“In principle, I did not hesitate for a moment,” said Boomstra. “But with such a classy opponent you always have to be on your guard.”
In the past two weeks, the Russian and Dutchman faced each other twelve times on the tech campus in Eindhoven. After several draws and two wins by Boomstra – the opponent is only defeated after three full wins – the Dutchman and Russian started the decisive tiebreak day on Thursday. The Russian had to win three more games, Boomstra one.
Third world title Boomstra
At 11 am Boomstra and Schwartzman started the first of three rapid matches, pots with twenty minutes on the clock. Boomstra struck decisively in the third rapid match and thus secured his third world title. In 2019 Boomstra also settled in a tiebreak from Schwartzman, and then secured his second world title.
If there was still no winner after the three blitz games, then ‘super blitz’ games – in which players have only two seconds to think each move in the extreme – would be played until a winner could be declared.
Boomstra did not allow it to come to such a checkers marathon. “My goals were mainly to have an active stance”, he looks back on the decisive session. “I am extremely proud of this achievement
