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Grandmasters have a tough job already
The audience was lucky on this sunny Sunday afternoon. Not only did they get two match games that were rich in content, but at the top board of the Open there were fireworks as well. Demre Kerigan, a Turkish chess player who has been playing in the Netherlands for years,…
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Sokolov booming
In a six-game match, the first blow is worth a few euros. Ivan Sokolov thoroughly realized this today when he went for the kill with white, striving for a ‘V for Victory’ pawn formation (d5-e4-f3-g4-h5). He didn’t quite complete the V, but he did the victory. And the Bosnian Dutchman…
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Ambitious plans
The chairman of the tournament board, Bert van der Haar, welcomed everybody to this 20th edition of the Hoogeveen Chess Tournament. He recalled that the event had led a ‘reluctant life’ after Univé had stopped as the main sponsor, and CEO Alle Peereboom of McDonald’s Hoogeveen had filled a large…
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India-Rest of the World 10-3
The big India-Netherlands match started today in the Open group in the town hall, while the four match players were still busy merrily drawing lots. Thirteen Indians we counted in this group – we may have missed one or two. Today we will present four. Three of them defeated their…
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Sixteen grandmasters in Hoogeveen Open
The Open group of the Hoogeveen Chess Tournament will be strong again. For the 20th edition of this event, from Saturday 15 to Saturday 22 October in the town hall of Hoogeveen, sixteen grandmasters have applied. Among them last year’s winner, Abhijeet Gupta from India, and four Dutchmen. Various side…
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Hoogeveen matches: Hou Yifan-Short and Van Foreest-Sokolov
Tournament director Loek van Wely has succeeded in organizing two top-level matches for the Hoogeveen Chess Tournament, from Sunday 16 up to and including Saturday 22 October in the town hall of Hoogeveen. Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan will face former vice World Champion Nigel Short, and the Dutch top…
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Players’ Portraits Hoogeveen 2016
Jorden van Foreest (30 April 1999) Things are going fast, as they should, with this young descendant of a famous Dutch chess family. Right before last year’s match with Jan Timman, Jorden van Foreest had earned the grandmaster title. In 2013 he was already U14 European Champion. The 2nd great-grandson…
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Registration Hoogeveen Chess Tournament 2016 opened
The registration for the 20th Hoogeveen Chess Tournament is open. Find the registration form here.
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Now for the twentieth
At the closing ceremony of the 19th Hoogeveen Chess Tournament, tournament director Loek spoke of a wonderful, sporting event. ‘We are soon going to work on next year’s edition, to make a wonderful jubilee edition of it. And we, the tournament board, are always open for tips and ideas to…
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Concluding draw in style
Jan Timman and Jorden van Foreest concluded their match in style today. With a lively game, with various tactical jokes, most of which remained under the surface however. Timman – Van Foreest 1.Nf3 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.b3 Bg7 5.Bb2 a5!? Original, and probably not bad. 6.Bg2 a4…
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Ready for the shoot-out
Four men can decide tomorrow who will win the Hoogeveen Open. If they don’t – if they draw each other – then there are nine more players lurching half a point behind. Of the hard-fought draw by Abhijeet Gupta against Erwin l’Ami, Benjamin Bok, Das Neelotpal and Jan Werle…
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Jorden strikes back
The match between Jan Timman and Jorden van Foreest isn’t over yet. Today, trailing with 3-1, the 16-year-old grandmaster struck back with a vengeance in a well-prepared attacking game. Anna-Maja Kazarian tried something similar, but with her it was improvisation in an opening in which Sopiko Guramishvili again proved to…
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Gupta takes over the baton
The leading positions in the open group are constantly changing. Each day one of the players wins and takes the lead, before, like a crab in a bucket he is pulled back by the teeming masses below him. Today Jan Werle was the head crab, who was dragged down by…
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Lecture by Jaan Ehlvest in Café Batavia, Amsterdam, on Sunday, October 25
Former top player Jaan Ehlvest from Estonia will give a lecture in Café Batavia, opposite Amsterdam Central Station, on Sunday October 25 from 14.00-17.00h. Ehlvest will talk about the difference between male and female chess players, about his own career, and about the differences in personalities between players. It goes…
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Blood-curdling duel
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…
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Timman strikes again
Anna-Maja Kazarian scored her first half point today. Sopiko Guramishvili did not press with white, and the peace was signed soon. Jan Timman won his second game in the match with Jorden van Foreest after a great fight with attractive tactical points. Guramishvili – Kazarian 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4…
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Werle tricks Sengupta
Who could stop Deep Sengupta? That seemed like a legitimate question when after 20 or so moves we took a look at the position at the top board of the Open tournament. But Jan Werle had polished this tactical skills for this tournament, and he immediately grabbed the first small…
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Tough learning process for Kazarian
The life of a great chess talent is beautiful, but sometimes heavy. 15-year-old Anna-Maja Kazarian is trailing 4-0 in the match with Sopiko Guramishvili, and it’s hard lines for her. Today things went wrong again in the opening, which was the same as in the second round. Kazarian initially played…
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Clear lines
In the previous rounds we saw complications that were often bizarre. Today, especially the two routine players opted for clearer, more strategic paths. This yielded Jan Timman his first full point against Jorden van Foreest. Photo: Frans Peeters Van Foreest – Timman 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3…
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Sengupta and Gupta call the shots
Deep Sengupta seized a big opportunity today. He defeated his compatriot Das Debashis in a pretty quiet game in which Debashis blundered a pawn. Since Erwin l’Ami, despite fierce attempts, didn’t manage to break through Vishnu Prasanna’s rock-solid defences, both reached no further than 4 points and Sengupta took the…
