In the Dutch Championship, all players who won yesterday also qualified for the second KO round. Max Warmerdam, Erwin l’Ami and Erik van den Doel did this, respectively, against Arthur de Winter, Mark Timmermans and Hing Ting Lai without too many problems by also winning their second games, Sergei Tiviakov made a quiet draw with Thomas Beerdsen. Roeland Pruijssers beat Twan Burg today with Black in an excellent game, in which he managed to keep pressure all the time. Robby Kevlishvili outplayed Hugo ten Hertog in a Najdorf Sicilian to also make it to the quarterfinals. There was only one small glitch in the time scramble when he allowed Ten Hertog to make a draw with a wonderful trick, but the latter didn’t see it. Dimitri Reinderman eliminated Robin Swinkels after yesterday’s draw in a game in which he was in trouble at first. The only playoff was between Lucas van Foreest and his former coach Sipke Ernst, who had shared the point in both their games. In two rapid games, Van Foreest went through with one win and one draw.
Roebers and Haast escape by a thread
Bij het NK Vrouwen sloeg in de eerste ronde meteen de vlam in de pan. Voor het leven van de favoriete, Eline Roebers (16), werd gevreesd toen Anna-Maja Kazarian haar te lijf ging met een levensgevaarlijke Grand Prix-aanval. Kazarian pakte echter niet door en het was bijna onthutsend hoe snel Roebers het daarna overnam en de partij won.
In the first round of the Women’s Championship, the participants really hit it off. The favourite, Eline Roebers (16), had to fear for her life when Anna-Maja Kazarian went for her throat with a highly dangerous Grand Prix Attack. But Kazarian didn’t finish her demolishing job, and it was all but staggering how fast Roebers took over and won the game.
Robin Duson couldn’t have wished for a better debut: she beat Maaike Keetman in a sloid game. The reigning champion Anne Haast was also in trouble with Black against Machteld van Foreest, but after a couple of inaccuracies from the fifteen-year-old talent Haast came completely back in the game; deep in the endgame, a draw was agreed.
Twelve-year-old Englishman beats Open Champion
The sensation of the second round of the Groningen Open was the loss of Rick Lahaye, the reigning Open Dutch Champion, and a player of master strength, at the hands of the twelve-year-old Englishman Harry Zheng. It was simply a very fine game by the young talent.
The Dutch master Nick Maatman went down to the Indian master Pranav Anand. The latter sacrificed a piece already in the opening, to create a huge pawn mass in the centre. Maatman was soon forced to sacrifice the piece back, but it didn’t bring him back into the game.
The German GM Hagen Poetsch won another gorgeous attacking game, this time against Onno Elgersma. Nico Zwirs, the almost-winner of the Hoogeveen Open two months ago, made a solid draw with Black against the Croatian Vjekoslav Nemec. There was even a grandmaster who went down today: Alexander Kovchan from Ukraine lost in a hyper-sharp Sicilian game against Midas Ratsma.
