On the rest day of the Timman – Van Foreest match, tournament director Loek van Wely invited Jorden van Foreest to promote a few side activities. They rushed into Chess Biking and the new invention of Basque Chess, where the opponents play each other on two boards at the same time.
Unsuspecting, the Netherlands’ youngest grandmaster agreed, only to end up in a blood-curdling duel with the tournament director himself, who seized the opportunity of these recreative activities to show that, although he is slowly descending the World Rankings, he’s not to be trifled with yet.
During the Chess Biking, the atmosphere was still jovial, and there was a lot of hearty laughter as well as some complaining by both the players and the spectators, while the pieces were flying all around.
Loek was turning the pedals around, breathing heavier and heavier. Jorden, however, noticed that something was wrong with the power software, meaning that he could never be beaten on the bike. So he did not make any effort whatsoever on the pedals. However, despite this clear advantage, Jorden was probably intimidated by the old fox’s trash-talk during the games. Van Wely – Van Foreest 1½ – ½.
There followed a Basque Chess match in the council chamber of the stately town hall. The atmosphere had changed, and our heroes played to the death, while a big crowd was watching quiet as a mouse. After a fierce battle, both games were decided in favour of the broadly grinning tournament director.
Earlier that day, Dimitri Reinderman had defeated colleague grandmaster Erik van den Doel in their Basque Chess match and ‘Mr Chess’ Hans Böhm had played against a number of amateurs.
