SV Leiderdorp wins first Schutten International Toernament

On Sunday April 18th the first Schutten International Toernament took off. In “The Sjelter” SV Leiderdorp met a Flemish delegation. This meeting finished with a sounding victory for the youth selection of SV Leiderdorp: the battle against an elite team of promotion Jeugdschaak Flanders was won with 40.5 - 23.5 points.

In this tournament 15 talented Flemish children in four different age categories ended up against the same amount of players from SV Leiderdorp. The Dutch camp started very well. In two categories there were large victories, in the group till 20 years SV Leiderdorp won with 8 - 2 and also at the group youth till 10 years SV Leiderdorp won with 6 - 0. In the other categories it was more equal, at the group till 12 years SV Leiderdorp took a small lead 4.5 - 3.5 and at the group till 14 years the results were equal 4 - 4.

After a vast lunch the players went back to battle. The Belgians had to perform very well, if they would like to win. The game in the oldest group was actual already a run race, certainly when the Dutch team rapidly won all the matches. In the group the Dutch team was the big winner, with a 18 - 2 victory. At the category age till 14 it was very tense. For a long time the results were the same, but in the end the Flemish team was the strongest. They won the match with 10 - 6. In the category age till 12 years, the Flemish team had an other victory. They won this match with 10.5 - 5.5. In the youngest age category SV Leiderdorp was much stronger. With an 11 - 1 victory they showed there qualities. In total SV Leiderdorp had the most points and won the battle with a 40.5 - 23.5 victory.

After again a vast meal - with thanks to pizzeria La Madonna - took place the giving of all the prices. Although the most important price - a nice goblet, made available by our sponsor Schutten IT - will stand in the price cupboard of SV Leiderdorp for the next year, the Flemish team did not go homewards without any prices. They won prices in the categories till 12 and till 14 years and there was also the Creativity Award which went to the talented Flemish Eva Baekelant!

After this successful first edition of the tournament, the organisation immediately made plans for a continuation of this tournament. There objective for next year is to organize an tournament with also a team from Germany and a team from England. For the further future the plans are still bigger, so that it is not imaginary that Leiderdorp in some years will be host of large tournament with players from all over Europe!


Paul Hooijmans