Krasenkow claims first in Vlissingen with another win and two quick draws
After reaching the marvellous score of 7/7, Michal Krasenkow had seen enough. Like a true professional, the Polish grandmaster finished the Hogeschool Zeeland Open in Vlisingen, The Netherlands with two quick draws, securing first prize very smoothly. Big pictorial report.The 15th Hogeschool Zeeland Open took place August 1-8 in Vlissingen, The Netherlands. It was a 9-round FIDE rated Swiss, with a rate of play of 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 30 minutes to end the game. With 12 GMs and 13 IMs it was the strongest edition held so far.In our first report we mentioned both the marvellous start of Krasenkow, winning his first six games, and the many big upsets on other boards. The Polish GM added another fine, positional victory in round 7, grinding down the talented Indian IM Adhiban in an ending.We can hardly condemn the two quick draws in the last two rounds with which he then secured tournament victory - he had done the hard work before. The job was done, and an impressive job it was. Krasenkow clinched the € 2000 Euros first prize and the cup very convincingly, in the year in which he celebrates the 20th anniversary of his GM title, as he mentioned in his closing speech.In 2006, when he made his debut in Vlissingen, Krasenkow won the tournament with the same score. This year he finished half a point ahead of the young Ukrainian grandmaster Andrey Vovk while five players finished on a shared third place: Khairullin (Russia), Beliavsky (Ukraine), Hoffmann (Germany), Spoelman and Ernst (both from The Netherlands).Hogeschool Zeeland Open (Vlissingen) 2009 | Final Standings
Selection of games rounds 7-9
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The playing hall...
..the spatious auditorium of the Hogeschool Zeeland
GM Artur Kogan
Kogan held a talk on the night before the tournament. He was born in the Ukraine but moved to Israel at the age of two. He now lives in Tarragona (Spain). He is famous for his Olala Chess Academy, see www.olalachess.com. At the moment he is the coach of the Dutch National Woman's Team. Kogan won the Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament in 1996.
The legendary GM Alexander Beliavsky, still going strong and top seed in Vlissingen
Beliavsky's picture in an old tournament book
GM Andrey Vovk (Ukraine)
Brother GM Yuri Vovk
GM Erik van den Doel
GM Sipke Ernst
GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov
GM Ildar Khairullin
GM Michal Krasenkow
GM Wouter Spoelman
IM Bernd Kohlweyer
IM Thomas Henrichs
IM Ilja Zagaratski
IM Koen Leenhouts
FM Arno Bezemer only needs to reach 2400 to become an IM
The Indian delegation with on the far right Babu Lalith who won the Leiden Chess Tournament last month.
B. Adhiban
Musunuri Rohit Lalith Babu
Pandian Karthikeyan
Rajendran Meenu
Rout Padmini
S. Harini
Sundar Shyam
Soumya Swaminathan
Arlette van Weersel
As if we didn't provide enough proof that chess is definitely also a girl's game
Tatjana Plachnikova
The winner proudly showing his cup
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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. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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