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Then
in the early afternoon departure to Wijk, we missed the start of the
penultimate round – our morning discussion had dragged on a
little longer than intended.
In front of the Corus poster:
Ralf Binnewirtz and
Bob van de Velde |
There was only limited time to observe the tournament events including
the supporting programme as our regional KWA meeting together with the
book market took up the main part of the afternoon. Nevertheless we have
brought numerous snapshots of the playing hall, a selection is compiled
here in two galleries: Gallery
I / Gallery
II (25 + 23 photos). In the penultimate round many players were obviously
very highly tense, some wandered restlessly about the playing area ...
A
view of the playing area |
An additional gallery
(17 photos) will illuminate our internal meeting which took place in the
commentary tent. After a short flying visit two Dutch members (Jan van
Reek and Hans Engberts) were no longer present but nevertheless we still
counted considerable 11 members (Ralf Binnewirtz, Bert Corneth, bernd
ellinghoven, Calle Erlandsson, Gunnar Finnlaugsson, Guy van Habberney,
Michael Negele, Henri Serruys, Per Skjoldager, Jurgen Stigter, Bob van
de Velde), in addition the Swedish chess journalist Lars Grahn had joined
in as a guest.
Small
board meeting after the book market; not in the picture: (photographer)
Michael Negele and Bert Corneth. |
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Subsequent
to our discussion we could only just attend the final presentation
of the first "Corus Endgame Studies Day", about that a short
picture
series (8 photos) as well. As a complete surprise, 18-year-old
Dutchman Twan Burg could win first prize in the solving contest, even
outdistancing quite clearly the favourite GM John Nunn and other crack
solvers (see also the short
report by Yochanan Afek on the Corus web site).
On
the left: the booklet on the composing tourney (printed by -be- à
aix-la-chapelle) |
Another visit of the playing hall was Michael Negele’s "undoing"
as his mobile phone rang unexpectedly (he was convinced to have turned
it off). Of course the arbiter was immediately on the spot and Michael
was forced to give a donation – whole 10 € went into the fine
pot.
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No
mobile phones! – The chief arbiter with the "Boetepot"
(1st time: € 10 – 2nd time: € 25 –
3rd time: you are sent off the hall!) |
The
receipt made out to Michael |
At the close of the day the still present hard core of eight participants
went to dine in the nearby Horse Club restaurant:
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Still
sitting there without a drink ... (on the right Lars Grahn)
At the next table in the background Vassily Ivanchuk,
a little better visible in the enlarged detail below. |
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Vassily
Ivanchuk’s result in this elite tournament (11th place in the
end) was quite sad, on this penultimate day as well he could –
with the white pieces – hold Dominguez only to an early draw. |
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At
this table the idea was born for a new Icelandic
book project (to be finished in 2010) –
hopefully it will not remain an idea only. |
View of the other end of the table: finally Per Skjoldager and
Michael Negele are caught in a photo too!
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The
final group photo in front of the "Horse Club"
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