Watching the stars at the Dutch Blitz Championship
2/12/2004 – Last weekend there was an interesting blitz championship. It was held for the 19th year in succession in the Dutch town of Dordrecht (near Rotterdam). What makes it interesting is that there were many international stars present – Sokolov, Short, Dreev –, but also our reporter Jeroen van den Belt, who sent in a pictorial report.
Last year Komodo won the world championship title on two occasions and can call itself "2019 World Computer Chess Champion" and "2019 World Chess Software Champion". And the current Komodo 14 has been clearly improved over its predecessor!
The "Open Dutch Blitzchess Championship" in Dordrecht attracts amateurs and professionals alike. The prize fund cannot be the whole story. The first prize is: €1,600 (about $2000 and rising), the second €1.200, the 10th € 50. Still we spotted stars like Ivan Sokolov, Nigel Short, Alexei Dreev, Jan Timman, Yasser Seirawan, Loek van Wely, Pedrag Nikolic Jonathan Speelman. I too played in the tournament and achieved a very honorable 184th place (no prize money for that).
The event was held in the nice Mercure hotel in Dordrecht
Waiting for the tournement to start. The big hall is arranged in ten rows
of ten tables. Each set of ten tables had its own referee who keeps track of
the score.
Ten rows of ten chessboards – 100 in all
Soon the games are under way
The overall score is kept on five giant LCD screens. 200 participants mean
100 tables.
The top board is displayed on a plasma screen
We turn our attention to the stars. That's the legendary Ulf Anderson (right)
and Jon Speelman (on Ulf's right).
That's Nigel the-Commonwealth-Champion Short
Jan Timman, one of the greatest Dutch players ever
Many-time Dutch champion Loek ("Lucky Loek") van Wely
Loek has clearly overtaken his great predecessor – in height
America's Yasser Seirawan, taking a break from the blitz – and from
trying to resolve the mess in the chess world (as he did in Prague)
Yvette Nagel, daughter of a well-know Dutch politician, and Yasser's wife
The well-know (chess playing) Dutch politician Jan Nagel
Three cheers for him, he actually played in the blitz and came in at 132nd
Your roving reporter, who came in 52 places behind Jan Nagel
And the winner is... Alexei Dreev, proudly pocketing his €1,600
Jeroen van den Belt
Final standings
Plaats : Naam Punten Rating 1 : Dreev, A. 25,5 2682,0 2 : Kasimdzhanov, R. 24,5 2652,0 3 : Sokolov, I. 24,0 2706,0 4 : Georgiev, K. 23,5 2637,0 5 : Wely, L.A.F.M. van 23,5 2617,0 6 : Fridman, D. 22,5 2588,0 7 : Timman, J.H. 22,5 2578,0 8 : l Ami, E. 22,5 2476,0 9 : Sadler, M. 22,0 2626,0 10 : Seirawan, Y. 22,0 2621,0 11 : Doel, E. van den 22,0 2599,0 12 : Nijboer, F. 22,0 2586,0 13 : Nikolic, P. 21,5 2648,0 14 : Speelman, J. 21,5 2578,0 15 : Shchekachev, A. 21,5 2520,0 16 : Pedersen, N.V. 21,5 2510,0 17 : Vaganian, R. 21,0 2623,0 18 : Glek, I. 21,0 2571,0 19 : Andersson, U. 21,0 2570,0 20 : Vreugt, D. de 21,0 2451,0 21 : Dambacher, M. 21,0 2419,0 22 : Heeten, D. den 21,0 2091,0 23 : Short, N.D. 20,5 2702,0 24 : Barsov, A. 20,5 2524,0 25 : Ernst, S. 20,5 2474,0 26 : Stricht, G. van der 20,5 2447,0 27 : Polaczek, R. 20,5 2426,0 28 : Ris, R. 20,5 2302,0 29 : Wit, D. de 20,5 2186,0 30 : Muhren, B.M. 20,5 2135,0
Dutch for the world: Plaats = place, Naam = name, Punten = Points
Links
- Official Blitzchess web site (good luck with the design and navigation)
- Last year's report
