2006 Dutch Championships, Hilversum: Report Part 1

by John Lee Shaw

The great Max Euwe won the Dutch Championships a total of 12 times, the first being in 1921 and his last in 1955. 6 of his titles were in succession. That was a record that even Dutch chess legend (and national chess hero) Jan Timman could not equal, even though he won the title 9 times himself. Loek van Wely, (rated 2655 currently), arguably the strongest Dutch chess player ever, equalled Euwe's 6 wins on the spin at last year's tournament, and this year set out to break it. He was up against a strong line of opposition: Ivan Sokolov (2676); Sergei Tiviakov (2669); Jan Timman (2616); Friso Nijboer (2584); Erwin l'Ami (2565); Daniel Stellwagen (2543); Jan Smeets (2535); Jan Werle (2529); John van der Wiel (2511); Yge Visser (2480); Jeroen Bosch (2465).



The tournament itself, was held in studio 22, (see left), of the TCN Media Park, located in the Dutch city of Hilversum, 30 minutes or so drive from Amsterdam. I found it a wonderfully organised tournament, having had the opportunity to visit it a few times. My congratulations must go to all the team, led by Yvette Nagel Seirawan.


I am sure that I have no need to point out, that Yvette is the Wife of Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan, whom I also had the pleasure of bumping in to while I was there. Yasser is one of the nicest Grandmaster's it is possible to meet, and always willing and eager to talk, each time being a pleasure. Also, on a personal note, I would like to express my appreciation to Yvette, Cora, and Peter, for making a rather new and awe-inspired chess journalist very comfortable and welcome. For visitors to the event, there was not just idle spectating on offer, by the way, but the opportunity to observe live commentary of the games, (see above right), as well as other events, such as master simuls. If the atmosphere got too much, then there was also the option of playing a game or two outside on a large board.

Play opened on the 17th of June, and round 1 saw van Wely, Sokolov, Visser, and van der Wiel, all getting off to good starts and chalking up a point. This was much to the dismay of their opponents, Bosch, Smeets, Timman, and Nijboer respectively. Stellwagen - L'Ami, and also Tiviakov - Werle, were drawn. Round 2 saw Tiviakov give a small taste of what was to come in this tournament, wielding his beloved c3-sicilian against Daniel Stellwagen. Stellwagen played boldly, and was doing fine. Even with his 3 pawn islands and doubled f-pawns, at the 29th move, Black was equal at worst. An endgame inaccuracy or two, (quite unlike Stellwagen, who is usually very solid in this area), allowed White a powerful passed c-pawn, and Tiviakov had the point in 41. Other winners of the round were Erwin L'Ami against Yge Visser, and Friso Nijboer as black against Jan Werle. van Wely - Sokolov was a sharp Slav, in which black was doing nicely. Sokolov will kick himself for his 24...Rb5? which allowed tactics from white, throwing a spanner in the works of the black initiative. A few moves later peace was declared. Also drawing were Jan Timman against Jeroen Bosch, and Jan Smeets against John van der Wiel.

Round 3 saw Yge Visser giving the 3.Bb5+ Sicilian a whirl against Tiviakov, who obviously felt like a change from the Scandinavian. White's allowing Black to give him doubled f-pawns (and open up his king's position) was the start of Visser's decline, and a move or two later, black was winning a pawn. Visser fought well, and Tiviakov's acceptance of an exchange sacrifice on his move 34 was possibly flawed. However, 36.Bxe7!? should have probably given way to Nxe7 instead. After 37...Kf7, white was in trouble, and on move 49, Visser was resigning. Also victorius in this round were Smeets as black against Nijboer, their game lasting 63 moves, and van Wely winning as black also, in 33 against van der Wiel. Jan Timman held Ivan Sokolov to a draw in 23, and Stellwagen and Werle also had a rather early finish, drawing in 26. Bosch - L'Ami drew even quicker, shaking hands after 20 moves.

Round 4 would be the last round before the rest day, and one never knows what to expect at such times, it could be fireworks or quiet draws. In the case of this championship, and to the credit of the players, we saw fighting chess, and 4 decisive games. Daniel Stellwagen had a bit of a marathon against Yge Visser. Playing the white side of a French Defence, Visser's king became dislodged, and Stellwagen was soon gunning for it. He perhaps could have done so a little better, however, white seemed to go along a little with black's defensive ideas. By move 25, a clear advantage had slipped to more or less equality. I am not certain what the time situation was, but around here, Stellwagen began to make some dubious decisions, the first being his 29.axb6ep? which certainly was not forced and gave Black a rather annoying passed pawn. This was then followed by 30.Rb4-b1, and 31. Rb1-b4. Suddenly, Black was in a very powerful position, (see diagram, left). The diagram shows the position after Stellwagen's 32.f5 (which perhaps should have given way to Rb1/Rb2) and here Visser played 32...a3, which was not the best continuation. Black could have continued 32...exf5, after which things are very difficult for White. The best choice, and probably what Stellwagen intended, was the exchange sacrifice 33.Rxd5+ Kxd5, 34.Rxb5+, and this is maybe what concerned Visser. However, it seems totally dominating, after 34...Kc6, 35.Rb4 for example. As things were, after 32...a3, 33.fxe6 Rxb6? (...Bc6 was best and still a bit better for Black), White was holding the edge again. Stellwagen was able to win the d5 pawn, exchanging off a pair of rooks, and the bishops in the process. From there, he played a near flawless endgame, to wrap the game up.

Also winning were Tiviakov, Sokolov, and Werle, with van Wely - Nijboer, and Timman - van der Wiel drawing. This left the rest day situation as follows: Tiviakov -- 3.5/4; Sokolov, van Wely -- 3.0/4; Werle, Stellwagen, van der Wiel, L'Ami -- 2.0/4; Smeets, Nijboer, Timman -- 1.5/4; Bosch, Visser -- 1.0/4.

Report Part 2 

The second segment of the tournament got off to a rather quiet start, 4 of the 6 games in round 5 being drawn. Many had anticipated the clash between Sokolov and Tiviakov, but this turned in to a rather disappointing 15-mover. To be fair, the end position was niether here nor there, but it would have been nice to see it played a bit more. Loek van Wely had to dig his heels in for the draw playing black against Jan Smeets, and Smeets possibly held some edge in the final position, but could not do a lot with it. Also drawing were Visser - Werle, and van der Wiel - l'Ami. Jan Timman's tournament was not going well at all, and infact, the 54-year-old seemed totally out-prepared. Perhaps this is understandable, given the fact that he is not playing so much these days. In this round, he was pretty much demolished by Friso Nijboer, and suffering one of the few miniatures of a very illustruios career. The other point scorer of the round, was Daniel Stellwagen. Playing the Black side of a King's Indian Samisch, things were not actually going very well for him, infact, white was holding a clear advantage. However, when Bosch began to linger, Stellwagen punished, invading White's camp with his rook, and before long, Bosch was relinquishing the point.

Round 6, then, saw every game being decisive. Tiviakov once again employed the c3-Sicilian against van der Wiel. After some jostling around for position, Tiviakov took command, penetrating Black's 2nd rank. By the time van der Wiel had created himself some play, the damage had been done, and the point was never in doubt really. What would the Dutch Championships be without a Dutch Defence? Friso Nijboer obliged in his game against Erwin L'Ami. In honesty, L'Ami was his own un-doing in this round, his 7.g4 looking highly dubious, and being the start of what seems to be a faulty plan. After 9.Bh3, his position deteriorated, and soon Black had the edge. When Black was able to triple along the f-file later on, it was the beginning of a decisive attack, and though Erwin battened down the hatches, black's passed c-pawn was the final nail in the coffin. A nice game by Nijboer. After the disasterous previous round, Jan Timman bounced back with a win over Jan Smeets. To be honest, his novelty (in the Najdorf Sicilian), of 13.Bc4 was not good, and after 13...dxe3, black seems to hold the upper hand by far. Smeets' 15...Ne5 was a very bad mistake, (15...Kd8 being much better), and the losing move (16...Bd6) came immediately after. Timman pounced with 17.Rxd4 and 18.Bxf7+, and the attack was decisive. The game was far from perfect, but still nice to see Timman scoring against the younger players in the field ... no offence to Smeets intended of course! Werle - van Wely was a Queens Gambit Declined, Anti-Meran, which saw a novelty from White with 13.Na4 -- usual is 13.Nxf6 Nxf6, 14.Na4, and accelerating things does not seem to be an improvement. van Wely chose 15...h5, over the other option of taking the two bishops with ...Nxg3, followed by 16...Qc7, when black is doing very nicely. As it was, things were probably in Black's favour, and when the queens came off the board at move 19, White's position was already very difficult. van Wely had the point in 36.

Stellwagen and Sokolov got in to a Closed Ruy, Smyslov variation, and followed theory until Stellwagen's 22.Rxe5, which seems new. As can be seen from the diagram, left, this is a very bold decision, as it leaves the b3-pawn hanging, and Sokolov took up the gauntlet with 22...Qxb3. There followed: 23.Bf4 Qxd1, 24.Rxd1, and here, Sokolov's best was probably to exchange on e5. However, he played 24...c6, after which Stellwagen exchanged rooks himself, and quickly won a pawn. His position gradually increased in dominance, and when he invested a rook to queen a pawn, it was all over bar the shouting. Sokolov could only hope to make things difficult, and that Stellwagen would make a mistake. This did not happen, infact it was Sokolov himself who made the mistake, which left his remaining pieces in precarious positions to White's Queen. Sokolov resigned.

Also a winner of round 6, was Yge Visser, dispatching Jeroen Bosch in 48 moves.



Ivan Sokolov bounced back from the previous round, with his round 7 win over Yge Visser. Visser employed the King's Indian against Sokolov's 1.d4, and for a while was doing ok. Sokolov mis-played things slightly with his 20.Qb4. The move was not bad as such, but he could have done better with 20.Qe7. However, he did go along this line a move later, as shown by the diagram, right, after Visser had just played 20...a5. I am sorry if the red squares look a bit confusing, but they are important, showing the power of the move, and illustrating how accurate black must be when proceeding. The issues are, that the Nf6 is attacked twice, the e-pawn is also en-prise, and although I haven't made it red, the d7-bishop is only defended by the Nf6 and so is beginning to sweat a bit. This follows that the best move is ...Re8 (it attacks the queen, (therefore giving the Nf6 a reprieve) and defends the e-pawn. ...Qd8 allows Qxd8 followed by Nxe5). However, 21...Re8, (as Visser played), also hangs f7. As is often in chess, when you have a tough position, answering one threat (or in this case two) usually gives your opponent something else. There followed: 22.Qxf7 Qd6, 23.Nh4 Rf8, and Sokolov continued powerfully with, 24.Nxg6+! hxg6, 25.Qxg6. Here, Visser's best chance of saving things was probably 25...Rg8, but he played the flawed 25...Be8, seemingly having lost his sense of danger. There came 26.Qxg7+! which won a piece after ...Kxg7 thanks to the black queen being on d6. Sokolov merely hopped his knight to f5 to regain the material. From this point, white had a huge initiative, but Sokolov probably gave himself and his supporters a bit of a scare by letting things slip a bit towards the end. A final endgame mistake by Visser of 48...Nd7 allowing 49.Kc3, however, opened the door once again for White, and the point was Sokolov's on move 57.

Loek van Wely had an interesting time against Jan Timman in their match. Playing the white side of a Nimzo Indian, he faced a Timman novelty, 13...axb4. After some exchanges on the Q-side (including a pair of rooks) things got incredibly sharp, and my hair went nearly as white as Timman's trying to make sense of it. The state of affairs is show in the diagram to the right, and Jan Timman had just played 21...g5. van Wely continued 22.Rxf2 (best) and Timman replied 22...g4. It is situations such as this that humbles any chess commentator, I think, when we consider that the players are having to work all the questions out on their own, and in a certain amount of time. van Wely continued strongest, taking some advantage with 23.Nxe5. Unfortunately I never got to ask Timman if he had overlooked this move. I doubt it, but white seems to have a very good game from here. From Timman's 23...dxe5, his prospects seemed to gradually worsen, until things got a bit edgy again around the 30 move mark. Chess is full of ebbs and flows. A few time-gaining moves were made, around which time things looked about equal, and probably should have gone to a draw I suppose, but a slip by Timman allowed van Wely to win a pawn and obtain a powerful d-pawn passer. From there the result was in no doubt, and Timman resigned.

With the greatest of respect to John van der Wiel, his win over Daniel Stellwagen surprised me. The reason for this, is primarily because Stellwagen had looked to be getting stronger in the last couple of rounds, but maybe his victory over Sokolov in the previous round had taken its toll. Playing Black in a Sicilian Paulsen, he was never really in the game, and infact his position looked quite disorganised. White had a winning advantage by move 20, and though Stellwagen fought on bravely, van der Wiel had wrapped things up by move 30. Leader Tiviakov must have wished there was a tournament masseur after his game against Friso Nijboer. It was a Scandinavian, and lasted 94 moves! White had a slight opening advantage, but Tiviakov improved his position gradually until he had equalised, around move 23. Despite the opposite coloured bishops, the game seemed to be heading for a draw, until White started to get quite passive, and black began to get active. Suddenly Tiviakov's K-side pawns began to march forward, and soon after he had posted his knight rather annoyingly on d3. Being fair, both players made mistakes they were not punished for towards the end of the game, (which saw the Black king march up to the white side of the board), but all things being considered this is most understandable. I think that they will have been most relieved to shake hands and declare peace. The other winner of the round was Jan Werle, equalising in his game against Jeroen Bosch quite comfortably. Black started to take over the position rather quickly, and white was already under pressure before Werle was able to sacrifice the exchange, leaving himself with queen and 2 bishops v the queen and rook of Bosch. The black position was vastly superior, and Bosch was oon resigning. The remaining game, Smeets v l'Ami was drawn quickly.

Round 8, the round before the second (and final) rest day, was full of excitement, and saw two of the tournament favourites losing. The first victim was leader Sergei Tiviakov, who maybe was still suffering for the near 100-mover he had in the previous round. In this round, he was white against Jan Smeets, who came armed and ready for a c3-sicilian. Smeets left theory early, playing 7...Qe6+, and doing very nicely from it. White seemed to get a little bogged down, and black took hold of the position little by little, allowing Tiviakov no freeing of his position. By 25...Nc6, (see diagram, left), things had already started to look very tricky for White, then came 26.dxe4 Nd4+, 27.Kf1 fxe4, when the balance rests with black, and all white can do is fight and hope for a mistake. The mistake didn't come, and a few moves later, black had powerful d and e-pawns, the former being passed. Smeets played powerfully, winning a piece, and very soon the game. A really nice game this, and for me one of the games of the tournament!


The second favourite to fall, was Loek van Wely, who had been having quite a disappointing tournament by his standards. I think that Loek would be the first to admit, that he had missed a few chances in this tournament, and his game against Erwin l'Ami, was certainly one of them. The game was a Semi-Slav, and followed Pantsulaia - Karjakin, Sweden 2005, until van Wely's 14...Rxf8 (Karjakin had played 14...Kxf8 and the game had been drawn in 24). After 16.Ne4, White obtained a knight on d6 rather easily, but this only seemed good enough for equality. Possibly better was opening things up on the queenside (asking black the question of where he intended to put his king) with 16.b3. As it was, after 18.a4 f6, 19.Bf3, van Wely seems to have overlooked or decided against the best option of 19...Ba6, in favour of 19...a6, which did not seem to help him at all. The diagram position, left, shows the situation after White's 27.Qa2. It seems that Black is being buried alive with the pressure along the a-file, but the reality is, that White is toast in this position. van Wely struck with 27...Rxf3! and White must re-capture (Ra7 for example is not good enough, due to 28...Qxf2+, and after forced exchanges, the c-pawn is decisive). After 28.gxf3 c2! White still can not do anything along the a-file, for either the pawn promotes and ruins things, or ...Rd1+ does. Erwin chose 29.b4? which should have lost to ...Rd1+, 30.Kg2 Qxe5, but van Wely erred with 29...c1=Q+? and handed the edge back to white. Soon after l'Ami was a rook to the good, investing it back for Blacks knight and some pawns and was soon mopping up. van Wely resigned on move 58. After the rest day I spoke to Erwin l'Ami (who is sincerely one of the most pleasent younger generation of GM's there is) at Hilversum, and he agreed to annotate this game for Chess Gateway some time in the future, and I am sure that you look forward to that as much as I do!

Briefly, the other results were wins for Sokolov against Bosch, and van der Wiel as black against Visser. Jan Timman kept newbie GM Jan Werle at bay, drawing in 60. As if his round 7 epic against Sergei Tiviakov was not enough, Friso Nijboer went even longer against Daniel Stellwagen, in a 103-move Sicilian, which was drawn. This left the situation as follows at the second rest day: Tiviakov -- 6.0/8; Sokolov, van Wely -- 5.5/8; van der Wiel, Stellwagen -- 4.5/8, Nijboer, L'Ami, Werle -- 4.0/8; Smeets -- 3.5/8; Timman -- 3.0/8; Bosch -- 2.0/8; Visser -- 1.5/8.

Final Report

Only 3 more rounds remained when play resumed with round 9 on June 27th. Tiviakov, would play the black pieces against defending Champion, van Wely, whom he was leading by a half point. Loek chose the English opening, and it turned in to a reversed Dragon position. After the game, he told me that he was quite happy with his position, until his 19.h4 which does seem to be where things turn bad for him, 19.Ne2 seems to keep an edge. Tiviakov was able to play 19...Bh3, 20...Bg4, 21...Bf5, a bishop sortie which proved most annoying to White, and van Wely felt it here that he started to lose control a little. His 25.Rc4? should have given way to 25.Qxd7, after which White still has some work to do, but can at least fight. As it stood, van Wely was in big trouble, and not just on the board but the clock too, with a ten minutes for his final 10 moves, in a very sharp position. 32.Qe7 was the final blunder, the queen falling to 32...Rd7 (see diagram, right). van Wely resigned, and the setting of a new Championship record seemed quite elusive.


The rest day worked for Erwin l'Ami, who in round 9 defeated Jan Timman in an Open Spanish. The game followed Mastrovasilis - Fressinet, Turkey 2006, before Timman varied on his 20th move with Re1. To be quite fair, black was soon having the best of things, and Timman did not seem to have a lot to resist with. Actually, he seemed quite tired by this stage of the tournament. Smeets - Stellwagen turned in to an unusual variation of the Taimanov Sicilian, and the opening turned out quite well for black, who held some advantage. Stellwagen's 18...f5 was a little out of context, and he will probably be a little disappointed for not playing ...Re6 instead, which seemed to offer more. Definitely a mistake, was 26...Rf8? which relinquished the initiative and handed white some play back. Stellwagen should have chosen 26...gxf2+, after which White seems to have big trouble. From here, the players shared inaccuracies, and in the end things fizzled out to a draw. Another winner of the round was Friso Nijboer, who got the better of Yge Visser in the French Defence. Ivan Sokolov gave Jan Werle a bit of a beating in their game, holding the advantage pretty much all the way, and although Werle fought on, it was a question of when, not if, Sokolov would have the point. van der Wiel - Bosch, was a rather quick 21-move draw.

Round 10 was another fighting round, in which all but 1 of the games were decisive. By the way, I am not sure if there was some kind of secret challenge going to set the longest game, but Visser - Smeets would have taken first -- it was a 125-mover! Black was in control pretty much all the way, and infact held a winning advantage at one stage, but most definitely due to low time, Smeets left his rook en-prise, taking his chances with his 2 passed pawns. It was fruitless, and Visser delivered mate on move 125. Jeroen Bosch was doing well in his game against Friso Nijboer, until he got a bit over excited with his f-pawn and handed the upper hand to his opponent. Nijboer never looks a gift horse in the mouth, and seized his chance with both hands, winning in 50. John van der Wiel soon got himself in to trouble, playing the black side of a Queen's Indian, against Ivan Sokolov. White soon took charge, dislodging the black king, and soon breaking through on the kingside. When black dropped a rook, it was the beginning of the end, and van der Wiel was resigning soon after. Jan Timman was doing well in his game against Sergei Tiviakov, who was playing his c3-sicilian again. Timman handled things very well, until his 19...Rd8? (...0-0-0 was superior) handed the initiative to his opponent. From there, black's position got gradually worse, until Tiviakov's inexplicable (to me anyway) 26.b4?! (Rf4 was more correct.) Timman did not make the most of this chance, unfortunately, missing 26...Rg8! with a fighting chance, and opting for ...Rd3 instead. White soon had regained the initiative, and Tiviakov made no further mistakes. Timman's king fell in 35. Jan Werle and Erwin l'Ami got in to a Semi-Slav, and Werle (playing white) soon had the upper hand. Black dropped a rook, (I believe unintentionally), but had compensation of a central passed pawn, dangerously far advanced. It was not enough, however, especially when Werle obtained a passed pawn of his own, which was rather more successful in promotion than that of his opponent. A nice win for Werle.

Loek van Wely was looking a bit dis-spirited going in to his round 10 game as black against Daniel Stellwagen. I think that he was already feeling the effects of knowing that things could (and, in fairness, probably should) have stood a lot better for him at this stage of the tournament. The game was a Sicilian Scheveningen, following Carlsson - Javakhishvili, Malaga Open 2005, until van Wely's 21...Ng4. Black had by far the better game, and was in a commanding position, until his 40...Nxc2? grabbing a pawn. Correct, was probably 40...Rd6, 41.Kf2 Rd5 which should keep the edge for black, though things are far from straight forward. As it was, following Stellwagen's 41.Rd5, the game was quickly liquidated to a draw.


The final round of the tournament, saw Sergei Tiviakov take the title of Dutch National Champion 2006, a new name on the trophy for the first time since 1999. He took up the Queen's Indian against L'Ami in the final round, and things were even until White's 23.b4? and a move later sacrifice of the queen for rook and pawn. Tiviakov built up a winning standing, and had the result he needed to be assured of the title in 35 moves. Other results of the round were Friso Nijboer handing Ivan Sokolov a defeat in 21 moves. Sokolov got himself in to all kinds of trouble, as black in the Spanish, and dropped a piece. Nijboer proved once again to be extremely potent when given an opening. Daniel Stellwagen ended his tournament with a win over Jan Timman, and Loek van Wely will have taken no comfort in his victory over Yge Visser, which left him in joint 3rd position. Drawing were van der Wiel - Werle, and Smeets - Bosch.


Final Standings: Tiviakov -- 9.0/11; Sokolov -- 7.5/11; Nijboer, van Wely -- 7.0/11;  Stellwagen -- 6.5/11; van der Wiel, Werle -- 5.5/11; l'Ami -- 5.0/11; Smeets -- 4.5/11; Timman, Bosch -- 3.0/11; Visser -- 2.5/11.



In the Women's section, GM Zhao Qin Peng took victory with an impressive 8.5/9, and is Champion for the 7th time in succession! Second place went to Bianca Muhren, who put in a quite impressive showing herself, finishing on 7.0/9. However, consolation for Bianca is that she achieved her 3rd WGM norm, congratulations to her!

Final Standings, Women: Peng -- 8.5/9; Muhren -- 7.0/9; Lanchava -- 6.0/9; De Mie -- 5.0/9; van Weersel -- 4.5/9; Jap Tjoen San -- 4.0/9; Schuurman -- 3.5/9; van Nies -- 3.0/9; de Jonge -- 2.5/9; Geragousian -- 1.0/9.











Chess Gateway congratulates organisers and competitors alike, on a great tournament!