Walinga misses out on victory in spectacular fourth World Championship match, Kooistra retains comfortable lead
WORKUM – The fourth match of the World Championship in Frisian draughts between reigning world champion Marten Walinga and challenger Taeke Kooistra treated the audience to a real draughts battle on Saturday. After more than four hours of play, Walinga appeared to be on course for victory, but in an extremely complex draughts endgame, Kooistra managed to fight his way to a draw. As a result, the series stands at 3–1 in favour of the challenger.
In the historic town hall of Workum, Walinga opted for a rarely played continuation as early as the opening phase, immediately presenting his opponent with complex choices. From the very first moves, Kooistra had to calculate deeply to explore the many variations and ultimately chose a safe outpost, which was exchanged again a few moves later.
A strategic flank game then developed in which Kooistra gained a central piece and immediately sacrificed it again to gain active play. As is so often the case in Frisian draughts, the position appeared to the spectators to be almost completely balanced for a long time, whilst both grandmasters already realised that White – Walinga – had built up a slight positional advantage.
The live stream commentators, Fedde Kramer and Frederik Bos, also observed – with the aid of the Scan analysis computer – that the initiative was gradually shifting to Walinga. Nevertheless, the position remained exceptionally complex, and the many possible continuations constantly called for precise calculations.
Gradually, the computer analysis increasingly favoured the world champion. Kooistra, however, consistently opted for the sharpest defensive variations and continued to present his opponent with tricky practical problems. When both players finally managed to promote a king and Walinga, moreover, had two extra pieces, victory seemed within reach.
The conclusion of the game, however, proved once again just how treacherous Frisian draughts can be. In the complicated endgame, Walinga missed a decisive winning move, after which Kooistra, with precise defensive play, managed to force a well-deserved draw. After just over four hours of play, the points were shared.
With seven games remaining, Taeke Kooistra leads the World Championship Match 3–1. The tension in the battle for the world title therefore remains as high as ever.
The daily online tournaments, organised in parallel with the World Championship Match, once again attracted participants from various countries. The day’s victories went to Łukasz Kosobudzki from Poland and Petra Dušková from the Czech Republic, further underlining the international nature of the event.
The world title match will continue to be played at Workum’s historic town hall until 2 August. After that, the competition will move to Harlingen’s monumental town hall, where the final six games will decide who will be crowned the 2026 Frisian draughts world champion. The games can be followed live worldwide via frisiandraughts.com, complete with expert live commentary and analysis.
Photo 1: Taeke Kooistra (left), Marten Walinga
