Bartlomiej Macieja has won the 2nd Remco Heite Tournament. He finished clear first with the winner of the first edition, Loek van Wely, but the game between the two was won by Macieja. Like Van Wely two years ago, Macieja's special prize was... a horse. Report with video.

This weekend (actually from Friday, November 28 to Sunday, November 30) the second Remco Heite Chess Tournament took place in Wolvega, The Netherlands. Or rather, Friesland, the only Dutch provice that holds an official second language which can be studied at several universities. But the language is not the only example of the Friezen doing things a little bit differently.

When Remco Heite quit as mayor of the municipality of Weststellingwerf (of which Wolvega is a part) in 2005, he received a most original present: a chess tournament. It was organised for the first time in November 2006 and had Loek van Wely as the first winner, and the first chess player to receive an original prize: a horse. You can read more about that first edition in our report of two years ago.

The reason is simple: the area of Stellingwerf is deeply connected with horses and actually the most modern Dutch trotting racetrack is located in Wolvega. The connection between horses and chess is easily made, and this way the (only local) sponsors would agree that the Remco Heite tournament is very much a local, Stellingwerf tournament.

It consists of three parts: an invitation group (this year with Simen Agdestein, Erik van den Doel, Artur Jussupow, Bartlomiej Macieja, Sergei Tiviakov and Loek van Wely), an open group (in which the winner qualifies for the invitiation group) and a big tournament for school children. The latter event attracted more than a thousand people on Saturday.

To get an impression about the tournament you can watch the video below, which contains reactions from all six players from the invitiation group looking back at the tournament, and a special guest visiting the hotel where the tournament was held:

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After Macieja beat Agdestein (after the NH Chess tournament in Amsterdam still luckless in Holland; he threw away a win against Van Wely and blundered heavily in the last round) and Van Wely defeated Jussupow, also in the last round, the tournament was decided by the fact that Macieja had beaten Van Wely in their individual game.

And so the horse that was specially reserved for the tournament winner was named Bartek. It will not travel to Poland with Bartlomiej though; the young grandmaster decided to leave it in Friesland, as a gift to a local instituation for handicapped children who will take care of it.

Here are all the games from the tournament, and with almost no exception they are highly recommended for replay. Most of the players admitted that because the tournament was not FIDE rated, they felt they could play more freely, and that it led to more interesting, fighting games:

The open tournament was won by Erwin l'Ami, who therefore is the first who secured a spot in the 2010 Remco Heite tournament. But surely almost all of the participants would like to return to this original and very friendly event. Too bad it's not organised every year.

The playing hall of the invitation group

Loek van Wely

Erik van den Doel

Simen Agdestein

Sergei Tiviakov

Artur Jussupow

Bartlomiej Macieja

Geurt Gijssen, tournament director this time

Former mayor Remco Heite, proud of his tournament

The playing hall of the open tournament

John van der Wiel

Alina Motoc

Fred Slingerland

Zhaoqin Peng

Dmitri Saulin

Tea Bosboom-Lanchava

Erik Hoeksema

Friso Nijboer

Erwin l'Ami

l'Ami qualified for the Invitation Group in 2010

Joop Piket, father of chess players Marcel and Jeroen Piket, still active himself

Organizer Karel van Delft likes to play himself too

Loek van Wely, 1st on SB points but second after losing the individual game to Macieja

Macieja receives the cheque that is connected to his horse

The winner from Poland: Bartlomiej Macieja

Links:

• Tournament website
• All games in PGN