October 13, 2010

Erwin l'Ami invited in Corus A-Group 2011: AD article - english translation

 Erwin l’Ami with the elite

Wijk aan Zee/Woerden
The chess player Erwin l’Ami faces a great new challenge. Coming from Woerden, 25 years old, he will participate in the Grandmasters A Group from the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, one of the strongest tournaments in the world. There he will encounter, amongst others, the top 4 chess players in the world’s rating list.
              HENK J.DE KLEIJNEN

The invitation for Erwin l’Ami is surprising, because normally the Dutch chess players could play in the tournament’s A-Group (recently the name has changed from Corus into Tata Steel Chess Tournament) only by obtaining the national title or by winning the B-Group of the tournament. The tournament director Jeroen van den Berg explains this as follows: ”We chose him not only because of his steady chess growth, but also because of his solid style. He is more or less unbeatable. At the same time, Erwin’s chess style of making many draws, makes it practically difficult to win the national championship or the B-group.

“This is the recognition of his steady growth and solid style. Hardly anybody beats him.”
Jeroen van den Berg- tournament director Tata Steel Chess Tournament

Also because, with such a strong field as in the B-group, he is always above expectation, he deserves, according to us, a debut at the highest level.”

Amongst the 14 players in the A-group, we also find two other active Grandmasters. Jan Smeets, the same age as l’Ami and former  national champion, is playing for the third time in a row.

The third is 16-year old Anish Giri. The youngest Dutch champion in history, assured his Grandmaster title in 2009 in Wijk aan Zee, at the time the youngest grandmaster in the world. He won last year’s B group, leaving l’Ami behind him.

Loek van Wely, in the past a regular participant of the country’s most famous chess tournament, announced he will spend the upcoming year with other things besides chess. Van Wely, Giri and l’Ami were members of the Oranje Equipe which participated in the Olympiad in Siberia.

With two potential participants is still being negotiated, but it is already obvious that the tournament - which will be held in the second part of January 2011 and traditionally attracts a lot of chess fans who try to get a prize in one of the lower groups – will be stronger than the previous edition.

CARLSEN
Certain is the participation of the world’s number 1 to 4 of the current world ranking list: Viswanathan Anand from India (World Champion), the young Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Levon Aronian (Armenia).

The Bulgarian Veselin Topalov who is currently number 5 and recently lost the world championship final against Anand, couldn’t come to an agreement with the organizers.


Not satisfied with nice score in Olympiad, Siberia

WOERDEN. During the Chess Olympiad in Siberia, Erwin l’Ami performed well: his score of 4.5 points out of 8 games was a fraction higher than his rating would have predicted. He was not satisfied though, because his only loss was in the crucial 8 round. Untill that moment The Netherlands was still in the race for the first spots, but the 3-1 loss against Israel ended that. “Very unpleasant since it sent us off the right path” recollects the chess player from Woerden with guilt.

That doesn’t change the fact that Erwin l’Ami, in Siberia, was one of the most stable players in the team, together with countryman Anish Giri. His participation in the prestigious Corus-tournament in Wijk aan Zee had by then - in big secrecy - been confirmed.

In the coming months tournaments in Hoogeveen and Wolvega are scheduled for the chess player from Woerden. Besides that, he planned training sessions with national coach Vladimir Chuchelov, the Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov and Daniel Stellwagen.


Source: AD-newspaper, October 13th, 2010


9 comments:

  1. Re: Erwin l’Ami with the elite

    Wijk aan Zee/Woerden

    ##########################


    Every so often like once in a 'blue moon' passing ever so slowly across the heavenly skies something really nice actually happens and takes place in everyday life. :) Kind of like eating a really big chocolate bar given to you by a dear friend as a special present before an annual holiday or maybe even better yet -- right before your birthday! ~lol~

    Well, it so happens that I've recently experienced a similar event with someone I know... Certainly, I'm no slouch when it comes to meeting great Chess personalities. Having been so fortunate myself to have met eight World Chess Champions (6 men: Dr. Max Euwe, Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran 'Tiger' Petrosian, Robert J. 'Bobby' Fischer & Boris Spassky and 2 women: Nona Gaprindashvili & Zsuzsa 'Susan' Polgar) including hundreds of celebrated "Grandmasters" all from my generation. :P

    Thanks to his astute wife GM Alani l'Ami we now find out from the headlines just published in the AP newspaper that her husband GM Erwin l'Ami has been invited to participate in the super strong "Corus 'A group' Chess Festival" 2011 in Wijk ann Zee next year! :)

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v111/marspolaris/chess_logos/wijk_aan_zee_poster_01.jpg

    The above links to an old vintage promotional poster for Wijk aan Zee.

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v111/marspolaris/chess_logos/wijk_fritz_00.jpg

    And, of course a modern day version. This one deigned by the renowned Chess photographer Frits Agterdenbos. (*)

    He will be playing along with his two talented compatriots GM's Jan Smeets and Anish Giri. May the three of them prove to be a strong & mighty force to be reckoned with at this amazing Corus Chess Festival event... I'll be rooting for you -- all -- the -- way! :XD

    Sincerely,
    Alan Benson
    Berkeley, CA // USA
    (aka: Malthrope, Mal & Al)

    PS: Two very important & wonderful Chess websites: The Corus Chess Tournaments from 1938 to the present -- "Palmarès des tournois de Wijk aan" // http://pagesperso-orange.fr/eric.delaire/Tournois/Wijk.htm ...and the Corus Chess Tournament -- from Wikepedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corus_chess_tournament

    PPS: (*) The "ChessVista" homepage by photographer Frits Agterdenbos // http://www.chessvista.com/ccms.100.ChessVista.home.html

    Addendum:

    chessgames.com - my profile & chessforum: http://www.chessgames.com/~malthrope

    My Twitter tweets page: http://twitter.com/Malthrope

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your support, information and kind words!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ...and I will take a close look at all the links :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alina l'Ami said...

    "Thank you for your support, information and kind words!"

    and...

    "...and I will take a close look at all the links :)"

    You are so very welcome Alina! :))

    I can just imagine your complete surprise when opening the AP newspaper and there he was right smack dab on the front page -- your husband! ~lol~

    You married yourself a very special guy (of course you know this already). :) He actually takes the time to 'tweet' back to us on the Twitter! Not every Grandmaster player does that or if they do it's only done on rare occasions. :P

    Re: the links

    Naturally, they are all hand-picked and I know that this one in particular:

    The Corus Chess Tournaments from 1938 to the present -- "Palmarès des tournois de Wijk aan" // http://pagesperso-orange.fr/eric.delaire/Tournois/Wijk.htm

    Will be especially appreciated as it follows the history of this great Corus Chess Tournament (from Hoogovens to Beverwijk to Wijk ann Zee) over the course of almost a full century now... It's exceedingly well done featuring the complete list of yearly winners and it also includes many of the full crosstables! Something you don't find listed everyday of the week. *wink* All in all, absolutely incrediable! :D

    Sincerely,
    Alan Benson
    Berkeley, CA // USA
    (aka: Malthrope, Mal & Al)

    My Twitter tweets page: http://twitter.com/Malthrope

    ReplyDelete


  5. افضل شركة نقل اثاث بالمدينة المنورة تساعدك على نقل اثاثك بامان فلا داعى للقلق مع افضل شركة نقل اثاث بجدة

    عزيزى العميل انت من محبى التنقل باستمرار بالتالى انت بحاجة ماسة وضروية الى الاستعانة بالمختصين في نقل العفش خاصة ارخص شركة نقل اثاث بالرياض لان الاستعانة باى من عمالة الشوارع الغير مدربة والتي لا تمتلك خبرة كافية في نقل العفش او الحفاظ علية وليس هذا فقط فقد يؤدى الاستعانة بعمالة الشوارع الى حدوث حالة فقدان وتكسير للاثاث بالتالى التاثير الضار عليك عزيزى العميل

    لا تقلق مطلقاً الان بشأن نقل اي منقولات خاصة بك طالما استعنت بشركة الاول لـ نقل الأثاث في الرياض وخارج الرياض فنحن ليس الوحيدون ولكننا متميزون عن اى مؤسسة أخرى داخل وخارج الدمام وشهرتنا كافضل شركة نقل عفش بينبع
    نقل اثاث بجدة

    ReplyDelete