Monday 15 July 2013

A country full of chess names

After 28 hours of travel I've made it to The Netherlands. As I arrived in the late afternoon I had time to have short walk around Haarlem, as well as have dinner with my fellow members of the FIDE Rules and Tournament Regulations Commission (as the sun does not set until 10:30pm it was a late finishing dinner).
One thing I like to do when I travel is to study maps of the country I'm visiting. As The Netherlands has such a rich chess history it was no surprise that the country contains a number of 'chess' places. Some names signify important tournaments (Groningen, Wijk aan Zee), opening variations (Dutch Defence) or even tournament formats (Scheviningen, which is also an opening variation as well).
Another significant name I spotted was Zandvoort. This beach resort hosted the some games in the 1935 Alekhine v Euwe World Championship match. The following game was considered so good (a win for Euwe) that it was christened the 'Pearl of Zandvoort'. Funnily enough, Alekhine chose to play the Dutch Defence as black, while the game itself may have started in Zandvoort, but was apparently finished in Amsterdam, after it was adjourned part way though.


Euwe,Max - Alekhine,Alexander A [A84]
Wch16-NLD Zandvoort (26), 1935



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have a safe and enjoyable trip Shaun. Maybe drop into Ians place, I beleive he lives over there as you obviously know. Keep us all posted !!
Greg, Bathurst