ARVES organizes yearly a solvingcontest.

Michael Pfannkuche wins 2010 !

Solving

During the yearly meeting at Nunspeet (14 march 2010) solving is the theme.

Harm Benak had chosen six problems which had to be  solved in two hours.

The german contestor Michael Pfannkuche was the best solver who had all the right solutions.

Picture: Michael Pfannkuche (rechts)

An Example to solve

White: Kc7; pi.b4-d2-e5 (4)

Black: Ka6, Ra3; pi.b5 (3)

White wins like this : 1.e6 Ra2 2.e7 Rc2+ 3.Kb8 Rxd2 4.e8R! (4.e8Q? Rd8+ 5.Qxd8 is stalemate!)

4…Rd6 (otherwise mate on e6) 5.Kc7 and mate on a8.

A resemblence with the famous Saavedra.

Youth Prevailed in Corus Solving 2009.

All three Corus grandmaster tournaments this year saw youth players dominating an experienced field.

At least in this respect the first Corus solving tourney for endgame studies was no exception.

18 years old Twan Burg, a Fide master  from Schijndel (a small town in the Dutch southern province of Noord-Brabant) who plays for HMC Calder Den Bosch,

emerged a clear victory, ahead of a strong field, headed by two times solving world champion GM John Nunn and members of the Dutch and Belgian national solving teams.

22 solvers worked hard for 3 hours, to crack 9 tough studies especially created for this event

by such composers as Jan Timman, Yochanan Afek, Piotr Murdzia, Andjey Jasik, Gady Costeff, Ilham Aliev and Siegfried Hornecker.

GM Daniel Stellwagen, a strong solver who could not take part in the official contest due to his participation in the top GM group,

gave the entries a pilot try and classified them according to their difficulty.

There was a prize-fund of 750 Euros as well as study database and book prizes.

As expected, none of the solvers managed to crack all entries, yet Twan was best to conquer seven of them, scoring 36 points out of the maximum of 45.
The favorite, Englishman John Nunn, ended up second scoring 32 points, ahead of the Belgian champion Eddy van Beers 28.

The money- prize winners were followed by Dutch champion Solving GM Dolf Wissmann and Martin van Essen 22 each.

The event was sponsored by Corus tournament, ARVES (the Dutch-Flemisch society for endgame studies) and Harold van der Heijden.

Chief arbiter was Ward Stoffelen from Belgium. Members of the organizing committee of Corus tournament, Theo Hoogland (in the opening ceremony)

and Arno Vrins (in the prize-giving) who greeted the participants,

expressed their wish to carry on the new tradition also next year as part of the world's most prestigious chess festival.
A special booklet (edited by Luc Palmans and printed by Bernd Ellinghoven) was presented

with the full award of last year's monumental Corus-70 composing JT and distributed among players and officials.

Here are the complete final standings:

1. Twan Burg 36 points out of 45 2. John Nunn (GB)32 3. Eddy van Beers (BE) 28 4-5. Dolf Wissmann & Martin van Essen 22 each,

6-7. Chiel van Oostrom & Hans Uitenbroek 19 each, 8-9.Marcel van Herck (BE) & Willem van Briemen 18 each, 10.René Olthof 17,

11.Nils Nijs (BE) 16, 12.Jan Baljé 15, 13.Bert van der Marel 14, 14.Harold van der Heijden 13, 15.Armen Hacijan 12 16.Antti Parkkinen (Fin)11;

17.-19.Harry Sibbing, Lex Jongsma & Harm Benak 10 each;

20.Semen Minyeyevtse (BE) 9, 21-22. Guus Rol & Luc Palmans (BE) 8 each.

Comments by Yochanan Afek.

   M. Liburkin 1934

  White plays and wins.

    Stairway walk and

 wrong coloured bishop.

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