Berelovich, Van den Doel and Khenkin win in Haarlem
Igor Khenkin Sunday won the NOVA College Weekender in Haarlem on tiebreak, sharing first place and prize money with GMs Aleksandar Berelovich and Erik van den Doel. Berelovich caught the leaders Khenkin and Van den Doel who had drawn their last-round game in 8 moves, to the disappointment of the organizer and the fans.
The Weekender in Haarlem that took place June 26-28 in the city of Haarlem, the Netherlands was organized (by local chess club HWP Haarlem) for the 18th time already. The first 10 editions, from 1992 to 2001, were called "AKN Toernooi" and had winners such as Paul van der Sterren, Rafael Vaganian and Mikhail Gurevich.In 2002 the NOVA College took over as main sponsor (and venue) where this year the tournament took place for the 8th time. A few foreign GMs had come to Haarlem: 2007 co-winner Aleksandar Berelovich, Sebastian Siebrecht and winner in 2000, Igor Khenkin.A number of strong Dutch grandmasters had to make a choice: either go for the 9-rounder in Hilversum, or a weekend of chess in Haarlem. GMs Erik van den Doel and John van der Wiel, and IMs Manuel Bosboom, Jan-Willem de Jong, Chiel van Oosterom and Ruud Janssen opted for the latter.This year the tournament was played in three rating groups: A >1950, B <2000 and C <1650. Due to the rate of play (first 40 moves in 105 minutes, then 10 minutes + 5 seconds increment to finish the game) the games were not FIDE rated.In the first round, 2008 winner GM Erik van den Doel (2574) already dropped half a point against Danny de Ruiter (2075), who played a very solid White game and even in the ending didn't make any mistakes. In round 2 it was GM Aleksandar Berelovich who had to be satisfied with a draw against Peter de Roode (2136), who kept the initiative throughout the game. In the third round top seed Igor Khenkin (2606) already sacrificed his queen after twelve moves against Jan-Willem de Jong (2457), which turned out to be theory. De Jong didn't take it, but lost anyway. Khenkin won his other White games in similar fashion, using preparation and little time on the clock.About the 4th round we quote the tournament bulletin:
In the round with clearly the highest average age, the large number of young players who took a bye on this Saturday night didn't witness why they might still be playing chess in twenty years from now. Training, eighty moves of theory, theoretical rook endgames: it can never beat the passionate way that Manuel Bosboom assaults his opponents and - unfortunately - falls in his sword. His game against Erik van den Doel was not exception. So throw that computer out of the window and enjoy!
(Game included in the game viewer below.)In the penultimate round on Sunday morning, the professionals didn't falter. GM Khenkin beat IM Janssen quickly while Van den Doel decided the Leiden derby against Van der Wiel in his favour. "Accurately like an accountant" (according to the bulletin) Berelovich defeated Siebrecht.This meant a dream scenario for the last round, in which co-leaders Khenkin and Van den Doel would meet. However, as could be expected, the two drew quickly - very quickly. I was still taking pictures when suddenly I caught the two shaking hands for the second time within a couple of minutes. The two GMs didn't want to take any risk and secured themselves of a shared first place, hoping for a draw on board two. That game should have ended peacefully indeed, but in a RN-R ending De Jong at some point blundered his rook, allowing Berelovich to catch up with the leaders (game also included in the game viewer).[TABLE=762]It will take a while before a PGN file with game will be available at the tournament website. The games below have been collected from the live broadcast and the bulletins.
Game viewer
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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