Venue is Warm !
The weather is fairly warm in end of May, early June 2017. The venue has no air conditioning, hence it was really warm and humid with temperature 25 to 28 deg C. With such hot temperature and 2 rounds a day, many players blundered. The players consisted of mainly players from Netherland and Germany. Since Maastricht is very close to Germany. Many players here played frequently in weekend tournament (Bundasliga) in Germany, hence some of them are underrated, strong in another words. A lot of upsets can be seen in 2017 chess tournament results.
The organizer is very opened and humourous with regards to this matter and asked the players to come in sunglasses and summer shirt, winter clothing is not required.
The organizer also expected the players to be late for 1st round, since some players rushed to the venue after work on Friday. The first round started 1 hour late in 2017. The subsequent rounds were on time.
Official website of the tournament : http://www.limburgopen.nl/
The chess results are also posted on this website.
 |
| Sporthal De Geusselt, Maastricht (Tournament Venue) |
 |
| Opposite Sporthal De Geusselt is the McDonald Drive In Fast Food Restaurant |
Where to stay
There is only one 4 stars hotel within 5 minutes walk away, which is the Novum Hotel Applepark hotel. There are no other hotel or hostel nearby. The next nearest are some Airbnb homestay, which are within 15 to 20 minutes walk away.The organizer of Limburg Open managed to get good hotel package from Novum Hotel, however, they are limited and taken a few weeks to 1 month before the tournament started. So, book early if you need to stay close by, and has no transport.
Where to Eat
There are a few restaurants and places to find food nearby :1. McDonald, just a few steps away
2. Chinese restaurant, in front of football stadium, 1 minute walk away (Open from 4pm to 10.30pm)
3. Restaurant in Novum hotel, 4 minutes walk away
4. Petrol Station (for sandwiches and drinks), 1 minute walk away
5. Jumbo Supermarket, about 5 minutes walk away
6. Albert Heijn Supermarket, about 15 minutes walk away
Photos of Limburg Open 2017 Tournament Venue
 |
| almost all the tables used wooden chessboards and pieces |
 |
| DGT boards area |
 |
| 12 DGT boards were prepared for Limburg Open 2017 |
Analysis Room and Chess Book on Sale
There was no analysis room, only a small area for players analysis after the game, or free chess analaysis by GM Peng ZhaoQin, and another FM. Anyone can go to the GM or FM for free chess analysis after the game. In the photo below, you can see the U shape area selling chess books and chess set. To the left of this book selling area is the analysis area. In spite of having analysis area in the same hall as the tournament, the analysis area was not noisy at all. |
| A small area for Chess Books and Chess materials |
 |
| Commentary Room |
Photos of Maastricht Town
The tournament venue is about 30 minutes walk from the beautiful Maastricht town centre, where lots of cafe, beer gardens and pubs are located.
It is a cyclist town or rather Netherland is a cyclist country. If you like to cycle, you will really hope to have a bike to cycle around the lovely town.
Every bicycle in Netherland has to be registered. If it is stolen, the bike owner can report it to the police station. A used bike costs at least EUR40. There are facebook page which catered just for selling and buying bike ! It is that popular.
 |
| Maastricht town |
 |
| Maastricht town |
 |
| Maastricht town |
 |
| Maastricht Bridge |
 |
| Maastricht |
 |
| Maastricht Train Station |
Supermarket near tournament venue
About 5 minutes walk from the venue, you can find two supermarkets where you can get almost anything you want. Jumbo is local dutch supermarket. The only thing about this supermarket is, it does not accept credit card, only local bank debit cards are accepted.
Opposite Jumbo is a Turkish supermarket where you can get Halal food, dried and fresh. There are some Muslims staying nearby this area, thus exists this Halal supermarket. Below are the price in EURO of fresh food from Turkish supermarket in June 2017 :
No comments:
Post a Comment