These championships are well known among students. For the second time this tournament is being organized by Royal Haskoning in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Chess Society (KNSB) and under the auspices of Student Sports Netherlands (SSN). The battle will be tense for the titleholder Erasmus University Rotterdam. There are no fewer than three International Grandmasters among the entrants. Jan Smeets will be playing for Rotterdam, Jan Werle for Groningen and Daniel Stellwagen for Utrecht. The full list of players can be found on www.schaakbond.nl/chess-challenge/.

Teams from the student towns of Delft, Rotterdam, Groningen and Utrecht will battle it out to become Netherlands champion and go on to the Student World Championship in Novokuznetzk in Russia. All the teams will play each other twice during the Chess Challenge. This year, unfortunately, there are no teams taking part from the other student towns, so the organizing committee has decided to allow the strongest players from the other student towns to compete in individual four-event matches. This will also give them a chance at the wild card (fifth place) for the World Championship. The individual four-event matches play a single round tournament on Sunday 17 February. It is by invitation only.

At 10.30 a.m. on Saturday, Leo Visser, member of the Board of Management of Royal Haskoning will make the opening move on the board of the titleholder Erasmus University Rotterdam, after which the Netherlands Chess Championship for Students will officially get under way.

A representative of Nijmegen Local Authority, Leo Visser (Royal Haskoning) and Eddy Schuyer, recently-appointed chairman of the Netherlands Chess Society and former D 66 party member in the Upper House, will present the prizes at 5.30 p.m. on Sunday 17 February.

Date: Saturday 16 February and Sunday 17 February 2008
Time: 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
Location: Royal Haskoning
Barbarossastraat 35, Nijmegen
Telephone +31 (0) 24 3284 400

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