22nd Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament
22nd Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament Vlissingen, the Netherlands August 4-11, 2018 Final Top Standings
1-3. GM Sandro Mareco ARG 2643, GM Eduard Iturrizaga Bonelli VEN 2640, GM Roeland Pruijssers NED 2606, 7.5/9
4-10. GM Wan Yunguo CHN 2500, GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov RUS 2546, GM Zeng Chongsheng CHN 2539, IM T homas Beerdsen NED 2469, GM Daniel Hausrath GER 2502, GM Sandipan Chanda IND 2553, IM Liam Vrolijk
NED 2430, 7.0/911-20
IM Antonio Dcunha Viani
IND 2414, IM John Marvin Miciano PHI 2381, GM Jorden Van Foreest NED
2636, GM Jayson Gonzales PHI 2383, IM Max Warmerdam NED 2421, IM Casper Schoppen NED 2394, IM Migchiel De Jong NED 2339, GM Oleg Romanishin UKR 2441, FM Sief Rijnaarts NED 2339, IM Mark Timmermans NED 2383, 6.5/9 Total Participants: 242
Time Control: 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to the end of the game with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting move 1.
The Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament (or HZ Tournament) is an annual international chess tournament which takes place in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. It is hosted by the HZ University of Applied Sciences.
The triumvirate of Argentinian GM Sandro Mareco, Venezuelan GM Eduard Iturrizaga and home crowd favorite GM Roeland Pruijssers finished in a tie for first place. All three of them were undefeated with six wins and three draws but after the application of tiebreaks it was GM Sandro Mareco who got the nod.
GM Sandro is one of the most active players in the world and has been playing continuously this year, always finishing high in the tournament table. Last March he won the 8th HD Bank Cup (the biggest international tournament in Vietnam) in Hanoi, Vietnam and this is his second big win.
Remember GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz (b. Jan 15, 1963, d. July 14, 2006)? He was a frequent visitor to the Philippines. The last 8 years of his life was spent in the United States and he spent those years playing continuously. He won or tied for first place in more than 240 tournaments, averaging over 30 tournament victories a year — or nearly three per month making him arguably the most successful tournament player in the United States.
You will note though that “Wojo’s” highest rating ever was 2595 and he was never considered among the top players of the world, so how did he achieve so much success? Well, he had a “system” for winning chess tournaments and oftentimes would be on auto-pilot for the whole game. And this “system” was anchored around the Catalan.
If you want to know more about his “system” you should go and buy the series of books on “Wojo’s Weapons” by Jonathan Hilton.
Anyway, perhaps one player who has been over those books is GM Sandro Mareco. His main weapon for White is the Catalan Opening with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 and with it he has scored 75% in his career.
Here is one of them.
Mareco,Sandro (2643) Beerdsen,Thomas (2469) [A14] 22nd Hogeschool Zeeland 2018 Vlissingen (4), 06.08.2018 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.0–0 0–0 6.b3 c6 7.e3 Nbd7 8.Bb2 b6 9.Nc3 Bb7 10.Qe2 e5 11.d4 e4 12.Nh4 Re8
From this quiet position Mareco builds up a strong attack down the f-file.]
13.f3 exf3 14.Qxf3
Intending e3–e4.
14...Bb4 15.Nd1 Rb8 16.g4
This time threatening g4–g5.
16...h6 17.Nf5 Bf8 18.Nf2
White will follow-up with Ng3 and then e3–e4.
18...c5 19.Rad1 g6
[19...dxc4 20.d5 cxb3 21.axb3 g6 22.Ng3 does not accomplish anything. Black is temporarily a pawn up but the pressure down the a1–h8 diagonal, the f-file, and the possibility of a central pawn advance with e3–e4–e5 give White more than enough compensation]
20.Ng3 cxd4 21.Bxd4 Qe7
[21...dxc4 22.Nfe4 the hidden attack along the f-file aimed at f7 is problematic for Black]
22.cxd5 Nxd5 23.Nfe4 Bg7 24.Bxg7 Kxg7 <D> POSITION AFTER 24...KXG7
25.Nd6! Qxd6
With perfect hindsight Black should have just given up the exchange with 25... Ne5.
26.Qxf7+ Kh8
Black is counting on the counterblow ...Ne5.
27.Bxd5 Ne5 28.Qf4! Bxd5
Black doesn’t see Mareco’s threat.
29.Qxh6+ Kg8 30.Nh5! 1–0
Threatening mate on g7 and Nf6+ Those knight moves to the side of the board are easy to miss, because they are usually bad (“a knight on the rim is dim”, remember?). Brings back memories of the Philippines vs Argentina match in 2000 Istanbul.
Hoffman, Alejandro (2491) Villamayor, Bong (2495) [A07] 34th Olympiad Istanbul TUR (13), 10.11.2000
The crucial 13th round, and this was the opponent Bong wanted to meet — he had a score to settle with Hoffman. Remember the sensational performance of Bong in the 1998 Elista Olympiad? And how his quest for an outright IM title was jeopardized by a 7th round loss to an Argentinian opponent? It was Hoffman.
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 c6 4.0–0 Bf5 5.d3 e6 6.Nfd2 e5 7.e4 dxe4 8.dxe4 Bg4 9.Qe1 Nbd7 10.h3 Bh5 11.a4 Be7 12.Nc4 0–0 13.b3 Qc7 14.Bb2 Rfe8 15.Nbd2 b5 16.Ne3 a6 17.Nf5 Bf8
Most people would have preferred 17... Bc5. I don’t know why Black chose to retreat the bishop.
18.Kh1 Nc5 19.Qe3 Rad8
Both sides were expending huge chunks of time at this point - Black to find a way to increase his slight advantage, White to counter.
20.Bc3 Qb8 21.axb5 axb5 22.g4 Bg6 23.Rfd1 Bxf5 24.gxf5 Ncd7?!
This has a nice idea, to post his bishop on c5, but Black does not take into consideration Hoffman’s bishop sally. Perhaps more accurate would be 24...Nb7 with the same idea, and the knight can go to d6 later on.
25.Ba5! Bc5 26.Qe2 Rc8 27.b4 Bf8 28.Bf1
Obviously intending to follow-up with c2–c4, targeting Black’s b-pawn
28...Nb6 29.c4 Na4
Both players had less than five minutes to make the mandatory 40 move time control. True, there were 30 seconds increment added after every move, but still the atmosphere was becoming very tense.
30.Rdc1
A mistake is 30.cxb5? Nc3 31.Qd3 Nxd1 32.Rxd1 cxb5. After the text move White’s clever play has shut out one of Bong’s knights from the center and weakened the b5–pawn - how is Bong going to save it now?
30...Qd6 31.Nf3
[31.cxb5 cxb5 32.Qxb5?? Rxc1 33.Rxc1 Qxd2 wins for Black.]
31...g6 32.fxg6 hxg6 33.Ra3
[33.cxb5? cxb5 34.Qxb5 Nc3 35.Qd3 Nfxe4]
33...Qe6 34.Ng5 Qe7 35.cxb5
Finally.
35...cxb5 36.Rxc8 Rxc8 37.Qxb5 Nc3?
A mistake, the refutation of which is 38.Qa6 Nb1 39.Rf3! And White is winning. The panic time conditions under which both players were under pressure Hoffman into a bad mistake.
38.Qd3
And the knight is trapped, or so White thought. In reality there is a deep plan by Bong here.
38...Nh5 39.Nf3 Nf4 40.Qc2
This was the last move Hoffman had to make to reach the time control. He was fully confident of winning the knight, and he showed this by smoothly sliding over his queen to c2. Now, with 4 seconds remaining, Bong uncorks ...
40...Qa7!
White is confident that he had taken into consideration all the tactics in the position. With a contented look on his face GM Hoffman got up to fetch a cup of coffee, chat with his team captain. When he went back to the board the following moves came rapidly.
41.Rxc3 Rxc3 42.Qxc3 Qxf2 43.Nh2
He smiled at Bong, thinking that Black had no alternative but to resign here, but now comes ...
43...Nh5! 0–1
After which Hoffman lets out an “augh!,” his jaw drops, and then he resigns with a violent shaking of head. He has to give up the queen to prevent mate. His comment at the end of the game says it all: “I had no idea ...”
Next week Tuesday we will write about our European campaigners (IM John Marvin Miciano, GM Jayson Gonzales and WGM Janelle Mae Frayna) and how they did in Vlissingen.