Todays wasn’t as exciting as yesterday.
Shvartsman played against Mikhalchenko and they ended in a draw.
Podolski was faced up with the heavy job of winning from Valneris.
The classical game that had come about, wasn’t uninteresting, but the level of
both players was simply to high to be causing any disturbances in the balance
worthwhile mentioning.
With this, Shvartsman had become Champion of the world because he had won one
game more than Podolski and, according to the rules and regulations of this
tournament, this was decisive. So it will be Shvartsman, then. He more than
fully deserves this title and it was wonderful to see how glad and relaxed he
was in the end.
After the explicator Johan Krajenbrink, had invited him to appear on the stage,
he, with fluency, was answering all kinds of questions asked by the audience. It
was striking, though,
that he actually hadn’t been very much preparing himself on this tournament,
beforehand.
It is true, though, that he hadn’t had much time left to do so, as, not long
before the WC he was involved in the striving for the Russian Championship. Then,
he had taken some time off with his wife, just to relax a little bit. Shvartsman
is in harmony with himself.
Earlier this season he had already won the International Amsterdam
Bijlmer-tournament,
and met quite a few tough opponents there. Well, now he is the World-champion
and everybody can live with that, for he is a phenomenal person who usually is
only interested in being the number one on the list.
Another phenomenal person, Alexander Georgiev, won from Pierre, today, and with
this result he landed on the stage after all, for Chizhov didn’t do any better
than a draw against Ndjofang, whose position was considered as completely lost.
The man from Cameroon was defending himself extremely ingeniously and by
practicing a little bit of witchcraft he was really going straight to the
salvation home. Because of this result, Georgiev has become third. In fact, the
only thing he had done wrong during this tournament was, that he hadn’t lost a
single game, something which didn’t seem to be a wise thing to do, considering
the current rules.
Apart from this, he was really showing what draughts is all about, in this
unforgettable game against Chizhov, which he won, of course. But also Chizhov
himself was showing this in his victories over Shvartsmann and Valneris. He was
sparkling with this and nobody would have taken it ill of him if he would have
become the World-champion, again.
Anyone who has got to know Auke Scholma, cannot but almost love him. He is so
capricious and incalculable, but this time he had things really well organized.
Being fifth is a wonderful thing. Having the advantage of a man who is being a
little bit older than the rest of the players and because of this he might have
been able to comprehend things better, provided that he would take good
advantage of this., which he did. It still is some achievement for which we all
are going to take our hats off, for this fifth place.
Van den Akker played a creditable tournament and knew to create some
opportunities.
This is a positive thing, but contentment, in this respect, didn’t imply a
promise for the future,
For, he had many chances slipping away.
We really were having a wonderful tournament! Thanks to all, who have made this
possible.
