Harlingen, Saturday 21 August 2021
Folkert Groenveld wins the 10th game
With this victory the score became a bit more presentable at the Frisian Draughts World Championships. The current score is now 7½-2½. But more importantly, it was the way Groenveld won. He showed what a capable player he is. Walinga made a bit of a sloppy move on the 44th, after which Groenveld finished the game well. Although he almost let his opponent escape with his 48th move, however, his opponent didn’t anticipate the right continuation after which Folkert Groenveld decidedly finished the game. After yesterday’s spectacle there were far fewer errors today. Walinga’s pieces were concentrated in the centre whilst Groenveld’s pieces were more along the side. It became a strategic encounter, which remained balanced for a long time. Tomorrow is the final game.
Frisian Draughts attract a young generation of international mind game players.
FRYSK! Final Sunday: Ilfat Karimov (Russia)-Jelle Wierma
Classical Frisian Draughts: Zhuoyuan Du (China)-Frederik Bos
The Word Championships game and online tournaments are attracting a new generation of players. Today were the semifinals of the online tournaments. The winners of the FRYSK! Tournament (5 against 5 pieces) and the classical Frisian Draughts tournament (20 against 20 pieces) play on Sunday. The winners of the online finals automatically qualify for the next Frisian Open tournament and FRYSK! World Championships, both are due to be held in the spring of 2022. Each FRYSK! Game is a minute with 2 seconds per move (Fischer system) whilst for the classical Frisian Draughts game it’s 2 minutes with 2 seconds per move. In Sunday’s finals it’s 2 minutes (4 secs per move) and 4 minutes (4 secs per move) respectively. Jelle Wiersma qualified as the first ranked player for the semifinals, the 13 year old Zhuoyuan Du (China) qualified as the second placed. Jelle Wiersma booked a narrow victory. His score was 19 from 14. His decision rate was only 50%. Zhuoyuan Du played 13 games and 18 points with a decision rate of 62%. Third place was for 21 year old Michael Semianiuk from Minsk (Belarus), with 17 from 13 and a decision rate of 46%. The other semifinals was won by the 18 year old Ilfat Karimov from Tyumen (Russia) who has only been playing FRYSK! for two years. Sunday’s final is between Wiersma and Karimov.
The 42 year old Frederik Bos (the Netherlands) became the first finalist for the Classical Frisian Draughts online final. In the semifinals he scored 12 points from 7 games with a decision rate of 86%. On Saturday 21 August Zhuoyuan Du from Shanghai (China) won the second semifinals. He gets to play Frederik Bos in the final on Sunday. Zhuoyuan Du also played in the FRYSK! Tournament where he lost the semifinals but he managed to qualify for the classical game final instead. He won the second semifinals in emphatic style with a decision rate of 89%. He got 16 from 9, he only lost once and won 8.
Both finals are played on Sunday 22 August. The FRYSK! finals is from 10.30am to 11.15am and the Classical Frisian Draughts finals will be played from 11.30am to 12.15pm. The games are shown on the WFD Foundation’s website www.frisiandraughts.com and on the LIVE page of the draughts gaming platform www.lidraughts.org.
