Sarah's Chess Journal
my journal, blog, web log, blog.....about
The History and The Culture of Chess
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Sarah's Chess Journal my journal, blog, web log, blog.....about The History and The Culture of Chess |
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Land of 1000 Dances June 30, 2004 |
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The Association Max Euwe is backed by Joop J. van Oosterom and his wife Muriel. Mr. van Oosterom has the good fortune of not only being a billionaire, but of also being one of the strongest correspondence players in the world [ICCF (ICCFNR: 370241) rating 2748 as of 1-2004]. After making his fortune with the company he founded, the Volmac Software Group, Mr. van Oostrom retired in 1989 from active participation in his business and in 1992, before the great dot-com disaster, he sold his business to Cap Gemini, a French software company. Mr. van Oostrom is most famous for funding the famous Melodie Amber tournament, which features a huge prize fund, exotic locations and luxurious accomodations to those invited to play. Named after his daughter, Melodie Amber, the tournament was begun in 1992 and pits the greatest players in the world against each other in dual contests: one, blindfold; the other, rapid play (25 min. per game). Since there are no ratings involved, the playing is often wild and adventurous. There's nothing about the tournament for anyone to dislike. Less known, however, is another tournament which Mr. van Oostrom sponsored, commonly referred to as The Dance tournaments. The Dance tournaments feature woman masters playing against senior male grandmasters and is alternately called Ladies vs. Veterans The Dance refers to the practice of using the name of a dance inherent to the country where the tournament is played as the name of the tournament. The best I can determine, there have been 10 such tournaments: Points Year Tournament Name Location Ladies - Veterans I 1992 Tumba Tournament Aruba 33.0 - 39.0 II 1993 Walzer Tournament Vienna 40.5 - 31.5 III 1994 Palladienne Tournament Monaco 37.0 - 35.0 IV 1995 Polka Tournament Prague 26.5 - 23.5 V 1996 Foxtrot Tournament London 22.5 - 27.5 VI 1997 Høstdans Tournament Copenhagen 23.0 - 27.0 VII 1998 Can Can Tournament Roquebrune 36.0 - 36.0 VIII 1999 Flamenco Tournament Marbella 19.5 - 30.5 IX 2000 Schuhplatter Tournament Munich 27.0 - 23.0 X 2001 Klompendans Tournament Amsterdam 24.0 - 26.0 Total 289.0 - 299.0 |
links personal Sarah's Serendipitous Chess Page The Life and Chess of Paul Morphy Sarah's Chess History Forum chess - general Chesslinks Worldwide chess - history Mark Week's History on the Web Chess Journalists of America Chess History Newsgroup Hebrew Chess Chess Tourn. & Match History Super Tournaments of the Past La grande storia degli scacchi Bobby Fischer Bil Wall's Chess Pages |
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