The Youth Olympiad will start on Sunday 13 August, but a round-robin tournament with 10 women players has started on Thursday 10 August already (with a bang!). This so-called ‘Open World Dutch Women TOP 10 Championship 2023’ – yes that’s quite a mouthful – is a side or even ‘crown’ event next to the Youth Olympiad.
In his short opening speech before the round Niels Cannegieter (tournament director of the Youth Olympiad) warmly welcomed the players and expressed his wish that they would inspire all the chess talents that will be arriving in Eindhoven soon from 50 countries all over the world. A few moments later the rules concerning no draws by agreement before move 40 where clarified by the arbiters. At the end of round 1 it is clear that the women are indeed here in Eindhoven to fight and to inspire. Five games led to just as many decisive results!
The first game to finish was Petra Papp (Hungary)-Trisha Kanyamarala (Ireland). In a kind of Nimzo-Catalan Petra sacrificed a pawn for an attack on the kingside. An ambitious but admittedly risky strategy. Trisha held on to the extra pawn and, combined with some positional trumps, she had the luxury to ignore a piece sacrifice on h6, landing an octopus on d3 instead. Petra tried what she could, but it must be said that Trisha defended and countered very accurately.
Alicja Sliwicka (Poland) played with white against Anastasia Avramidou (Greece). In a fairly quiet Ruy Lopez Alicja had a slight but pleasant advantage until she decided to throw how her h-pawn forward on move 11. Anastasia rightly took the pawn, and when Alicja made an unlucky 13th move she was in a for an unpleasant afternoon. The game lasted until move 50, but the result was not in doubt.
A Sicilian Taimanov between Josefine Heinemann (Germany) and Robin Duson (the Netherlands) led to a balanced endgame with two rooks and a white-coloured bishop each after move 40. Duson could boast that all her pawns where placed on the opposite colour of her bishop. Heinemann could rightly argue that she had more space and was the only one with an active plan (either g4-g5 or perhaps even b3-b4). Things went in Josefine’s favour after 42…g5 and especially 48…hxg5 (instead of 48…fxg5). White infiltrated via the h-file and converted her edge.
Marta Garcia Martin (Spain) was always a bit better against Machteld van Foreest (the Netherlands) in a French Advance Variation. Around move 30 White had a clear extra pawn and some of those typical positional advantages that you ideally obtain against the French. Machteld tried to complicate matters and this spurred Marta on to a fine finish. Please note that 52…Nxd3 fails to 53.Rxg3! with the neat point that 53…Rh7 loses after 54.Rg8+ followed by 55.Rg7+.
Marsel Efroimski (Israel) and Laura Unuk (Slovenia) were the last to finish their game. A Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5 ultimately led to the Short Variation which usually only arises after 3…Bf5. In an complicated middlegame Marsel managed to obtain a slight advantage, but her advantage on the clock was much larger. At this point it was clear that Laura would have to take some crucial decisions later on with almost no time left. Something she actually managed to do quite well. Trading queens on move 24 spoilt a large part of White’s advantage (the safety of Black’s king was now no longer an issue). The double rook ending was hardly anything for White, but Marsel’s time advantage gave her clear practical chances. Eventually a sharp single rook ending ensued where only on move 56 Laura made a decisive mistake that lost her the half point that should have been hers on fighting spirit. Marcel Duchamp already said that ‘Chess is a violent sport’.
