What we already feared in the preview tends to become reality: Eelke is having a hard time against Friso Nijboer. This match tends to remind some of us to the match Fischer – Larsen and Fischer Taimanov, both ending in 6-0, although we shouldn’t underestimate the promising talent of Eelke. Also we have to say the match is only halfway, so it wont be like bagle in tennis.
The first moves (photo: Harry Gielen)
There was no Caro-Kann this time. Nijboer played his main weapon 1.e4, De Boer reacted with his beloved Najdorf. Nijboers preparation included the quiet 6.Be2 and a few moves later 9.Qd3. It worked: after 17 moves white achieved a pleasant position. Nijboer was playing with the bishop pair with the plan of moving the white squared bishop to g2 to strike e4. Eelke quickly was walking on eggshells to keep the game balanced.
Eelke understood well the bishop has to come to d4 and the queen to e5. Nijboer found himself in a smoke of thoughts when the following position occurred:
How are things after 22.Lf4 Dh5 23.Ld6 e3? And what is 22.Lxd4 cxd4 23.f4 d3 24.Dxd3 Dxb2? Clever play by Eelke, give the opponent as much as possible to think about.
All this thinking from Nijboer did bear fruit. After 22.Lxd4 cxd4, white blew the center open with 23.Lxe4! And after Pxe4 24.f3! White wins back his piece with a better position. 24… f5 25.Dd3! Just an essential intermediate move 25… b5 26.b3 bxc4 27.bxc4 Db8 28.fxe4 Tfe8 29.c5 Txe4 30.Txe4 Txe4 31.d6!
Black managed to avoid the loss of a pawn, but the white passed pawns are now decisive. A few moves later, Black surrendered.
