Two strong Dutch opens
Two strong Dutch open tournaments are currently taking place. In Leiden English grandmaster David Howell and GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of India are sharing the lead with 4.5/5. In Amsterdam six players are in shared first place with 3.5/4.
Leiden
The 5th 'LCT' (Leiden Chess Tournament) takes place July 8-17 in Leiden, The Netherlands. The city is a municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, located some 20 kilometers from The Hague to its south and some 40 kilometers from Amsterdam to its north.
The tournament is organized by the Dutch Mind Sports Foundation and sponsored by donations from about ten sponsors to the foundation. Venue is the Mind Sports Centre in Leiden.
It's a 9-round Swiss with 140 participants divided over two groups. The total prize fund is 5,500 Euro and the first prize in the A group is 1,750 Euro. The strongest participants are Predrag Nikolic (2629), David Howell (2625) and Sergey Tiviakov (2623).
The tournament was opened on Thursday, July 7th with a 2-game rapid match between the Dutch number one and reigning champion Anish Giri and the legendary Jan Timman, many times Dutch champion and many times world championship contender.
Giri won the first game. "I didn't see any compensation and so I took the pawn," said Giri. "Yes, it was just a blunder," said Timman, who managed to level the score in the next game in a queen ending, showing he hasn't lost his famous endgame skills.
Giri vs Timman, what a way to open a tournament!
In the A group David Howell started with 4/4 and then drew a short but interesting Two Knights against Nikolic. The English grandmaster shares the lead with GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of India; both are on 4.5/5.
Selection of games rounds 1-5
Game viewer by ChessTempo
| Rank | Name | Score | Fed. | Rating | TPR | W-We |
| 1 | GM Howell, David W L | 4.5 | ENG | 2625 | 2769 | +0.74 |
| 2 | GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. | 4.5 | IND | 2470 | 2685 | +1.16 |
| 3 | GM Nikolic, Predrag | 4.0 | BIH | 2629 | 2636 | +0.15 |
| 4 | GM Tiviakov, Sergei | 4.0 | NED | 2623 | 2562 | -0.21 |
| 5 | GM Van Den Doel, Erik | 4.0 | NED | 2574 | 2604 | +0.27 |
| 6 | GM Polak, Tomas | 4.0 | CZE | 2540 | 2559 | +0.25 |
| 7 | GM Hasangatin, Ramil | 4.0 | RUS | 2515 | 2504 | +0.01 |
| 8 | IM Pena Gomez, Manuel | 4.0 | ESP | 2420 | 2374 | -0.18 |
| 9 | IM Vishnu Prasanna. V | 4.0 | IND | 2340 | 2467 | +0.92 |
| 10 | WIM Padurariu, Ioana-Smaranda | 4.0 | ROU | 2164 | 2536 | +2.33 |
| 11 | IM Spirin, Oleg | 3.5 | RUS | 2491 | 2456 | -0.05 |
| 12 | IM Llaneza Vega, Marcos | 3.5 | ESP | 2465 | 2399 | -0.23 |
| 13 | GM Van Der Wiel, John T.H. | 3.5 | NED | 2451 | 2483 | +0.39 |
| 14 | IM Chytilek, Roman | 3.5 | CZE | 2381 | 2462 | +0.64 |
| 15 | FM Van Wessel, Rudy | 3.5 | NED | 2371 | 2348 | -0.02 |
| 16 | FM Erwich, Frank | 3.5 | NED | 2360 | 2384 | +0.13 |
| 17 | IM Mashinskaya, Iulia | 3.5 | RUS | 2333 | 2277 | -0.15 |
| 18 | Pijpers, Arthur | 3.5 | NED | 2296 | 2402 | +0.72 |
| 19 | Farrand, Tom | 3.5 | JCI | 2256 | 2258 | +0.12 |
| 20 | Van Overdam, Julian | 3.5 | NED | 2215 | 2323 | +0.57 |
| 21 | Wilschut, Peter | 3.5 | NED | 2206 | 2307 | +0.59 |
| 22 | IM Slingerland, Fred | 3.0 | NED | 2390 | 2290 | -0.51 |
| 23 | Van Dongen, Cor | 3.0 | NED | 2381 | 2262 | -0.61 |
| 24 | FM Ducarmon, Quinten | 3.0 | NED | 2352 | 2321 | -0.08 |
| 25 | FM Wantola, Ivo | 3.0 | NED | 2333 | 2305 | -0.04 |
| 26 | FM Van Ketel, Raoul | 3.0 | NED | 2311 | 2211 | -0.48 |
| 27 | Meng, Roger | 3.0 | NED | 2282 | 2238 | -0.27 |
| 28 | Van Der Laan, Dinard | 3.0 | NED | 2277 | 2152 | -0.41 |
| 29 | Spaan, Nathanael | 3.0 | NED | 2209 | 2241 | +0.17 |
| 30 | Vistisen, Lars | 3.0 | DEN | 2201 | 2271 | +0.28 |
Amsterdam
The 1st Science Park Chess Tournament takes place July 9-17 in the University of Amsterdam Sports Centre at the Science Park in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Main sponsor Science Park, located in the eastern part of the Dutch capital, covers an area of 70 hectares. It occupies an important position in the field of scientific research, ICT and Life Sciences and aims to become a leading scientific area in in Europe, combining Education, Research and Entrepreneurship.
The playing hall in Amsterdam
The tournament is a 9-round Swiss with 291 participants divided over four groups. The first prize in the A group is 3,000 Euro. The strongest participants are Dimitri Reinderman (2618), Nikola Sedlak (2580) and Dusan Popovic (2569).
After five rounds the leaders are GM Nikoa Sedlak, GM Dusan Popovic, GM B. Adhiban, GM Joshua Friedel, GM Aleksandr Lenderman, and IM Roeland Pruijssers, who beat GM Dimitri Reinderman in an excellent game on Tuesday.
Selection of games rounds 1-4
Game viewer by ChessTempo
| Rank | Name | Score | Fed. | Rating | TPR | W-We |
| 1 | GM Sedlak, Nikola | 3.5 | SRB | 2580 | 2703 | +0.46 |
| 2 | GM Popovic, Dusan | 3.5 | SRB | 2569 | 2698 | +0.48 |
| 3 | GM Adhiban, B. | 3.5 | IND | 2542 | 2655 | +0.42 |
| 4 | GM Friedel, Joshua E | 3.5 | USA | 2531 | 2640 | +0.38 |
| 5 | GM Lenderman, Aleksandr | 3.5 | USA | 2525 | 2690 | +0.69 |
| 6 | IM Pruijssers, Roeland | 3.5 | NED | 2461 | 2733 | +1.23 |
| 7 | GM Haslinger, Stewart G | 3.0 | ENG | 2548 | 2512 | -0.05 |
| 8 | GM Nijboer, Friso | 3.0 | NED | 2546 | 2457 | -0.34 |
| 9 | GM Horvath, Csaba | 3.0 | HUN | 2517 | 2586 | +0.44 |
| 10 | GM Neverov, Valeriy | 3.0 | UKR | 2500 | 2431 | -0.26 |
| 11 | IM Riemersma, Li | 3.0 | NED | 2416 | 2394 | -0.06 |
| 12 | FM Klein, David | 3.0 | NED | 2366 | 2464 | +0.51 |
| 13 | FM Bezemer, Arno | 3.0 | NED | 2348 | 2589 | +1.27 |
| 14 | Tan, Jonathan | 3.0 | NED | 2153 | 2471 | +1.61 |
| 15 | GM Reinderman, Dimitri | 2.5 | NED | 2618 | 2491 | -0.56 |
| 16 | FM Tan, Matthew | 2.5 | NED | 2400 | 2467 | +0.38 |
| 17 | IM Bosboom, Manuel | 2.5 | NED | 2399 | 2344 | -0.20 |
| 18 | IM Miedema, David | 2.5 | NED | 2399 | 2353 | -0.19 |
| 19 | FM Van Assendelft, Floris | 2.5 | NED | 2393 | 2342 | -0.20 |
| 20 | IM Wiersma, Eelke | 2.5 | NED | 2390 | 2366 | -0.05 |
| 21 | Ootes, Lars | 2.5 | NED | 2376 | 2366 | -0.03 |
| 22 | FM Posedaru, Bogdan | 2.5 | ROU | 2354 | 2316 | -0.16 |
| 23 | IM Afek, Yochanan | 2.5 | ISR | 2298 | 2218 | -0.40 |
| 24 | FM Otte, Marijn | 2.5 | NED | 2244 | 2229 | -0.06 |
| 25 | FM Kohler, Aran | 2.5 | NED | 2225 | 2253 | +0.15 |
| 26 | Van Hengel, Hugo | 2.5 | NED | 2203 | 2311 | +0.49 |
| 27 | Mellema, Andries | 2.5 | NED | 2131 | 2374 | +1.26 |
| 28 | Goes, Sten | 2.5 | NED | 2104 | 2326 | +1.19 |
| 29 | De Roode, Martijn | 2.5 | NED | 2098 | 2286 | +1.00 |
| 30 | Lombaers, Peter | 2.5 | NED | 2097 | 2404 | +1.56 |
Top board in round 4: IM Roeland Prijssers vs GM Dimitri Reinderman, 1-0
Jeroen van den Berg (left), tournament director in both Wijk aan Zee and Hoogeveen, is now participating himself (and here speaking with Hugo van Hengel of Amsterdam)
Photos © Maaijveld and Lennart Ootes
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Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.
Comments
sundararajan ganesan
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
1.it is unfair to compare two great players of two diff., eras
2. like giri, timman, too was a prodigy
3. technology and training methods of today is diff., from the past
4. timman has wins over anand, karpov, kasparov, korchnoi, tal etc.,
so there is no meaning in timman-bashing.
Arvin
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
Very nice win in the endgame by Timman against Giri. Timman showed that he can still play strong chess against the best. Keep it up, Timman!
Grasshooper
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
Calm down it was only a 30 minute game. In a slow game it is clear giri would likely crush Timmam even back in the 80s
PP (nl)
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
Based on what? Timman has been a top 10 player for a very long time. The fact that he can still beat 2700+ players says enough.
Sorry, but stating something like that is really silly.
arbiter
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
The only thing your comment "clearly" shows is a low IQ.
Septimus
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
LOL pwned!
Septimus
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
Yep, just as likely as seeing a fish riding a bicycle.
Chesser
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
I'll let someone else explain you do the rating inflations.
Grasshooper
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
Are you all suggesting Timman right is a better player than giri?????
Grasshooper
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
Giri will soon become better than Timman ever was. Giri is world champion material whereas Timman was always a level below Karpov korchnoi in the 70s/80s. Giri was 2701 at 16 whereas Timman could never get past high 2600,s.
Why do I even b...
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
Please, get back to chess history class! Timman was named The Best of the West for more than a decade, ranked just below Karpov and Kasparov. He's won numerous stong tournaments, beating the best players of his era. And he's still fairly strong, even for today's standards. His rating may have dropped beyond the 2600 level, his experience stands forever.
Mark
7 months 1 week ago
Permalink
Roelie!!
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