Dutch Open 2011 - Days 3 & 4

The round under way

"...no one on earth has solved it unless he was taught by me. I have never learnt that there was anyone before, for if anyone had solved it, he would either have written down the solution, or have taught it to someone else.
This is the word of as-Suli."
as-Suli, the best player in the world around 900 AD, on a problem he composed

Round 3

A bad day for us, scoring just 0.5/3. Junta's opponent GM Vladimir Georgiev played a nice exchange sacrifice right after the opening which quickly developed into a crushing attack; Moulthun lost to GM Yuri Vovk after sacking the f-pawn for a single 1-move tactic which simply failed, and he was losing in each and every conceivable endgame; and Andrew sacrificed two pawns in the opening for positional compensation in his game, but he could only manage a draw in the end.

Polysport, where we are staying is a sports catering/accommodation place, and there are tennis courts, a volleyball net, hockey fields and a tennis table literally right outside our cabin, among others.

Non-chess play of the day: Ly-Brown

Round 4

Moulthun beat his younger opponent weaving a mating net, getting to 2.5/4; Junta played his third GM in a row, where he seemed to have two promising attacking moves at move 40 as White (with many observers watching in anticipation), but blundered a piece instead and lost (now on 2/4); while Andrew (also getting to 2/4) scored the chess play of the day (week), his opponent after the game sportingly telling him that he hoped the game wins a prize.

22.Qxe4!! and the next diagram is Andrew as White to play move 28:

He found a very nice forced mate in 9 - see if you can do the same (solution below can be seen by highlighting all text).

28.Re8+ Kg7 29.Rxf7+ Kh6 30.Nf5+! [30.f5+ Kh5 31.Rxh7+ Kg4 32.Re4+ Rxe4 33.h3+ Qxh3] 30...Kh5 [30...gxf5 31.Re6+ Kh5 32.Rxh7+ Kg4 33.Rg6#] 31.Rxh7+ Kg4 32.Nh6+ Kh4 33.Ng8+ Kg4 34.Nf6+ Kf5 35.g4+ Kxf6 36.Re6# 1-0

(show chess board)(hide chess board)

For Round 5 tomorrow (9pm Sydney time), Moulthun's game will be shown live.