The draughts tournament summer ended this year with the Dutch Championships. Altogether, including rapid games, we played a total of 136 games this summer.
For the first time, the Women’s Dutch Championship was held simultaneously with the Open Dutch Championship in Drachten. This meant we could occasionally follow the men’s games as well — resulting in more players, more rounds, and more spectators! As the saying goes: the more, the merrier!

This year’s field of participants was fun and diverse. Some came to fight for the title, while others mainly sought the experience and the joy of playing. Darya Tkachenko, the freshly crowned world champion in both classical and rapid draughts, was of course also present to defend her Dutch title, which she had claimed two years in a row.
Despite the wide range of ages and playing levels, the atmosphere was excellent. On the board, there was fierce competition, but afterwards everyone sat together cheerfully at dinner. That’s exactly what makes the Women’s Dutch Championship so special: although everyone plays to win, the friendly spirit always defines this event.

Our stay in Nieuw Allardsoog fit that atmosphere perfectly. All the women stayed together in a lodge surrounded by beautiful nature, and the food was delicious. There were plenty of walking routes and nature reserves nearby. The park also offered a table tennis table and a pétanque court, both well used — and there was a lot of badminton played, too!
At first, there was some hesitation about the location because of the distance to the playing hall, but by the end of the week everyone was completely won over.

Enough about the fun — there was also plenty of excitement on the draughts board. From complex strategic battles to sharp tactical twists, combined with extreme time pressure, there was never a dull moment.
Everything was closely followed by Harm Wiersma and Ester van Muijen, who highlighted the most interesting moments during their demonstrations and made their commentary engaging for both casual players and experienced players.

In the end, we decided to analyse three games. We will discuss our head-to-head encounter and have each chosen one additional game to analyse individually.

Below you can find the game between Tanya-Marie Cnossen and Fleur Kruysmulder (analysed by Fleur).
Click the links below to view the other two analyses:

• Yulia Bintsarovska – Fleur Kruysmulder (analysis by Fleur and Yulia)
• Yulia Bintsarovska – Darya Tkachenko (analysis by Yulia)
  
  Note: In the joint analysis, the text indicates who wrote which section. Where no name is mentioned, the commentary is shared.