Jorden van Foreest


Jorden van Foreest is a Dutch chess grandmaster. He was Dutch Chess Champion in 2016.

Chess career

Introduced to the game by his father, Van Foreest learned to play chess at the age of six but did not play regularly until he was nine.

2013–2016

In 2013, Van Foreest won the European U14 Chess Championship with a score of 7½/9. He earned his international master title in 2014 at the age of 15 and secured all the norms needed for the grandmaster title in 2015 at the age of 16. He was officially awarded his grandmaster title by FIDE in 2016. This makes him the Netherlands' youngest ever grandmaster.
In September 2015, he competed in the World Junior Chess Championship. He finished sixth, scoring 8/13. In December, Van Foreest won the Groningen Chess Festival with a score of 7½/9.
Van Foreest won the Dutch Chess Championship in August 2016. He scored 5½/7 for a performance rating of 2819.

2017–2020

As of 2017, Van Foreest is coached by three-time Dutch Chess Champion Sergei Tiviakov. From 26 June to 2 July 2017, he competed in the Dutch Chess Championship. He finished seventh, scoring 3/7. From 28 October to 6 November, he competed for the Netherlands on board 4 at the 2017 European Team Chess Championship. He scored 5/7 for a performance rating of 2723. From 13 to 25 November, he competed at the World Junior Chess Championship. He placed fifth with a score of 8/11, half a point behind the winner Aryan Tari.
From 13 to 28 January 2018, Van Foreest competed in the Tata Steel Challengers. He finished fifth, scoring 7½/13. He competed in the 81st Tata Steel Masters in January 2019, placing thirteenth with 4½/13. In July, Van Foreest shared first in the 2019 Dutch Championship with 5/7, losing on tiebreak to his younger brother Lucas van Foreest.
At the 82nd Tata Steel Masters in January 2020, Van Foreest placed fourth with 7/13.

Personal life

Born in Utrecht on 30 April 1999 and raised in Groningen, Van Foreest comes from the noble Van Foreest family and has the honorific of jonkheer. He is the great-great grandson of Arnold van Foreest and great-great grandnephew of Dirk van Foreest. Both Arnold and Dirk were three-time Dutch Chess Champions.
Jorden is the eldest child of his family and has five siblings: four brothers and one sister. His father Nicky van Foreest works the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen, and his mother Shiela Timp is a medical doctor and computer programmer. His younger brother, Lucas, earned the title of grandmaster in 2018. His sister, Machteld, won the Dutch Girls' U10 Championship at the age of 6 and shared second place in the Dutch Girls' U20 Championship when she was 9. In 2017, she became the first girl ever to win the Dutch U12 Championship. She has a FIDE rating of 2132 as of April 2018.