Amsterdam Chess Open
About us
We are a six-member tournament committee from Amsterdam with a passion for tournament chess. We would like to briefly introduce ourselves here!
Chairman: Jan Timmerman
Jan is a versatile personality with a passion for chess. He is chairman of the Amsterdam Chess Open and teaches Commercial Economics at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. As a board member of the Caïssa chess club and a participant in various competitions and tournaments, he has built up an extensive network in the Amsterdam chess world. Jan is known for his enthusiasm and his (often too) offensive playing style, such as his favorite opening, the King's Gambit.
Treasurer & Chess producer: Marjolein Aarten
Marjolein started playing chess at around 5 years old, but stopped playing at high school and only found her way back to the chess board at a later age. She is the organizational professional for the Amsterdam Chess Open and in daily life she is Executive Producer at the production company KAOS Amsterdam. Every Thursday is her chess-volunteer-day! You can find her at the Max Euwe Centrum as a conservator and on Thursday evening she teaches chess at her chess club Amsterdam West. Marjolein is known for her peaceful openings, but will for sure come at you with aggression later on!
Secretary: Jim van der Valk Bouman
Jim van der Valk Bouman introduces Tornelo to the Amsterdam chess scene with the Amsterdam Open. With a background in mathematics and a lifelong fascination with competitive games, he has focused on chess in recent years. As co-founder of chess club Zwart op Wit, he is regularly involved in taking care of the internal competition, with consistently fair divisions being a spearhead. As a chess player, Jim is strategic and cautious, with favorite openings being the Pirc and d4.
PR coordinator: Joppe Bolderman
Joppe has already organized a few things during his student days, and with the Amsterdam Open he wants to take this experience into the chess world. He learned how the pieces moved as a child, but it wasn't until two years ago when his roommate invited him to play chess that he really became fascinated with the game. He is now a board member of chess club Zwart op Wit and works as a promotion coordinator on the website, social media and of course the promotion of the event. His style of play is characterized by getting into huge time trouble in every game he plays.
Co​ordinator personnel and logistics: Maurice Buzink
Maurice Buzink is the logistics organizer of the Amsterdam Open. As a child he played chess for a while, but stopped before high school, but never really lost the passion for chess. Now as co-founder and chairman of Zwart op Wit, fanatically playing chess again. Maurice's playing style is characterized by liking to play with at least 1 piece behind.
Chief of press: Peter Doggers
Peter has been playing chess since 1990 at his club Caïssa-Eenhoorn and achieved a degree in Dutch Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. He is known from his website ChessVibes.com (2007-2013) and he writes for Chess.com since 2013. In september 2024 his book The Chess Revolution released. As a player, he still more or less follows Bobby Fischer's opening repertoire.
Coordinator City District tournament: David Spaan
In his youth, David became a member of K.V.C, nowadays known as De Volewijckers, where his father and brother also played chess. Here, he was active in a lot of different functions, as a match leader, tournament organisor, chairman and leader of the youth department, after it got (re)founded 6 years ago. He currently plays at ENPS. David likes attacking play and opens mostly with d4, but he likes to switch it up every now and then, so his opponents can never be sure what to expect!
