The Hoogeveen Masters Tournament was not the only thing going on in Hoogeveen, the Hoogeveen Open also concluded on Saturday 22nd October. It saw Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta take victory with an impressive 7½ points from the 9 rounds. Gupta had performed very consistently throughout the tournament, and really had to with the competitive field. He opened with a solid 4/4, his round-four win being at the expense of Dutch Grandmaster, Jan Werle (game, below).
Going in to round-five, he led the event with fellow countryman Babu Lalith, each having the afore-mentioned 4/4 score. They would play each other and, perhaps unsurprisingly, drew. From here, in a solid finish to the tournament, Gupta took another couple of wins and drew his final two games, in order to secure victory by a half point over yet another countryman, GM Chanda Sandipan.
Top Standings:
- Gupta — 7½
- Sandipan — 7
- Lalith, Shyam, Van Foreest, Romanishin, Schoppen — 6½
- Rakesh, Ernst, Nitin, Vereggen — 6
[Site “Hoogeveen NED”]
[Date “2016.10.18”]
[Round “4.1”]
[White “Gupta, Abhijeet”]
[Black “Werle, Jan”]
[Result “1-0”]
[BlackElo “2555”]
[ECO “D38”]
[EventDate “2016.10.15”]
[WhiteElo “2626”]
{ Annotations by John Lee Shaw for www.hotoffthechess.com. } 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.e3 O-O 7.Qc2 Bd7 8.Bd2 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Bd6 10.h3 e5 11.O-O-O { This move does not do White any favours. In previous games, White had continued with d4-d5 Manolache-Doncea, 1-0) and 0-0 (Bu-Naroditsky 2014, draw). dxe5 is also very playable. } ( 11.dxe5 Nxe5 12.Nxe5 Bxe5 13.f4 { With a slight initiative to White, who, with his Kingside pawns already moving will probably castle Queenside. } ) 11…exd4 12.exd4 ( 12.Nxd4 Nb4 13.Qb1 c5 { and Black has the initiative. } ) 12…Nb4 13.Qb3 b5 { ? This is slightly too much, Black believes that the Bc4 must either retreat after which he has …a5 or that in the case of a capture on b5, Rb8 must leave Whte with big discovery problems. However, this was not necessary as …Bf5 may well have ended White’s hopes rather quickly. } ( 13…Bf5 14.Ne5 Bc2 15.Bxf7+ Kh8 16.Qe6 Bxd1 17.Rxd1 Bxe5 18.dxe5 Nd3+ 19.Kc2 { and White is quite busted here. } ) 14.Nxb5 Rb8 15.Bxb4 { Sorting things out nicely, perhaps Black had over looked this. With the knight off the board there are no dangerous discoveries left for Black. On the other hand, Black does have the b-file open for himself, which is important in this opposite side castling position where one wants to open lines to the enemy King. } 15…Bxb5 16.Bc3 c6 17.Ne5 Nd5 { Right piece, wrong square. The knight was better going to e4. } ( 17…Ne4 18.Qc2 Bxe5 19.Qxe4 Bf4+ { Positionally better than capturing on c4 straight away. Black doesn’t want White to capture with dxe5, thus opening the d-file where his rook is nicely placed. Furthermore, the pawn can do a lot of mischief from e5. } 20.Qxf4 Bxc4 { is about equal, but that semi-open b-file gives Black slight favour. } ) 18.Bxd5 cxd5 19.Qxd5 { White grabs another pawn, but his material advantage is balanced by the precarious situation of his King. Black has open lines and given the time will be able to make great use of them, while his own King is still nicely tucked up in safety. } 19…Qc7 20.Rhe1 Ba3 { The late Tony Miles reportedly said to a friend of mine never to make moves that need the opponent to cooperate in order to work — as they rarely do. } 21.Qb3 { This makes the Ba3 look a little silly. . Kd2 was also playable, but I don’t think it is wise to displace the King with the open nature of the position. } 21…Bxb2+ { ?? This is a step too far, Black could have retreated the bishop to d6 and had to accept that his previous move had been nicely answered. } 22.Qxb2 Ba4 23.Qa3 Bxd1 24.Rxd1 Rfc8 25.Kd2 f6 26.Nd3 { With the advantage, both meterially and positionally. Black has very little compensation for his efforts over the last few moves. And as if that isn’t bad enough, there is now the d-pawn to contend with. } 26…Qc4 27.Rc1 Qd5 28.Nf4 Qf5 29.Qd6 Kh8 { A prudent move, Qe6+ is quite nive for White in certain circumstances. } 30.g3 Qb5 31.Qd5 Qa6 { Black is finding it hard to cope with White’s active pieces, now. } 32.Ne6 Re8 33.Re1 Qa3 34.Qc4 h6 35.f4 { pushing the d-pawn is not possible due to …Rec8. The point being that should the Quen move, Black has …Rxc3 followed by …Qxa2+, …Rb3 etc. } 35…f5 36.g4 Rec8 37.Nc5 Rd8 38.gxf5 Rbc8 39.Kc2 { and Black resigned here, White’s position is extremely dominant and there is very little that Black can do in order to defend. The problem for Black is that he is unable to make any exchanges and that makes it very difficult for him to resist White’s advance, moves such as Re6, for example, when White can take his time and gradually increase the pressure. The d-pawn will eventually come in to play and this will be decisive. } 1-0
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