Jan Smeets (born 5 April 1985) is a Dutch

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster. He is a two-time Dutch Chess Champion.

Playing record

2004 was the year that his participation in senior tournaments began to yield encouraging results. He finished in second place in Gouda (after

Daniel Fridman Daniel Fridman ( lv, Daniels Fridmans; born February 15, 1976) is a Latvian-German chess player. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001, he was Latvian champion in 1996 and German champion in 2008, 2012 and 2014. Early chess caree ...

) and gained the Grandmaster title the same year. At

Dos Hermanas Dos Hermanas () is a Spanish city south of Seville in Andalusia, with a population of 131,317 as of 2015. History The city's name, which means "two sisters", dates from its founding in 1248 by King Ferdinand III of Castile and honours Elvir ...

the following year, he shared third behind Fridman and Bu Xiangzhi (with Sergey Volkov) and at the 2005

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the international Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service. Popu ...

Stork Young Masters event, he finished one-half point behind the Russian grandmaster Alexander Riazantsev. This was a year of significant breakthrough for Smeets, when he recorded one of his best performances at

Wijk aan Zee Wijk aan Zee ( literally ''Neighborhood at Sea'') is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus ...

's Corus 'B' tournament, finishing equal with

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Shahriyar Hamid oghlu Mammadyarov ( az, Şəhriyar Həmid oğlu Məmmədyarov; born 12 April 1985), known internationally as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov , is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. he is ranked No. 1 in Azerbaijan and No. 13 in the world. ...

for a share of second place, behind

Teimour Radjabov Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov (also spelled Teymur Rajabov; az, Teymur Boris oğlu Rəcəbov, ; born 12 March 1987) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster, ranked number 18 in the world A former child prodigy, he earned the title of Grandmaste ...

. Left in his wake were a multitude of other strong players, including

Peter Heine Nielsen Peter Heine Nielsen (born 24 May 1973) is a Danish chess trainer and player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1994. He coached world champions Vishwanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen winning World Championships in 2007, 2008, 20 ...

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, Alexander Onischuk,

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and Predrag Nikolić. He played successfully at the Essent Open in Hoogeveen in 2007, finishing once more as runner-up, this time with

Friso Nijboer Friso Nijboer (born May 26, 1965) is a Dutch chess player. He achieved the title of Grandmaster in 1996. Nijboer won the Vlissingen Chess Tournament in 2002 and 2005, and won the 3rd Nancy Chess Festival in 2005. He participated in six Chess O ...

Jan Werle Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

and Evgeny Postny, behind surprise winner

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. In 2008, there were a number of excellent results; he was the winner of the Dutch Championship at Hilversum and finished third at the Howard Staunton Memorial Tournament, after Michael Adams and

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, but ahead of

Jan Timman Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...

, Ivan Sokolov and

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the ...

. He took a share of fifth place at the EU Individual Open Chess Championship, was selected to represent the Netherlands at the

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Olympiad An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...

and shared second place in the four player Essent (Crown Group) Tournament, after Ivan Sokolov and equal with former World Junior Champion Ahmed Adly. It was also a year in which his Elo rating broke through the 2600 barrier. In 2010 Smeets won the Dutch Championship for the second time. Smeets is a very keen player of team chess and competes in the national leagues of Germany (for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

team Solingen SG 1868), Belgium and the Netherlands (where he drew with former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik).

Notable games

Mamedyarov vs Smeets
Wijk aan Zee, Corus 'B', 2005, Caro-Kann, 0-1
Smeets vs Short
London, Staunton Memorial, 2008, Closed Spanish, 1-0

References

2007 Corus biography

2005 Corus 'B' final standings

'Wild Knights' article/interview

Essent 2008 result

Dos Hermanas 2005 result

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smeets, Jan 1985 births Living people Chess grandmasters Dutch chess players People from Oegstgeest