GC5 defeats GC6 in opening match

Saturday, November 2, several players in our team made their debut in the KNSB competition. In class 6A we were allowed to compete against our friends from GC5. After Broer had explained all the rules regarding telephone use, talking to each other and discussing a draw offer with the team captain, we could start.

On board 5 I played against Erwin. It became a party where Black used the Russian defense. Since the Queen was unluckily placed on e7 and d5 failed, I was able to come up with a winning attack and the first point came in.

Chelvan played against board 6 against Remy. In a Pirc defense, Chelvan was able to create a free pawn through a well-timed f5 and to transfer it to c2. Black now had a winning position and had the plan to trade for a winning endgame. Offering a Queen exchange was certainly not a bad plan, were it not for the lady protecting the pawn on c2. The c2-pawn went off and then Remy won the endgame winning.

Roel and Henk played on board 1. Roel opened with a g3 system in which he used a double fianchetto. At first glance the position seemed quite symmetrical, although Henk was attacking with a Queen on h5. I didn’t get the end of the game, but the result was a draw. The score was now 1.5-1.5.

Gerard pulled out his dragon against Annelies. After about 15 moves, Annelies seemed to have weakened Gerard’s king position slightly by creating a double pioneer on the f-line, and instead Gerard seemed to have the Queenside under control. I also did not attend the end of this party, but in the end the peace was signed.

With a 2-2 score, half of the parties were still busy and could still go anywhere. Edwin was making a masterful comeback with prospects for winning, while Bram and Wyona were fighting for half a half. René’s position also looked hopeful.

The match of the day went between Edwin and Wim on board 7. Wim had played e4 Pf6 in response. Edwin then went too fast and gave a piece away without compensation. After a short time, he recovered very strongly by winning back pawns. This resulted in an endgame where white with 3 pawns + king had to compete against knight + king. A nice comeback, after which the game finally ended in a draw when king + double pioneered on the h-line against a king on h8.

Wyona ran into Alex on board 4. It became one of the longer games of the day in which Alex has a pawn lead halfway through the game. Wyona then tried to keep the position completely closed in the endgame, but eventually Alex’s king came through.

The second-to-last match of the day went between René and Menno-Peter. It was a clash of systems. René’s London was countered with the Dutch and as René said afterwards with the Chinese: “In Dutch, Black likes to play e5, while the London makes e5 virtually impossible.” In the game, black did not come to e5, although at first glance this was not a problem for black. A balanced position with perhaps a slight advantage for White eventually led to a draw. The score was now 4-3 in favor of GC5

Our warrior on board 8, named Bram Schuuring, could in theory ensure a tie. He had to manage that with 2 Pawns down in a position with a white-field Bishop + rook and some pawns for both sides. Bram conjured up some complications on the board in the hope of a mistake by black. For a moment it looked as if Bram would drag out another draw, but as soon as Broers reached pawn c7 and his rook could guide that pawn to promotion, the game was over.