For the common guests of our tournament, please be aware that the tournament will start at a different location. The first three rounds will take place at the Postillion Hotel Haren, Emmalaan 33 Haren.

A few days ago hotels.nl granted the organization with a special youth prize. The winner of this prize get's a ticket (value €1000) for a simul against non other than Magnus Carlsen. All money raised with this Simul will be granted to the research program on craniofacial anomalies. The organization is still contemplating on the exact criteria for the prize.

Because the number of participants in the C-group was very low, the organizers decided to merge the B and C group into one. There will be two different prize funds and more diversity in opponents.

All of them are Groninger Chess Icons in their own right, and all of them are full of wisdom about chess and life:
The German (top-left), The Philosopher (top-right), The Russian (bottom-left) and The Champion (bottom-right).

The tradition of matches between Young and Old that comes with the Chess Festival Groningen will also be honoured this year. Renown Israeli, but Dutch based, study composer and International Master Yochanan Afek will be present in Groningen to battle Jonas Hilwerda. Hilwerda and Afek will play 4 rapid games of 45 minutes each spread out over two days (21 and 22 December) followed by a training session on the 23th of December.

Yochanan has recently won tournaments in Tiberias and Haarlem and seems to be in excellent shape, and he’d better be. Jonas on fire can beat anyone, as he has proven this season in many club-games as well as in the Noteboom tournament in Leiden where one of his victims was another Dutch rising star Hing Ting Lai. Both players like an aggressive approach of the game and we’re looking forward to some interesting chess from these two players!

Evident from its current 9th and 6th place on FIDE’s Federations Ranking, Poland is a force to be reckoned with in the chess world. With a second to world champion Anand and talented youngsters, resulting in two first places in the World Junior Championship in recent years in their ranks, this is clearly the case. However, all of these talents have yet to achieve the successes of their countryman Michal Krasenkow. In July and October of 2000 Krasenkow reached the number 10 spot on the rating list, ahead of the likes of Short, Gelfand and Svidler. Over his career Krasenkow has won many tournaments, including Dutch tournaments Vlissingen (4 times!) and the C- and B-group in Wijk aan Zee. And Krasenkow must have good memories of Groningen, because in 1997 he reached the final 8 out the famous knock-out candidate tournament here. Why are we so happy that Krasenkow has decided to return to Groningen? Just look at the game below!

As of today, you can register for the Chess Festival Groningen 2016 via our online entry form found at ‘Information’. If you have tried to register before the 10th of October, this might have resulted in an error. It’s best to try to enter the form again. If this fails or something else is wrong, please contact info@chessfestival.nl

You can find the list of participants here:

A group

B group

C group

Compact group

Vierkamp group

If you are looking for a place to stay in Groningen during the Chess Festival, we’d recommend the Postillion Haren. It’s just outside Groningen and easily reached by car or public transport. The first three rounds of our tournament (21-23 December) will be played at this site.

Come and stay at Postillion Hotel Haren during the 54th edition of the Chess Festival Groningen. Make use of our special price during the tournament of €55 (Excl. breakfast) for 1 or 2 person rooms, per room per night.

The advantages that come with this special:
- Breakfast for €10.00 instead of €13.50
- 10% discount on our diner prices
- Free parking and WIFI
- Postillion goodie
- Chess goodie

Make your reservation via info@chessfestival.nl by stating:
- Name and adress
- Number of guests
- Day of arrival, day of departure, total nights of your stay.

Welcome to the homepage of the Chess Festival Groningen 2016! We're glad that you have found the webpage of the 54th edition of our chess tournament in Groningen. Chess games at all levels during the Christmas holidays is a longstanding tradition in Groningen. Information about the main 9- and 5-round tournaments can already be found on this webpage. More information about side-events will become available shortly. For questions an email to info@chessfestival.nl will be answered as quickly as possible.

Koen Lambrechts
Tournament director

Photo's final day including prizegiving ceremony (Harry Gielen)

In this overview you see the winners in the A-, the B- and the C- group.

The absolute highlight...that little kid on the left is Nyuk Lyn Cchung. He scored 100% in the Compact-D. He is the only participant of this tournament who got a perfect score.

The last match game between GM Sipke Ernst and Lucas van Foreest was won by the Friesian GM. It was his 4th win in a row. Lucas held him in the first two games to a draw, but in all the other games the strength of his opponent turned to be decisive. Lucas too optimistic view in some positions cost him dearly. A balanced view in many positions could be something to work on for the future.

In the sixth game a Catalan was played. Sipke has played it before, but as for Lucas it might be his first time playing this defence. The black setup with ...a5 and ...Bc6 is played by strong players, so nothing wrong there.

Final standings A group: 

Always wanted to play a grandmaster in a simul, but never got the chance to do so?
GM Sipke Ernst, who butchered youngster Lucas van Foreest 5-1, will face opponents tomorrow (30/12) in the canteen. Take a seat and enjoy a game.

Last year Anne Haast and Elisabeth Pähtz simultaneously did the simul.

The second match game was a rather dull draw.

Sipke Ernst won his third game in a row. He can call himself now the matchwinner in his match against Lucas van Foreest.

Tonight Pi-chess in chess cafe Atlantis.

What? Pi?

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286 ...

On our Facebook page we published some links to recently discovered movies made during the PCA Qualifiers Groningen 1993, thanks to Elisabeta Polihroniade from Boekarest.