Three-way tie at Hoogeveen Open

Last week we promised to return to Hoogeveen once more, for a report on the Open tournament that took place alongside the Crown Group that was won by Kramnik. The 9-round Swiss finished in a three-way tie between Dutchmen Sergey Tiviakov, Sipke Ernst and Robin van Kampen, and it was Tiviakov who had the best tie-break.

This open already took off on Friday, October 14th, two days before the first round of the Crown Group. And it started with a bang: GM Sipke Ernst, at 2581 third seeded in the tournament, lost to WIM Arlette van Weersel (2191). It was the first time the 27-year-old Dutch player beat a GM.

[Event "15th Unive Open"]
[Site "Hoogeveen NED"]
[Date "2011.10.14"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Van Weersel, Arlette"]
[Black "Ernst, Sipke"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B20"]
[WhiteElo "2191"]
[BlackElo "2581"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "2011.10.14"]

1. e4 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nf3 e6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. d4 cxd4 6. Nxd4 Bb4 7. Nxc6 bxc6 8.
Bd3 e5 9. O-O d6 10. Na4 Bg4 11. Qc2 Nd7 12. Be2 Be6 13. a3 Ba5 14. c5 d5 15.
exd5 cxd5 16. f4 d4 17. b4 Bc7 18. Bf3 Nf6 19. Bc6+ Bd7 20. Bxa8 Qxa8 21. fxe5
Ng4 22. Bf4 d3 23. Qxd3 Qc6 24. Nc3 g5 25. Bg3 h5 26. Qd5 h4 27. Qxf7+ Kd8 28.
Qg7 Re8 29. Qxg5+ Kc8 30. Qxh4 Bd8 31. Qh7 Qe6 32. Rad1 Re7 33. Qd3 Rg7 34. Ne4
Bc7 35. Nd6+ Bxd6 36. Qxd6 Qxd6 37. Rxd6 1-0

"I had not played for a while,"

said Van Weersel afterwards.

I didn't trust my openings very much and decided to play 2.c4 against his Sicilian. Sipke knew this of course and played reasonably quickly after having thought for a while earlier. He quickly got into a passive position and then made a calculating error. I won the exchange and a pawn. Normally you still lose against someone like Ernst - well, he could have defended tougher - but for some reason he started to play very quickly while he still had about twenty minutes left. He sacrificed a few pawns to open up my king's position but I just grabbed everything and after the exchange of queens there was absolutely no chance.

Arlette van Weersel beat a GM

Ernst's commentary:

The black player in the game Van Weersel-Ernst was unrecognizable. He missed almost all the moves of his opponent.

This turned out to be very close to the truth. In the rest of the tournament the real Sipke Ernst stood up, and scored 7/8! Despite the unfortunate start, the 32-year-old Dutch GM eventually finished shared first with GM Sergey Tiviakov and Robin van Kampen, who was in fact officially declared GM during the tournament.

Let's have a look at a good game from each of the tournament winners. Ernst's super comeback included a crucial last-round win against Ukrainian top talent Ilya Nyzhnyk:

[Event "15th Unive Open"]
[Site "Hoogeveen NED"]
[Date "2011.10.22"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Nyzhnyk, Illya"]
[Black "Ernst, Sipke"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E10"]
[WhiteElo "2561"]
[BlackElo "2581"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "90"]
[EventDate "2011.10.14"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 Bd6 6. Nc3 Bc7 7. e4 d6 8. Nd2
O-O 9. Be2 Re8 10. O-O a6 11. a4 Nbd7 12. Qc2 Rb8 13. f4 Ba5 $5 $146 14. Bd3 b5
15. axb5 axb5 16. Nxb5 c4 17. Nxc4 (17. Bxc4 $1 Rxb5 18. Bxb5 Qb6+ 19. Kh1 Qxb5
20. Qc6 $1 Qe2 21. Rxa5 Nxe4 22. Ra8 Nxd2 23. Rg1 Ne4 24. h3 Nf8 25. Rxc8 Nf2+
26. Kh2 Ng4+ 27. Kh1 Nf2+ $11) 17... Rxb5 18. Nxd6 Rc5 19. Qe2 $2 (19. Qb3)
19... Qb6 $1 20. Nxe8 (20. Nxc8 Rcxc8+ 21. Kh1 Nxd5) 20... Rxc1+ 21. Kh1 Rxf1+
22. Rxf1 Nxe8 $17 23. Rc1 Bb7 24. e5 Nc5 25. Bc4 g6 26. Ba2 Bb4 27. Qe3 Ng7 28.
e6 fxe6 29. dxe6 Ngxe6 30. f5 gxf5 31. Qg5+ Kf7 32. Qxf5+ Ke8 33. Qh5+ Kd8 34.
Rd1+ Kc8 35. Qe8+ Nd8 36. Bb1 Qf6 37. Qg8 h5 38. Qh7 Nde6 39. Bf5 Kb8 40. Bxe6
Nxe6 41. Qg8+ Ka7 42. Qe8 Kb6 43. b3 Bc5 44. Qb8 Qb2 45. Qg8 Qe5 0-1

A splendid comeback for Sipke Ernst

15-year-old GM Ilya Nyzhnyk (Ukraine) finished shared 4th, with 6.5/9

Robin van Kampen had a tough game against English GM Stewart Haslinger, who suddenly went for an unsound piece sac:

[Event "15th Unive Open"]
[Site "Hoogeveen NED"]
[Date "2011.10.22"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Van Kampen, Robin"]
[Black "Haslinger, Stewart G"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C41"]
[WhiteElo "2529"]
[BlackElo "2542"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "5rk1/4r2p/4n2b/p1p1Ppp1/PnPp1P2/1P4P1/3B2BP/1RN1R1K1 w - - 0 31"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2011.10.14"]

31. Rf1 gxf4 32. gxf4 Nxf4 33. Bxf4 Bxf4 34. Rxf4 Rxe5 35. Rb2 Rfe8 36. Rd2
Re1+ 37. Rf1 R8e3 38. Kf2 Rxc1 39. Rxc1 Nd3+ 40. Rxd3 Rxd3 41. Re1 Rxb3 42. Re5
Rb2+ 43. Kg3 f4+ 44. Kf3 Ra2 45. Rxc5 Rxa4 46. Kxf4 Ra1 47. Bd5+ Kf8 48. Ke4
Rd1 49. Rxa5 d3 50. Ra2 Ke7 51. Ke3 Kd6 52. Rd2 Rf1 53. Kxd3 Kc5 54. Ke4 1-0

16-year-old Robin van Kampen, also a GM now

Sergey Tiviakov, who played in the Crown Group in the last two editions, also won his last round game. In his typical positional style he beat American GM Aleksandr Lenderman, who himself annotated this game for Chess Life Online, at the end of his interview with Macauley Peterson.

[Event "15th Unive Open"]
[Site "Hoogeveen NED"]
[Date "2011.10.22"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Tiviakov, Sergei"]
[Black "Lenderman, Aleksandr"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B18"]
[WhiteElo "2647"]
[BlackElo "2562"]
[PlyCount "133"]
[EventDate "2011.10.14"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. Nh3 Nf6 7. Bc4 e6 8.
Nf4 Bd6 9. c3 Nbd7 10. Qf3 Qc7 11. O-O e5 12. Nxg6 hxg6 13. Bb3 O-O 14. Be3
exd4 15. Bxd4 c5 16. Bxf6 Nxf6 17. Bc4 Rfe8 18. Rfd1 Rad8 19. a4 b6 20. Rd3 Be7
21. Nf1 Rxd3 22. Qxd3 Qf4 23. Re1 Rd8 24. Qe2 Bd6 25. Bb5 Qg4 26. f3 Qc8 27. g3
Bf8 28. Ne3 Qe6 29. Nc4 Qxe2 30. Rxe2 Rd1+ 31. Kg2 Bd6 32. Nxd6 Rxd6 33. Re7
Rd2+ 34. Kh3 Rxb2 35. Rxa7 Rb3 36. Rxf7 Rxc3 37. Rb7 Rxf3 38. Rxb6 Ra3 39. Ra6
Kh7 40. a5 g5 41. Ra8 g6 42. a6 g4+ 43. Kg2 Nd5 44. Rd8 Ra2+ 45. Kg1 Ra1+ 46.
Kf2 Ra2+ 47. Ke1 Nc3 48. Bc4 Ra1+ 49. Kf2 Kh6 50. Rd7 Nd1+ 51. Ke2 Nb2 52. Bb5
c4 53. Rc7 Ra2 54. Ke3 Ra5 55. a7 c3 56. Kd4 c2 57. Rxc2 Na4 58. Ra2 Rxa7 59.
Rxa4 Re7 60. Bd3 Re1 61. Ra6 Rh1 62. Rxg6+ Kh5 63. Rg8 Kh6 64. Rh8+ Kg5 65. Be2
Ra1 66. Rg8+ Kh6 67. Rxg4 1-0

Last round, board 1: Sergey Tiviakov - Aleksandr Lenderman, 1-0

GM Aleksandr Lenderman

Rob Schoorl scored his second IM norm in the tournament, and a TPR close to 2600. The following game won the tournament's brilliancy prize, an original hunt on the black king that ends up all the way on c2.

[Event "15th Unive Open"]
[Site "Hoogeveen NED"]
[Date "2011.10.20"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Knol, Geon"]
[Black "Beerdsen, Thomas"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B23"]
[WhiteElo "2137"]
[BlackElo "2019"]
[PlyCount "83"]
[EventDate "2011.10.14"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 a6 3. g3 d6 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. d3 g6 6. f4 Bg7 7. Be3 Nf6 8. h3 Rb8
9. Nge2 Qc7 10. O-O O-O 11. Qd2 b5 12. Rae1 b4 13. Nd1 Bb7 14. g4 Nd7 15. c3
bxc3 16. bxc3 Nb6 17. h4 Qd7 18. Nf2 Ba8 19. g5 Na4 20. Bh3 Qc7 21. Nd1 f5 22.
exf5 gxf5 23. d4 Na5 24. d5 Nc4 25. Qc2 Nab2 26. Bxf5 Nxd1 27. Bxh7+ Kh8 28.
Qg6 Ndxe3 29. Qh5 Rf6 30. gxf6 exf6 31. Bf5+ Kg8 32. Be6+ Kf8 33. Qh7 Bxd5 34.
Qg8+ Ke7 35. Qxg7+ Kxe6 36. Nd4+ cxd4 37. f5+ Ke5 38. Qg3+ Ke4 39. Qf4+ Kd3 40.
Qxd4+ Kc2 41. Re2+ Nd2 42. Qxd2# 1-0

Univé Chess Tournament | Open Group (Hoogeveen) 2011 | Round 9 (final) standings (top 40)

Many participants of the open tournament slept and prepared for their games in the nearby bungalow park...

...where idyllic images like these could provide the necessary relaxation of the mind

Another tournament victory for Sergey Tiviakov