door Take Snijders
The second round in the magnificent Meesterklasse, what can I say, it feels good. Our opponents were the famed Zuid Limburg, last year they finished second so we were expecting a tough fight. Nonetheless we held our heads high, gave it our all and smelled blood.
It wasn’t your usual Meesterklasse day. After about 5 minutes of playing, there was some commotion, it seemed like our opponents had made a mistake and weren’t playing in the correct board order. Automatic victory for VAS right?! No. The team leaders discussed with the arbiters, and the decision was made to keep playing in the mistaken lineup.
With that out of the way we fell back into the utmost concentration. That was until a horde of cars proceeded to honk at absolutely nothing for an hour. Other than that it was peaceful.
Now to the games!
Tex: I wrongfully sacrificed an exchange in the opening and was completely losing. Somehow my opponent let me get back into the game, but after a final mistake of mine he finished the job convincingly.
Rafael, strong as always, managed to get a very nice imbalance. His bishop and knight clearly outshone the rook and pawn. After b4 and Rd2, however, the game started to turn around. Soon there was a bishop on c6 and with that came big problems against the white king.
Marc: I was matched with their big gun, GM Daniel Fridman. After a peaceful opening, I took over the initiative and missed a nice chance here.
Black is better and has several plans, including a6-b5, e5-e4, and either Qc6 or Qe6. This was the crucial moment of the game and I spent half an hour here. I eventually played Qc6 which was enough for a small edge, but I could have gotten considerably more with Qe6.
Friso:
Ramon: After defending for a long time against white’s initiative – With the engine hoovering around 0.0 the entire game – white blundered with Re1. While maneuvering my knight from a3-b5-c7-d5-e3 I had looked at Nxg2 along the way in several lines. At this point I was playing on increment, and I did not see how I could win the f3 knight after Kxg2 Rb2 Kg3. Except you don’t. After Rg4 Kh3 Rbg2!! White has no defence against R4g3. Instead I won my pawn back with Nf5 and the game never left equilibrium again.
Anton: I played the Caro-Kann with an f3 setup, but my opening was too passive and Black equalized easily. In the endgame, I underestimated the strength of the bishop pair and later, short on time, sacrificed a piece to simplify into what I thought was a drawable position. It was actually losing, but my opponent played inaccurately, allowing me to eliminate the last pawn and secure a draw.
Daan: My opponent Daniel Hausrath followed a line of a young Magnus Carlsen, crushing Dolmatov in 19 moves. After 1.Nf3 f5 2.d3 Nc6 3.d4! my knight is misplaced. I tried a Stonewall structure which gave me structural problems with Bc8. I survived for 39 moves, but did not have much counterplay.
Victor: Both players played perfect with an average centipawn loss of 4
Niels: After some unorthodox queen manoeuvres from my opponent, I got a chance to sacrifice my way to a brilliant win. Did not see it. Converted to an endgame, despite of better options. I was a pawn up but sufficient compensation for my opponent because of a strong knight on f5. The game was headed to a draw. Just before the time control I had another chance to win. Alas, a draw was the result. I remain undefeated in Meesterklasse
Take: After a nice opening in which I spent way too much time, things went wrong in the middlegame. My pieces were tied up and without any clear plans, I stuck to damage control. My opponent forced doubled pawns, and with an uncomfortable position, we shuffled and shuffled some more. Finally an endgame emerged where only my opponent could try for a win. I was confident it was a dead draw, so I nonchalantly played out the last few moves. To my horror the engine pointed out I had a big chance on move 73 with e6. I instead played fxg5 Bxe5+ f4 and a few moves later, we agreed to a draw.
In the end, we lost, but our fighting spirit remains. The camaraderie in VAS is astounding, our opponents in the Meesterklasse (did I mention we’re playing in the Meesterklasse?) won’t know what’s coming.
