Nothing is ever simple for VAS1. Despite a solid line-up that should have allowed dreams of promotion, VAS has navigated through treacherous rivers all year long, barely keeping its head above water. Simply said, before starting this 8th round, VAS needed a win against our eternal arch-rival enemies, Caissa, to keep hopes alive. Caissa, to our absolute horror, has played extremely well this season, fighting for top honors (even drawing the stacked Haarlem team).
As luck would have it, our distant Floridian cousin, GM Pascal Charbonneau, was in the neighborhood that weekend. With a little convincing, he decided to forego his previous plans of mastering bitterballen cooking for a more noble pursuit. Also joining was IM Toni Lazov who was eager to participate in his first Dutch event. With these reinforcements, optimism was rampant within the troops.
On first board, Pascal was facing an upcoming talent. After a dubious opening where white seemed to be all over the board, Pascal went to work. The recipe? Sack a couple of pawns for uncertain play, mimic Trump’s tariffs by causing complete chaos, attack-attack-attack, bully your opponent and collect the dividends. I don’t know how he does it. He doesn’t either. Another chess point. But his cooking still sucks.
On second board, Toni played a rare variation in the French defense, but quickly obtained a large positional advantage after black opened up the king side. A clean win for the smiling Macedonian to get us ahead.
Elsewhere things were also going smoothly:
Tex got the type of position that makes Greek gods tremble. More space and more active pieces. “Kramnik-like” was how Pascal described it. From my lowly perspective, it was just a positional bullying. He finished it off without trembling. Don’t be fooled by the funny TV persona. The man is a covert silent killer and he’s coming for your lunchbox.
Ramon deserves an article for himself. The ever-energetic FM has been stellar all year long and got a chance to fight for an IM norm. IM Afek was the target of the operation. As black and needing a win, Ramon got a small advantage out of an innocuous opening. He nursed that advantage into a winning endgame and just before collecting his dues, fell for a stalemate tactic. Heartbreaking for him, but it’s just partie-remise: too much talent and too much chess class to be denied for long.
Anton faced legend GM Hans Ree in what seemed to be a very correct, very normal game that petered out to a draw.
Hilke was taking on FM Bezemer, who legend has it, has a long history of tormenting / battering VAS players. The new dad was unfazed and decided to be creative in the opening, a decision which seemed to backfire. A pawn was soon lost (or sacked?). Bezemer leading with positional dominance. Soon to be winning. Yet, when I came back to the board, our suave playboy was up a piece in the endgame. Which petered down to a draw. Too much spice for me.
Job remains a mystery to me. Calm, sound, patient. Flies under the radar, but always present when the team needs a point. From a sad opening position, he managed to slowly gain the upper hand, followed by a tactic, and a clean technical win. How? Stop asking questions and enjoy the show.
What more can we say about Daan? Stacking up victory after victory all year long, he’s been an incredible addition to VAS and gaining a reputation as a relentless tactician. This time he didn’t get much out of the opening against Croese. Couldn’t muster up a middle-game initiative. No kingside attack. So? Daan don’t care. Daan wins anyway.
Sierk plays a different game than all of us. “Correct” is the term I’d use. You’ll never see him play Bxh7 but you’ll also never see him get into an unsound positional line. This time he reversed a dubious position and got a winning endgame advantage after a few skirmishes. He caused generalized arrhythmias when he let his flag down to the last second but still eventually converted.
On my side, I haven’t delivered the merchandise this year and confidence has been a problem. There’s been residual trauma since that infamous day in Benidorm where both Niels and I lost on time in winning positions on move 41 (…); neither of us had asked about the time control (there was no added time on move 40…). Alas, stupidity is not easily treatable by therapy, but I’m happy to report that Dumb and Dumber are on their way back to recovery. Facing Kikkert, I got a pleasant position out of the opening and had my eyes set on the kingside. Made a few imprecisions along the way there while my opponent defended bravely. Things ended in a perpetual.
8-2 against the Dark Lords of the Eternal Apocalypse. Great success. Finished this battle with a delicious Chinese buffet and ended up again at Volks hotel where we bathed in alcohol and reminisced on the day’s high moments. Three cheers for Ramon who joined in despite his disappointment. Also fun to have Victor on site as a non-playing captain, despite a weird obsession with mango-based drinks. And something needs to be said about our spiritual leader and mascot Niels who yet again infiltrated / crashed the VAS1 party at Volks. This tactic to get girls at the bar has not brought the expected results, but we remain sure this won’t deter him.