Admiral Jobava Fires His Cannons In Vlissingen

He was the top seed by a small margin, but won convincingly. On Saturday, GM Baadur Jobava of Georgia finished in clear first place at the Hogeschool Zeeland tournament in Vlissingen, half a point ahead of Dutch IM Jorden van Foreest.

It was already the 21st edition of the annual Dutch summer tournament in Vlissingen, a city in the southwestern Netherlands. As the birthplace of the famed Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, it played a role in the recent movie with the same title.

The film tells the story of De Ruyter, one of most skilled admirals in Dutch history, most famous for his role in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century. Vlissingen remembers De Ruyter with a statue of the great man.

Michiel de Ruyter (1607-1676). | All photos by Ad Bruijns and Frans Peeters. 

There were no Anglo-Dutch wars in Vlissingen this year; among the 242 participants there was not a single player from the UK. Behind top seed GM Baadur Jobava (2664), the Dutch pride was defended by the second seed GM Loek van Wely — who wouldn't finish as the best Dutchman.

Other strong participants were GM Konstantin Landa of Russia, who won the tournament in 2011, and GM Michal Krasenkow of Poland, who had won the tournament four times already: in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2014!

Jobava was not only the highest-rated player, but also the most skilled admiral in the battlefield. The Georgian GM started with three relatively easy wins against amateur players, then drew twice and finished the crucial part of the tournament with four more wins.

A key game was in round eight against Dutch GM Sipke Ernst, when he opened with one of his favorite sidelines: 1.b3. After many adventures, Jobava reached a double rook ending with an extra pawn, but Ernst kept on fighting. On move 55, Black missed an important detail.

Strong GMs kibitzing about the rook ending.

It was only with this game that Jobava became the sole leader of the tournament, with one round to go. Six players were chasing him with a half-point less.

One of them was GM Elshan Moradiabadi of Iran. He was given the task to give his best, with the white pieces, against Admiral Jobava. White's position looked promising after the opening, but Jobava held on with some interesting rook maneuvers.

On move 21 Moradiabadi decided to get his cannon ready, and maneuvered his queen to a1, creating a Qa1-Bc3 battery. Jobava countered and put a Qh8-Bg7 cannon in place. It was there when the Iranian missed a good chance.

The cannons were fired, a more or less equal ending appeared on the board, and then Moradiabadi lost the thread and Jobava showed his skills.

Moradiabadi vs Jobava, round nine, board one.

Second came 16-year-old IM Jorden van Foreest, a talented Dutch player who won the European U14 championship in October 2013. His rating is already above 2500, but so far he only scored a norm over eight games at the 2015 Aeroflot Open.

Both in Vlissingen and in the Open Dutch Championship in Dieren (held just before Vlissingen), Van Foreest's performance rating was above 2600, but he didn't meet the other norm requirements. His GM title will only be a matter of time.

Cannons along Vlissingen beach.

GM Loek van Wely started with 4.5/5 (one draw against a Dutch player called Miguoel Admiraal!) but then lost to Chinese IM Wan Yunguo, and he would lose a second game in the final round as well:

2015 Hogeschool Zeeland | Final Standings (Top 25)

(Full final standings here.)