co-leaders, Fernandez and Ikonnikov, faced each other. When I ventured into the tournament bustle of what was then the HZ Tournament a few years ago, I had a brief conversation with the strong Frisian/Groningen IM Nick Maatman about Ikonnikov’s repertoire with Black against 1.e4. It consisted of the Kalashnikov; we had both managed to hold him to a draw with White without too much difficulty, a result the GM cannot have been particularly pleased with. Maatman was quite blunt in his assessment: he has a problem.

Ikonnikov has solved that problem in this tournament with the O’Kelly Variation. Against Sadhwani it brought him a fairly straightforward draw, and against Fernandez he also had no significant opening problems. I had almost already counted the draw, but, unexpectedly to me, Fernandez somehow managed to outplay him in an equal rook ending and emerge as the sole leader.

Fernandez–Ikonnikov after 30.h5

The position is still completely equal here, but just five moves later it looked like this:

Fernandez–Ikonnikov after 35.b4

Fernandez has managed to tempt Ikonnikov into playing a few weakening pawn moves, after which Black is now almost in zugzwang. Black can do nothing against the simple plan of b3 and c4. Beautifully played by Fernandez, although Ikonnikov must surely be wondering how he managed to let things get out of hand so quickly. The ending with rook + g- and h-pawns vs. rook is usually anything but trivial, but in Fernandez’s hands it clearly was.

On board three, Erwin l’Ami played against Laura Unuk. Unuk played around with the move order in an Accepted Queen’s Gambit, which gave her a good position. L’Ami nevertheless retained a slight edge, but when he reached the following position, it was all hands on deck:

l’Ami–Unuk after 23.b3

After 23.Re1, White would have retained an edge (23...g5 24.Nh5!), but now, after 23...g5 and the forced 24.Bxf7+ Kxf7, Black was clearly better. In the continuation, a black pawn came dangerously close to c2, but Erwin just managed to keep things together — or perhaps Laura failed to make the most of her chances.

Chanda Sandipan defeated the German player Weller. Sandipan seems willing, when the tournament situation calls for it, to take considerable risks. So it was in this game, in which he set up a Dutch Defence in a rather provocative fashion.

Weller–Sandipan after 11...c5

Apparently, Weller could have gained an advantage with 12.bxc5 bxc5 13.Rb1 Rb8 14.Nb5. Instead, he chose to close the position with 12.b5, which was Sandipan’s signal to send all his troops towards the white king.

Weller–Sandipan after 20.exd6

In this spectacular position, Sandipan chose 20...Nxh2. Stockfish prefers 20...Nxf2. The white king does indeed run towards the queenside, but all of Black’s pieces come beautifully into play. Sandipan went for mate, and after 21.dxc7 exd5 22.Nxd5 Re8 23.Be5 Ng4, White can only defend by sacrificing a piece back with 24.Be4 dxe5 25.dxe5. After 25...d6, the position is:

Weller–Sandipan after 25...d6

Apparently White still had the miraculous defence 26.Raf1, but when Weller failed to find it, he quickly went down. A daringly played game by Sandipan.

Eelke de Boer versus Bob "The Idol"Beeke

Eelke de Boer joined the chasing pack with a victory over Bob Beeke. A small confession is in order: I am jealous of Beeke. Not because he has earned the right to mingle with the top players in the eighth round of a major tournament — that is something he thoroughly deserves. No, I am jealous of the sheer nerve it took to play the Polugaevsky Variation of the Najdorf at this moment in time.

Because you need a fair amount of cojones to play a variation against a top player like De Boer in which, with Black, you are balancing on the edge of the abyss almost every single move. Admittedly, the whole romantic aura surrounding the variation tempted me more than once to give it a try myself. It comes across most vividly in Polugaevsky’s own book Grandmaster Preparation, which contains passages such as this:

“The next milestone in the development of the variation was my game against Bagirov, played in January 1960 at the USSR Championship in Leningrad. When I made my 15th move and got up from the board, Smyslov came over to me and said, in a voice where the reproach was quite unmistakable: ‘Oh, Leo, Leo! What are you allowing yourself at your young age? All your pieces are still sitting on the back rank! Isn’t one game with this variation per championship enough for you? Better spare your nerves!’” (p. 54).

Or this one:

“Hardly had the first rounds of the championship passed when I was handed a note from Judovich. … It contained a precise and detailed analysis showing that in [a critical line of the system] Black was bound to lose. … After all my efforts I was overcome by an ever-growing apathy, and with each passing day the variation meant less and less to me … So I decided to bid it farewell: ‘That’s enough for me! The endless search and the constant bitter disappointments have made me weary! … Thank you for everything, dear variation! Do not hold my unfaithfulness against me! Farewell forever!’” (pp. 68–70).

But anyway, I never dared to try it. And unfortunately for him, Bob Beeke fell off the narrow tightrope he had been dancing on since move seven on move 18:

De Boer–Beeke after 18.Ne5

Here Black played the natural-looking 18...g6, which earns two question marks from Stockfish, and was mopped up after 19.a4. Apparently, he should have entered the hair-raising variation 18...Bb7 19.fxg7 Bxg7 20.Nd6+ Ke7 21.Nexf7 Bxb2 22.Rad1 Rf8 23.Nd8, with approximately equal play (!).

I am simply copying this from the engine, because it is way above my pay grade, but if you look at the bizarre positions that arise from this variation, you may begin to understand its appeal.

De Boer–Beeke, analysis after 23.Nd8: “The variation is still alive!”

The chasing group on 6½ points is completed by Daniel Hausrath, who defeated Guido Van Hesselingen. The latter still had some chances to draw in the endgame, but ultimately he was unable to hold against the German grandmaster.

The most surprising result among the live-board games was the encounter between Erik Sparenberg and Merijn van Delft. Sparenberg played the solid fianchetto variation against Van Delft’s King’s Indian. Just when Van Delft seemed to be getting some real play, things suddenly went wrong:

Sparenberg–Van Delft after 17.Qd2

Apparently, 17...Ne5 is necessary, with 18.Bg5 Qh5 19.Nb5 Nf7! in reserve. After Van Delft’s 17...Be5 18.Bg5 Qg3, Sparenberg had the powerful 19.f4 Bxc3 20.Rxc3, when 20...Nxe4 is beautifully refuted by 21.Qe2!

Sparenberg–Van Delft after 21.Qe2!

Good advice was hard to come by for Van Delft, and despite the time advantage he enjoyed at one point — roughly an hour — he eventually allowed himself to be checkmated. A fine scalp for the likeable Frisian.

For Van Delft, this does not seem to have become his tournament. And that is a shame for the Apeldoorn player, whom we have been fortunate enough to welcome to Vlissingen many times. Remarkably enough, he also features in one of my earliest chess memories.

It must have been somewhere in the first half of the 1990s, when our chess club in Winschoten temporarily had such a strong junior section that we were able to play against the mighty Schaakmaat. In my memory, I drew against Erik Smit, but the player who made the strongest impression on me was Merijn van Delft — because, as I remember it, he spent an almost endless amount of time trying to open a bottle of fizzy soft drink he had brought with him to the match. Apparently, it had been shaken so violently on the way there that opening it threatened to unleash a fountain. With the patience of a saint, he kept turning the cap just a tiny bit further: “TSSSSSS!!”

Hopefully he can produce another big performance in the final round tomorrow.

Sparenberg–Van Delft