By: Remy Hakvoort
On October 15th 2026, my mother turned 70. But at VAS arguably something much bigger was happening. VAS was host to the very prestigious Army and Navy Club Chess Society, from Washington D.C. in the United States.
As the name suggests, most of its members have at some point served the US military. Such is the case with Bill, Ed and Frank.
https://www.armynavyclub.org/
The Club’s Chess Society was established in 2019 and began playing competitive matches in 2022. Since then, its members have competed against chess clubs in Paris, London, Madrid, Amsterdam, Dublin, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.
The Chess Society is committed to fostering international friendship and fellowship through the game of chess, bringing together players from different nations, professions, and backgrounds.
Annual European chess tours have become an important tradition. In 2025, the Society visited Madrid, Paris, and London. Its 2026 tour includes Dublin and Amsterdam, continuing the tradition of international competition and camaraderie.
Above all, the Society believes that chess transcends borders and cultures, creating lasting friendships through a shared love of the game.
VAS was contacted several months prior by teamcaptain their Bill, to inquire if VAS was open to the idea of playing a match against the Army & Navy Club. They were made aware of our existance via Koninklijke Industrieele Groote Club. In 2025 Koninklijke IGC played a chess match against Royal Automobile Club from London. And VAS also played Royal Automobile Club last year. If you can’t remember, read this report
Since the Army and Navy team were in The Netherlands to play Koninklijke Industrieele Groote Club, they were happy to prolong their visit to our country by a few days to also play a match against VAS.
What comes around, goes around. In this case, the joy of playing Chess at or against VAS. Of course, the board was happy to oblige the request from the Army & Navy Team. A date was quickly set. The location was an entirely different story. Since the date was to be in the autumm holiday, our homebase at Cygnus Gymnasium was to be rented to other guests. Various locations were scouted, contacted and inquired about availabilty. All had their pros and cons. In the end, we ended up in Cygnus Gymnasium after all; although we had to play in classrooms rather than the usual canteen. Logistical convenience won out over grandeur, high costs, and playing in a trendy bar.
The line-up:
VAS vs. Army & Navy Team
Ed (2100) – Ed (1900)
Linda (1603) – Asa (1760 )
Tejo (1693) – Bill (1700)
Riccardo (1697) – Kevin (1600 )
Hendrik (1150) – Ella (1000)
Bao Jian – Elena
Dennis – Frank (600)
The match was a close one, as Ed (VAS) struggled a bit in the opening. His namesake was pretty much pressing the whole game, but in the end coudn’t convert. Draw was agreed, a fair result.
This was quite a topsy-turvy game. Chances on both sides. Asa had the better prospects around move 22. moves 24-26 saw the evaluationbar going from decisive white advantage, to decisive black advantage to white advantage again. Around move 43, Asa had managed to neutralise White’s pressure, and had manacing past-pawns moving down the board. It was very hard for Linda to cope with them. Luckily for her, Asa missed that a pinned Knight isn’t a good defender and she gained a piece. The game continued after move 54, but since both players were in heavy timetrouble by then. Linda managed to win, but it definitely felt as Asa deserved more.
Bill and Tejo fought an intense battle. Tejo could keep up for most of the game, but in the end his King was too exposed. A well deserved victory by Bill. Unfortunately, the game isn’t fully annotated due to time trouble.
Riccardo and Kevin played an interesting match. Kevin managed to snatch a pawn early on, and Riccardo never truly recovered. They traded down to a pawn-endgame. And whether it was due to a lack of matchexperience, tiredness or something else, but they agreed to a draw. In the post-match analyse they quickly found that black was much better and had great winning prospects. So a very lucky draw for Riccardo.
Ella played against youngster Hendrik, a member of the famous youth department at VAS. A miscalculation early in the game, saw Hendrik gaining the upper hand. Ella put up counterplay whenever she could, but the piece deficit was too hard to overcome. They played another one afterwards and there Ella managed to win.
Elena actually isn’t a member of the Army and Navy Team, but rather from Koninklijke IGC. Since a player had to leave Amsterdam early due to personal reasons, The Army and Navy Team was a player short and Elena was kind enough to help out. It turns out, she lives really close to VAS!
But she had a rather difficult day at VAS. Bao Jian was clearly not an equal match.
But, driven as Elena is, they played several more matches. Since she lives close by, Elena had decided to try out the Crash Course and to visit our regular Thursday clubevenings.
VAS is happy to have you Elena 🙂
Board 7 featured Frank vs. Dennis (VAS), but unfortunately neither player wrote down their game. Dennis managed to win. But both players had tremendous fun, and decided to play quite a few more games.
Chessclub VAS continues to attract an international audience, since the next International Match against St. Albans Chess club is already being planned for early March 2027.
