As part of the Chess Festival’s University Challenge, Ivan Sokolov and Lucas van Foreest will play a four-game match. The match will take place from Thursday the 27th of December until Sunday the 30th. This year marks the milestone of the tenth clash between an experienced older player and a youthful challenger. Except for the age gap, the two players share a lot of similarities. Both Sokolov and Van Foreest are well dressed men, known for their remarkable character. They play the same brand of fighting chess, and are unafraid of all the complications in their games. All in all, this matchup is promising to deliver an interesting match to close the year. 

Ivan Sokolov is a two-time winner of the Dutch national championship and a one time winner of the Yugoslav chess championship. He played Olympiads for both his native Bosnia as well as the Netherlands. In the nineties and zeros, Sokolov was, without a doubt, a world class player. He would win strong tournaments nearly every year. During the 2013 European Championship for Countries he managed to get a gold medal for board two. During his golden years, Sokolov managed to achieve a rating above 2700. While currently being around 2600, he still is one of the Netherlands’ best players. The always outspoken Sokolov is also known for being a commentator, writer and former wine dealer. Because he played for both Groningen’s top clubs, SISSA and Groningen, he is a familiar face in the city.

 More a matter of when than if, Lucas van Foreest recently managed to obtain his final GM-norm. While writing about Lucas, one can never fail to mention his older brother Jorden and his younger sister Machteld, nor his great- great- grandfathers Dirk and Arnold van Foreest. Of those mentioned, only Lucas and Machteld are yet to become Dutch national champions. In the latest edition of the strong B-group at TATA Steel, Lucas had qualified as last in the group, however he managed to play for first prize for a surprisingly long time. Eventually, he just missed out on getting his final norm. In typical Van Foreest style, he continued playing in a drawn position to keep up hopes of winning the tournament. Sadly, he eventually lost the game.

 The University Challenge is traditionally one of the Chess Festival’s many highlights. Sokolov and Van Foreest join the rich history of eventful matches. In recent history, promising players such as Jorden van Foreest, Eelke de Boer and Anna-Maja Kazarian played their older opponent Jan Timman, Hans Ree, John van der Wiel, Anne Haast and Sipke Ernst.

 De match will have live commentary on site by Geert Ligtering and Stefan Kuipers. Additionally, a blog will be kept up to date on the website of the Chess Festival. The games will start at 13:00, except for the final game which will start at 11:00 to match the starts of the games in the open groups and other events.

A personal motivation for tournament director Koen Lambrechts, to invite these two players to a match comes from watching the two games below.