Blokarting on the Tata rest day

How does a chess player spend his rest day? In Wijk aan Zee there's not too much to do, and so most of the Tata participants indeed didn't do much but relax on Thursday. Some dare devils, however, accepted an invitation to a blokarting event on the beach nearby - and had great fun. A photo report.

You might remember Dutch WIM Arlette van Weersel, who won the Women's Invitational tournament during the London Chess Classic last month. Arlette happens to work for event company Summit Sports in Wijk aan Zee, not connected to the chess tournament. One and one is two, she thought a while back, and during the last rest day she organized a blokarting event for all participants in the A, B and C groups.

Blokarting is a form of land sailing, and usually takes place on the beach. A blokart is a wind-powered, one-person vehicle with three wheels and a sail. You steer with one hand, and handle the sail with a rope in the other. The trick is to pull the rope tight for making speed, and loosen it when you need to go slower.

Unfortunately not many chess players showed up. Among the dare devils present were GMs Anish Giri, Mark Bluvshtein and Sebastian Siebrecht and IMs Robin van Kampen, Roeland Pruijssers, and Tania Sachdev. They can assure you blokarting is great fun, so maybe Arlette should simply repeat the event next year, and use them as ambassadors...