In the clash of the undefeated, Dr. Martin Werner and FM Milan Kandic emerged victorious. David Belka also cleared a crucial hurdle ahead of the final phase of the B-Open.
On Board 1, Dr. Martin Werner defeated SC Hansa Dortmund’s Vu Trung Nguyen Hoang in a true tour de force. Werner applied sustained pressure in the rook endgame for a long time until his extra pawn finally materialized into a decisive advantage. Both players had played nearly 100 moves by the time Hoang had to concede defeat and the longest game of the round came to an end.
On board two, FM Milan Kandic played a brilliant positional game against Max Pick. In a barricaded position, Kandic managed to position a strong bishop on the sixth rank. When Pick attempted to break free with a pawn breakthrough, Kandic made a strong quality sacrifice, which also gave him a dangerous passed pawn on the seventh rank. The combination of the passed pawn and the bishop completely pinned down his opponent’s pair of rooks, while Kandic’s rook diligently captured pawns. By the time Pick sacrificed the quality back, it was already too late, and the FIDE Master effortlessly won the resulting rook endgame.
On board three, David Belka (picture) pulled off a minor upset. The young player from SC Borussia Lichtenberg defeated top-seeded Tim Geweniger. In a balanced heavy-piece endgame, Geweniger made the decisive move to trade a pawn and his queen for his opponent’s two rooks. Belka, on the other hand, had already positioned his pawns dangerously close to Geweniger’s king. After the exchange, the position was immediately hopeless. The rooks were too disorganized to protect the black king. When Belka then threatened to support his queen with his own king, Geweniger conceded defeat.
As a result, the top of the B-Open remains tightly contested even after five rounds. Tomorrow’s sixth round could already provide a glimpse of which players might contend for the tournament title. David Belka will face Dr. Martin Werner on Board 1, while FM Milan Kandic will take on the 2024 B-Open champion, Oleksandr Kasapchuk, on Board 2. The other contenders with 4.5/5 points are Haik Khachikyan and Feliks Tokhyan. The two Armenians will face off against each other on Board 3.