Café Batavia led by David Smerdon

by Alina l'Ami
3/1/2014 – In the cozy confines of the Café Batavia, located in Amsterdam, Holland, a GM tournament is being held with a singular combination of good cheer and hard-fought competition. The Café is not merely the sponsor of the tournament, but the venue as well, leading to a relaxed atmosphere that is hard to imitate. The players can be seen enjoying themselves enormously in Alina L'Ami's pictorial.

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The 6th Batavia Chess Tournament takes place from Friday, February 21st to Sunday, March 2nd, 2014 in Café Batavia 1920, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The games will start each day at 14:00 hrs. The final round starts at 12.00 hrs. Wednesday, February 26th is a rest day.

Café Batavia, (the venue, located in Prins Hendrikskade next to the central station
in Amsterdam, is the place where chess players are especially welcome, thanks to its owner,
Peter Tames, and his enormous love for the royal game.

You might recognize a lot of familiar faces from the Tata Steel Chess Tournament!

A bit of unusual place for an opening ceremony, but certainly a good example
to illustrate the great atmosphere of the closed GM tournament!
At the microphone is Mark van der Werf, director of the Dutch Chess Federation.

The drawing of lots

First round preparation! Merijn van Delft was facing in that particular game...
yours truly. I tried to distract him and apparently...it worked. Behind him is a
photographic display by Bas Beekhuizen, with participants from previous editions.

Lennart Ootes taking care of the website

Everybody was preparing...I sort of felt like a patzer, while taking my photos...
although, one has to relax as well

The top seed in the event: GM Sipke Ernst

IM Twan Burg

Sander van Eijk

GM Simon Williams

Everybody is willing to analyze after the game

The tournament hall

A very strong player in the making - 14-year-old Jorden van Foreest

Australian GM David Smerdon playing the queen of Dutch chess, GM Zhaoqin Peng

GM David Smerdon

GM Zhaoqin Peng has dominated Dutch women's chess like no other

IM Merijn van Delft

Belgium IM Steven Geirnaert

Standings after seven rounds

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.
Alina is an International Master and a very enthusiastic person in everything she does. She loves travelling to the world's most remote places in order to play chess tournaments and report about them here on ChessBase! As chance would have it Alina is also an excellent photographer.