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Visiting a spectacular 7th round of the Dutch Championship

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Dutch Championship in HaaksbergenThis year the tournament takes place about 175 kilometers away from ChessVibes headquarters, but nonetheless we thought a visit to the Dutch Championship is a must for a site that's internationally oriented, but based in The Netherlands. And we weren't disappointed because we got to see arguably the most spectacular round so far (and a small update on "Tivigate").

The Dutch Championship takes place September 12-20 and reached its 7th round on Friday. In our previous report we only focused on "Tivigate", but on this Friday morning your editor-in-chief decided to travel to the town where the tournament takes place: Haaksbergen, close to the German border, about 10 kilometers southwest of Enschede - a 3-hour trip by public transport, and another 3 back to Amsterdam!




Firstly, about the Tiviakov story there's not much news. I did ask the organizers whether Tiviakov was right about the Dutch Chess Federation having made the promise in May to prevent an overlap between the championship and the Croatian league. Tournament director Jan Stomphorst confirmed, and added: "Already back then we told him the tournament wouldn't end later than September 20th. He had several chances to let us know that he didn't want to show up on Sunday at all, but he only did so after signing the contract, and after the opening ceremony. That he would miss the closing ceremony, well, that could have been accepted, but we just couldn't allow the situation in which one of the players in a possible tiebreak would be absent." The federation is still considering sanctions, and one has been issued already: Tiviakov won't represent The Netherlands at the European Team Championship in October.

But let's (finally) turn to chess. The new top new seed is GM Sipke Ernst (2589) and today he was already wandering around in the commentary slash analysis room after about two hours, after beating the weakest player of the tournament, FM Roi Miedema (2396), in just 20 moves. The sharp 13.e4! - an idea of GM Vladimir Chuchelov's - worked out very well when Miedema erred already two moves later; he had clearly underestimated 16.Bxe6!. Ernst showed the game to the audience afterwards, and explained that 20...cxd5 is forced and "if there's nothing better, I can always win the queen with 21.Rxe6+ Kc7 22.Nb5+ Kc8 23.Re8."

Another early winner was Peng Zhaoqin (2407), who is going for her 10th consecutive title this year and her 11th in total. The women's event had started with a huge upset when Peng lost to WFM Mariska Bertholee-De Mie (2192) in the first round, but then the Chinese-born Grandmaster duly won her next five games. After a draw with WIM Marlies Bensdorp (2325) yesterday, Peng defeated Martine Middelveld (2078) in 16 moves today and so that 11th title is already in sight, which means she'll break Fenny Heemskerk's record, who won the championship in 1937, 1939, 1946, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958 and 1961.

In an important game for the men's standings, Anish Giri defeated Friso Nijboer in a sharp King's Indian - obviously the game of the day. The super-topical 9.Ne1/10.Nd3 line, which involves a knight sac on c7, was discussed in last week's issue of CVO (#36) and our editors IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris were wondering if we had finally seen the refutation of the KID. Obviously they exaggerated slightly, but Giri confirmed today that the ball is clearly in Black's court here. Asked whether he had seen our PDF magazine, the young GM answered: "No, but I think I should!"

The Russian-born, 15-year-old grandmaster already speaks Dutch quite well, and happily showed his game to the spectators. The chess fans (about 30 had showed up) still had a hard time following the world's youngest GM, because no microphone was available - perhaps an idea for next year, Mr Stomphorst & Co!?

Dutch Championship 2009 | Round 7 Standings
Dutch Championship 2009
Dutch Women Championship 2009 | Round 7 Standings
Dutch Championship 2009


Selection of games



Game viewer by ChessTempo


Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

The venue: Hotel Morssinkhof in Haaksbergen...



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

...for international guests, and a national championship



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

Some big chess pieces on the parking lot reveal what's happening inside...



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

...well, actually they're not THAT big.



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

Behind the hotel we came across two spectators...



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

...who don't feel like jumping from b1 to c3 at all



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

The irreplaceable Koos Stolk of the Dutch Chess Federation taking care of the live transmission



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

FM Roi Miedema, far from his form at the Dutch Open, earlier this summer



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

An easy 7th round for GM Sipke Ernst



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

Despite the absence of a main sponsor, neat TV screens still gave an impression of a prestigeous event



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

A crucial game decided in White's favour: Giri-Nijboer...



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

...giving 15-year-old Giri the best chances to win this year's championship, since he plays two more rounds while the other leaders Ernst and Reinderman will both enjoy a free day



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

A very disappointing round for Friso Nijboer



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

Ernst showing his miniature to the spectators...



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

...assisted by Floris van Assendelft



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

Co-leaders after 7 rounds: Giri and Ernst



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

Going for her 11th: Peng Zhaoqin



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

Arlette van Weersel, who told us she's going to play chess fulltime for a year



Dutch Championship in Haaksbergen

Talitha Munnik and Martine Middelveld



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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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