Van Foreest grabs the pole position – or study your endings and eat your greens, kids!

Tapani Sammalvuo
tapani@sammalvuo.fi

The seventh was again the second round of a double-round day, which seems to be a trigger for some short draws. Today’s top game Fedorchuk–V.Mikhalevski ended peacefully in a known theoretical position of Open Spanish.

There was a little more fight in the game between GM Robby Kevlishvili and GM Bartłomiej Heberla, but their Neo-Møller Ruy Lopez always appeared to be in balance.

If the round had a theme, it would be endgame technique and, perhaps, the lack of thereof. GM Lucas van Foreest won a drawn pawn endgame against IM Jung Min Seo. We join the game after White’s 81^st move.

 

The Fenno-Ugric encounter between IM Mikael Agopov and GM Gábor Nagy was cut short just when the things were about to get interesting. This game started as a Neo-Møller too and to my eyes Black’s position looked riskier than White’s in the final position.

There were various other games that were decided in the ending. GM Héðinn Steingrímsson ground out a win in an equal rook and knight endgame against IM Pekka Köykkä. The following position arose after White’s 28^th move.

 

For a long time, FM Jari Järvenpää and IM Vilka Sipilä seemed to be heading for a solid draw, but in the diagram position Black had achieved some activity. The position was still a draw, of course.

Later, White reached the following drawn endgame position.

 

If the reader still isn’t convinced of the importance of the endgame play, the round offers additional study material in the form of the games Pohjala–Keinänen, Rönkä–Korpa, Karttunen–Luukkonen, A.Mikhalevski–Lehtosaari and Tiitta–Niemi. I want to stress that I myself wouldn’t have necessarily done any better. But do study your endings. And eat the greens!