Adventures in Wijk aan Zee

Wijk aan Zee is a tiny wind-swept town on the Dutch coast. The main attraction for the town seems to be the large beach that is several kilometers long. But in the winter, the town is invaded by hundreds of chess players and fans who want to see the World's greatest players battle it out over the 64 squares.

Wijk aan Zee

As part of the whole Tata Steel chess event there is a weekend tournament for amateur players. A friend and I decided to play and do a bit of chess tourism at the same time. This was the first time for me at a major international event, so it was a bit exciting.

After checking in at the hotel on Thursday afternoon, the first person we saw was Anish Giri. And at breakfast the next morning, Vishy Anand sat down just a few tables away from us, and several famous grandmasters appeared: Fabiano Caruana, Rustam Kazimdzhanov and Pavel Eljanov. We were speculating whether Magnus Carlsen was staying at the hotel as well, but he did not show himself. However, we saw his parents as well as his coach Peter Heine Nielsen. So we suspect that he stayed at the hotel, but kept a low profile.

Quotes by famous players in the playing hall

There is not much to do to pass time in Wijk aan Zee at this time of year. We took a quick walk around town, and a quick look at the beach. But for the most part, we sat in our hotel room and played blitz and prepared for our games.

The playing hall with the main stage in the background

The playing hall was smaller than it looks on the online broadcast, and there were not as many players in the amateur as I had expected. But I was impressed by the professionality with which the event was organized. Everything from the registration to reporting results was super smooth.

The weekend event is a four player round robin (a.k.a. a "quad"), meaning there is one game per day. Since we were seated next to the other players in the group, it was easy to keep track of what the other people in the group were playing.

Game 1

Being the first round, I had no idea what to expect. So I had not made any particular preparations before the round, apart from playing through a couple of my normal lines.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 

I do not get the Queen's Indian very often, but my friend plays a variation with f5, and I have had good results with the simple response a3, so I played that.

4. a3 Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. cxd5 exd5

After this move, I was quite pleased as his bishop on b7 will have limited activity.

7. Bg5 Be7 8. e3 h6 9. Bh4 O-O 10. Bd3 Nbd7 11. O-O Re8

With his last move, Black starts a plan that is not necessarily constructive. He wants to get his knight to g6 via f8 and defend the kingside. But I have some resources to stop this plan and gain a positional advantage.

12. Rc1 Nf8 13. Ne5 

Now the knight will have some trouble coming to g6, and my knight has a powerful centralized position.

13... Bd6 14. f4 c5 15. Rf3?! (Qf3 is stronger, attacking the d-pawn for a second time) cxd4 16. exd4 a6? 

The c6-square is weak, and my opponent had some worries about Bb5-c6 (or Nc6). I saw this possibility, but figured that I should play for a kingside attack instead. Hence my rooklift. Black's latest move has nothing to do with my plan, so I felt quite confident at this point.

17. Rg3 Ne6?! 

White to play and win!

One can understand Black's thought process at this point. The pressure is building on g7, and the knight cannot come to g6. However, White has a lot of pressure on the black position, and g7 is not the only potential target.

I spent quite some time looking for a way forward in this position, but failed to find the decisive blow. Instead I went for a speculative continuation where I give up two pieces for a rook and a pawn.

18. Nxf7?? (Missing the decisive Ng4!! with a dual threat against h6 and f6) Kxf7 19. Bg6+ Kf8 20. Bxe8 

Now, Black has the oppoertunity to go wrong with Kxe8? Rg6! But he avoids this.

20... Qxe8 21. Bxf6 gxf6 

After this sequence, I have a little problem. The f-pawn is hanging and after Bxf4, the bishop forks my two rooks.

How does white save material?

I spent a lot of time calculating and finally found a line that seems to avoid material loss.

22. Qg4 Bxf4?

This move is natural, but incorrect. Better is Qf7, avoiding the checks.

23. Qg8+?? (Apparently a mistake, because of the move that Black has available next.) 24. Ke7 24. Rg7+ Nxg7?? (24... Kd6! forces the trade of queens and c1 is hanging. 25. Qxe8 Rxe8 26. Rxb7 Bxc1, and Black has an extra piece.)

25. Qxg7+ Qf7 26. Re1+ Be5 

Although both players have missed a few stronger moves along the way, this is exactly the line I had calculated before playing Qg4. Now, instead of trading queens, White can win a pawn by Qxh6. I guess I was too tired and too emerged in my chosen line to evaluate the position clearly.

27. Qxf7+? Kxf7 28. dxe5 fxe5 

After playing this move, my opponent offered a draw. I thought there might be some play left in the position, but since I had botched a clearly winning game, I thought that a draw was a decent result, so I accepted.

1/2-1/2

Game 2

While playing my first game, I had watched the game on the board next to us, and saw that it was a King's Indian. So I expected that my opponent would play in a similar fashion against me, and actually did a bit of preparation.

My pet line against d4 is the Semi-Slav. However, after thinking about it from the white perspective I thought I would do something different. As a d4-player myself, I have always felt a bit uncomfortable against the Benko gambit. So I watched a few videos on Youtube, and found some useful tips in this video by Stjepan a.k.a. "hanging pawns". I had never played it before, so it was a bit of a gamble.
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 c5 4. e3 (Declining the gambit) 4... Bg7 5. Bd2 

At this point I realized that White would not take the pawn, so I had to change plans.

5... cxd4 6. Nxd4 O-O 7. Qc2 Nc6 8. Nxc6 dxc6 9. Bc3 Bf5 10. Qb3 Qb6 11. Nd2 Rfd8 12. Be2

Black to play

12... Bd3!? (Objectively, probably not the best move, but it gives White something to think about. At least castling is out of the question.) 13. Bxd3 Rxd3 14. Qxb6 axb6 15. Bd4

When playing Bd3, I had not anticipated this move, so it is just pure luck that I had an appropriate reply.

15... c5! 16. Ke2?? (The rook is indeed trapped, but Black gets two pieces for it.) 16... Rxd2+ 17. Kxd2 cxd4 18. exd4 Ne4+ 

The dark knight rises

As you will see in the following moves, the knight is the hero of the game.

19. Ke3 Nd6 20. Kd3 Nf5 21. a3 Nxd4 22. Rab1 Nc6 23. f4 Rd8+ 24. Kc2?! Nd4+ 25. Kc3? Ne2+ 26. Kb3 Nxf4 27. g3 Ne6 28. Rbd1 Nc5+ 29. Ka2 Bd4

The bishop is a tower of power!

From this point on, my plan was very simple. Just keep the bishop on d4 and wait for the win.  

30. b4 Ne4 31. Rc1 e5 32. Rhe1 f5 33. g4 Nf2 

White resigns. Black has too many threats for White to handle; a fork on d3, the pawn on g4, a potential discovery if Rg1. This, in addition to the current material deficit is just too much for White to handle. 

0-1

Game 3

After two rounds and 1.5 points, I had already secured 50%, which was what I was hoping to achieve. So I felt quite confident before the final game. Also, my opponent had only half a point, so I felt good about my chances. This was the same guy that played the King's Indian against my opponent from round 2, so I expected him to do the same. I do not know the KID well enough to spring any opening surprises, but I felt that the Makogonov variation is sufficiently unusual to give Black players something to think about.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. h3 O-O 6. Bg5

So far so book

h6 7. Be3 Re8 8. Qd2 g5?! 

This can't be right...

During the game, I felt that this pawn advance was not good. And I was correct, but for the wrong reason. My first thought was to sacrifice a piece and open up the king, perhaps after bringing out the knight. This was the start of an erroneous and eventually devastating train of thought. Another candidate move was to simply castle long and attack on the kingside. That is a much better plan.

9. Nf3?! (missing the strong 0-0-0!) e5 

Here, I went for a variation in which I thought I would win a pawn.

10. dxe5?! dxe5 11. Qxd8 Rxd8 (I had prepared Nxe5, seemingly winning a pawn. But after Nxe4! Nxe4, Bxe5 Black regains the material and puts some uncomfortable pressure on b2.) 12. Be2 c6 

Now, White still has a slight advantage because of better development and Black's weak kingside pawns. But the tables turn after the next move. I came back to my initial thoughts of sacrificing on g5. I do get two pawns for the piece and an open king, but the attack is far from strong enough.

13. Nxg5?? (essentially throwing the game away) hxg5 14. Bxg5 Be6 15. h4 Na6 16. h5 Nb4 17. Rc1 Nd3+ 18. Bxd3 Rxd3 19. h6 Bh8 

White to play

20. b3!? 

This move aims to defend the c-pawn, but also to lure Black into a trap. It seems that Black can win more material with 20... Rxc3 21. Rxc3 Nxe4 forking the rook and bishop. After the game, my opponent told me he had looked at this line and thought it was winning, but for some reason he didn't play it. I was a bit disappointed, because he had rejected it without seeing the refutation. The point is that White has an important resource. 22. h7+! Kg7 23. Bh6+ Kxh7 24. Re3. After this sequence, White has regained some material and has a better shot at making a draw.

The rest of the game is rather one-sided. Black is holding all the cards, and White has nothing better than cheap tricks. Black did play a few suboptimal moves, but far from enough to let me back into the game.

Kh7 21. f3 Rg8 22. Bxf6 Bxf6 23. Ke2 Rdd8 24. Rcg1 Rg3 25. Nd1 Be7 26. Ne3 Bc5 27. Nf1 Rg6 28. Ne3 Rd6 29. g4 Rxh6 30. Rxh6+ Kxh6 31. Rh1+ Kg7 32. Nf5+ Bxf5 33. gxf5 Rh6 34. Rxh6 Kxh6 35. f4 f6 36. fxe5 fxe5 37. Kf3 Kg5 38. Kg3 Be3 39. Kf3 Bf4 40. Kf2 Kg4 

The game went on for another 13 moves, and then I resigned. 0-1

Post-tournament tourism

After this completely unnecessary loss, I ended the tournament at 1.5/3 p, which turned out to be enough for shared second place. After the game, my opponent from round 1 informed me that there were book prizes for first and second place (I had no idea). I turned to the organizers, and indeed there was a prize for me. I got a coupon for a book, and I found Attack and Counterattack in Chess by Fred Reinfeld. You can find my review here.

The loss in the final round hur my ego a bit, but on the whole I am satisfied with my performance. So with a decent tournament out of the way, we had an entire day of chess tourism in Wijk aan Zee ahead of us.

The tournament winner in action

The champ checks out the local talent

Carlsen vs Xiong

Carlsen watching the game between Grandelius and Eljanov

Spectators at the main stage

It was a strange feeling watching the elite players. I had seen these guys so many times before, but never in person. Still, it was almost like watching them on the screen, as there is a barrier between the audience and the players. The elite players in the "masters" and "challengers" groups play on a stage that is slightly elevated above the rest of the playing hall. Also, with the crowd of spectators and the barrier in place, it almost felt like being at the zoo. These exotic beings are right there before us, but out of reach. And their movements are restricted, as they cannot (or will not!?) go outside the dedicated area. And for us mere mortal chessplayers, I guess they are as dangerous as lions or tigers. At least over the board.

I really enjoyed my little trip to Wijk aan Zee. The tournament is beyond a doubt the most well-organized event I have witnessed, and it was fun playing in a place with such a long tradition. I can warmly recommend a visit.