Of course, you can look at chess and a chess tournament from a different angle. Not by taking pictures, but.... a drawing!
Pia Sprong, participant in the Veterans, made some nice drawings. You can see one here. Pia drew the top grandmasters Jorden van Foreest and Alexei Shirov playing a four-match duel.
Nice to see: the match through Pia's glasses.
Entering the final day, three players are in the lead in the top group: Max Warmerdam, Lucas van Foreest and Alexander Donchenko. They are on 4.5 out of 5.
How will that end? Who has the longest breath? We'll see on Whit Monday!
A resounding surprise in the highest group: the only 15-year-old Leandro Slagboom is on top with 4 points after 4 rounds.
Leandro is from Leeuwarden and is Dutch champion in the under-16 category.
He won in the first 4 rounds from successively Frans Helmond, CM Henk-Jan Visser, FM Carlo Pauly and GM Sankalp Gupta. This last win was Leandro's first victory against a grandmaster in a classical game.
A surprising development in the match between Jorden van Foreest and Alexei Shirov. Things are not going smoothly in this four-match match. Shirov is now leading 2-0!
This match is an extra to our tournament, a gift from our main sponsor Bruls Prefab Beton. Grandmasters Jorden van Foreest (FIDE rating 2702) and Alexei Shirov (2681) will play a match over four games.
The 14th BPB Limburg Open got off to a flawless start on Friday, June 3. The opening was performed Friday evening by deputy Geert Gabriëls of the province of Limburg and our tournament director Barry Braeken.
As a bonus, this year we have a four-match match between grandmasters Jorden van Foreest (FIDE rating 2702) and Alexei Shirov (2681). The first move on the board of these top grandmasters was performed on behalf of the main sponsor by Nick Bruls.
Given the enormous interest, registration for the 14th BPB Limburg Open is now completely closed. Registration is no longer possible, so registration for the reserve list is also no longer possible.
For everyone who has registered (even if you are on the reserve list):
The number of registrations for the 14th BPB Limburg Open has exceeded our expectations: just six weeks before the tournament we have already reached the limit of 450 participants! But note: you can still sign up and then you will be on a reserve list. If someone drops out, the first person on the reserve list can join.
For those who still want to sign up and get on the reserve list, the following applies:
Five grandmasters have already pledged their participation in the 14th Limburg Open. The highest in terms of rating is Champion of the Netherlands Max Warmerdam (FIDE rating 2600).
We are only too proud of Max's participation.
A talent from Limburg soil who has already come very far. And who knows how far he will get? He is still young (he turns 22 on Wednesday, March 30) and is full of ambition.
We are all looking forward to the 4-match match between Jorden van Foreest and Alexei Shirov, the extra to our tournament. Jorden himself is also looking forward to it. 'I think it's a very nice idea, this match'.
And he is especially looking forward to this opponent. 'Shirov has an attacking dynamic style of play. He is a fantastic chess player'.
As the Limburg Open we wanted to add something extra to our tournament and at a good time the idea of a match came up. Our sponsor was willing to go the extra mile. Who do you think of then? Shirov, of course! The man of the famous book 'Fire on Board' and former number 2 of the world and a very attractive chess player. Pairing him with Jorden van Foreest, what more could you want? The dream match right?
Our tournament will have a very nice extra this year: a match between grandmasters Jorden van Foreest and Alexei Shirov. Two juggernauts, two big names in the chess world. They are currently 27th and 43rd respectively in the world rankings with FIDE ratings of 2714 and 2691.
These players with an attractive style of play will provide fireworks. In other words, "Fire on Board" (as is also the title of a famous book by Shirov).
