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Local

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The room of chess club VPTD is located on the Markt nr 9, in Geraardsbergen, next to the town hall and tourist office. In "The Preacher" every Saturday from 2 pm the members gather on the first floor to play the club championship or just for their weekly game.

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Back in time

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Founded and affiliated with the Royal Belgian Chess Federation in 1947 and disappeared into thin air around 1953. Re-established on August 19, 1965 under number 418 at the Royal Belgian Chess Federation.

Despite the limited number of members, a lot of chess is played at VPTD and especially organized. The well-known international open tournament of Geraardsbergen is already in its 36th edition. In October 1987 Wim De Bolster and Dirk Flamée took part in an international chess tournament in Pecs (Hungary). There they met the Estonians Harry Pohla and Yuri Vetemaa, who then went beyond their borders for the first time thanks to chess. The following year they were the first foreign participants in our 4° open chess tournament in Geraardsbergen, which from then on went international. Since then we have welcomed chess players from France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, England, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Russia, Nigeria, Jugoslavia, the Czech Republic and Iran.

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youth ministry

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Youth work is a top priority. Under the impulse of the Matthijs and De Moyer families, the youth work started in 1997. Lessons are given weekly under expert guidance on Wednesday afternoons, from 3 to 5 pm, and on Sunday mornings from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm. They also participate in the youth tournaments in Flanders and this has resulted in several Belgian and Flemish youth champions in the past: Hendrik Ponnet, Pieter Saligo, Tanguy Ringoir and more recently Louise Vanderstappen, Adriaan and Jacob Dreelinck. VPTD itself organized five youth tournaments. In 2003 even 250 participants in the various age categories took part.

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Connect

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Interested parties can always contact the room itself for information, tel 0477 263666 (Griet De Moyer) or the secretary Dirk Flamée (055/422138) e-mail: vptdchess@skynet.be.

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