Terror Jaap beats GM Jan Werle

What do you do when you get invited to The Golden Cage? You pick your best suit, deal some smiles and win your game. Well, that must have been GM Jan Werle's intention. But he got beaten on national television by Terror Jaap.

It was GM Jan Werle himself who informed ChessVibes on his upcoming visit to The Golden Cage. He would be playing chess against "Terror Jaap", one of the residents of the "most luxurious jail in the world". Yes, chess on TV!

The Golden Cage For anyone who has never heard of The Golden Cage: it's a reality program on Dutch TV (but also bought by e.g. ABC) in which ten people are locked up in a villa somewhere in The Netherlands. The contestant who remains for the longest time within the compound may keep it. In other words: if he or she manages to make life miserable enough for the rest to leave. (The basic idea of the program is that there's no specific method for people to drop off; the contestants have to leave the villa on their own initiative.)

An important incentive must have been that the participants became a millionaire as soon as they entered the villa. They all received a bank account of ?¢‚Äö¬¨ 6,000,000,- with which they can to whatever they want. The contestants are encouraged to start a study or enterprise, however, one did a boob job and another regularly ordered the use of (masked) prostitutes. You get the picture.

Terror Jaap - Jan Werle Last night, the Dutch commercial channel RTL5 showed grandmaster Jan Werle's visit to the villa. What was the 24-year-old GM Jan Werle, a serious chess player, doing in a place like The Golden Cage, where it's all about intrigues, sex and betrayal?

Well, contestant Jaap happens to be a chess player too. And not a bad one. In the Dutch chess scene he's simply known as Jaap Amesz, FIDE rated 2175, but he claims it has been above 2300.

In The Golden Cage, Jaap has manifested himself as one of the most ruthless householders; the instigator of many serious fights. It won him the nickname "Terror Jaap" and in the meantime fans have created a special website.

Dutch chess players are following The Golden Cage with great interest. In The Netherlands there's almost no-one left still watching the program, having realized that the show is really bad, or simply out of confusion, because the rules of the program have been changed that much. However, chess playing Holland is still glued to the box to closely follow the well-thought, positional strategy of stout Terror Jaap.

A grandmaster in the villa And so they were watching Jan Werle last night, who arrived at the villa driving an expensive car. Dressed in a suit (just like Jaap by the way), he was welcomed by the villa's householders, who were sincerely interested and kept on asking him questions. Why did he play chess? Was he a professional?

Werle told the contestants the story of the chess player, and was clearly enjoying himself. The happy face abruptly changed into a different one after the first game (Jaap and Jan had decided to play a few rapid games) was won by Terror Jaap. "A disaster scenario," Werle called it, "losing immediately, on national television." He kept himself together, but was sick to death of it.

Terror Jaap smiled and even made a little dance - justly, of course. Before the little rapid match he had told that he has been studying chess for months. Step 6, books by Dvoretsky, he had ordered all kinds of stuff into the villa. The training clearly didn't do him any harm.

At the end of the day, Werle left the villa with a 3-2 victory, but the first game was still fresh in his memory. However, he did promise to return to the villa some day. At ChessVibes's request to publish the rapid games, which were written down by the players, Werle replied that he could only remember the second game (a quick victory)...

And Terror Jaap? He'll just continue terrrorizing, and studying chess. If he leaves the villa soon, it will be to obtain the IM title within a few months.

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