Er ging wat mis (the opponents view)

door Derk Dekker

That was a nice victory against strong opposition, well done to everyone!

I (Derk) am at home, have the day off, so time to make a small report...

We had a bad start, because the lights were still not working in the Amiroom. There were some activities in the canteen (too much noise), so we took refuge in the room of the Amicale committee. However, there was only a ring-shaped table, that we could not dismantle. We decided to make do with it. We played on the inside, with our backs to each other, being rather cramped (let's call it "gezellig", shall we?) Furthermore, there was some boarding at our feet, so we could hardly stretch our feet underneath the table...

And of course, every time we wanted to get up (drinks, toilet...), we had to crawl over the table... For me, this can actually have been a good thing, because I spent way more time at the board than I usually do. ;-)

So our opponents started all games with a space advantage, but their board 3 player was wondering around the Plaspoelpolder failing to find the biggest building there, so he arrived late. (Fausto helped finding him, thanks! Arbiters are important!) At 20h (15 minutes late), we decided it was time to start the clocks.

My opponent did a "Feike", employing Dr Liefrink's former favorite opening, the van Geet. I played some natural moves, and some kind of Caro Kann without c6 was reached.

Another benefit of our strange seating arrangement was that it was easy to follow all games. You just needed to stand up and look around you.

The first time I looked at Cesar's game, he had already set the board on fire. Cesar played a very aggressive system against the French. A knight landed on d6, another knight tried to sacrifice itself on g7 (but could never be taken), black's king was on f8. Amazingly, Cesar found all the right moves without knowing the theory (which it turned out to be), and his opponent was the first to deviate: this novelty was not good, and was duly destroyed by Cesar. A true Novelty Destroying performance! Mainly due to time trouble, it took Cesar quite long to convert the rook endgame, but he showed good technique and the result was never in doubt. He was actually the last one still playing at the end.

Bernd played an opening I don't know anything about. He had a nice lead in development (with black!) and his opponent struggled to finish development and castle. On the other hand, at some moment literally ALL Bernd's pawns were on the colour of his bishop, which did not give the nicest impression.

Suddenly, the game ended in a draw, which according to the players was a fair result, it was difficult to try something for both sides. Fine result on board 2!

Christian played his beloved Stonewall with white, and was never in trouble. He seemed to have an edge because of better placed pieces and a better pawn structure, but I believe he was a pawn down at some point. He was helped by the fact that his opponent arrived late. Christian asked me whether he could take a draw. Bernd had already drawn, I saw Cesar was a pawn up in a rook ending and I was getting optimistic about my own position, so I told him to take it. I didn't know that Christian was actually playing the highest rated guy. Good result!

In my own game, I made an opening blunder that was not punished. After that I played quite well and actively. I threw my objective advantage away at some point, but I could play on my opponent's time pressure, keeping the tension. The position was easier to play for me than for him. The finish was rather nice, judge for yourself!

http://nl.lichess.org/hdL6ry51/black#0

Rumour has it, we will now have to play the Schaakhuis, let's see!

http://www.haagseschaakbond.nl/component/option,com_chesscompetition/SeasonId,11/CompetitionId,114/#NoveltyDestroyersBeker_SchaakcombinatieHTVBeker