The 21-year-old Grandmaster from Woerden is the last of his generation of Dutch GMs to remain a full time professional player. Looking at his nice jump in rating, one certainly cannot argue with this decision: although he did not win any big events (like he did a few times in 2005), or had one specific, resounding result, he gained a nice chunk of 50+ points – perhaps working with a new coach (GM Chuchelov) was the right move to make it to the next level.

Now a member of his national Olympic team (in Turin he played 5 games and scored a very respectable 3.5 points), Erwin played in several European leagues as well, with a most noticeable impressive 7/9 result in the Dutch one. He still keeps active online, and has very high ratings in literally all the fast categories of time controls, especially in the nauseating 1 0 one! Last year on his debut in Corus B, L’Ami finished with a very solid placing in the middle of the field with a + 1 result, and was the highest scoring Dutchman in the competition - a feat he would no doubt would like to repeat, if not improve upon in January – perhaps with the bonus of breaking 2600.