Having won the only decisive game so far, Hikaru Nakamura is leading the Univé Tournament with 1.5/2. He defeated Anish Giri on Sunday in the first round, in a Berlin Ruy Lopez. Tiviakov held Hou Yifan to a draw in a French Opening. A day later both games in the Crown Croup, Tivakov-Nakamura and Hou Yifan-Giri, ended in draws. In the open tournament GMs Erwin l'Ami and Sipke Ernst and IMs Leonardo Valdes and Thomas Willemze are in shared first place after four rounds.

A big sign in front of the Hoogeveen town hall | Photos courtesy of the official website

The traditional autumn event in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands is under way - this year it's already the 16th edition. Some traditions have not stood the test of time (such as playing with pieces of glass in the Crown Group), but luckily most of them are held up in the north of Holland. This year's top group has Tata 2011 winner Hikaru Nakamura, Dutch #1 Anish Giri, Women's World Champion Hou Yifan and Former European Champion Sergei Tiviakov. As always, they play a double round-robin with a rest day in the middle.

The tournament was officially opened on Saturday by Secretary of State Fred Teeven, who once again emphasized the importance of chess for the society. He mentioned schess in schools projects and even revealed plans to organize chess events for inmates.

While the open tournament already reached its third round on Sunday, the tournament hasn't really started until the first moves in the Crown Group are made. Both games started quietly, and the first one ended in a draw.

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Nakamura showed his famous fighting spirit and kept on trying in a slighty better ending. He was rewarded when at move 59 Giri made a mistake.

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With drawing lot number one, Hou Yifan also had white in her second round game against Giri. It looks like she managed to surprise her opponent with 6.f4 in the Najdorf, the move that used to be John Nunn's choice in his classic Beating the Sicilian. White kept the initiative and only at move 38 she allowed Black to equalize.

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Tiviakov vs Nakamura was a good fight and became especially interesting after Black's pawn push on move 24.

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Univé Tournament | Crown group | Round 2 standings

As always the Crown Group in Hoogeveen is part of a much bigger festival, with hundreds of amateur players trying their best at the 64 squares. There is a strong open for players rated higher than 2000 (although a few talented youngsters below that were allowed to participate) and there are two amateur groups.

We already mentioned this open in our article about Danny de Ruiter. After four rounds GMs Erwin l'Ami and Sipke Ernst and IMs Leonardo Valdes and IM Thomas Willemze are in shared first place. Below we give a selection of games and the current standings.

Selection of games

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Univé Tournament | Open group | Round 4 standings