Mosquitoes beat Apes in dying seconds

AmsterdamMosquitoes

Updated: Jan 19, 2017, 12:25 AM | 0

Round 2 witnessed an all-Dutch match-up between the Amsterdam Mosquitoes and Apeldoorn Apes. The Mosquitoes were the favourites going into the match given their 50 point lead in average rating. This proved of little value as the match remained tense until the very last move! Don't miss out on the full report if you are interested in beautiful moves and horrible blunders, dramas and sensations and a spectacular finale.

Round 1

Last week I predicted that the first round will become an important bellwether for the match as a whole. That proved to be the case this week as well. The first round ended in a 2-2 draw. A somewhat disappointing outcome for the Mosquitoes, as they started with a smooth victory of IM Quinten Ducarmon over IM Robby Kevlishvili.

However, the Apes fought back with victories of GM Roeland Pruijssers and FM Max Warmerdam over GM Wouter Spoelman and IM Miguoel Admiraal. Especially the former gave the Apes a boost, as Pruijssers ended Spoelman's 4/4 streak of last week.

IM Ali Bitalzadeh levelled the score with a hard-fought but deserved victory over Nico Zwirs.

Round 2

If round 1 wasn't already exciting, the level went even up in round 2. Spoelman was out for revenge and got what he was after. You will definitely want to see this game.

Bitalzadeh added another point to the Mosquitoes total. After a blunder of Warmerdam Ali achieved an winning position early on and went on to win. The finishing touch deserves a diagram.

It just wasn't the day of Miguoel Admiraal. Although he achieved several winning positions, he could not get on the scoring board. The game in second round against Nico Zwirs is illustrative of his PRO Chess League debut.

Pruissers and Ducarmon agreed to a draw in a relatively uneventful game. The round thus ended with a 2,5-1,5 victory of the Mosquitoes bringing the scores to 4,5-3,5.

Round 3

After the victory in round 2 the Mosquitoes used their WhatsApp group for further encouragement. The plan: extending the lead in Round 3. For a long time it looked as if they were to deliver. There were several promising positions and Bitalzadeh managed to bring in another point against Kevlishvili.

However, the turning point in the round came when Ducarmon could not convert his winning position against Nico Zwirs and even went on to lose.

Spoelman drawed against Warmerdam. After this Pruijssers even managed to level the score with a win over Admiraal: 6-6. After twelve games and two hours of play we were back at square one.

Round 4

With a score of 6-6 the final round would decide over the outcome of the match. The Apes had gained momentum after winning in round 3 and managed to open the score. Kevlishvili beat Admiraal quite quickly after the latter blundered an exchange.

With three games in play the Apes lead 7-6 and a surprise was in the air. However, the Mosquitoes managed to turn the tables. Bitalzadeh was important for his team once more with a nice victory over GM Pruijssers.

Ducarmon won a good game against Warmerdam to bring Mosquitoes in the lead once more. After this all eyes were on the final game of Zwirs against Spoelman. A draw would be sufficient for the Mosquitoes, but with two sides low on time it was impossible to communicate the scores. Therefore it all came down to a nerve wracking finale.

The Mosquitoes thus won the match by a nose length and take the lead in their division with full score after two rounds. We would like to congratulate the Apes on their performance as well, as they have showed their potential and will definitely be winning matches in this PRO Chess League.

Be sure to tune in next week when the Mosquitoes will be facing the Marseille Migraines.

Mosquitoes beat Apes in dying seconds

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