Daniel Fridman wins 10th Waalwijk open (videos!)

Daniel Fridman heeft het tiende snelschaakkampioenschap van Waalwijk gewonnen. Fridman versloeg de favoriet Loek van Wely in de finale. Deze werd gespeeld met tien minuten voor wit tegen acht minuten voor zwart, waarbij Van Wely (zwart) genoeg had aan remise. Van Wely overspeelde Fridman, won een stuk, maar verbruikte veel tijd. Toen Loek nog luttele seconden op de klok had, werd hij mat gezet door de gehaaide Fridman.Daniel Fridman has won the tenth blitz championship of Waalwijk, The Netherlands. Fridman beat local hero Loek Van Wely in the final. Fridman, playing the white pieces, had ten minutes to beat Van Wely who had eight minutes, but only needed a draw. Van Wely outplayed Fridman, winning a piece along the way, but this took too much time. When Loek had a few seconds left, Fridman tricked him to a mate.

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Het toernooi had een leuke opzet. De top 20 op rating werden in twintig verschillende groepen gezet en aangevuld met de rest van het deelnemersveld.

De achttienjarige Jessica Haast (1488) mocht zodoende tegen Loek van Wely (2676) en ondanks dat ze op het bord niets in te brengen had wist ze wel moreel een tikje uit te delen door vooraf tegen Loek te melden: "Ik ken jou, jij bent de man van Marion."

In tegenstelling tot Van Wely won Fridman (2604) niet alle partijtjes in de kwalificatiegroep. Bosscher (1968) hield hem op remise.

De twintig groepswinnaars werden verdeeld over twee nieuwe groepen. De winnaars van deze groepen mochten tegen elkaar uitvechten wie met de hoofdprijs van duizend euro naar huis mocht.

Fridman won zijn groep overtuigend, voor onder anderen Kasimdzhanov (2672) en John van der Wiel. Gezeten naast Fridman kon Kashimdanov niet winnen van Alan van der Heijden (2233) ( (te zien op de volgende video; het is te merken dat Kasim niet zo blij was!) en Frans Konings (2224).

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In de andere groep maakte Van Wely geen fouten. Alleen Carlier en Van den Doel waren dicht bij een overwinning maar alleen Van den Doel kon Loek een half puntje ontfutselen (met minder tijd op de klok kon hij een eindspel met een kwaliteit meer niet omzetten in winst).

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Van den Doel speelde een sterk toernooi; hij verloor geen een keer! Als hij de laatste ronde zijn gewonnen stelling tegen Bianca M?ɬºhren (2336) niet verknoeid had tot remise had hij de finale mogen spellen. Jan Timman had ook niets in te brengen tegen Erik en werd hard matgezet.

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In de laatste ronde moest Van Wely van Timman winnen om de groep te winnen. Als spelers namelijk evenveel punten hadden en onderling er ook geen beslissing was gevallen dan ging de laagst gerate speler door. In de titanenstrijd maakte Loek geen fout, pikte enkele pionnen mee en vlagte Jan Timman. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"489","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","height":"355","width":"425","style":""}}]]

Van den Doel leek niet onder de indruk en versloeg Kasimdzhanov in 25 zetten in de strijd om de derde plek. Deze partij is nog steeds hier na te spelen.

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The tournament had a very interesting set-up. In the morning the participants where divided in twenty groups, having the top twenty rated in seperate groups.

Eighteen year old Jessica Haast (1488) had to play Loek van Wely (2676) but she took the moral victory by stating: "I know you, you are the husband of Marion van Wely!". That's one way to be remembered.

Fridman did not make 100% in the qualifying round but still easily topped his group. Bosscher (1968) drew him.

The twenty group-winners were divided over two new groups, and the winners of both groups had to play the final and decide who would receive the thousand euros first price.

Fridman finished first in his group, above Kashimdanov and Van der Wiel. Next to Fridman, Kashimdzhanov could not beat Alan van der Heijden (2233) (played in the back in the video below, you can see Kasimdzhanov wasn't happy as he run off quickly) and Frans Konings (2224).

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In the other group Van Wely did not make a single mistake. Although Carlier and Van den Doel were close beating the top seed only van den Doel could steal half a point (under time pressure he could not convert a position being an exchange up).

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Van den Doel played an excellent tournament: he finished undefeated! He would have won the group if he would not have drawn a totally won position against WIM Bianca M?ɬºhren (2336). Jan Timman couldn't stop him either.

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Van Wely had to beat Timman in last round to win the group (interesting rule in the tournament: if players had the same amount of points, and drew eachother, the player with the lowest rating continued) did not make a mistake in the last round and beat Jan Timman.

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Van den Doel took revanche quickly by bringing up Kasimdzhanov in 25 moves to clinch the third spot. This game can still be replayed here."^Reports^"Blitz, Videos"^^1159819663^1314790904^forest "Kasparov talks"^"Zelfs Karpov heeft inmiddels zijn mening gegeven over wat vanavond in het sportjournaal de 'toiletrel' werd genoemd. Dat maakt dat het wachten alleen nog was op... Kasparov. Zoals wel vaker reageerde The Boss via The Wall Street Journal, nog voordat duidelijk werd dat de zesde partij gespeeld zou worden. Die partij eindigde vandaag in remise.Meanwhile even Karpov commented on what was called the 'toilet commotion' on the Dutch sport journal tonight. Which means we only had to wait for... Kasparov to share his opinion. Like he did before, The Boss reacted via The Wall Street Journal, before it was clear that the sixth would indeed be played. That game ended in a draw today.

De eerste zes alinea's kunnen door schakers overgeslagen worden. Kasparov moet logischerwijs de situatie een beetje uitleggen voor een breed lezerspubliek. Wat lezenswaardiger wordt het als hij ingaat op zijn afgebroken match met Karpov in 1985. "My battles with the power-hungry thugs who ran the Soviet and international chess world were politically driven. To me they represented a backwards and corrupt system. They saw me as a threat to their control." Subtiel refereert de ex-schaker aan zijn huidige status in Rusland. Net als in deze passage: "The event is taking place in the capital of the Russian republic of Kalmykia under the auspices of its president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is also the president of FIDE. He has created a vertical column of power that would be familiar to any observer of Russia today."

Het lag natuurlijk voor de hand dat de politicus Kasparov het Wall Street Journal-podium wederom zou gebruiken om zijn politieke denkbeelden naar voren te brengen, ook in een artikel dat over schaken gaat. Maar dit stukje, inmiddels ingehaald door de geschiedenis, gaat misschien wat ver: "Mr. Topalov was losing at the game and so he switched to gamesmanship. If the match is aborted he can claim he wasn't defeated and so maintain his status as FIDE champion. Mr. Kramnik rose to the provocation and now may walk off with the same faded title he took from me in 2000. For years he avoided both a rematch and unification with FIDE. If this chaos isn't resolved he can go on to claim "champion for life" standing outside of FIDE. Just like their brothers in spirit in the Kremlin, the chess nomenclatura hope to prolong the anarchy and corruption from which they have profited for so long."

Al met al niet bijzonder interessant, ook al is het Kasparov. Hopelijk is het aangekondigde interview, binnenkort bij Chessbase, smakelijker.

Update 3 oktober: het (korte) interview staat inmiddels hier. Ook niet superboeiend. Deze is wel aardig: "A referee can't lose control of a game or it will become like Netherlands-Portugal at the World Cup."

Voor het geval je hem nog niet gezien hebt: speel hier partij 6 na. De meest gewenste saaie remise die er ooit geweest is.The first six paragraphs can be skipped by chess players. Of course Kasparov has to explain everything for his non-chess audience. You'll want to read it from where he talks about the match cancellation in 1985, against Karpov. "My battles with the power-hungry thugs who ran the Soviet and international chess world were politically driven. To me they represented a backwards and corrupt system. They saw me as a threat to their control." In a subtle way the ex-chess player refers to his current status in Russia. Just like in this part: "The event is taking place in the capital of the Russian republic of Kalmykia under the auspices of its president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is also the president of FIDE. He has created a vertical column of power that would be familiar to any observer of Russia today."

It was to be expected that the politician Kasparov would use the Wall Street Journal stage again to spread his political view, even in an article about chess. But this part, in the meantime not relevant anymore, probably goes a bit too far: "Mr. Topalov was losing at the game and so he switched to gamesmanship. If the match is aborted he can claim he wasn't defeated and so maintain his status as FIDE champion. Mr. Kramnik rose to the provocation and now may walk off with the same faded title he took from me in 2000. For years he avoided both a rematch and unification with FIDE. If this chaos isn't resolved he can go on to claim "champion for life" standing outside of FIDE. Just like their brothers in spirit in the Kremlin, the chess nomenclatura hope to prolong the anarchy and corruption from which they have profited for so long."

Altogether not especially interesting, even though it's Kasparov. Hopefully the announced interview soon to be published on Chessbase will be more juicy.

Update October 3rd: the (short) interview can now be found over here. Not that juicy either. This one I like, though: "A referee can't lose control of a game or it will become like Netherlands-Portugal at the World Cup."

In the case you didn't see it yet: replay the sixth game here. The most wanted dull draw ever.