In glorious, sunny weather to the Northern Netherlands

Pictorial report on Wijk aan Zee 2012 by Ralf Binnewirtz

At the start of this year's Tata Steel tournament some meetings with KWA participation were on the programme, stopovers of our journey were Leidschendam, Wijk aan Zee and Amsterdam: Besides the cash audit at Bert Corneth's home which was scheduled for late Saturday morning (14/01/2012), in the afternoon of the same day there was an informal KWA meeting in the tournament pavilion of Wijk where we could count the considerable number of 19 attending members. A get-together in a smaller circle was planned at Bob van de Velde in Amsterdam for the following Sunday, beside Michael Negele and your reporter (Ralf Binnewirtz) also (with some delay) Tony Gillam, Andreas Saremba and Jurgen Stigter had appeared.

Henri Serruys and Bert Corneth during the cash audit in Leidschendam
Henri Serruys and Bert Corneth during the cash audit in Leidschendam

Apart from a small summation error which had been spotted by Bert Corneth in the income/expenses statement there were no objections at all, so the audit could swiftly be finished.

The documents linked below are only available in our member's area:

It should be mentioned that the former Dutch club account at the Rabo Bank has been closed meanwhile. Fortunately all members have paid their fee for 2011.
The membership fees remain unchanged also in 2012. Our exchange ratio for € to US$ was fixed at 1,30 (1 € = 1,30 US$).

Additional items which were discussed (continued in the meeting at Wijk in the afternoon):

  • The newly introduced non-contributory junior membership up to the age of 35: It was proposed to take out ads in the most widespread chess magazines (in Germany, GB, USA as well as in New In Chess). Moreover a member should be found who will mainly deal with the marketing activities of the KWA.
  • A non-contributory membership for East European chess historians and chess historians from developing countries. In return these should regularly contribute to our CSQ newsletter. In many regions of this world (Latin/South America, Africa, Asia, Russia) the KWA is very

After the cash audit where we could enjoy the obliging hospitality of Regina and Bert Corneth we moved on to Wijk aan Zee. But there was only a short time left to visit the tournament arena as the KWA meeting in the pavilion was of course obligatory. Below we offer a small selection of photographs.

  • In front of the tournament hall: Bernd Schneider with his wife, Bob van de Velde, Jurgen Stigter and Harrie Grondijs
  • Henri Serruys, Bert Corneth, Guy Van Habberney and Ton de Vreede
  • From left: Jurgen Stigter, Andreas Saremba (standing), Harrie Grondijs, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Peter de Jong and Tony Gillam (with pea soup).
  • Our new Dutch member Nico Pos was welcomed with applause.
  • Ron Bleeker, Henri Serruys and Rob Spaans
  • Next to the board (in persona Michael Negele and Guy Van Habberney) with their back to the camera: Ton de Vreede and Geurt Gijssen.
  • Bernd Schneider and Calle Erlandsson this time sitting in the second row (due to space constraints!).

Some issues from the meeting should be briefly documented:

Book Projects: These will still be sponsored by the KWA, however only the authors should care about the publication and sales. Naturally the authors can employ a proper distributor.

General Meeting in Norwich: On this please see our current announcement. Michael Negele will arrange further details with our member Owen Hindle in coming February.

KWA Homepage: Ralf Binnewirtz agreed to carry out the planned relaunch of our website this year. A modern CMS based website with interactive features (blogs) for the members should be realized. Our webmaster will prepare a more detailed proposal on that.

Post of the treasurer: Michael Negele announced that he intends to pass the treasurer's chair at the elections to the board in 2013 , therefore next year a successor has to be found.

Subsequent to the meeting the obligatory book market took place which ran with a brisk participation. Afterwards we could still observe some games of the first round of the tournament in their final stage.

Finally a small circle met for the evening meal in the recommendable restaurant Ladychef in Zandvoort which we gladly look back on thanks to its excellent quality for a moderate price (www.ladychef.nl).

On Sunday (15/01) we, i.e. Tony Gillam, Michael Negele, Andreas Saremba, Jurgen Stigter and myself, were guests of Winifred and Bob van de Velde in their beautiful Amsterdam home. Of course there was an extensive discussion before, during and after the lunch as well. Below again some photos.

  • Winifred van de Velde spoiled us not only with a lavish home-cooked three-course lunch but also with coffee and cake.
  • Bob van de Velde plans to get involved in a new project which however we cannot report about at this early stage.
  • The guests looking forward to lunch: Michael Negele, Tony Gillam, Ralf Binnewirtz and Jurgen Stigter (not in the picture: photographer Andreas Saremba)
  • Attention is needed also during the lunch.
  • Michael Negele and Tony Gillam with the third course.
  • Jurgen Stigter prefers milk with his meal.
  • Tony and Michael seem very satisfied after a sumptuous lunch.

The following two points of our discussion are to mention:

Bibliography of Chess (BoC): The current (unchanged) state was again reported by Andreas Saremba. The tasks for the front-end = user interface (Per Skjoldager) and back-end = database on the server (Andreas Saremba and others) are clearly assigned. This year a significant progress should be achieved in this project.

Book project "Lasker-Reader": Contrary to the original planning not a big single volume with many diverging subjects will be favoured but a series of smaller volumes instead. We should start with a reprint of the unpublished Lasker manuscript The Psychology of the Game which we have on hand as a PDF. The first step must be the conversion of the pdf file to an editable text file, Jurgen Stigter is invited to realize this technical step by means of his OCR software.

Also the following Monday the glorious winter weather with bright sunshine continued. This picture gallery offers a selection of photos from some stops on the way from Zandvoort to Wijk, from a walking-tour through the dunes of Wijk as well as from the third round of the tournament which we had to leave early for the journey home.

In the tournament hall: Pea soup on everybody's tongue.
In the tournament hall: Pea soup on everybody's tongue.

Finally sincere thanks are given to all our hosts, Regina and Bert Corneth as well as Winifred and Bob van de Velde who enjoyed us by their warm welcome and their perfect hospitality.

(Photographs: Michael Negele, Andreas Saremba and Guy Van Habberney)

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