Local Talents Form Apeldoorn Apes
The Apeldoorn Apes is one of two teams from the Netherlands in this inaugural Pro Chess League. Amsterdam might be familiar to fans, but where is Apeldoorn and who are the Apeldoorn Apes?
Apeldoorn is a city in the central-eastern part of the Netherlands. The club regularly competes in the European chess leagues, and they have been competing at a high level in the Dutch league for many years.
Team manager and player, IM Merijn van Delft, says: "My dad, Karel van Delft, has been systematically developing a local chess culture in Apeldoorn for about 25 years now. Most of the titled players on the team are a product of this Apeldoorn chess culture. You can see more about the scientific work they have been doing in Apeldoorn by checking out the ebook 'Developing Chess Talent'."
Let's take a look at the roster:
1. GM Roeland Pruijssers: Roeland is the first player from Apeldoorn to get the grandmaster title and will be at the top of the lineup for the Apes. Roeland won the Leiden Chess Tournament in both 2008 and 2016.
Here's a good win he had over GM Ivan Sokolov in the 2013 Dutch Championship.
Roeland Pruijssers | Photo Wikipedia.
2+3: Max Warmerdam and Thomas Beerdsen are two local young talents who are on the verge of becoming IMs and who plan to seek the grandmaster title.
4: IM Robby Kevlishvili is close friends with Max and Thomas, but he currently plays for the Pathena Rotterdam team in the Dutch league. He'll be playing for Apeldoorn in the PRO Chess League.
"We are excited to have an authentic local team, as most of our players in fact grew up in Apeldoorn," said Van Delft.
This is exactly what the PRO Chess League is all about: allowing local chess communities to come together and face-off against cities from all over the world. With local-based teams from smaller cities like Apeldoorn, the PRO Chess League hopes to build camaraderie and enthusiasm as the top players in each city get to play with their friends in front of a large crowd and awesome live commentary on Chess.com.
Let's see what this mixture of local talents and friends will do in Europe's West division.
The PRO Chess League welcomes the Apeldoorn Apes!
Read up on everything you need to know about the PRO Chess League:
