Talking about beautiful girls: does anyone know who the girl sitting next to Geurt Gijssen is? (Pictures from 2007 at tournament website/ near the end)

Nobody?

Michael, you mean that at 25 I'm not considered a girl anymore? Awww, this is terrible! ;)
Anyway, i didn't mean to be unrespectful, it was just a misunderstanding. I checked and you're right, she's 4th in the under 18 German girl's list (sorry, but I don't trust someone only because they talk about their country stuff...). Big deal :)
And yeah, sometimes I don't even distinguish between little spoiled boys and real men. I have to mend this :)
Kisses, Janis

Janis can you elaborate further your distinction "between little spoiled boys and real men" ? That should be fun! Wow! ;)

I intuitively thought of Janis as a Latvian men's name (cf. Janis Klovans), which was probably a typical chess player's mistake (always the same thing in their mind!). Anyway, Janis, I would readily consider you a girl, just as I'm considering myself (at 27) a boy, but I'm afraid you wouldn't be allowed to participate in any girls championship :-)

lots of smily suns on this page... boys and girls !

janis ankle ! that's a fantastic name for a bride !!!

Michael, she's number 105 in the German women's Fide list, and at the 64th place if you exclude the inactives (by the way, ever noticed how high it is the drop out rate in women's chess?): not exacly "one of the Germany's strongest girls". But hey, I'm sure she's one of the prettiest anyway ;) and being 16 she can certainly improve, provided she's really interested in chess (I mean, apart from her daddy probably influencing her). :)

A wonderful playing hall indeed.
I feel for the experienced team, I hope they will get some good results in the next rounds!

I was impressed at the free and easy air of Stellwagen, it's not very common among young chessplayers! But I still root for Harry Potter, of course! ;)

Peter, I don?Ǭ¥t really understand why the onganisation invites very strong young chessplayers and older players with a lower rating. If you organize a tournament you want (I suppose) an exiting tournament with an unclear outcome. From the beginning it?Ǭ¥s clear the the young guys will win.
Why not people like Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Anand etc. in the experienced team. Or a little younger talents with rating like 2500-2550.

I agree with Michel - the formula of the tournament is seriously flawed. If anyone has 'experience' its the youngsters like Cheparinov and Wang Yue who play one top tournament after the other. The older guys are rusty and lack recent experience. Bareev is, by the way, of Anand's and Gelfand's generation, so it might indeed be more interesting to invite more of those guys. Ljubo and Korchnoi are legends but they simply can't compete on this level.

Janis Nisii, being German, you can trust me that I know a thing or two about my country's strongest players. Katja Jussupow is currently no. 4 in our girls' list (and no.3 in the national rating list). That's good enough for me to be qualified as one of the strongest. You don't seem to distinguish between girls (under 18) and women.

I think I fell in love with Jussupow's daughter, Ekaterina. Oh boy!

Ekaterina (or Katja) Jussupow is a good chess player herself, by the way - one of Germany's strongest girls.