Anish Giri
28 June 1994
The great hope of Dutch chess turned 20 this year. So now he is officially not a talent anymore, and he devotes himself completely to chess. His next goal is to join the world top ten. With resounding successes in, for example, Reggio Emilia 2011/12 and undefeated second place in Wijk aan Zee this year, as well as some excellent results in team competitions, he is well on his way to achieving this aim. This will be Giri’s fourth performance in Hoogeveen! In 2010 he already faced Alexey Shirov here, but at that time the latter was still too strong. This year the Dutch contender should have better chances in the match with the former World Championship candidate.
Alexei Shirov
4 July 1972
The chess genius from Latvia plays for the second time in Hoogeveen. His debut was in 2010. Then he beat Anish Giri in an impressive game. The former World Championship candidate, who defeated the later champion Vladimir Kramnik in a match in 1998, has won countless tournaments since the early 1990s. Shirov has lived in Spain for a number of years, but since 2012 he represents his home country Latvia again, where he owns an apartment and also regularly organizes tournaments. But once behind the board again, he can still set it on fire like his great predecessor Mikhail Tal used to do. The match between the man with many years of experience at the top and the talented youth promises to be a very interesting one.
Jan Timman
14 December 1951
The man who was the face of Dutch chess for several decades is still going strong. Although the former World Championship candidate and ‘The Best of the West’ has been focussing increasingly on writing and composing endgame studies, he is still a fierce opponent at the board. We saw this during the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee early this year, where he came second behind Ivan Saric in the strong Challengers Group with 8.5 out of 13 – letting various opponents off the hook in the process. In the Dutch team competition Timman also showed his teeth this year: in the second division he won all his games on first board, with a TPR of 2743!
Baadur Jobava
26 November 1983
The grandmaster from Georgia is a unique personality in the chess world. With his gregarious character he cheers up every event he takes part in, and besides that he is also a brilliant chess player! Usually Jobava avoids common theory and steers for bizarre, complicated positions, in which he is deadly dangerous, even for the strongest players in the world. The 30-year-old Georgian also has many tournament successes to his name. In Wijk aan Zee he ended up tying with Jan Timman on 8.5 point in the Challengers. So the match between these two players promises to offer a lot of tension and fireworks.
