National and international grandmasters compete against each other at the Hoogeveen Chess Tournament from Saturday 15 to Thursday 20 October.
The Dutch grandmaster Max Warmerdam will compete against the 16-year-old talent Daniel Dardha. Dardha is a three-time champion of Belgium. At the Olympiad he achieved 6 points from 11 matches at the highest board of the Belgian team. The winner of this match will therefore be ‘champion of the low countries’.
Multiplayer with original style
In the other match, Lucas van Foreest takes on the very strong Englishman Luke McShane. Lucas van Foreest (21) succeeds his brother Jorden, who played four top matches in Hoogeveen over the years. Lucas is a multi-player with an original style. He already became Dutch champion in 2019. In June this year he won the Limburg Open. Luke McShane gives Van Foreest a hard time. The 38-year-old Englishman has a lot of experience at the top level and plays at Olympiads for England on board 2. In 2010, McShane won the heavily occupied Heite tournament in Wolvega. An amiable person, but a great fighter at the board – just like Lucas van Foreest.
The two matches will be played in the wedding hall of the town hall and start on Saturday 15 October; the sixth and final round is on Thursday 20 October.
Hoogeveen Open and amateur tournament
The Hoogeveen Open and the amateur tournament also start on Saturday October 15, but both will continue until Saturday October 22. These two groups each have room for 128 participants. More than a hundred players have already registered for the Open tournament, including the strong Armenian grandmaster Robert Hovhannisyan and the Dutch grandmasters Sergei Tiviakov and Sipke Ernst.
After seven rounds, the four highest placed teams will play semi-finals and finals for the main prizes in the Hoogeveen Open.
The official opening of the tournament will take place on Friday 14 October.