Paul Oudshoorn

I made a mistake in comment in the game Lidvinenko-Tansykkuzhina that makes me feel ashamed.

In this position with white to move, I gave the variant:

In practice white should play 41. 30-24! here. One variation: …19×30 42. 28×8 18-23 43. 35×34 29×40 44. 8-3 9-13 45. 37-31! 26×28 46. 3-9 21×43 47. 9×27×35 +

This is nonsense, because white has to take 46. 3×26, as Dexter remarked in the post.

Further, I was convinced by several comments, That black did not play 40…3-9, as I saw in the applet,  but 3-8 in the actual game. In that case 41. 37-31! 26×37 42. 32×41 etc. gives white a winning combination that is the well deserved crown on a very nice game.

Thank you for the comments and keep up the good work!

When  two players of equal high rating play each other and one of them is in need of a draw, then it is enormously hard for the other player to win. The chances are really low.  So, Schwarzman had almost no chance against Georgiev and the result was predictable.

The regulair game Georgiev-Chizhov  in the following 1/4 finale ended draw, so another draw in the barage tomorrow is killing for Chizhov. Gantwarg is in the 1/2 final! I can`t see the game at the moment I write this, but on one of the very nice pictures I see it was a Ghestem like position, with Gantwarg playing white in the center. This is very good for him, because it releases the nerves and that will not be the case for the players that are obliged to play the barrage early in the morning. All other 1/4 finalists will be doing that.

The normal women 1/4 finale games have finished as well. Only one decision was there. Very strange one:

Lidvinenko

Tansykkuzhina

White played a strong mid game and is to move in this position, after black`s last move: 40. …3-9

In practice white should play 41. 30-24! here. One variation: …19×30 42. 28×8 18-23 43. 35×34 29×40 44. 8-3 9-13 45. 37-31! 26×28 46. 3-9 21×43 47. 9×27x35 +

Instead the game finished: 41. 37-31? 26×37 42. 32×41 23×43 43.48×39 21×32 44.30-24 …

and 2-0 ???

Must have been time limit exceeded.

Now the final is to begin. Big surprises I could not see. Maybe you can say that Tokusarov is an unexpected guest, but he was known already and he plays very intelligently. But that he made the journey to the final so easily, that you might call a formidable performance.

For a man who is almost in the autumn of his life (and maybe is there now) it is so good to see our vital grey beards Ba, Gantwarg and surely Bouzinski as well. It leaves an older man without shame to his inner dreams, as it is shown in reality that such can become true.

But above all, I love to see my dear team mates Jean Marc Ndjofang and Tanya Chub going to the finals in such a glorious way!  I really can’t be neutral there. Big congratulations to Pim Meurs as well. Well done lad!!

The most dramatic fragment in the last round was, without hesitation, found in the game between Amrillaew and Steijlen.

Steijlen

Amrillaew

Steijlen played with courage, as the young one should. Amrillaew played with prudence, as the experienced should. In this position (last move 36-31) white brings up the menace to expand with 23-18! The reaction from black is well done :

35. …13-18! 36.31-26 9-13!! 37. 26×8 7-12 38. 8×17 19-24 39. 29×9 18×49 40. 9×18 …

This combination only took a gambit of 2 pieces and things look really dangerous for white, at the first sight. Things were going to creep in the nerves from now on…

The hand of fate caught in a picture.  White is about to make a draw with 12-7 followed by 23-19 =. Therefore black played: 46. 44-49???

End of the story…

How many lives one can have? Gantwarg the Grey has become Gantwarg the White and he has brought his wisdom to The Forbidden City. The Wizard is cunning. In round 6 he brought down his opponent in a game that took 85! moves. It was a very nice game, in which Gantwarg assaulted the center. Later this turned into a very strong position for black and there was no constructive game left for white to play.

So white gave all to the defense, in an uttermost effort to save a point.

Gantwarg





Kirzner


It is black to play. Gantwarg is one piece ahead, but how to realize this advantage quickly? The problem is that white gathered material to breach the black left wing. Problems rise like: 44. … 19-23 45. 39-33 13-19 46. 33-29 23-28 47. 29-24 8-13 48. 34-29  16-21 49. 29-23 28-32 50. 23-18 13×22 51. 24×13 and it will be a draw. Therefore Gantwarg offered back the piece for solid defense and played: 44. …19-24! 45. 30×10 15×4 . This resulted in a super interesting 4×4 endgame that Gantwarg should explain sometime at our favorite site Damclub.nl, where he gives us masterclasses.


My teammate from Bart Smit Volendam in the Summer Palace, Tanya Chub, is doing wonderful and leaves us with a smile. In round seven she won her game against Danilova and now she has a very comfortable place, with not much worries for a good final result. It is also a pleasure to see that Golubeva is back at top level again.


In all groups the last round shall be a massacre, taking into account that so much players still have chances and so much favorites balance now on the edge of defeat. We will see when the sun is rising…

As one would expect, each world champion in international draughts left his mark on the evolution of the game. This article will give a little insight of their contributions.

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Already five rounds have been played. How to give an update with so much interesting games going on? The battle is for the first eight places and many of the favorites shall not care which of these places it will be for now. Later, maybe, they might take into account the future opponents that they will meet in the play offs as well, but for now it is simply a race to get a comfortable position on the list.

However, we could see impressive performances of the leaders of both groups. At the moment The Forbidden City is taken by Georgiev and spectators tasted a good portion of his skills in the very nice game he beat Misans in the 4th round. Misans is a very difficult opponent to play against, especially for the strongest players. Against them he mostly got no worries about directing the game and he usually persists in anticipating on all the possible tactics and strategies they aim for. He is very strong in that and lots of times he is eager to be ahead in development, so the danger of losses in territory is evaded. With this goal in mind, he often is not too concerned with the appearance of the position. So, it is important for Misans to have something to play against.

Georgiev came up with a psychological setup that is very remarkable. Opening Misans-Georgiev: 1. 32-28 19-23 2. 28×19 13×24 3. 34-30 9-13 4. 30×19 13×24(!!)

Believe it or not, there was a time I played blitz games against Kees Thijssen with these kind of opening moves and we called this way…: Old Chinese !! The purpose is: distract the opponent and trying to confuse him, or even better: annoy him!

With the opening Georgiev achieved two goals: 1. Some gain of tempi  2. Avoid an environment where the opponent can exploid his main strength: anticipate on the things to come.

Later in the game, the position of black started to flourish in full harmony and Georgiev won the game in a most impressive way.

Getmansky occupies The Great Wall, at the moment. With victorious games against Domchev, Meurs and Ba he really is the shining star so far. The last game I did not see yet, but the first two games were most impressive. Getmansky is a very technical player with very much ambition in his game. Against Domchev he succeeded to expand a seemingly small positional advantage into an endgame that left Domchev defeated.

Getmansky

Domchev

A crucial position in the game.  Black played strongly: 31…22-28! Now white refused to change with 32. 40-35 etc., while this would leave him in a very passive position. Instead he played 32.34-30? 28×32 33. 31×42 29-34! 34. 40×29 23×34 Black breaches the short wing of white and goes to king for one piece.

In The Summer Palace of the women Golubeva leads, but she is vulnerable as well. She lost in the 4th round from Chub. Last named lost in the next round against Tkachenko, but seems to be in the right shape to reach the play offs. Golubeva healed herself in the 5th round with a victory against Platonova, so she is on schedule again.