(Photo) report

Update: more photos at ChessVista!

The whole Chessvibes team is looking back at a very succesful first tournament. Everything went quite smoothly and there barely occured any incidents. The justified winner was David Smerdon, who is said to be one of the strongest blitz players on ICC. In his speech afterwards, he said he thought the Dutch players were so nice and decent. In Australia many more pieces would have fallen on the ground and more incidents would have occurred!

In the first few rounds, the title holders didn't drop many points. Only Hans Ree, who doesn't play more than a few Dutch league games a year (and with whom we were very happy to have participating), had a hard time. In round 3 Van den Doel lost to, yes, a blitz specialist too, Peelen, and Van der Weide was defeated by Janse. In round 4 the tournament winner Smerdon was beaten by the one who would end second: Bosboom. Reinderman lost in that same round to Clijssen. In round 5 the IM's Bosboom and Van Haastert beat the GM's Jonkman and Rogers; Van den Doel lost to Van Assendelft. In round 6, on board one Lammens managed to beat Bosboom and Ree and Van der Weide were already playing in the 'second row of tables'. In the next round, Lammens and FM Wemmers defeated Rogers and Jonkman. Van Delft beat Van den Doel in round 8 and then he drew Bosboom. Ree drew Van den Doel and started his way to the top boards slowly but surely.

Then, just after half of the tournament was over, Smerdon was leading the field with half a point above Bosboom, and then Jonkman, Peelen and Reinderman. But he lost to Reinderman and meanwhile, Rogers was back in business too. Bosboom kept on playing superbly, beating Reinderman on board one in round 11. Lammens surprised again by beating Jonkman. Dragan Skrobic defeated Hans Ree and afterwards asked who was his opponent. The two talents Van Assendelft and Lammens drew their game in a nano second in round 12, when Skrobic (1801!) also beat Van Delft (2382) and then added: "You played well." Bosboom, who by then was clear first by a point, lost to Van der Weide in round 13. The two Australians Rogers and Smerdon met and David won brilliantly. Bosboom lost again, this time to slow-starter (because he's also not playing very much anymore) Solleveld. Ree headed straight for the top boards after he won against Van Haastert on board 7. Van den Doel lost terribly to Van Zutphen in that same round, by missing a check in a won position. Meanwhile, it was Smerdon who was clear first by a point, but he lost to Jonkman in round 15.

In the penultimate round it was Dragan Skrobic again who claimed all attention. He touched the wrong piece and lost his queen against Bosboom, but two moves later Manuel blundered terribly when Dragan could mate him in two moves. Excellent for Smerdon of course, who could start the last round being one point clear of Bosboom. David also defeated Peelen and so became clear first and winner of the tournament with 13,5 out of 17. Bosboom was second with 12,5 and Van der Weide third with 12. Again, the full final results are here.

Afterwards, almost half of all the participants stayed and kept on playing blitz in a more friendly manner, with some drinks and some chats. This, together with the fact that almost everybody helped cleaning up the playing hall, was a very good sign. I guess it was a tournament where people had good fun. Which was exactly what we had in mind when we decided to organize it.

As a suprise, professional photographer Frits Agterdenbos came by at our tournament, so enjoy his great photo report soon on his website ChessVista. Nonetheless, when I was not filming I took a few pictures myself.

GM Erik van den Doel

GM Harmen Jonkman

GM Karel van der Weide

GM Dimitri Reinderman

IM Edwin van Haastert

Alexander Geerts - GM Erik van den Doel

IM David Smerdon (r.) - GM Ian Rogers

GM Dimitri Reinderman - IM David Smerdon

GM Hans Ree - GM Erik van den Doel

GM Ian Rogers - IM Yochanan Afek

Manuel Weeks, Ian Rogers, Cathy Rogers

Daan Zult - Henk-Jan Visser

Daan Zult - Jerrel Thakoerdien

GM Karel van der Weide - Henk-Jan Visser

IM Merijn van Delft (r.) - Henk-Jan Visser

Remco van der Meer - GM Hans Ree

Yuri Eijk (r.) - Ren?ɬ© Hennipman