13-year-old Nyzhnyk wins Groningen Open; Timman beats Van Kampen 2.5-1.5

This year's Groningen Chess Festival saw a sensational victory of 13-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk (Ukraine), who finished clear first, a full point ahead of GMs Reinderman and Werle. In the match between a former Junior Champion and the reigning Junior Champion, Jan Timman beat Robin van Kampen 2.5-1.5. Big, pictorial and video report.

The Groningen Chess Festival took place December 18-30 in Groningen, The Netherlands. There were several open tournaments; in the top group a total of 64 players participated (13 GMs, 13 IMs and 11 FMs). Besides, this year's festival included a match between GM Jan Timman, Dutch Junior Champion in 1966 when he was 14 years old, and Robin van Kampen, who won the Junior Championship this year, at the same age.

Video report

Before continuing with the pictorial report, I'll first give the video report below. The organizers tell about their tournament and also about its long tradition; the video includes footage from the 1946 tournament in Groningen!




The Timman-Van Kampen match was quite exciting and attracted a lot of attention from the participants in the open groups. The board was nicely placed in the centre of the venue, with a Christmas tree and a demonstration board behind the players.



The match started smoothly for Timman, who exchanged queens in game 1 for a better ending which he won easily. In a difficult, queenless middlegame Timman was the first to err in game 2 and after many more complications, Van Kampen managed to level the score.

In the same Slav variation as in the first game, Van Kampen turned up much better prepared for game 3. He had looked at the line together with Anish Giri and many other young Dutch talents, who all stayed together in 'hotel ship' De Mars, a boat located in the city center. The game was drawn after 32 moves.



Game 4 was again very interesting; in a Kan Sicilian Timman invited his young opponent to sacrifice his queen and Van Kampen accepted the invitation. Soon Timman had to give back his own queen, but also in the ending the position remained sharp. When Van Kampen missed his last chance (30.b4) the game and the match was over; Timman had won 2.5-1.5.

Timman-Van Kampen match 2009 | Results


In the Open group Dimitri Reinderman was leading with 4 out of 4 during the rest day (Christmas Day). In the next round the Dutch grandmaster dropped his first half point, to 13-year-old IM Ilya Nyzhnyk. This was the turning point in the tournament.

In round 6, Reinderman and Giri drew quickly, and so did Greenfeld and Werle on board 2 and Nijboer and Swinkels on 3. Nyzhnyk beat Ernst with the black pieces and the next round the Ukrainian super-talent defeated Chadaev. While his rivals prevented each other from winning the tournament, Nyzhnyk finished strongly with a draw against Werle and a last-round win against Deviatkin. Sipke Ernst, quite a strong grandmaster himself, said about Nyznyk: "He was just playing with us. I haven't seen this since Carlsen crushed everyone in Corus C."



Winning in Groningen undefeated with 7.5/9 and a 2741 performance rating is an amazing result for a 13-year-old. It was Nyzhnyk's second grandmaster norm - his first was scored already in April 2008 when he won the Nabokov Memorial in Kyiv, Ukraine. At the moment of writing Nyzhnyk is 13 years, 3 months and 7 days old and so chances are high he'll become the youngest grandmaster in the world somewhere in 2010.

Groningen Open 2009 | Final Standings (top 40)

No. Name                Score WP   SB     PS    rat.  TPR  W-We
---------------------------------------------------------------
 1. Nyzhnyk, Illya      7.5  48.5  40.00  38.0  2494 2741 +2.75
 2. Werle, Jan          6.5  53.0  36.75  35.5  2565 2670 +1.28
    Reinderman, Dimitri 6.5  52.0  36.75  37.5  2575 2662 +1.11
 4. Chadaev, Nikolai    6.0  50.0  30.00  32.0  2567 2555 -0.03
    Greenfeld, Alon     6.0  48.5  31.00  32.0  2559 2571 +0.23
    Nijboer, Friso      6.0  47.0  29.50  32.5  2561 2545 -0.12
    Brandenburg, Daan   6.0  46.5  30.75  32.0  2481 2573 +1.22
    Baklan, Vladimir    6.0  46.5  30.75  30.0  2655 2549 -1.04
    Giri, Anish         6.0  45.5  29.00  32.0  2585 2582 +0.04
    Deviatkin, Andrei   6.0  45.0  28.00  29.0  2608 2503 -0.82
    Poetsch, Hagen      6.0  36.5  23.75  26.5  2361 2410 +0.70
12. Ernst, Sipke        5.5  46.0  26.50  26.5  2587 2432 -1.55
    Meijers, Viesturs   5.5  46.0  26.00  28.5  2488 2456 -0.29
    Kleijn, Christov    5.5  46.0  25.50  28.0  2383 2461 +0.99
    Pruijssers, Roeland 5.5  44.5  24.75  26.5  2413 2434 +0.35
    Saravanan, V        5.5  44.0  24.75  29.5  2356 2499 +1.78
    Podzielny,Karl-Heinz5.5  42.0  21.50  28.0  2456 2425 -0.18
    Hoffmann, Michael   5.5  40.5  23.25  27.0  2509 2365 -1.47
    Caspi, Israel       5.5  40.0  20.75  26.0  2423 2402 -0.09
20. Swinkels, Robin     5.0  47.5  25.25  31.5  2500 2484 -0.16
    Bok, Benjamin       5.0  47.0  23.50  29.0  2337 2523 +2.14
    Kantans, Toms       5.0  43.5  20.75  24.5  2281 2486 +2.30
    Popilski, Gil       5.0  42.5  20.00  26.0  2441 2394 -0.49
    Pijpers, Arthur     5.0  42.5  18.75  23.0  2201 2366 +1.86
    Wiel van der, John  5.0  41.0  21.50  25.0  2475 2373 -1.10
    Berkovich, Mark A   5.0  37.5  17.50  23.5  2406 2283 -1.30
    Groenewold,Jan Joris5.0  36.0  18.00  18.5  2145 2313 +1.96
28. Grover, Sahaj       4.5  43.5  18.75  26.0  2372 2429 +0.72
    Heemskerk, Wim      4.5  40.5  17.50  21.5  2236 2320 +0.94
    Klein, David        4.5  40.5  16.75  21.5  2262 2364 +1.14
    Bijlsma, Nick       4.5  39.5  17.50  20.0  2075 2255 +1.98
    Afek, Yochanan      4.5  39.5  16.75  21.5  2285 2330 +0.39
    Hoeksema, Erik      4.5  38.0  17.00  22.5  2331 2233 -1.14
    Paulet, Iozefina    4.5  37.5  12.00  20.0  2312 2217 -1.07
    Haast, Anne         4.5  33.5  14.25  19.0  2251 2229 -0.34
36. Burg, Twan          4.0  48.5  21.00  25.5  2460 2340 -1.34
    Genova, Lyubka      4.0  45.0  19.50  21.0  2263 2317 +0.57
    Genov, Petar        4.0  44.5  17.75  26.5  2476 2299 -1.98
    Piasetski, Leon     4.0  39.0  14.75  18.5  2269 2238 -0.48
    Donker, Roel        4.0  38.0  16.50  20.5  2140 2259 +1.13

Timman-Van Kampen & all of Nyzhnyk's games for replay

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Timman - Van Kampen | Open