This 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!?

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

The venue: Hotel Morssinkhof in Haaksbergen...

...for international guests, and a national championship

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

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

Behind the hotel we came across two spectators...

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

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

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

An easy 7th round for GM Sipke Ernst

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

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

...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

A very disappointing round for Friso Nijboer

Ernst showing his miniature to the spectators...

...assisted by Floris van Assendelft

Co-leaders after 7 rounds: Giri and Ernst

Going for her 11th: Peng Zhaoqin

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

Talitha Munnik and Martine Middelveld

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN