The Wijk aan Zee grandmaster tournament — which used to be an adequate nomenclature until corporate sponsor Tata Steel said it wasn’t — is nearing the halfway mark.
18-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who’s been a grandmaster for five years already, leads the Masters division with 4 out of 5. Abdusattorov won with the black pieces against washed-up old man Magnus Carlsen yesterday, who’s near the bottom with 2 points.
Most other times, the Challengers division with an average player rating of 2580 would be the strongest tournament in the world. With 2 out of 5, Dutch international master Eline Roeberts is tied for 10th place among the field of 14 Challengers. She’s the lowest-rated player in the group — host countries benefit from hosting by furnishing their rising players with top-flight competition.
Roebers, 16, was the sensation of last year’s olympiad, winning her first eight games on board one for the Netherlands team. She won the silver medal, losing only to gold medalist Pia Cramling of Sweden. Roebers got all the attention, but you might say grandmaster Cramling was an even more incredible story for winning gold at the age of 58.
Roebers let a win get away from her against IM Beerdsen in round 5. In a near-overwhelming position at move 19, Roebers used almost all of her clock time — it’s easy to get bogged down with multiple winning continuations, which is why Purdy recommended that when your position is hopeless, give your opponent more than one way to finish — then played the rest of the game “on the increment”.
Some players become addicted to time pressure. They might make one or two incredible saves with flags up (so to speak; chess clocks don’t have flags anymore), which they enjoy so much that they try to re-create that rush again and again. In the newfangled time controls that increment a player’s clock with n seconds per move, time pressure addicts can play in time trouble indefinitely.
It’s difficult to play adventurously as Black because it’s fashionable for White to choose opening variations that aim merely to maintain the miniscule advantage conferred by having the first move. Good players take this approach because a persistent small advantage can wear an opponent out. Bad players take this approach because it typically shields them from early tactics. Here White chose a wild line against the French, dangerous and fun for both players.
5…Nf66.Qxg7Rg87.Qh6Qxd48.O-O-O
White is a center pawn down, and Black’s pieces are everywhere. On the other hand, White threatens to win the game right off with Bd2-g5, and can Black ever castle? It’s worth a try at the highest levels — Keres played this as White in the 1948 world championship tournament.
8…Bf89.Qh4Rg410.Qh3Qxf2
Black pockets another pawn while sidestepping a discovered attack, and clearing the path for the e4-pawn, which in turn frees the g4-rook.
11.g3
A new move, which computers say is a costly error.11.Be2Rh412.Qxh4Qxh413.g3trapping the queen13…Qh614.Bxh6Bxh6+15.Kb1Black has two pawns plus a bishop for a rook, and most of these games end in draws.
11…Qc512.Bg2e313.Be1Nc6
A computer would say that if Black plays flawlessly, she should win. Humans can’t do that, which is why people are crazy for blindly accepting computer evaluations. While the black king sits on a central file, and queen, rook, and king knight dangle in space, it’s a fair game.
14.Nge2Rc4
Stockfish says this is dubious, but a human should appreciate that the rook is out of danger, and aiming at the white king.
15.g4
Enabling the queen to rejoin the game along the rank, and the bishop to get off the back rank.
15…e5
For pushing into the center while unblocking that bad bishop with a threat, Black can consider this a French Defense gone quite right.
16.Qf3
White is really in hot water now, but is a human player going to identify16.Nd5as the best move, permitting16…Rxc2+?
16…Be717.g5Bg418.Qf1Nd4!
Threatening 19…Nxe2+, while castling is made possible.
19.Kb1Nxe2
Stockfish says19…Rxc320.Rxd4Rxc221.Rxg4Nxg4is crushing, though calculating five capturing moves in a row is a brain burner. Roebers used almost all of her clock time here, putting herself under critical time pressure.
20.Nxe2Rxc221.Bf3Bf5
Threatening 22…Rc1 mate, but White has a desperate solution.21…Qc4threatens the brilliant 22… Ba3!
22.Bc6+bxc6
22…Qxc6is much better for hitting the h1-rook.
23.Qxf5Rxe2
23…Rxb2+24.Kxb2Rb8+??is the sort of thing you’d try with your flag about to fall in a blitz game, but Black is out of gas after25.Ka1
24.gxf6Bxf625.Rg1
Suddenly, White threatens to win by Rg8+.
25…Kf826.Bc3
White must block …Qc5-c2+ if he wants to move his queen off that diagonal.
26…Rb8
Full development at last.
27.Ka1Rf228.Qxh7e2??28…Ke7was the only move to preserve Black’s advantage.
29.Qg8+Ke730.Qxb8exd1=Q+31.Rxd1
There’s nothing to do about a deadly check coming on d8, which White has been looking toward since move 8.
31…Qd632.Bb4c533.Bxc51–0
Position after 19. Kb1
