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

Leiden Chess Tournament 2011 | Round 5 Standings (top 30)

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.

Science Park Chess Tournament 2011 | Round 4 Standings (top 30)

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