Chess News

Malcolm Pein on…The Dutch Delight

Malcolm Pein

February 16, 2021

Malcolm Pein returns to his coverage of the Tata Steel Masters in today’s Daily Telegraph chess column.

The tournament had a surprise winner and today’s game shows him in powerful action.

Malcolm Pein on…The Dutch Delight

Jorden van Foreest was the surprise star act at the Tata Steel Masters, becoming the first Dutch winner of their famous super-tournament at Wijk aan Zee for 36 years. The 21-year-old remained undefeated and picked the right opponents to target.

Against Aryan Tari, he eschewed the standard 5…b5 or 5…Nf6 for 5…Nge7!?, an unusual hybrid against the Ruy Lopez of the …Bc5 lines and the Cozio, 3…Nge7.

A. Tari – J. Van Foreest

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Bc5 5.0-0 Nge7!? 6.c3 (6.Nxe5 Nxe5 7.d4 b5 should be OK for Black, and if 8.Bb3 Bxd4! 9.Qxd4 d6 10.f4 c5) 6…Ba7 7.d4 Ng6 8.Bg5 f6 9.Be3 0-0 10.d5 (Tempting, but the restrained 10.Re1 d6 11.Nbd2 Kh8 12.h3 supplied an edge in Dominguez Perez-Nabaty, Netanya 2019) 10…Nce7 11.Bxa7 Rxa7 12.d6 (Otherwise Black would obtain attractive play on the kingside after …d6 and …f5) 12…cxd6 13.Qxd6 b5! 14.Bb3+ Kh8 15.a4 Rb7 16.axb5 Rb6 17.Qd1 axb5

The opening has gone like a dream for Black. He is set to break with …d5 or …f5 and attack on the kingside, and even 18.Ra8!? Nf4 19.Nbd2 d5 20.exd5 Nexd5 leaves him actively placed. 18.Nbd2 Bb7 19.c4 f5 20.Bc2? (20.c5 Rbf6 21.Bc2 Nf4 22.g3 Nh3+ 23.Kg2 is how the computer wants to defend, but a human would be most worried about such a king position and 23…d5!? looks rather scary) 20…fxe4 21.Ng5 Nf5 22. Ngxe4 Nf4 (Storm clouds gather above the white king) 23.Nf3 bxc4 24.Nxe5 Nd4 (Exploiting the potential fork on e2. 24…Qh4 is also very tempting) 25.Re1 Nxc2 26.Qxc2 Re6!

Strong Pressure

The pressure down the e-file wins material, as if 27.Nxc4 d5 28.Rad1 Qh4 or 27.Nf3 Nd3 (27…Nxg2!? 28.Kxg2 Rg6+ is also on). 27.Qc3 Qe7 28.Ra5 d6 29.Ng5 Rxe5 30.Raxe5 dxe5 31.Rxe5 Qf6 32.Qc2 Nd3 0-1

While Van Foreest did have to ride his luck in the resulting play-off with Anish Giri, the tournament tie-break rules determined that only those two would have played off for the title even had Alireza Firouzja joined them on 8.5/13. Such knowledge cannot have helped the 17-year-old sensation and, in the end, he wasn’t able to finish off Radoslaw Wojtaszek.

Final scores: 1-2 Van Foreest, Giri 8.5, 3-5 Esipenko, Caruana, Firouzja 8, 6 Carlsen 7.5,
7 Harikrishna 6.5.

Time now to move on from the Dutch delight and to try and find the winning move in the position.

Test Your Strength

G. Flear – L. McShane
Caplin Hastings Online 2021

How did Black force resignation?

Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answer.

1…f5+! 0-1 Winning a piece, as if 2.Bxf5 h5+! 3.Kg5 f6+ 4.Kxh5 Nxf5.

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes