Drama and exciting chess in Hilversum

[Because of big problems at the hosting provider, this article both appeared and disappeared twice. Let's hope it's gonna be OK from now.] On a rainy Sunday afternoon your reporters Oak and Forest decided to take a look for you in Hilversum. During the 6th and 7th of January the semi-finals of the Dutch chess championships were being held in ‘the Hollywood of the Netherlands’. For both the men and the women, 4 tickets for the championship finals were at stake. It was certainly worth the visit as we witnessed some enjoyable and dramatic games. The games were played in the beautiful monumental townhall of Hilversum (see picture).

Dambacher-Ernst After the draw in the first game, the second game with fresh GM Sipke Ernst playing White had a truly dramatic ending. Being in time-trouble, Ernst wrote his 38th and 39th move on the last three lines on his score-sheet, ensuring himself he had made the necessary 40 moves in time. The referee could not do anything else than to declare the game as a lost for White. The position was totally equal and Ernst could have made a threefold repetition at move 40. Martijn Dambacher now advances to the final stage of the Dutch championship.

Bosboom-Werle After surprisingly winning the first game it was clear that IM Manuel Bosboom would face a difficult game on Sunday as GM Jan Werle was playing White and needed to win. Werle emerged from the opening with a solid positional plus and converted this gradually into something tangible. Bosboom could not unravel his forces and with a nice tactical shot Werle leveled te score. In the necessary play-offs (2 rapid games 20′+10″) Bosboom demonstrated far better skill and beat the GM with two to nothing.

Smeets-van Haastert After a narrow escape GM Jan Smeets had won the first game and therefore had to draw the second game with Black. He opted for the Berlin Wall of the Ruy Lopez which IM Edwin van Haastert failed to break down. After some inaccuracies from White, Black took over the initiative, won a pawn and eventually the game. Smeets with 2-0 to the finals!

Janssen-Spoelman With two wins for each player this match was a true battlefield. In both the classic and the rapid games, IM Wouter Spoelman came back being a point down and succeeded in qualifying for the finals in a deciding blitz game. The second classic game was very tactical and IM Ruud Janssen missed some good moves in several important phases and therefore missed his chances reaching the next stage of the championship.

All games can be found here.

>> replay two annotated games