As leaders of the 3rd division, we had to face our direct challengers, ie. Georgi at board 1 and Vladymyr at board 4 against CRELEL Liege, and Jeno at board 2 and Luis on board 3 against CCC from Ciney, both teams were following us at only 1/2 point.

Georgi with Blacks finished first. His opponent, Mohammed Messaoudi (1653), quickly got into trouble, blundering a pawn straight out of the opening and then going for a speculative attack in the search of compensation. All Blacks had to do was to calculate a few lines and pick some more material left on offer. White resigned after less than two hours of play. So Georgi had the ‘misfortune’ to quickly kill the game and finish early, and thus wait for all others. 1-0

Georgi

On board 3, Luis with Blacks had the trickiest task of our team, since he was the only who had to face an opponent of his level, Steve Onbelet (1742) from CCC. He built a solid but somewhat passive position. His opponent took control of the center and launched a successful tactical attack on the Black king making Luis resign. 1-1

At board 4, Vladymyr with Whites faced Raoul Kuypers (1384) from CRELEL, who played a strong defence. Vladymyr had to pay all the time attention in a closed game, having difficulties in finding to create threats. But after a large exchange of pieces, he finally managed to gain a passed pawn, and then a second one which assured him the way to the Queen. Blacks had to abandon at the 48th move. 2-1

Jenö & Luis

Jeno Czuczai played with White against Frederic Barbier (1795), initiating a Queen’s side attack with his ‘a’ pawn and the diagonal of the white-coloured places with his White bishop of g2-b7, since the Black’s knight on c6 was threatened by the White Queen on a4, taking also into account that the Black’ King was still on e8. After the first time control, Jeno had a slightly better position and entered into a two tours’ end-game against Black’ bishop with his knight. Finally, Jeno gained a pawn due to the positional mistake made by his opponent in the 5th hour of the game, and with a nice 5-moves mate-combination Europchess team collected the full score on this board too. 3-1

Playing hall

So far Europchess has thus maintained its advantage with its nice victory which keeps us still at the top position with 7 points. Our closest challenger stands now at 1 point.

TEAM RANKING

1 .EUROPCHESS         85 PTS

2. NATIONAL BANK      84 PTS

3. BELGACOM           60 PTS

4. KBC                41 PTS

Round 1 (21/11/2011)

KBC – NATIONAL BANK  : 13-33 (5-18 8-15)

VAN LOO – MICHIELS        1-3 AND 1-3

BOSSCHEM – THEYS          1-3 AND 1-3

DE SMEDT – TEMMERMAN      1-3 AND 3-1

VRIJDAG – HAWIA           1-3 AND 2-2

JANSSEN – LEMAIRE         1-3 AND 1-3

KBC FF                    0-3 AND 0-3

BELGACOM – EUROPCHESS : 18-30 (9-15 9-15)

LACROSSE – TOMOV          1-3 AND 3-1

LEMMENS – MOLNAR          2-2 AND 1-3

DENYS – DE STEFANO        3-1 AND 2-2

RAQUET – FREDERIKSEN      1-3 AND 1-3

VERBORGH – ABRAHAMSEN     1-3 AND 1-3

NICA – RAMOS FLORIDO      1-3 AND 1-3

Round 2 (16/02/2012)

NATIONAL BANK – BELGACOM : 24-24 (12-12 12-12)

MICHIELS – LACROSSE        2-2 AND 2-2

GHYSELS – LEMMENS          3-1 AND 2-2

HAWIA T.  – DENYS          1-3 AND 1-3

THEYS – RAQUET             2-2 AND 3-1

TEMMERMAN – NICA           3-1 AND 3-1

AUDENRODE – VERBORGH       1-3 AND 1-3

EUROPCHESS – KBC : 34-14 (18-6 16-8)

TOMOV – BOSSCHEM               3-1 AND 3-1

MOLNAR – VAN LOO               3-1 AND 3-1

FREDERIKSEN – DE SMEDT         3-1 AND 1-3

ABRAHAMSEN –VRIJDAGH           3-1 AND 3-1

RAMOS FLORIDO – V. D. BOSSCHE  3-1 AND 3-1

GATTA – JANSSEN                3-1 AND 3-1

Round 3 (19/04/2012)

KBC– BELGACOM : 14-18 (8-8 6-10)

BOSSCHEM – LACROSSE       1-3 AND 1-3

VAN LOO – DENYS           3-1 AND 1-3

DE SMEDT – RAQUET         1-3 AND 1-3

VRIJDAGH – HOOYBERGS      3-1 AND 3-1

EUROPCHESS –NATIONAL BANK: 21-27 (11-13 10-14)

WILEY – MICHIELS          2-2 AND 1-3

MOLNAR – GHYSELS          1-3 AND 3-1

SEMANAT – HAWIA T.        3-1 AND 1-3

DE STEFANO  –  DEGEMBE    1-3 AND 1-3

FREDERIKSEN – THEYS       3-1 AND 1-3

RAMOS FLORIDO – TEMMERMAN 1-3 AND 3-1

In total, 160 players from different chessclubs were represented.

First of all, Mattias defeated quite quickly Lise Decellier (1270) from Leuze 2. Mattias as black won a pawn in the opening against and then a piece in the first tactical skirmish. Soon afterwards she had to give the queen to postpone which eventually came on move 29. 1-0 for Europchess.

Then Vladymyr won with Blacks against Fabien Politi (NC) from Fleurus 2 in a Sicilian opening. After a surprising opening by Whites who pushed their center pawn to e5, thus sacrificing it for the exchange of queens and cancelling the castle for Blacks, Vladymyr found the counter parade by placing well his pieces in the center of the game. Blacks never managed to castle on their side neither and were put under more and more pressure. After a few other Whites’ mistakes, mostly due to a ‘kamikaze’ way of playing, Vladymyr got a nice advantage of pieces but had to deal with two passed-linked pawns threating going to the queen. But Whites could not support the promotion of their pawns very long due to lack of material and had finally to give up. 2-0

Just afterwards, Luis won with Whites against Gaetan Hanarte (Leuze 2). Luis played a Spanish opening and his opponent responded with a variation with bishop at d6 whit the pawn still at d7. The game became with the exchange of the Spanish bishop for a knight, the best possibilities for white were looking for a closed position and there his knights became very powerful resulting in a victory after a tactical mistake from his opponent. 3-0

And finally, Pere (White) closed the score against a very young but promising opponent, Julien Claude (Fleurus 2).  Whilst following theory and playing a variation that seemed fine for black, according to statistics, Pere found an interesting innovation that involved a pawn sacrifice. Julien correctly refrained from taking the pawn but fell in an underdeveloped open position against centralized knights and two strong white bishops dominating the board. Julien tried to liberate himself by letting white to destroy the structure of the pawns in front of the king but getting as compensation the pair of bishops while setting at the same time an interesting trap. Pere calmly proposed an exchange of rooks and Julien avoided it, but unfortunately for him, the trap did not work anymore and he lost a piece. Pere sacrificed a pawn in order to exchange queens and the game was over. 4-0

With this score, our team is first of its division and can envisage rising to the second division. The tournament contains 4 rounds in total.

All results and informations can be consulted in the FEFB website http://www.frbe-kbsb.be/fefb/InterCercles/12/

Pere in action

Mattias and Luis

The playing hall

]]> http://europchess.eu/?feed=rss2&p=1599 0 http://europchess.eu/?p=1592 http://europchess.eu/?p=1592#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:29:42 +0000 admin http://europchess.eu/?p=1592 Classement Final

N        Nom                            Cat       Cote     Fide     Club            Pts            P         Perf

1        Wiley Tom                  1          2292    2292    Europchess       14.0     5         2481

2        Michiels Dirk               1          2271       0       National bank   10.0     5         2080

3        Ghysels Marc              1          2168    2085    National bank   10.0     4         2259

4        Hawia Xavier              1          1800       0       National bank   9.0      5         1779

5        Denys Frank                1          1977    1867    Belgacom         8.0      5         1951

6 A    Lacrosse Marc            1          2207    2144    Belgacom         4.0      2         2093

7 A    Degembe Pierre            1          2012    2018    National bank   4.0      2         2175

8 A    Hawia Thierry              1          2050    2051    National bank   4.0      3         1931

9 A    Abrahamsen Jesper      1          1815    1915    Europchess       4.0      2         1330

10 A   De Billoez Yves            1          1978    1988    KBC                3.0      1         2535

11       Temmerman Hans         2          1753       0       National bank   15.0     5         2308

12       Van Loo Georges         2          1544    1731    Pro natura        11.0     5         1695

13       Bosschem Marc           2          1701       0       KBC                10.0     5         1640

14       Verborgh Rober           2          1546       0       Belgacom         10.0     5         1548

15 A   De Smedt Jean-Louis   2          1488       0       KBC                9.0      4         1761

16       Nica Radu-Catalin        2          1397    1637    Belgacom         9.0      5         1421

17       Vrijdagh Ilda               2          1265       0       KBC                8.0      4         1459

18       Van Den Bossche Piet  2          1500       0       KBC                7.0      4         1387

19       Janssen Wim               2          1500       0       KBC                6.0      5         1105

20       Hooybergs Jan            2          1150       0       National bank   5.0      2         1711

21 A   Sauveniere Herve         2          1471    1613    National bank   3.0      1         2006

22 A   V. D. Donckt Freddy   2          1271       0       Belgacom         1.0      1         1143

23 A   Olaerts Herman            2          1150       0       Pro natura        1.0      1         795

24 A   Rodrique Pascal           2          1380       0       National bank   0.0      0            0

A = Absent

F = Forfait

Ronde 1           20-10-2011

1        Wiley Tom                   ( 1)       -           Hawia Thierry               ( 5)       1-0

2        Degembe Pierre            ( 6)       -           Michiels Dirk                ( 2)       ½-½

3        Lacrosse Marc             ( 3)       -           Denys Frank                 ( 9)       1-0

4        Hawia Xavier               (10)      -           Ghysels Marc               ( 4)       0-1

1        Temmerman Hans         (11)      -           Verborgh Robert          (16)      1-0

2        Janssen Wim                (17)      -           Van Loo Georges         (12)      ½-½

3        Bosschem Marc           (13)      -           Van Den Bossche Piet  (18)      1-0

4        De Smedt Jean-Louis   (19)      -           Nica Radu-Catalin        (14)      1-0

5        Sauveniere Herve         (15)      -           V. D. Donckt Freddy   (21)      1-0

Abrahamsen Jesper      ( 8)       -                       Absent

De Billoez Yves            ( 7)       -                       Absent

Hooybergs Jan             (24)      -                       Absent

Olaerts Herman            (23)      -                       Absent

Rodrique Pascal           (20)      -                       Absent

Vrijdagh Ilda                (22)      -                       Absent

Ronde 2           15-12-2011

1        Lacrosse Marc             ( 3)       -           Wiley Tom                   ( 1)       0-1

2        Michiels Dirk                ( 2)       -           Hawia Thierry               ( 5)       1-0

3        Denys Frank                 ( 9)       -           Hawia Xavier               (10)      1-0

1        Bosschem Marc           (13)      -           Temmerman Hans         (11)      0-1

2        Van Loo Georges         (12)      -           De Smedt Jean-Louis   (19)      ½-½

3        Nica Radu-Catalin        (14)      -           Janssen Wim                (17)      1-0

4        Verborgh Robert          (16)      -           Vrijdagh Ilda                (22)      1-0

Abrahamsen Jesper      ( 8)       -                       Absent

De Billoez Yves            ( 7)       -                       Absent

Degembe Pierre            ( 6)       -                       Absent

Ghysels Marc               ( 4)       -                       Absent

Hooybergs Jan             (24)      -                       Absent

Olaerts Herman            (23)      -                       Absent

Rodrique Pascal           (20)      -                       Absent

Sauveniere Herve         (15)      -                       Absent

V. D. Bossche Piet       (18)      -                       Absent

V. D. Donckt Freddy   (21)      -                       Absent

Ronde 3           19-01-2012

1        Wiley Tom                   ( 1)       -           Michiels Dirk                ( 2)       1-0

2        Ghysels Marc               ( 4)       -           Denys Frank                 ( 9)       1-0

3        Hawia Thierry               ( 5)       -           Degembe Pierre            ( 6)       ½-½

4        Hawia Xavier               (10)      -           De Billoez Yves            ( 7)       0-1

5        Abrahamsen Jesper      ( 8)       -                       1 bye

1        Temmerman Hans         (11)      -           De Smedt Jean-Louis   (19)      1-0

2        Nica Radu-Catalin        (14)      -           Van Loo Georges         (12)      0-1

3        Verborgh Robert          (16)      -           Bosschem Marc           (13)      ½-½

4        Van Den Bossche Piet  (18)      -           Janssen Wim                (17)      1-0

5        Vrijdagh Ilda                (22)      -           Olaerts Herman            (23)      1-0

Hooybergs Jan             (24)      -                       Absent

Lacrosse Marc             ( 3)       -                       Absent

Rodrique Pascal           (20)      -                       Absent

Sauveniere Herve         (15)      -                       Absent

V. D. Donckt Freddy   (21)      -                       Absent

Ronde 4           08-03-2012

1        Ghysels Marc               ( 4)       -           Wiley Tom                   ( 1)       ½-½

2        Michiels Dirk                ( 2)       -           Denys Frank                 ( 9)       ½-½

3        Abrahamsen Jesper      ( 8)       -           Hawia Xavier               (10)      0-1

1        Van Loo Georges         (12)      -           Temmerman Hans         (11)      0-1

2        De Smedt Jean-Louis   (19)      -           Verborgh Robert          (16)      1-0

3        Bosschem Marc           (13)      -           Nica Radu-Catalin        (14)      1-0

4        Janssen Wim                (17)      -           Vrijdagh Ilda                (22)      0-1

5        Hooybergs Jan             (24)      -           Van Den Bossche Piet  (18)      ½-½

De Billoez Yves            ( 7)       -                       Absent

Degembe Pierre            ( 6)       -                       Absent

Hawia Thierry               ( 5)       -                       Absent

Lacrosse Marc             ( 3)       -                       Absent

Olaerts Herman            (23)      -                       Absent

Rodrique Pascal           (20)      -                       Absent

Sauveniere Herve         (15)      -                       Absent

V. D. Donckt Freddy   (21)      -                       Absent

Ronde 5           29-03-2012

1        Denys Frank                 ( 9)       -           Wiley Tom       ( 1)       0-1

2        Michiels Dirk                ( 2)       -           Ghysels Marc   ( 4)       ½-½

3        Hawia Xavier               (10)      Bye

1        Vrijdagh Ilda                (22)      -           Temmerman Hans         (11)      0-1

2        Van Loo Georges         (12)      -           Bosschem Marc           (13)      1-0

3        Van Den Bossche Piet  (18)      -           Verborgh Robert          (16)      0-1

4        Janssen Wim                (17)      -           Hooybergs Jan             (24)      0-1

5        Nica Radu-Catalin        (14)      Bye

Abrahamsen Jesper      ( 8)       -           Absent

De Billoez Yves            ( 7)       -           Absent

De Smedt Jean-Louis   (19)      -           Absent

Degembe Pierre            ( 6)       -           Absent

Hawia Thierry               ( 5)       -           Absent

Lacrosse Marc             ( 3)       -           Absent

Olaerts Herman            (23)      -           Absent

Rodrique Pascal           (20)      -           Absent

Sauveniere Herve         (15)      -           Absent

V. D. Donckt Freddy   (21)      -           Absent

In the final round of 25 March 2012, both Europchess 1 and 3 won, whereas Europchess 2 lost its only match of the season. Since it was already qualified for promotion, this did not matter much, though.

Europchess 1 hosted another local rival, namely CREB 1. On board 7, Eduardo Semanat Planas played a double fianchetto with White against Christian Thierens (1947). He exercised some pressure against two pawns on c6 and d6, but then his opponent managed to push one of them to d3 to restrain Eduardo’s game. In time trouble, however, he overlooked a tactical trick when trying to defend his advanced pawn. This cost him a rook and Eduardo won the game: 1-0 for Europchess. CREB then equalised through a win from Beksoltan Masgutov (2120) against Jenö Czuczai on board 5. After a very good opening Jeno gained better position and in the middle game he became very active and gained space advantage. Then, at the time control, Jeno overlooked a combination of his opponent, who by the way is the top scorer of CREB in this season, in an otherwise drawish endgame. Nonetheless, Jeno scored 6 points out of 11 (almost 60%) and thus he has become one of our best scorer in Europchess 1. Afterwards, Tom Wiley drew his game with Black on board two against Rafe Martyn (2264). After a complicated opening, it seems as if Black got some play against White’s King with a centrally posted queen, an active rook and a bishop vs. knight. White managed, however, to exchange the queens and attention switched to the queenside. In the ensuing rook ending, neither side could press for a win, bringing the score to 1,5-1,5. Our first board, Timothy Binham, then contributed another half-point with White against Yves Duhayon (2265). After a calm opening, Black tried to open the king side against Tim’s king. In return, White had some play on the queenside and in the centre. However, after a number of exchanges, including a black knight on g4 against a good white bishop on e3, a peace treaty was concluded (2-2). Georgi Tomov on board 3 outplayed Denis Luminet (2183) with White. In typical Georgi-style, he sacrificed a pawn for positional compensation on the queenside. His opponent tried to push back on the kingside, but due to a premature advance of the g-pawn his initiative could be stopped. Georgi then invaded Black’s position on the queenside with his two rooks, regaining his material with profit and taking the full point (3-2). On board 4, Frank Hoffmeister won with Black against Giang Nguyen Thu (2118). He equalised easily in the opening and then started a minority attack on the queenside. These efforts yielded an extra pawn on the a-file, and Frank was able to push it to a2 in White’s zeitnot. After the time control, the opponent resigned before the promotion of the pawn would have caused the loss of a full rook (4-2). In this comfortable situation, Mattias Johansson and Svetlozar Andreev finalised their black games against Paul Demoulin (1881) and Martin Müller (2071) on board 8 and 6, respectively. Mattias had survived a somewhat chaotic opening to a playable ending, where suddenly his re-connected double pawns in the centre promised him some chances. White tried to push his free pawn on the g-file, but Mattias could pocket it with careful play. In the ensuing rook ending, observers were not agreed whether Black was to win or not. Finally, the ending proved to be a draw, which also secured the full match points for us (4,5-2,5). Unfortunately, Svetlozar Andreev finally lost his game against all odds. He had played a very stable opening and created some chances on the queenside. White came under severe pressure in a queen/rook ending, and Svet was pressing for a win. Somewhat miraculously, White was able to escape with his king and all of a sudden created mating threats himself, forcing Svetlozar to resign. But as the team had already won, this turn of events was not too dramatic, after all. Europchess 1 ended on a good 5^th rank in Division 2 B and has shown that it can normally match all other teams in the division well.

In return, the second team suffered against CREB 2. As John Riksten on board 2 forfeited his game against Thierry Loir (1651), the team had to score 2,5 points in the remaining games to win. However, this was not in the cards that day. On board 4, Kristian Frederiksen took a risk to attack with Black against White’s centre and on the queenside. His opponent, Aleksander Boski (1619), started an attack on Kristian’ weakened kingside in return, which proved to be more powerful. This brought  the score to 0-2. On board 3, Luis Parreira pressed hard to win with White against Marc van de Water (1633). In a difficult middlegame, Black’s queen had stranded on a2, but the remaining pieces were unable to lock her in. So, after some simplifications, a rook ending was reached which seemed to favour White. However, when Luis entered into the pawn ending, tables turned as the pawn ending proved to be more complicated (0-3). Luckily, Jozsef Molnár on board 1 won an attacking game against Henri Winants (1798). When he organised a discovered attack on queen and rook, his opponent gave the Queen for a rook and a piece. However, this clearly did not prove enough against Jozsef who swapped off the remaining material to pocket the full point through an advance of his free pawns. Despite this 1-3 loss in the last round, the second team is promoted to the 3^rd division next year.

The third team delivered a neat 4-0 victory against Humbeek 5. On board 1, José Maria Ramos Florido played a variation with White which he knew well and which led to a balanced but tense position. When complications arrived in the middle game, his opponent Eric van Nooten (1292) was not able to defend properly. He succumbed to a fatal attack against his king who was still in the centre. Black resigned after 26 moves. Edit Kollo on board 2 finished off Arno Van Roy (1161) with Black. Edit took a long time to get her pieces into play and used almost all her thinking time for that. However, even under severe time pressure she kept cool and gained the full point by mating her opponent! Similarly, Serge Le Gal won with White against Dirk Verschuren (unrated). Serge organised a very precise pressure play against Black’s isolated d5-pawn, and for some unknown reason Black steered his knight towards a2 (!). Serge then neutralised the only potential helper (a black bishop on e6), by putting his own bishop on d4, blocking the d5-pawn. A few moves later he collected the stranded knight on a2 and won the game easily. Finally, Robert Hlep played a nice game with Black against Johan van Roy (unrated). Robert won a piece with a double attack from an advancing pawn, but White got a passed pawn on d6 as compensation. The technical phase was not easy, but Robert managed to simplify the position in his favour to bring his superior material to a full point. Europchess 3 thus ended on 5^th rank in Division 5 L, which is a very good result for a team with many newcomers.

In round 10 of 18 March 2012, Europchess 2 crowned its excellent performance this saison with a 3,5-0,5 win against Excelsior 1, thus winning Division 4 D before the final round. Europchess 1 took two matchpoints from Boitsfort 1 with a nice 5-3 win, but Europchess 3 had to give in with 0,5-3,5 against Boitsfort 4.

In Division 2 B, Boitsfort put together the strongest team they had with an average of roughly 2200 ELO. However, this did not help as Europchess 1 was equally well composed. On board 7, Pierre Fogel had Black against Michel Merten (2138). He courageously took White’s d pawn in the opening, which his opponent had offered for quick development. Pierre then consolidated his material advantage in a complicated middlegame, where he could dilute all potential tactical tricks. In the ending he was then an exchange up and pocketed the full point after roughly 3 hours of play: 0-1 for Europchess. The score was then equalised as Tim Binham had to give up on board 1 with Black against Bruno Carlier (2380). Tim played an unusual opening move, leading to a roughly unbalanced situation. However, White preserved the healthier pawn structure, which later on proved decisive for the full pawn. On boards 5 and 6 Frank Hoffmeister and Jenö Czuzcai then added two draws to the score. Frank had equalised with Black against Eric van Uytven (2170) in the opening and tried to play for the full point with active piece play. His opponent came down to 3 minutes for 12 moves, but managed to swap off almost all material. In the ensuing ending with opposite-coloured bishops and rooks, a draw was agreed. Jenö won some space against Pascal Lallemand (2162) in the opening and tried to open up the king’s side for an attack. He managed to win a pawn, but in zeitnot an unfortunate knight manouvre allowed Black to get the draw. With this 2-2, the situtation looked however, already quite promising on the remaining boards. Playing White against Thierry van Houtte (2249), Tom faced an unusual opening choice. Black gave a pawn for some positional compensation, but later on misplayed the game. Tom was thus able to plant his bishop on f6, and Black had to exchange bishops and queens to survive. This however, put Tom’s extra pawn on f6, and after a series of accurate moves in the ending, Tom brought home the full point. Attention then switched to Georgi on board 4, trying to win against Mourad de Villers (2199) in a bishop ending, where Black’s king was somewhat displaced on a5. With a nice manouvre Georgi created a passed pawn on the f-file, and when Black tried to catch him with his bishop, Georgi had a nice surprise check in reserve which led to the promotion of the pawn. Being 4-2 in the lead, we thus just needed a draw out of the remaining two games. On board 8, Svetlozar Andreev had played rather calmly in the opening, giving Denis-Emmanuale Philippe (2114) with Black easy equality. However, during the middlegame he improved the situation, and when the ending was reached White was suddenly slightly better. Svetlozar broke into the kingside and created a dangerous passed pawn on h5. However, Black countered on the queenside, and all of a sudden there was a race of free pawns and both players promoted a new queen. However, Black had another free pawn left, and when he managed to swap the queens, the knight ending looked lost for White. Indeed Svetlozar could not prevent the queening of this remaining trump, but the opponent only had 1 minute left on the clock and he did not find a way forward against the White’s king who was fervently protected by the remaining knight. When Black played an illegal move, some irritation arose and the players then agreed to a draw. This left Carl Buhr’s game against Bruno Lacroix (2224). Here, Carl had an advantage in a double-bishop ending due to advanced free pawn on a4. However, White defended well and when Carl decided to swap one pair of bishops, the ensuing single bishop ending proved to be drawn through a repetition of moves. With this 5-3 victory, Europchess moved to 5^th rank in Division 2 B.

Tim & Tom

Carl & Georgi

Frank & Jenö

Pierre & Svetlozar

The real winners of the day were the team mates of Europchess 2, though. Playing in Ganshoren against Excelsior 1, they scored a convincing 3,5-0,5 to move up to 3^rd division. On the second board, Luis Parreira won by forfeit, setting already the scene. Kristian Pade Frederiksen on board 3 delivered another win against Jacques Fontain (1508), when he could take advantage of a number of weaknesses in the White position. Mattias Johannson on board 4 also win easily against Nica Radu-Catalin (1397) with White. He controlled the centre and started a pawn’s roll which cost Black some material and later on the game. In this situation, it was less important that John Riksten conceded half a point against Luc Lambert (1864) on board 1. John’s position had equalised easily in a tame opening with Black, but later on got into a  critical position. He could, however, weaken White’s king position and get counterplay. Finally, a nice drawing combination lead to the sharing of the point. Europchess 2 has thus defended 1^st rank in Division 4 B, and thanks to 3 points advantage over the next team, its promotion to the third Division is secured already one round in advance.

In contrast, the third team had a difficult task against a strongly composed Boitsfort 4. Vladymyr Dedobbeleer on board 2 with White got into trouble in the opening against Alain Silovy (1828). When he tried to save a pawn, he lost his queen and had to give up early on. On board 3, Benjamin Musall had an equal position with Black against Bernard Lacrosse (1792), but then weakened his e6 pawn with an advance of his f-pawn. White could capitalise on this with first winning the backward pawn and then a full piece. On board 1, José Maria Ramos Florido saved a draw against Albert Frank (1911). He stood a bit passively after the opening and was worse on the clock. However, he recovered and in the ending he was already better. However, given his shortage in time he agreed to a draw, thus pocketing the half point of honour, as Bruno Gatta on board 4 lost after the time control against Christophe Cottenier (1710). Bruno had played a nice middle game and won the exchange. However, in the ending, Black’s bishop and two pawns proved to be stronger so that the finally lost the game. Europchess 3 remains on 5^th rank in Division 5 L.

José-Maria & Vladymyr

Benjamin & Bruno

In Round 9, the first team secured a draw against Namur. The second team scored a probably decisive win in Division 4 D against Woluwé 1, keeping a three-point lead for the two remaining rounds. The third team lost against Woluwé 3.

In Division 2 B, the first team met one of the strongest francophone teams, Namur, with a player average of 2206 ELO, currently ranked second in Division 2B. Tom Wiley on board defended with the Black pieces against Marc Geenen (2290) in a long theoretical variation. Although Tom lost the right to castle, the position got drawish in view of several exchanges of minor pieces, leaving only opposite-coloured bishops. The players hence concluded a peace treaty. On board 4, Frank Hoffmeister faced Luc Henris (2226) known for his aggressive gambit style. Indeed, Frank’s opponent gave a pawn in the opening for an active position with several threats against the Black’s castled King. After some haircutting complications an ending was reached, where Black still was a pawn up but had no time to capitalise on it and settled for a draw through repetition of moves. Georgi Tomov on board 3 overcame Eric Denayer (2255) in a nice game with White. When his opponent tried to seize the initiative on the king side, Georgi created serious threats, and then simplified the position with a huge positional advantage and an extra pawn. This proved sufficient to pocket the full point before the time control. 2-1 for Europchess! Jenö Czuczai on board 5 then added to this advantage with a victory over Maxime Marie (2220). In a complicated middlegame, Jenö had achieved some static space advantage on the queenside with White, while the kingside remained dynamic. He then won the exchange, but Black possessed two dangerous extra pawns in compensation. When Jenö got short of time, Black tried to “outblitz” him, not noting his moves although he had more than 30 minutes left while Jeno had only 1 minute for 5 moves. Jeno finally made the 40 moves within the time control. Then he activated one of his rooks to Black’s 7^th rank, and two moves later Black ran into a nice mating combination and gave up. Congratulations to Jeno for his nice victory, who has thus 5,5 from 9 games! 3-1 for Europchess! Our winning streak with White could have continued on board 1 with Timothy Binham. He had outplayed Julien Laurent (2331) in the opening and landed a confortable middlegame advantage with a pawn majority on the queenside which would win every ending. However, during Tim’s time trouble, Black’s queen arrived at e2, triggering Tim to engage into a repetition of moves to get to the time control. After the control, his opponent rightly claimed that the same position had arisen and the game was drawn. On board 8, Mattias Johannson got a passive position after the opening with Black against Thierry Verspecht (2075). Mattias tried to ease the pressure and seemed to have survived after the exchange of queens, but White continued to control the board with his two bishops. When he also invaded Black’s position over the open d-file, Black collapsed and had to give up, bringing the standing to 3,5 – 2,5. Pere Moles Palleja on board 7 then secured the match point with White against Ivan Werner (2085). In a very balanced position Pere first tried to win by pushing his protected passed pawn so that his rook could enter Black’s position. However, upon closer examination it showed that Black would re-win the pawn with probably even better play. Pere thus decided to go for the safest way to draw by exchanging the rooks to an equal pawn ending. In the last game, Jozsef Barta faced Victor-Angel Bolzoni (2216) with Black. After an equal opening White deflected Black’s queen with a pawn sacrifice in order to arrange a rook lift to the kingside which won the exchange. In the ensuing endgame, Jozsef tried to hold with a bishop and pawn against the rook. However, White was able to create a passed pawn which cost the bishop, bringing in the final standing to 4:4. Europchess 1 is now ranked 6^th in Division 2B.

The second team beat their closest competitors from Woluwé 1 with 2,5-1,5. On board 1, Pierre Fogel gained positional advantage after the opening against Nicolas Rauta (1989). However, rather than going for a long positional struggle, Pierre fancied with the idea of a king’s attack. Black defended accurately and settled a draw through perpetual check against Pierre’s king. Luis Parreira on board 3 contributed the second half point against Jens Frederiksen (1876). After a tense opening, the players exchanged a lot of material, and in the rook/minor piece ending none of them had the chance to push for a win, leading to a just draw. This led attention to the second board, where our top scorer Jozsef Molnar played Black against Raymond van Melsen (1926). Jozsef’s position did not look very promising after the opening, but he managed to win two pawns at the queenside later on. He simplified the position and in the ending pushing the two extra-pawns was enough to win the game, this match and probably also the season! On board 4, Kristian Pade Frederiksen completed the team’s performance with a tactical draw with Black against Colin Gilbert (1802). While Kristian had outplayed White with two connected free pawns at e3 and d3 (!), his opponent somehow held the position and managed to create threats with this queen against Kristian’s king. Falling short of time, Kristian had to give back material, and while still having better winning chances accepted a draw offer to seal the two match points. With this important win Europchess 2 is leading Division 4 D with 3 points ahead. In other words: the team only needs one match point out of the remaining two rounds to move up to Division 3.

The third team lost 1-3 against the youngsters from Woluwé 3. On board 4, Paris Sansoglou faced a tough game against Pavlos Mouratidis (1023), the only adult player in the team. White caught Paris’ bishop on the board, and with a piece down it was difficult to create counter play. Later on White increased its material advantage and mated Paris in the ending. Unfortunately, also José Maria Ramos on board 1 lost his game with White against Manolis Grigoriou (1683). José Maria’s opening was too tame to create significant problems for Black. In the beginning of his time trouble José Maria then lost a pawn and when Black invaded his second rank with a rook the position got hard to defend. With a 0-2 in the back Sergio Serrano Samper and Jeremy Rand tried their best to bring Europchess 3 back into the match. Sergio seemed to have achieved this when a repulsed an attack to his king from Christos Mouratidis (1340) at the second board, and arrived at a double rook ending with two pawns up. However, due to a lack of concentration, he ran into some sort of “self-mate” which cost him a full rook. Luckily though, White did not find the best continuation either and thanks to a passed pawn and very bad position of White’s king, a draw through perpetual check was the final result. As the match was thus lost, Jeremy Rand agreed to draw his ending against Daniel Gomez (1310). Jeremy had played a calm opening with White with full equality on the board. Both players then exchanged almost all pieces except a pair of knights and pawns on both wings. While either player could have gone after the opponent’s pawns with unclear play to follow, they both preferred to keep the situation stable. Europchess 3 is now in the middle of Division 5 L.

TEAM RANKING

Round 1 (21/11/2011)

KBC – NATIONAL BANK  : 13-33 (5-18 8-15)

BELGACOM – EUROPCHESS : 18-30 (9-15 9-15)

Round 2 (16/02/2012)

NATIONAL BANK – BELGACOM : 24-24 (12-12 12-12)

EUROPCHESS – KBC : 34-14 (18-6 16-8)

NLS 1 – Europchess 1: 6-2

For Interclubs Round 8 on 12 February, Europchess 1 travelled to Lommel in North Limburg to play against NLS.  NLS started the day at the bottom of Division 2B, and were highly motivated to score some match points and move out of relegation danger.  NLS had an edge for most of the afternoon, and after some closely fought games the final score was a 6-2 defeat for Europchess. The first game to finish was on Board 5.  Jozsef Barta, with Black against Jan Lagrain, needed to get back to Brussels as early as possible, and was thus obliged to play his moves faster than he might have liked.  The players castled on opposite sides, and Lagrain found it easier to manoeuvre his pieces because of Jozsef’s blockaded centre pawns.  Jozsef defended stubbornly until the time control, but by that stage the White pressure was too strong.  1-0 for NLS. On Board 2, Tom Wiley had White against Jelle Sarrau.  Tom gained a space advantage from the opening, but Sarrau organised his pieces effectively and arranged a freeing pawn break.  Tom was obliged to liquidate most of the pieces and pawns.  The resulting position was a rook and minor piece ending with four pawns against four on the same side of the board, so a draw was agreed.  The score became 1.5-0.5. On Board 1, Timothy Binham, with Black against Nils Nijs, sacrificed a pawn for long-term pressure on the queen-side.  Tim followed up with a pawn break in the centre, but made an incorrect recapture after underestimating his opponent’s best response.  Compensation for the pawn evaporated, and Black’s position gradually became untenable.  2.5-0.5 to NLS. Jeno Czuczai and his Board 4 opponent, Yordi Schaeken (2156), played in an English opening almost symmetrically for the first twenty moves.  Then Jeno mobilised his centre pawns, gained space advantage and put huge pressure on his opponent’s Queen side, which Schaeken was simply unable to follow suit.  White had a significant advantage after three hours of play, gained a pawn in the middle game, but in the long time scramble made a mistake because Jeno exchanged two moves: at move 29 instead of taking the d5 pawn simple by  his c pawn (which would have given almost an automatic endgame with victory for Jeno (see: analysis on the miniature), Jeno took the pawn (since he had just less than 1 minute for 9 moves) with the knight, and thus   Schaeken was able to sacrifice the exchange on d5 in order to drive Jeno’s king in front of its own pawns.  This was the very last trick of Schaeken in fact in a lost game, since Jeno’- king after that could not be saved, and the score became 3.5-0.5 for the home team.

Very unfortunate defeat, a game in which Jeno simply outplayed his opponent that was also admitted by him after the game. Eduardo Semanat Planas played with Black on Board 7 against Albert Schenning.  With original play, Eduardo managed to unbalance the position; White had a protected passed pawn on d5 whereas Black had his own protected passed pawn on e4.  Both players tried to dominate open lines on the king-side, and Eduardo had to jettison pawns in order to stay active.  After tranposition to a queen endgame, White seemed to have a winning advantage, but Eduardo kept his queen sufficiently active to force a draw by perpetual check.  4-1 for NLS. Mattias Johansson played very solidly with White against Wessel Van Kessel on Board 8  White’s neater pawn formation was balanced by the activity of Black’s minor pieces in the centre.  Neither player could find a way to create winning chances, so the game was agreed drawn, making the score 4.5-1.5. Georgi Tomov, with Black on Board 3 against Roy Schoemans, once again had the chance to show off his rook endgame skills.  In a single-rook endgame with a slightly better pawn structure, Georgi pressed for a long time.  Schoemans, however, defended actively and both sides created connected passed pawns.  The position of the kings meant that neither set of pawns could force its way through to promotion, and the inevitable exchange of pawns meant that a draw was agreed.  5-2. For the first three hours of play Pierre Fogel, playing White on Board 6 against Bobby Fijlstra, seemed to be on the way to victory.  His queen-side play was much faster than Fijlstra’s counter on the king-side, and he gained the structural advantage of a protected passed pawn on d5 against a weak isolated pawn on b7.  In the run-up to the time control, however, Fijlstra found a nice queen sacrifice that allowed him to create protected passed pawns on the seventh rank.  Play then moved into an endgame where Fijlstra had an extra piece and then, after this piece was sacrificed for two pawns, to a pawn ending where both players needed to calculate long variations.  Finally Pierre’s passed pawn was caught by the Black king, whereas the White king could not capture either of the remaining Black pawns without allowing the other to queen.  Hence the final score was 6-2 in favour of NLS.

Caissa Europe 3 – Europchess 2: 0-4

The second team, leader of division 4 D, played in Mons/Jemappes against Caissa Europe 3, ranked 9 before the round, and made a clean sweep of it: 4-0! Since the main contender for overall first place in the division, CREB 2, surprisingly lost ground by losing 1½-2½ to number 10, Opwijk 2, Europchess 2 took a big step towards third division this Sunday. The second team is now three match points clear of Woluwe 1 in second place. But nothing is decided yet, and focus is more than ever needed for the remaining three rounds in which at least three match points, and possibly even four, are needed to secure first place. Of course, the next match at home against Woluwe 1 is crucial! Serge Le Gal (1792) playing White against Kyriakos Pitropakis (1601) succeeded in untangling from a somewhat uncomfortable position in the opening by exchanging queens and giving a pawn for clear positional compensation (superior minor pieces). When Serge’s opponent let him regain the sacrificed pawn and was unable to prevent Serge’s king from invading Black’s position, there wasn’t much doubt anymore about the final result, and it was all over fairly quickly after that: 1-0. Kristian Pade Frederiksen (1937) played Black against Johan Cloes (1631). White played a gambit, which is considered dubious by theory, but dangerous in practical play. Black fended off White’s initiative fairly easily and had reached the safe haven of an endgame a pawn up for nothing substantial when two indecisive moves squandered most of Black’s advantage. However, White made the error of bashing out moves quickly in his opponent’s time trouble and was outplayed, losing two pawns: 2-0. Jozsef Molnar (2131) played Black against Benoit Wery (1859). White played very passively, and Jozsef equalised without too many problems, except for using up a lot of time on the clock. Luckily, his opponent used up even more time! In a big scramble in the run up to the first time control, Jozsef finally got the upper hand when he was able to decisively weaken the pawn shelter of White’s king. The final touch to the game was an innocuous looking queen retreat by Jozsef, containing the threat of a simple knight fork, winning White’s queen. With seconds remaining on the clock, White completely missed this and duly resigned: 3-0. John Riksten (2075) had the white pieces against Thorsten Muxfeldt (1854). After the opening, the game was level, when Black tactically misjudged and played an otherwise positionally desirable d6- d5 pawn break. The pawn was lost, and John conducted the ensuing heavy piece, double rook and rook endgames confidently, wrapping up the game with a nice zugzwang situation in which Black chose to resign rather than losing further material with depressing positional prospects: 4-0.

Deux Fous Diogene 2 – Europchess 3

On the 3rd board, Sergio first defeated Audrey  Hecq (not rated) with Black. In a king pawn opening, the 20th move revealed to be fatal for Whites, after a strong attack on their King’s fianchetto, addressed by his two bishops and the knight. White was obliged to put his Queen in front of the King to avoid mate and thus lost her, just before losing also the bishop, and then giving up (1-0). On board 1 Luis with black replied with the Dragon variation of the Sicilian against Bertrand Collignon (1635). Instead of playing f3, as in the typical yugoslavian attack, to protect the black sqares bishop, his opponent played g3 followed by Queen to d2 which got the bishop trapped for an exchange for the knight blocking the Dragon bishop. With no possibility to neutralize the Dragon bishop and white castled in the Queen side, the Yugoslavian attack from white was doom for failure while everything was open for an attack to the white fortress. At the right moment, black exchanged his Dragon bishop for getting a position in which black was to win two pawns without Queens and knights on the board, the white king hanging in front of the two black rooks and the rest of white pawns isolated. White was forced under this position to abandon (2-0). Vladymyr on board 2 played an English opening against Mikaël Brouwers (1553). After an equilibrated start and some exchange of pieces, Black quite early, at 19th move offered draw, but White refused since the opponent was weaker (on paper) and so far the position was still good and worthwhile to play on. But White had later some weakness in the centre with a backward a2 pawn providing problems in the defense. The pressure became too hard and Black managed to gain material which he converted into a win (2-1). On the last board Benjamin faced the young and unpredictable Zakariya Kassabeh (not rated), who played Sicilian defense. Black first lost a knight, and managed to castle only at move 19. But just afterwards White created an important passed pawn. The rest was just a question of patience and of exchange of pieces to simplify the game, although Benjamin always had to pay attention to some hidden threats from his opponent. But finally, he finished with a nice mate combination (3-1).