This year, the list of participants showed even more variation
than before. With a group of players from Britain, a Rumanian
and a Dane, the tournament got an international accent. Because
this year also no grandmasters participated, the competition
again was completely open, with Edwin van Haastert (LSG) as highest
rated seed (2402). The victory, however, went to the number three
seed Fred Slingerland (Oegstgeest '80), who seemed unbeatable
and could give a fast draw in the last round to win first prize.
In group B, Maurits Bons (Haeghe Ooievaar) did the same, but found a stubborn
opponent in the last round who himself tried to finish next to him and
share the highest prizes, but Maurits did not buckle and finished a 100%
score.
The newly created group C, to give players with ratings under 1600 a chance
to win something too, showed a tremendous battle with still several candidates
for the highest position after five rounds. Maarten Bosma (Schaakclub Assen)
did not give in and managed to keep his top position, which makes him the
very first winner of this group.
