Foeke Tiemensma wins Fryslân Open
FRANEKER - Foeke Tiemensma really proved to be the strongest at the Fryslân Open in Frisian draughts on Saturday 24 February. Having already won the preliminary tournament, he was also supreme in the three games of the final. And that while he had been putting Frisian draughts on the back burner for several years.
The Franeker started his victory march in the grandmaster's group on Friday evening at his home town's most famous spot, under the planetarium's planetary sky. There, he defeated the tough veteran Taeke Kooistra thanks to a supremacy in the endgame. On Saturday, he first had to face Marten Walinga. Tiemensma led by a piece, mainly because Walinga had manoeuvred himself into a difficult position. After a successful encirclement of his centre pieces, the co-organiser gave up. In the third and last game, Tiemensma had to face the multiple Frisian champion Jelle Wiersma. Wiersma had beaten Walinga earlier, but against Kooistra he could only manage a draw. So Wiersma had to win the third game. It looked like it, but in the late endgame Tiemensma took the initiative and even won the game. And that made him the more than deserved winner of the tournament, even one and a half points ahead of Wiersma.
In the master group, the surprise was perhaps even greater. It included two players who only recently became acquainted with Frisian draughts: Fedde Kramer from Groningen and Łukasz Kosobudzki from Poland. Nevertheless, the two experienced Frisians Henk Haanstra and Hein de Vries were no match for them. Although De Vries did win from Kramer on Friday evening, Kosobudzki already beat Henk Haanstra, who was last year's winner of the tournament. The Pole in turn had to lose against Kramer in the second round. At that point they still had to beat De Vries. Kramer then proved too strong for Haanstra, and Kosobudzki also won handsomely against leader De Vries. He won a piece early on, and was then able not only to keep his outpost but also to use it for a winning combination. After a thrilling barrage match between Kosobudzki and Kramer, the Pole was the winner of the master group.
Final result Grutmasters:
1 Foeke Tiemensma
2 Jelle Wiersma
3 Taeke Kooistra
4 Marten Walinga
Final result Masters:
1 Łukasz Kosobudzki
2 Fedde Kramer
3 Hein de Vries
4 Henk Haanstra
Besides these finals with twenty pieces, there was also a tournament in Franeker on Saturday with only five pieces in the starting position. This qualification tournament FRYSK! in the Koornbeurs in Franeker was unusually exciting this year. What was striking was that after three rounds already no player was without loss of points. This qualification tournament FRYSK! was given extra cachet by the presence of a group of Italians who have embraced Frisian draughts in north-western Aosta. Of them, Yassin Ghodbhani made it to the final to be played on Sunday, alongside several players who had already proven themselves in the regular competitions of the Fryslân Open. Remarkably, 15-year-old Teije Stor from Bolsward also managed to secure a place in the finals, partly by winning a decider against the experienced veteran Cor Kooistra. It was also remarkable that this tournament produced no fewer than five non-Frisian participants in the World Championship FRYSK!
Final results Qualifying tournament FRYSK!
1-2 Willem Schaap and Aleksej Domchev (Lithuania) 6 p.
3-5 Tsjerk Wijbenga, Renaud Braye (Belgium), Porter Richardson (Monster) 5.5 p.
6-8 Cor Kooistra, Yassin Ghodbhani (Italy), Teije Stor 5 p.
9-10 Petra Dusková (Czech Republic), Lorenzo Lodato (Italy) 4.5 p.
11-14 Davide Gemma (Italy), Arjen Bruinsma, Ties Slagter (Den Bosch), Patrick Casaril (Belgium) 4 p.
15-17 Siward Walinga, Dicky van der Meer, Ian Censi (Italy) 3.5 p.
18 Menno Kamminga (Monster) 3 p.
19-20 Leo van Dorp (Wageningen), Freark Smink 2.5 p.
21 Margot Aiello (Italy)
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From this tournament, the top seven players qualified for the WC FRYSK! on Sunday 25 February. This meant that decider matches had to be played between Kooistra, Ghodbhani and Stor. The results of these:
Stor - Kooistra: 1-0
Ghodbhani - Stor: 1-0
Kooistra - Ghodbhani: 0.5 - 0.5
Final score: Ghodbhani 1.5 p., Stor 1 p., Kooistra 0.5 p.
This means Ghodbhani and Stor qualified for the World Championship.
Jelle Wiersma world champion FRYSK!
FRANEKER - As part of the Fryslân Open tournament, the seventh World Championships FRYSK! were organised on Sunday 25 February. On Saturday, there was a qualifying tournament. The best players from that and the highest placed players from the regular tournament were allowed to compete in the finals on Sunday in the old town hall of Franeker. That was eventually won by Jelle Wiersma from Wommels, after a decider against Taeke Kooistra.
FRYSK! follows the rules of the game of Frisian draughts, but a game does not start with 20 pieces, but only 5, which are all lined up at the baseline first. Nevertheless, the chances of a draw are still slim.
The championship was mainly a game of penny exchange. After four rounds, Kooistra was still on top, followed by a pack of four: Marten Walinga, Tsjerk Wijbenga, Jelle Wiersma and Lithuanian Aleksej Domchev. Then Kooistra lost to Domchev, taking his place as leader as the others all drew.
But Domchev lost again to Walinga in the sixth round. The latter in turn moved into the lead, together with Jelle Wiersma, who beat Wijbenga. In the last round, however, Walinga gave up completely against the slowly climbing Italian champion Andrea Peirano, but Wiersma did not get beyond a draw against Hein de Vries either. He remained in the lead, but now had to face Taeke Kooistra, who had lost to Henk Haanstra in the last round.
So a barrage was needed. Wiersma won a piece and after the necessary pressure also the game, watched by a crowd of spectators, including the Frisian King's Commissioner Arno Brok. He gave a short speech at the end of the tournament, in which he praised Frisian Draughts as one of the pearls of Frisian culture, after which he presented the various winners with their prizes.
Final results WC FRYSK!
1 Jelle Wiersma, 5 p. + 1
2 Taeke Kooistra, 5 p. + 0
3-5 Aleksej Domchev, Marten Walinga, Hein de Vries, 4.5 p.
6 Andrea Peirano, 4 p.
7-10 Henk Haanstra, Foeke Tiemensma, Porter Richardson, Willem Schaap, 3.5 p.
11 Tsjerk Wijbenga, 3 p.
12-14 Yassin Ghodbhani, Łukasz Kosobudzkim Petra Dušková, 2.5 p.
15-16 Teije Stor, Renaud Braye, 2 p.
Photos to be used freely with mention: Foto Stifting WFD
photo 1: Foeke Tiemensma in his match against Jelle Wiersma (24 Feb.)
photo 2: the barrage between Jelle Wiersma (l.) and Taeke Kooistra (25 Feb.) under the watchful eye of King’s commissioner Arno Brok
photo 3: the two tournament winners Jelle Wiersma (l.) and Foeke Tiemensma
