Giri and Peng win Dutch Championships
Anish Giri won the Dutch Championship convincingly, scoring 7.5/9 and a 2850 perfomance. The Dutch rising star won 16 rating points to reach a virtual 2717. In the women's section Zhaoqin Peng, as always, reigned supreme and clinched her 13th title with 9/10.Anish Giri and Zhaoqin Peng, winners at the Dutch ChampionshipGeneral info
The Dutch Championships took place June 25 - July 5 in Boxtel, The Netherlands. Venue was the SintLucas College in Boxtel for both the Open and Women's sections. The Open was a 10-player, single round robin with a first prize of 7,500 Euro; the Women's section was a 6-player, double round robin with a first prize of 1,800 Euro. For both groups the rate of play was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with the addition of 30 seconds per move from move 1. More info here.Report on the second half
GM Wouter Spoelman, who started so strongly, couldn't keep up his good form in the second half of the tournament, and against stronger opponents. In the 6th and 7th round he suffered losses against the highly experienced GMs Ivan Sokolov and Friso Nijboer. He did beat reigning champion Jan Smeets, who played a disappointing championship, but in the last round Spoelman also lost to the new champion, Anish Giri.Giri, who turned 17 during the tournament, played strongly, and immediately showed that his new 2700+ rating is not a coincidence. Admittedly, he didn't meet the highest rated opponents in the last four rounds, but his 4/4 against Brandenburg, Swinkels, Janssen and Spoelman was impressive. The Dutch Champion finished two full points ahead of runner-up Sokolov.Besides Smeets, Erwin l'Ami also had quite a disappointing tournament, scoring a performance two hundred points below his rating. Robin Swinkels (2483) can be satisfied with a shared third place and a 2632 performance.It was never seriously questioned who would win the women's section, and it doesn't look like it will be in the next few years. Zhaoqin Peng won her 12th consecutive and 13th title in total, scoring nine wins and one loss (and even in that game she blundered in a winning position).Games rounds 6-9 (men) and 6-10 (women)
Game viewer by ChessTempo
GM Anish Giri, the new champion, giving a speech at the closing ceremony
GM Zhaoqin Peng clinched her 13th Dutch title
The two winners together
Photos © Frans Peeters for the Dutch Championships, more here (recommended!)
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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