Chairman Bert van der Haar of the tournament committee welcomed the visitors, especially the representative Ard van der Tuuk of the province of Drenthe and mayor Karel Loohuis of Hoogeveen. Van der Haar said that the continuation of the tournament had been under some pressure after Univé stopped as the main sponsor, but that with, among others, an extra effort by the municipality, the province, and Alle Peereboom from McDonald’s, another great tournament has been realized, with an Open group for which 20 grandmasters have applied.
Next, mayor Loohuis held a warm plea for the preservation of this chess tournament in Hoogeveen: ‘It wasn’t for nothing that we were awarded the best sports municipality in the country this year’, he said. ‘We have a broad supply of sports here, and chess fits nicely into the picture. This edition needed quite a push, which had everything to do with the sponsoring. That was a source of worry. I want to speak in defence of this event here: next year we will have a lustrum tournament, and hopefully then it won’t take such a big effort to bring forward the international component again. Because this is a tournament that hardly has a match in the entire world. We are very glad to have the event here in Drenthe, in Hoogeveen, and we want to keep it here. Together with local companies we want to work on this. This tournament is watched a lot via Internet all over the world, and so companies have good opportunities to present themselves here.’ The mayor said he hoped to see many beautiful games and a lot of attention in the press: ‘Let’s do this job well, and let’s have a fantastic 20th tournament next year.’
Representative Van der Tuuk recalled that he had also been present at the opening of the tournament four or five years ago. ‘I was impressed then, and I am now. For this event the regional government and the business world will have to work together. It has to happen! It Happens in Hoogeveen. This city has a unique position in the northern regions of our country, and we have to make use of that. That is what happens here in a wonderful way, with the Cascade Run, the national title of best sports municipality, the most beautiful shopping street in the Netherlands. Drenthe has a lot of pearls, and so does Hoogeveen. There is a lot of attention for innovation here, and that’s what I also see in this chess tournament. I will certainly go and have a look at the Basque Chess tournament, and also at the Chess biking event. Chess for school kids, the chess exhibition in the playing hall, these are all very nice side events.’
Van der Tuuk thanked the sponsors: McDonald’s, Univé, !pet, Fokker, Van Regteren, and the municipality and the province, and he praised Bert van der Haar for his great involvement. And with this he declared the tournament opened.
Tournament director Loek van Wely performed the drawing of lots, assisted by Geurt Gijssen. He presented the four match players to the audience: his old brother in arms Jan Timman, youngest Dutch grandmaster ever Jorden van Foreest (16), the fresh European Girls’ champion Anna-Maja Kazarian (15), and woman grandmaster Sopiko Giri-Guramishvili, ‘who lends extra flair to this tournament’. Van Wely also thanked all the above-mentioned sponsors.
He then asked Anna-Maja Kazarian if she had expected to haul in that European title. ‘Well, it wasn’t really unexpected as I was second placed’, she replied, ‘but I really had to fight for it, and I also needed a bit of luck.’ Although Anna-Maja speaks Georgian like Sopiko, she didn’t know that her opponent of tomorrow carries the epithet ‘Miss Tactics’. A useful piece of information, we think. For Guramishvili this will be the first chess event in the Netherlands without her husband Anish Giri. ‘I feel like a free bird’, she laughed. She shares her accommodation with Miss Strategy, Anna Rudolf from Hungary, who plays in the Open.
Van Wely asked Timman if he had ever played a game with Jorden van Foreest. Yes, the grandmaster from Arnhem had, and it had been a beautiful victory. ‘Jan’, Van Wely said, ‘Jorden has a lot of self-confidence. In our time we may have been a little older, but we were better, weren’t we?’ Timman didn’t deny that, but: ‘At Jorden’s age I didn’t have as much international experience yet. Those were different times. We had teachers like Botwinnik, Spassky, Fischer. These days the computer is the teacher.’
When asked, Jorden van Foreest said that he did not feel he was the favourite in this match. ‘However, I have played three matches now and lost all of them. It’s time for a change’, he said bravely. Van Foreest isn’t on his own in Hoogeveen either; besides two brothers and a young sister, his girlfriend is also playing in the Open group.
The drawing of lots was done with small packages containing a cup with a picture of a floating chess board on it, from a story by the Dutch writer Louis Couperus. The playing colour had been printed on the bottom of the cups, and quite notably both white players had a lot of difficulty to open their package. Was this a sign? We will see. The result of the drawing of lots was as follows:
Guramishvili-Kazarian
Van Foreest-Timman
