One of the unsung heroes behind the New In Chess crew (creators of the wonderful New In Chess magazine and the New In Chess Yearbooks) is master Rene Olthof. The editors of the Yearbook series are Grandmasters Genna Sosonko and Paul van der Sterren , but the day -in-day-out guy who really keeps things running is Rene who is truly one of Caissa’s most devoted servants. Rene rarely takes time off from his job, but he did in the winter of 1999 as his 40th birthday approached. Most of us look forward to that event with some trepidation, but not Rene who welcomed it!

Why? Because he planned a big tournament in his hometown of Hertogenbosch in southern Holland. Rene got the local college King William to provide the venue, billeted the participants with local players, and found an excellent sponsor to provide the generous prize fund and travel costs of the players. And who was the sponsor? Rene! The names of chess patron’s like Piatigorsky, Rentero, and Statham are well known to chess fans everywhere. They are also wealthy individuals. This is certainly not the case for Rene, who lives comfortably but simply. By saving up his money for ten years, Rene realized his dream of holding an excellent tournament.

Heading the list of participants was former World Championship Candidate Paul van der Sterren, Australia’s number one Ian Rogers, and the ever aggressive Dutch Grandmaster Friso Nijboer. The GMs showed why they were top seeds, occupying the top three spots, but colorful and original players like Dutch IM Gerard Welling and German theoretician Stefan Bucker provided plenty of entertainment for the many Dutch chess fans who followed the action.

In the past tournament books were relatively common, but lately, in the increasingly fast-paced world of international chess, they are becoming an endangered species. Therefore it was very nice to see the appearance of a beautiful hardback book devoted to this event. Rene has an eye for detail and it is seen in Torernooiboek voor de Toekomst. This book features everything you could hope for from a tournament book with many annotated games from the participants, player biographies, lots of photos, a history of chess in Den Bosch, a special problem competition held to commemorate Rene’s turning 40, etc. The prose is in Dutch, English and German depending on who the annotator is.

Torernooiboek voor de Toekomst is well produced with a spacious two-column layout. It’s sturdily bound and the off-white (sort of mauve ) paper produces an interesting effect that suggests that this is an ageless book produced by a true lover of the royal game. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to chessplayers of all stripes.