Round 5: Beerdsen escapes
We almost had a sole leader after Round 5. Almost.
Pavel Eljanov has been impressing this tournament by repeatedly putting his opponents in serious trouble, but today, just like yesterday in his game against Eelke de Boer, he suddenly slipped after about four hours of play. It might be coincidence, fatigue after a long day (most rounds in Vlissingen are played in the evening), or—heaven forbid—the effects of aging. I sincerely hope it's not the latter for poor Pavel. From personal experience, I can confirm that the process is irreversible.Yesterday he got away with it, but today, playing White against Thomas Beerdsen, he wasn’t so lucky.
Eljanov - Beerdsen
The white rook is under attack and must find a safe square. It seems there are plenty of options, and it shouldn’t really matter where it goes. OK, c2 or g1 aren’t ideal, since then Black can push the d-pawn with tempo, and after 49. Rd1 comes Qxg4: White loses a pawn and the rook is attacked again. But what’s wrong with the move Eljanov actually played, 49. Rc4? It makes sense to move the rook while also involving it in a potential attack on the black king, right? However, after 49... Qf1! 50. Ra4 b5!!, it turned out there was no real threat to the black king. White can give one check on a8, but because that pesky bishop on c5 controls a7, there is no follow-up. After 51. Qa8+ Kc7 52. Ra6, Black easily forces a draw with Qc4+, and White can’t escape the checks. Eljanov still tried to play for a win with 51. Rxd4, but Beerdsen stayed calm and held the draw without too much difficulty.
Aside from the perils of aging, let me share another life lesson from my own experience: if you often have to defend bad positions, you eventually get quite good at it. Erwin l’Ami seems to be undergoing serious training in this department here in Vlissingen. For the third round in a row, he landed in a miserable position, and for the third time, he managed to avoid defeat. Indian grandmaster Vuppala Prraneeth must be wondering how on earth he let the game slip to a draw.
Sven Stange playing white against Koen Leenhouts
For the Zeeuws-Vlaanderen audience, the local derby Sven Stange – Koen Leenhouts was on the schedule. Koen shared on his blog that he’s very relieved and satisfied with the convincing win he managed to score. And just for Koen and his blog readers: I too went shopping today. Beans, tomatoes, and some other healthy stuff. Only thing is, I failed to leave the store without a cinnamon roll.
We have 15 live boards in Vlissingen, but of course that doesn't mean nothing interesting is happening on the other 105 boards. In the past, we had a dedicated group of young players who would input all the games up to board 50 into a database every round. These days, the slightly less youthful Hans Groffen enters boards 16 through 40, so you can replay those as well. And there are plenty of beautiful games, exciting battles, and/or instructive moments to be found there too. A great example of how tricky even seemingly simple positions can be is the game between Victor Koppelaar (White) and Marc Lacrosse (Black).
Koppelaar - Lacrosse
White lost after 49. a5?? Kf6 50. Rg8 Ra2 51. Ra8 Kg5 52. a6 Kh4 53. e4 g3 54. a7 Kh3 0–1 Putting two question marks after a move is easy; explaining what White should’ve played instead is much harder. In this game, it went wrong because Black managed to get his rook behind the passed a-pawn, while White’s rook ended up in the unfortunate position in front of it. As it turns out, there's a neat little trick in the position that allows White to get his rook behind the pawn instead: 49. Rg5! first (or 49. Kg1! works too) 49... Kf6 50. Kg1! Rh3 51. Rb5 h4 52. Rb1 Rxe3 53. Ra1 Now the a-pawn creates enough distraction to safely secure half a point. Credit to the e3-pawn, which prevents the black rook from jumping from the h- to the a-file in a single move.
We now have seven players leading the pack with 4.5 out of 5.
Tonight, live games include:
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De Winter – Eljanov
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Beerdsen – Prraneeth
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Hausrath – Ikonnikov