Dutch Treat 
by Hans Ree

Rites of Passage

It was during the Lost Boys tournament in Antwerp, when Jeroen
Piket was the sole leader with 5 out of 5. "A new star has arrived
on the scene, and all the journalists are only interested in him," said
Jeroen Piket. "And it is not you," said Loek van Wely. "It hasn't
been me for a long time. But now it is not you anymore either,"
said Piket. "But we'll waylay him," said Van Wely. "Poor boy. He
still thinks that it is nice to become a grandmaster. But soon he'll
realize that the days of light-hearted chess are over and that his real
troubles are only beginning," said Piket.

In their minds, they were already putting the screws to him - the
ordeal of a freshman. The man they were talking about was the
young Dutch player Erik van den Doel, who a week earlier had
made his third and final grandmaster norm. Amazing how strong
he suddenly has become. For years he was just known as one of the
best Dutch young players, while at the same time Dutch chess fans
were complaining that none of the youngsters broke through to
internationale level.

But now! His first grandmaster norm Van den Doel made at last
year's Lost Boys tournament. About a month ago he made a second
norm in a tournament in England, which he won. Immediately after
that he won a strong Open in the Dutch town Haarlem with six out
of six. This did not count as a norm because there were only six
games, but the third norm came right afterwards in the open
championship of the Netherlands, which he won.

Loek van Wely had been visiting the open championship just
before he came to play in Antwerp and he told us that maybe there
was something wrong with this last grandmaster norm. According
to him, Van den Doel had had to score 7 out of 9 against an
opposition which averaged 2400 Elo points. In fact he had made
7.5 against an average opposition of 2399.5. A better performance,
but did it count? If not, then it would not be 19-year old Van den
Doel who was the youngest grandmaster in Dutch history, but the
record would still be Van Wely's. I didn't check the calculations.
The general opinion in Antwerp was that Van Wely had made a
small error to his advantage. After three rounds of the Lost Boys
tournament somebody calculated that Van den Doel had played 27
games in a row without losing and scoring 24 points out of it. "Of
course it is always possible that I will suddenly lose a game," he
was quoted in a newspaper. Suddenly lose a game! What is
common practice for ordinary mortals, for him had become a
vague danger lurking in the background, of which he had to
recognize the theoretical possibility that it could suddenly become
acute.

No chessplayer is an invulnerable superman. Next round Van den
Doel lost to the formidable Russian Belgian Michail Gurevich,
whom he had beaten in Haarlem. After that he won a few and lost a
few, the latter against grandmasters Stefansson (who was to be the
winner of the tournament) and Van Wely. A freshman's ordeal you
can hardly call it; Van den Doel had already far too much
experience against strong grandmasters. But nevertheless, some
slightly older players, watching the games on the electronic screens
with quiet satisfaction, considered it to be exactly that.
White: Gommers Black: Van den Doel, Lost Boys Tournament,
1998 1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. f2-f4 e5xf4 3. Ng1-f3 g7-g5 One of the
oldest defences against the King's gambit and still the best. 4.
h2-h4 g5-g4 5. Nf3-e5 Ng8-f6 6. d2-d4 d7-d6 7. Ne5-d3 Nf6xe4
8. Bc1xf4 Bf8-g7 Playing for a quick 0-0-0 with 8...Qe7 has an
excellent reputation too. 9. c2-c3 0-0 10. Nb1-d2 Rf8-e8 11.
Bf1-e2 Old theory gives 11. Nxe4 Rxe4+ 12. Kf2, but also in this
case 12...c5, as in De Wit-Van der Sterren, Netherlands 1994, gives
black a strong attack. 11...g4-g3 12. Nd2xe4 Re8xe4 13. Ke1-d2
c7-c5 14. Bf4-g5 Qd8-a5 Safe and good was 14...Qb6 15. Bf3 Re8
15. d4xc5 d6xc5 16. Be2-f3 Re4-d4 The point of 14...Qa5, but
black's rook is led astray. 17. Kd2-c1 Rd4-c4 18. Qd1-e1 Bc8-e6
19. Nd3- e5 Bg7xe5 20. Qe1xe5 Nb8-d7 21. Qe5xg3 This looks
quite good at first sight, but according to Van den Doel better was
21. Qe3 with a solid advantage for white. 21...Rc4xc3+ 22.
Kc1-d1 Qa5-a4+ 23. Kd1-e1 Rc3xf3 24. g2xf3 Kg8-h8 25.
Bg5-d2 Ra8-e8 26. Bd2-c3+ f7-f6 27. Rh1-h2 Black was
threatening mate by 27...Bc4+ 27...Be6-f5+ 28. Rh2-e2 Re8-g8 29.
Qg3-f2 Qa4-f4 30. Ra1-d1 b7-b5 31. b2-b3 c5-c4 32. b3xc4
b5xc4 33. Re2-e7 Nd7-e5 34. Bc3xe5 f6xe5 (See Diagram)

A difficult and unclear position. With his next move white tries to
make it clear by force, but this is quite risky. 35. Qf2-c5 Qf4xh4+
36. Ke1-d2 Qh4-d4+ 37. Qc5xd4 e5xd4 38. Re7-c7 Probably
black's free pawns could still be held in check by 38. Kc1, e.g.
38...c3 39. Rxd4 Rb8 40. Kd1 c2+ 41. Kd2 Rc8 42. Kc1 Rb8 with
a draw. 38...c4-c3+ 39. Kd2-c1? White wants to go to a square
were after 39...Rd8? 40. Rxc3 he could not be given check. After
39. Ke2 Rd8 things still would not be quite clear. 39... Rg8-b8 But
now they are. White resigned.

White: Piket Black Azmaiparashvili, Lost Boys Tournament, 1998
1. d2-d4 Ng8-f6 2. c2-c4 g7-g6 3. Nb1-c3 d7-d5 4. c4xd5 Nf6xd5
5. e2-e4 Nd5xc3 6. b2xc3 Bf8-g7 7. Bc1-e3 A change from the
fashionable line with Nf3 and Rb1. 7...c7-c5 8. Ra1-c1 Qd8-a5 9.
Qd1-d2 0-0 10. Ng1-f3 b7-b6 A mistake based on faulty memory.
Black intends to play like his former boss Kasparov, but he played
10...e6 in this position. After 11. Bh6 Nc6 12. h4 cxd4 13. Bxg7
Kxg7 14. cxd4 Qxd2+ (Karpov-Kasparov, 1990 World
Championship Match, Game 15) white's advantage in the endgame
was small. 11. Be3-h6 e7-e6 The endgame after 11...cxd4 12.
Bxg7 Kxg7 13. cxd4 Qxd2+ would not be playable for black, who
doesn't have the move Nc6. 12. h2-h4 And so black has to suffer a
strong kingside attack. 12...f7-f6 13. Bh6xg7 Kg8xg7 14. e4-e5 14.
h5 would also be good, but not immediately winning as after
14...g5 15. Nxg5 black still has 15...cxd4. 14...h7-h5 Quite a
concession, but black's position was bad in any case. After
14...cxd4 strong would be 15. h5. 15. Rh1-h3 Nb8-c6 After
15...Bb7 Piket had calculated a long variation: 16. Bd3 Bxf3 17.
Rxf3 f5 18. Be4! fxe4 19. Rxf8 Kxf8 20. Qf4+ Ke8 21. Qxe4 Qa3
22. Rc2 Qa4 23. Qxa8 and white wins the queen's ending. 16.
e5xf6+ Rf8xf6 17. Nf3-e5 Nc6xe5 Now white's attack decides
quickly. After 17...Bb7, which seems more stubborn to me, Piket
wanted to play 18. Nc4 Qa4 19. Nd6. 18. d4xe5 Rf6-f5 19. Bf1-d3
Rf5xe5+ 20. Rh3-e3 Re5-d5 21. Re3-g3 Rd5-e5+ 22. Ke1-f1
Bc8-a6 23. Rg3xg6+ Kg8-f7 24. Rg6-g3 (See Diagram)

Black cannot prevent the white queen's decisive participation in the
attack. 24...Re5-e4 25. Kf1-g1 Ba6xd3 26. Qd2xd3 Qa5-a4 27.
Qd3-f3+ Kf7- e7 28. Rg3-g7+ Ke7-d6 29. Rc1-d1+ Kd6-c6 30.
Rd1-e1 Black resigned.

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
NRC-Handelsblad August 8, 1998. Copyright 1998 Hans Ree, All
Rights Reserved. 