Chess

Jon Speelman
Saturday 11 December 1999 00:02 GMT
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AFTER AN unremitting diet of Batumi for the last week and a half, we return nearer home to the "Tournament of the Future", held in the King Willem I College in Hertogenbosch in Holland, 18 to 27 November.

The "future" referred not to some odd chess variant, but rather that of New in Chess's editor Rene Althof, whose 40th birthday the tournament celebrated. Appropriately it wasn't a youngster but rather the 34-year- old Friso Nijboer who crashed through the 10-player all-play-all (category 7 - average 2,419), winning his first seven games before drawing in round eight; and though he lost in the final round to Ian Rogers, Nijboer was still first on 7.5/9.

Nijboer was followed by (all Dutch unless indicated) Rogers (Australia), Paul Van der Sterren, 7; Jeroen Bosch 5; Deen Hergott (Canada), Gerard Welling, 4; Stefan Buecker (Germany) 3.5; Paul Span 3; John Donaldson (US) 2.5, Raymond Stone (Canada) 1.5.

If I had had to describe Nijboer's chess style in one word before I examined his games in Hertogenbosch, it would have been as a "hacker" - a vicious attacking player who goes with the flow, extremely dangerous to his opponents on a good day and to himself on a bad. But my judgement may be distorted by two encounters I had with him, both in Advanced Caro Kanns and the first - in a Lloyds Bank Masters - a bloodfest.

Nijboer's play in Hertogenbosch, however, was in general admirably calm with a number of technical endings - though he did give his cavalry free rein in today's game.

In this line, Black surrenders the right to castle and allows some slight damage to his pawn structure in return for the two bishops. Once more or less abandoned, it has been adopted by many strong players, notably Tony Miles, with the development of some sharp theory as White tries to exploit his lead in development.

I haven't seen Nijboer's precise treatment before; after 14 Nd4 Black was "morally obliged" to take the e pawn since if 14 ...Be7 15 f4 is comfortable for White. Nijboer got a powerful attack but Black might have tried 16 ...Bd6!? and 17 ...Ng6? was horrible. Instead 17 ...Rg8? loses to 18 Nb3! but 17 ...Kc8! was forced and appears playable. 18 Nf5 yielded a big advantage and 20 Rxd7! was already winning. At the end, if 29 ...Kc4 30 b3 mate or 29 ...Kxa4 30 Nec7 and 31 Ra1 mate.

White: Friso Nijboer

Black: Deen Hergott

Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence

1 e4 e5

2 Nf3 Nc6

3 Bb5 Nf6

4 0-0 Nxe4

5 d4 Nd6

6 Bxc6 dxc6

7 dxe5 Nf5

8 Qxd8+ Kxd8

9 Nc3 Ke8

10 h3 Ne7

11 Bd2 Ng6

12 a4 a5

13 Ne4 h6

14 Nd4! Nxe5!?

15 Rfe1 Kd8

16 Rad1 Bd7

17 Bc3 Ng6?

18 Nf5! Kc8

19 Nxg7 f5?

20 Rxd7! Kxd7

21 Nf6+ Kd6

22 Nge8+ Kc5

23 Nd7+ Kc4

24 Bxh8 Be7

25 Rd1 Nxh8

26 Nxc7 Rg8

27 Ne6 c5

28 Nb6+ Kb4

29 Nd5+

1-0

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