Jan Smeet leads 15th HZ Chess Tournament 2011 at the first half

GM Jan Smeets leads the 15th Hogeschool Zeeland Chess Tournament when Top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch (2706) was hold by his compatriot IM Hagen Poetsch 2403. The latter was totally satisfied with final position but halfway through the game, surely not. Naiditsch failed to push through at the crucial moment and was to content on a half point which makes Jan Smeet the leader of the house. (see diagram, and variant)

Poetsch played here 30. e6? But correct was 30.Qc4 to harvest, for example 30. ... Bg2 + 31. Kg2 Rd2 + 32. Kh1 Be7 33. Qf7 and the threats are there.

Naiditsch managed to wriggle loose and when the smoke was clear there were four passed pawns rushing to him in compensation of his Bishop. But finally a peace agreement was signed after marathon of 115 moves.

GM Jan Smeets and GM Konstantin Landa had a much easier night. They came never in trouble and so recorded their fourth win in a row. The GM's Evgeny Postny, Milos Pavlovic Deepan Chakkravarthy and the IMs Twan Burg joined Edwin van Haastert in the group with 4 points.

The yesterday losers GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov did excellent in the end games after overcoming his earlier difficulties. GM Erwin L'Ami also gave Benjamin Go no hope and chance of a stunt. GM Yasser Seirawan very smooth and easy to put a good argument against the Romanian Romulus-Cristian Stefan.

Translated by Waqar Ahmad Madni (www.pakchess.org)