Meet the Winner of the Tata Steel Chess 2021: Jorden van Foreest
Jorden van Foreest: An Underdog Chess Story
If you are a chess fan out there, you likely watched the 2021 Tata Steel Chess Tournament, the first super-tournament of the year held in the Netherlands. I did as well, and I was very surprised to see the champion of this prestigious event.
See, many chess fans expected a winner such as World Number 1, Magnus Carlsen, or any of the favorites in the playing field. But out of nowhere, one man emerged as the victor, and has finally earned his recognition by many in the chess community.
Meet Jorden van Foreest, a 21-year-old GM dutchman who bested his higher-rated competition in this long, 16-day, 13-round event. In doing so, Jorden became the first dutchman to win the event since Jan Timman in 1985. Coming into this tournament at 66th in the world (the 3rd lowest rated player in the field), Jorden’s victory at Wijk an Zee has risen him to 37th in the world now.
Background
Jorden comes from a long history of chess players, with ancestors with amazing chess histories in the Netherlands. He even has a brother, Lucas, who is a grandmaster as well. Lucas was a prodigy from a young age, achieving the grandmaster title at age 16, and winning his first Dutch chess championship. As good of a player as Jorden was, however, the majority of chess fans did not regard him as a “top young talent” in the game along the ranks of players such as Alireza Firouzja and Andrey Esipenko. In fact, coming into the Tata Steel Masters this year, he was ranked below the 2700 FIDE rating. In case you are a new chess fan reading this, a 2700+ rating signifies the colloquial title of “super-grandmaster” in which I refer to several times in my articles.
The Performance
One thing that I and many other watchers noticed about Jorden’s tournament was his incredible opening preparation. Every. Single. Game. Jorden was always on top of the clock (even in his final Armageddon game) and continued to bang out all of his moves in the opening. This, in my opinion, is a sign. As someone who routinely gets into time trouble in tournament games, I know how much of a factor the clock plays in the game.
Jorden also was able to stay very level in this tournament, which helped. Against many of the top players of the tournament, Jorden was able to stay solid and draw. In positions where he was winning (such as in this game against Nils Grandelius), he did not squander his advantages (such as Anish Giri vs Firouzja). In the Armageddon, which was the tiebreak to determine the champion, he was able to find an awesome move (Ne4) and was able to stay up on the clock, winning the championship.
Jorden seems like a very humble person through his interviews, and I wish him the best throughout his chess career. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more chess!
Cheers!
JC
