|
Checker Champion
Alexander Baljakin
Checker Champion
Alex Baljakin
Checkers Tournaments
Dutch Open
Checkers Championship
Chekcers In
Den Haag~The Hague,
Russian Champion
Checker Players
Not Gold, but Silver
Checker Champions
Noteworthy International
Checkers Players
21st International Festival
des Jeux and
Checkers Championships
Nijmegen Open International
Damtoernooi
Checkers Tournament
Checkers Champions
Balt Cup 2007
Checkers Champion
Iser Koeperman
Cannes International
Checkers Festival
Women's Checkers
Checkers Champion
Amangul Durdyev
|
Welcome Checker Players
to
Den Haag~The Hague,
Netherlands
Hotel on the Waterfront |
City Roundabout with Fountain |
Scheveningen beach and hotels |
Fortis Circus Theatre
|
This Netherlands Open checkers tournament had the largest number of enrolled participants of any European or Dutch competition. The innovative aspect of the tourney was that the roster was ‘open’ to any checkerist from the Grandmasters’ ranks to the recreational gamer of the checkerboard. Therefore, the playing field and checkers environment became an ideal mix of master, intermediate and novice gamers. Moreover, the competitors at the checkerboard were a blend of men, women and youth seeking their personal best and the tournament trophy. The only exception to this joint endeavour in the mind sport circuit was the World Championships in checkers, which still applied separately to the categories under Men’s, Women’s and Youth World Championship competitions.
Aside from the high calibre of checkers matches, the competitive atmosphere was balanced with several ancillary activities such as the N.K. Aspiranten (youth competition, Van Leeuwen & Meurs Park Blitz and the Van Leeuwen & Meurs Disco Blitz.
The setting for the checkers Open was conducive to the mind sport as it was held in the spacious card rooms of the BowlingWorld complex at the Zuiderpark, Den Haag, while the rest of the activities took place in the park itself.
Zuiderpark, Den Haag |
Zuiderpark, Den Haag 2 |
Zuiderpark, Den Haag 3 |
The Axioma Open hosted nine divisions of 130 avid checkers players from across the Netherlands, Belarus, Russia, Latvia and the Ukraine and offered a wide range of competitive experience and checkers skill. Baljakin joined the now very familiar faces of Guntis Valneris, Alexander Schwarzman, Kees Thijssen, Ron Heusdens, Rob Clerc, Vadim Virny, Hans Jansen, and Jean-Marc Ndjofang.
This Open checkers competition was a first for Rob Clerc, who had captured the Dutch Championship eight times in the past and placed 2nd in several World Championships, because he normally shied away from this type of checkers match. However, as a Dutch professional ‘dammer’ or checker player, recent events had encouraged his participation in this arena of checkers Grandmasters: health reasons, money, maximizing his playing opportunities, and poor National and World Championships in the spring due to the lack of ranking participants for the titles. This situation threatened to jeopardize his NOPC ‘A’ NSF ranking and funding, so much so that Rob Clerc needed to gain a certain number of checkers game points to maintain his current status within the Netherlands mind sport professional circuit.
GMI Rob Clerc
Baljakin joined a checkers roster of 22 Class ‘A’ masters to play in nine rounds at the checkerboard over a period of seven days. The leaders of the tournament set the pace from the beginning, but there was always an unexpected outcome in a checkers game or two. Alex played to draws in his first two games but then proceeded to win in Round three and continued to defeat his checkers opponents in Round 4 and 5 with a ‘dubbleslag’ or literally translated as a ‘double stroke or blow’. He was the only top player to make such a huge gain. Of course, his opponents across the checkerboard were not happy by this outcome, as it now placed Baljakin in solid top leading position with Guntis and the others.
Once again, this field of players displayed seasoned checkers skills, strategies and board tactics of solid attack and defense moves to offer any spectator viewing the various games a high calibre competition.
By Round 9, the top six contenders were challenging each other for the winning rank and awards, but the match of each pair of checkers Grandmasters ended in draws: Alexander Getmanski vs Alex Baljakin, Guntis Valneris vs Alexander Schwarzman and Vadim Virny vs Jean-Marc Ndjofang.
The final results of the Axioma Open 2006 concluded with ten checkers masters scoring a total of thirteen points and the top six finishing with four wins and five draws each. The tournament organizers then determined the five top awards by the accumulated ‘Weerstandspunten’ of each checkerist leading the pack. These ‘defense points’ collected per checkers game were extremely close between the competition leaders, but in the end, Alex Getmanski won first place and the Gold cup with 107 ‘Weerstandspunten’.Guntis Valneris and Vadim Virny each had accumulated 101 ‘Weerstandspunten’, so the tourney judges determined second and third place by the ‘Weerstandspunten (laag/hoog)’ ~ difference between the low/high or weak/strong defense strategies. The final result for second rank and the Silver medal was Vadim Virny with 82 and third place Bronze was given to Guntis Valneris with 80 points. Alex Baljakin finished 4th with 98‘Weerstandspunten’, while Rob Clerc and Yuriy Anikeev scored 97‘Weerstandspunten’ and tied for fifth. Jean-Marc Ndjofang followed in 6th place, and Alexander Schwarzman, defending champion from 2005, couldn’t quite make the winning moves in 2006 and finished 9th. Baljakin also finished in a coup de grace by winning the Aad Ivens trophy for being the best Dutch player at the DNC Open tournament.
Alex Baljakin with Aad Ivens Trophy |
Harm Wiersma congratulating Alex Baljakin |
Adventures in the checkers arena did not end there for Alexander Baljakin in 2006. The fall brought yet another opportunity for Alex to display checkerboard strategies in the European Checkers Championship held in Bovec, Slovenia. In this competition, the Dutch/Belarussian Grandmaster headed a roster of high calibre challengers including defending champion, Alexander Schwartzman, Alexander Georgiev, Guntis Valneris, Alexei Tsjizjov, Anatoli Gantwarg, Ron Heusdens, Kees Thijssen, Mark Podolsky, & Auke Scholma. |
|
CHECKERS CHEST
Two Player