Grandmaster David Howell will open the 7th edition of the Leiden Chess Tournament on Thursday July 11th with a clock simultaneous against 10 (co) sponsors. He will have to try and win these 10 matches within one short hour (from 19:00 till 20:00 hr).
The sponsoring ten players will consist of pretty strong regional players and therefore the defending winner of last year’s tournament might have a fairly hard time winning these 10 matches. We wish him luck!
The Open Championship will start Friday July 12th. The first move on the highest board will be made by main sponsor Roel Piket of Adhoc & Solide Administratie.
Amongst participants are four former winners from the tournament with for instance local grandmaster Erik van den Doel. Moreover, this year there are former European and World Youth Champions to be followed. Furthermore there are about twenty (Grand) Masters from thirteen different countries who will participate. The highest eight boards will be live on the internet.
Nine rounds will be played through Sunday July 21st. Wednesday July 17th is a non-playing day. Location and host will be again the Leidse Denksportcentrum (Leiden’s Mindsport Centre) at Robijnstraat 4 in Leiden.
Participants – Group A:
| 1 | GM Howell, David W L | ENG | 2639 |
| 2 | GM Nikolic, Predrag | BIH | 2622 |
| 3 | GM Van Den Doel, Erik | NED | 2582 |
| 4 | GM Sethuraman, S.P. | IND | 2562 |
| 5 | GM Sengupta, Deep | IND | 2555 |
| 6 | GM Prohaszka, Peter | HUN | 2554 |
| 7 | GM Iljin, Artem | RUS | 2540 |
| 8 | IM Zaragatski, Ilja | GER | 2494 |
| 9 | GM Hasangatin, Ramil | RUS | 2489 |
| 10 | IM Zhou, Yang-Fan | ENG | 2469 |
| 11 | IM Bernal Moro, Luis Javier | ESP | 2423 |
| 12 | IM Hendriks, Willy | NED | 2417 |
| 13 | IM Wiersma, Eelke | NED | 2374 |
| 14 | FM Wantola, Ivo | NED | 2374 |
| 15 | IM Akshat, Khamparia | IND | 2354 |
| 16 | IM Slingerland, Fred | NED | 2350 |
| 17 | Pijpers, Arthur | NED | 2338 |
| 18 | FM Dahm, Jochen | GER | 2304 |
| 19 | Molinaroli, Martin | GER | 2298 |
| 20 | FM Heemskerk, Wim | NED | 2239 |
| 21 | Wilschut, Peter | NED | 2232 |
| 22 | WIM Padurariu, Ioana-Smaranda | ROU | 2208 |
| 23 | Van Helvoort, Rob | NED | 2180 |
| 24 | Van Der Velden, Bram | NED | 2177 |
| 25 | Van Osch, Mees | NED | 2177 |
| 26 | Vistisen, Lars | DEN | 2177 |
| 27 | Van der Marel, Bert | NED | 2176 |
| 28 | Blom, Vincent | NED | 2167 |
| 29 | Partenheimer, Axel | GER | 2157 |
| 30 | Van der Auweraert, Elwin | NED | 2154 |
| 31 | CM Van ‘t Hof, Eric | NED | 2144 |
| 32 | Van Der Raaf, Erik | NED | 2140 |
| 33 | FM Overeem, Marc | NED | 2139 |
| 34 | Faydi, Jonathan | NED | 2138 |
| 35 | WFM Chevannes, Sabrina L | ENG | 2136 |
| 36 | Schaeffner, Joost | NED | 2107 |
| 37 | Fernandez Fernandez, Juan | ESP | 2097 |
| 38 | Roorda, Thijs | NED | 2088 |
| 39 | Thakoerdien, Jerrel | NED | 2083 |
| 40 | Braggaar, Leonore | NED | 2080 |
| 41 | Van Halderen, Herman | NED | 2071 |
| 42 | Klop, Tjomme | NED | 2069 |
| 43 | Noordkamp, Wouter | NED | 2066 |
| 44 | Segers, Hans | NED | 2058 |
| 45 | Van Zetten, Maarten | NED | 2044 |
| 46 | Kerkvliet, Max | NED | 2042 |
| 47 | Van der Meer, Kees | NED | 2039 |
| 48 | De Coverly, Roger D | ENG | 2036 |
| 49 | Ratsma, Midas | NED | 2036 |
| 50 | Van den Berg, Dick | NED | 2028 |
| 51 | Gieben, Stijn | NED | 2026 |
| 52 | Tinga, Tjerk | NED | 2026 |
| 53 | Manoch, Maurice | NED | 2019 |
| 54 | Blankert, Willem | NED | 2010 |
| 55 | Kouwenhoven, Arjen | NED | 2004 |
| 56 | Bakker, Joop | NED | 1990 |
| 57 | Bey, Jerry | NED | 1987 |
| 58 | Braggaar, Pim | NED | 1987 |
| 59 | Kolodkin, Daniil | NED | 1979 |
| 60 | Oosthout, Wouter | NED | 1970 |
| 61 | Bottema, Timo | NED | 1962 |
| 62 | Van der Hoeven, Gerben | NED | 1962 |
| 63 | Kubbenga, Michael | NED | 1955 |
| 64 | Scherpenisse, Kees | NED | 1954 |
| 65 | Sparreboom, Wil | NED | 1954 |
| 66 | Van Harten, Maarten | NED | 1944 |
| 67 | WCM Orlova, Yelizaveta | CAN | 1942 |
| 68 | De Bruijne, Arian | NED | 1941 |
| 69 | Weiland, Harro | NED | 1935 |
| 70 | Lecomte, Robin | NED | 1930 |
| 71 | Vreeburg, Jan | NED | 1922 |
| 72 | Koes, Richard | NED | 1919 |
| 73 | Den Hartog, Marijn | NED | 1916 |
| 74 | Boele, Martijn | NED | 1911 |
| 75 | Zeven, Frank | NED | 1899 |
| 76 | Van Calmthout, Hans | NED | 1892 |
| 77 | Van der Togt, Twan | NED | 1880 * |
| 78 | Halfhide, Sebastian | NED | 1871 * |
| 79 | Van Der Zon, Stef | NED | 1870 * |
