Dutch Treat 
by Hans Ree

BLITZ TOURNAMENT

I could write at great length about the smell of the Hoogovens
tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The typical mixture of wet winter
coats, Dutch pea soup, the cold sweat of hundreds of amateur
chessplayers and maybe a whiff of the multi-colored smoke that
comes out of the nearby chimneys of the sponsoring steel
company. Some speak not of smell but of stink, but for me it has
been the most delicious of fragrances for decades, and in this
jubilee year when the 60th Hoogovens tournament was played, I
half expected to see small bottles of this perfume offered to the
discerning chess lover. Alas not, but maybe the Hoogovens steel
company, most faithful chess sponsor in the world, is waiting for
the hundredth anniversary of its tournament.

Apart from the smells there are the sounds. Somewhere in the big
hall a clock is punched and even the half-experienced amateur
player who strolls around when it is not his move, does recognize
in the general bustle of sounds, like a bat equipped with infallible
radar, this little sound for what it is: his clock, so it is his move
now, and back to the board.

The sound of the flag falling, the most subtle and most horrible of
all chess sounds, is almost a sound of the past and can now only be
heard in the lower amateur groups, because in the higher ones the
new electronic clocks are used, where no flag falls.

On the first rest day of the tournament a new sound could be heard.
A blitz tournament on the stage where the top group is playing.
Blitz tournaments have always been quite common at the
Hoogovens tournament, but they always were casual affairs, played
in the bar or in the big hall, and their sounds where much different
from this one, in which the world top players played for quite a lot
of money.

A round starts. Silence. Absolute concentration. Spectators hold
their breath. Then an arbiter hits the gong and suddenly for about
half a minute there is a pandemonium, a rapid fire of clocks that
are punched not quite synchronously. Then, at move fifteen or so,
they become a little bit more quiet.

All in all it is an hilarious sound. A few times I have seen
spectators burst out in spontaneous laughter when the games
started. Their merriness was caused by the contrast between the
profoundness of thought these players were supposed to represent,
and the fury of their apparent child's play. The prize money was
twenty thousand guilders, which is about ten thousand dollars. Not
bad for a few merry hours. It had not escaped the players' notice
that first prize in the journalist tournament in Lausanne had been
almost equal to the total prize fund here, but apart from Anand and
Van der Sterren they had all come to play; Karpov, Kramnik,
Topalov, Shirov, Gelfand, Adams, Judit Polgar, Salov and the
Dutch contingent of Timman, Piket, Van Wely and Nijboer.

The rounds of the regular tournament you could follow quite
comfortably at home on the Internet, but that was not possible for
the blitz tournament, for which the electronic highway is not fast
enough yet.

Dutch champion Predrag Nikolic had come over to watch and said:
"This is much nicer than normal chess. The public loves it, and so
do the players, for they are not suffering now, like in classical
chess. For every mistake there is the excuse of shortage of time.
Immediate action is required at every moment and the worms of
doubt will not get the time to eat you." He was right, though we
shouldn't say such things too loud in public, because before you
know it classical chess will be abolished to satisfy the demands of
frivolous modern time.

When you play over the games afterwards, there is very little to be
enjoyed. Pieces are blundered, mate in one was overlooked twice,
flags of players in completely winning positions fell many times.
And it makes one shiver, the idea that all these trifles will go into
the databases, those great garbage cans full of undifferentiated
waste.

Don't remark, when you look at next game, that it is an awfully
bad game, which it is, but try to imagine how it is to watch it live
in ten minutes on the electronic screens. This is very exciting
indeed.

White: Adams Black: Van Wely, five minutes per player. 1. d2-d4
d7-d5 2. Bc1-g5 f7-f6 3. Bg5-h4 Ng8-h6 In one of their tiebreak
games in Groningen he played first 3...Nc6 4. e2-e3 Nh6-f5 5.
Bh4-g3 h7-h5 6. Bf1-e2 h5-h4 7. Bg3-f4 g7-g5 8. Be2-h5+ Ke8-d7
9. e3-e4 d5xe4 10. Bf4-c1 c7-c6 11. Bh5-g4 Kd7-c7 12. Ng1-e2
Nf5-d6 13. Bg4xc8 Qd8xc8 14. Nb1-c3 h4-h3 15. g2-g3 Qc8-g4
16. Bc1-e3 Qg4-f3 17. Rh1-g1 Nb8-d7 18. d4-d5 c6-c5 19. a2-a4
a7-a6 20. Ra1-a3 Nd6-c4 21. Ra3-b3 Nc4xe3 22. f2xe3 Nd7-e5 23.
d5-d6+ e7xd6 24. Qd1-d5 Ra8-b8 25. Qd5-e6 Rb8-d8 26. Nc3-d5+
Kc7-b8 27. Nd5xf6 c5-c4 28. Rb3-b4 Qf3xe3 29. Qe6-d5 b7-b6
30. Ke1-d1 Kb8-c7 31. Nf6xe4 Bf8-e7 White had done badly in
the opening, but at this moment he could well reckon on a win,
mainly because of black's terrible time pressure. 32. Ne2-d4
Qe3xg1+ Oh no, not this way. Not only has white blundered a
whole rook, suddenly he is almost mated. 33. Kd1-e2 Qg1xh2+ 34.
Ne4-f2 Qh2-g2 35. Rb4xc4+ Ne5xc4 36. Qd5xc4+ Kc7-b7 37.
a4-a5 Rh8-f8 38. Ke2-d3 Rf8xf2 39. Kd3-c3 Qg2xg3+ 40. Kc3-b4
(See Diagram)

Black had only seconds left, but had he found 40...d5+, that would
probably have been enough to win the game. 40...Rd8-c8 41.
Qc4-d5+ Kb7-b8 42. Nd4-c6+ Rc8xc6 43. Qd5xc6 Qg3-f4+ 44.
Kb4-a3 Rf2-f3+ 45. Ka3-a2 b6xa5 46. Qc6-b6+ Kb8-c8 47.
Qb6xa6+ Kc8-d7 48. Qa6-b7+ Kd7-e6 49. Qb7-c8+ Ke6-f6 Here
Van Wely offered a draw. He is of course completely winning, but
had no time left. It was quite sporting of Adams to accept. Most
players did not behave so friendly on such occasions. Salov did
once, giving a draw in an endgame against Topalov which he could
have won on time, and then in the next round in a queen endgame
where he had four pawns against none for Judit Polgar, he let
himself be mated in one move. "Good punishment for my tender-
heartedness," he said.

Enough of this circus entertainment, now a real game of the
Hoogovens tournament.

White: Topalov Black: Karpov 1. d2-d4 d7-d5 2. c2-c4 e7-e6 3.
Nb1-c3 Bf8-e7 4. c4xd5 e6xd5 5. Bc1-f4 c7-c6 6. Qd1-c2 g7-g6 7.
e2-e3 Bc8-f5 8. Qc2-d2 Ng8-f6 9. f2-f3 h7-h5 10. Bf1-d3 Bf5xd3
11. Qd2xd3 Nb8-a6 12. Ng1-e2 Na6-c7 13. 0-0 Nc7-e6 14. Bf4-e5
h5-h4 Topalov, explaining this game to the press, found this a
good idea, even combined with black's next one, but I can't quite
understand why. 15. Ra1-e1 0-0 16. g2-g4 h4xg3 But here Topalov
thought that black would have done better keeping the h-file
closed. 17. h2xg3 Nf6-d7 18. Kg1-g2 Nd7xe5 19. d4xe5 Qd8-d7
20. f3-f4 f7-f5 21. g3-g4 Rf8-f7 Better was 21...Ng7 followed by
Kf7, which wouldn't have been very nice for black either, but
would leave him with good defensive resources. 22. Rf1-h1 
According to Topalov his position was winning now. 22...Be7-f8
23. g4xf5 Ne6-c5 24. Qd3-d1 Qd7xf5 25. Ne2-d4 Qf5-d7 26.
Re1-g1 Not the most accurate move; better was 26. Rh3. Black's
next, which in many variations gives him the possibility of Rxe5,
had been overlooked by white. 26...Ra8-e8 27. Rh1-h3 Nc5-e6 28.
Rg1-h1 Bf8-g7 29. Qd1-c2 Ne6-f8 30. Nc3-e2 Qd7-e7 31. Nd4-f3
Qe7-b4 32. Rh3-g3 c6-c5 33. Nf3-h4 Re8-e6 34. Ne2-c3 d5-d4 35.
Nc3-d5 Qb4-b5 36. e3-e4 c5-c4 37. Nh4-f3 d4-d3 38. Qc2-c3
Re6-a6 39. Nf3-d4 Qb5-c5 40. Rg3xd3 After this the position
becomes very sharp. Simply 40. a3 was also quite good.
40...Ra6xa2 41. Rd3-h3 b7-b5 42. Nd4-f3 Nf8-e6 43. Kg2-g3
b5-b4 44. Qc3-d2 (See Diagram)

Now 44...c3 looks good for black at first sight, but Topalov had
prepared a nice forced win against this: 45. Qh2 Rf8 46. Rh7 Rxb2
47. Rxg7+ Nxg7 48. Qh7+ Kf7 49. e6+ 44...Rf7-f8 45. Nd5-f6+
Nf8xf6 46. e5xf6 Bg7xf6 47. e4-e5 Bf6-g7 48. Rh3-h7 Qc5-f8 49.
Nf3-g5 Ra2-a6 Now there is a forced mate, but 49...Nxg5 would
have been hopeless for black too, because of 50. Qd5+ Nf7
(50...Qf7 51. Qd8+ Qf8 52. Rh8+) 51. e6. 50. Rh7-h8+ Black
resigned because of 50...Bxh8 51. Rxh8+ Kxh8 52. Qh2+.

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
"NRC-Handelsblad" January 24, 1998. Copyright 1998 Hans Ree,
All Rights Reserved. 