Essent Open has started

local players take some scalps in the first round

GM Jan Werle
one of the top seeded of Essent 2007

Strong as usual, Essent Open has started. 90 players with mininum rating of 2100 have joined the competition. Top seed is GM Postny, followed by GM L'Amy, GM Werle, GM Hillarp Persson, GM Nijboer, GM Smeets, GM Golfshtein, etc. The participants will play 9 rounds for the total prize fund of 7500 eur (first place gets 3000 eur).

There were some surprises in the first round. Most of the top seeded players won their opening games and warmed up for the next rounds. The major surprises were GM Hillarp Persson and GM Smeets. The Swedish player seems to be still accomodating and lost his game against Stefan Kuipers. GM Smeets drew against FM Bonno Pel. Other surprising results include Van der Leest - GM Hort ½-½, WGM T. Mamedjarova - IM Safarli 1-0, GM Visser - FM Giddins ½-½, Peter Hulshof - IM Van Delft ½-½, Marijn Otte ½-½. For the rest of the results visit the official website www.essentchess.nl

Today is round 2 of the Essent Open. The derby games will be GM Postny - FM Okkes and IM Ris - GM L'Ami. Starting tomorrow, you can follow the Essent Crown group (GM Mamedyarov, GM Ponomariov, GM Van Wely, and GM Andriasian) with live commentary on Chessdom.

Essent Round 2 pairings

GM Postny, Evgeny ISR 2599 - FM Okkes, Menno NED 2386
IM Ris, Robert NED 2381 - GM L'Ami, Erwin NED 2577
GM Werle, Jan NED 2568 - WGM Mamedjarova, Zeinab AZE 2342
GM Nijboer, Friso NED 2559 - Ruijgrok, Dennis NED 2330
GM Gofshtein, Leonid ISR 2542 - Pg, Mohd Omar Ak Hirawan BRU 2316
IM Grooten, Herman NED 2350 - IM Abergel, Thal FRA 2528
FM Erwich, Frank NED 2346 - GM Winants, Luc BEL 2504
FM De Jong, Migchiel NED 2341 - FM Rasmussen, Allan Stig DEN 2485
IM Haub, Thorsten-Michael GER 2469 - WGM Mamedjarova, Turkan AZE 2227
FM Hedke, Fred GER 2323 - IM Smerdon, David AUS 2466
IM Simutowe, Amon ZAM 2421 - Rooda, Kai NED 2146
Kuipers, Stefan NED 2283 - GM Peng, Zhaoqin NED 2419