Harmen is the only player who never needs hotel accommodations in Wijk aan Zee - he lives in the adjacent town of Bewewijk, where the Corus festival took place annually till 1968. Holland’s (and one of the world’s) most active chess player, Harmen had been globetrotting for years, playing in tournaments on every continent but Antarctica. He has an incredible stamina and can play event after event without break, and with many long fighting games in each competition.

His travels and search for tournaments around the world gave him the idea to dedicate a website for the best chess calendar available. In his early career, the easygoing Jonkman was a Dutch under 16 champion, later rising in the ranks all the way to Grandmaster. He obviously played in Corus several times, including last year when he finished with an unenthusiastic 5.5/13. This year Harmen played in a few of the European leagues, scoring especially well in the secondary German league with 4.5/5. His chess trips brought him among others to exotic places such as Morocco and Yemen – certainly not your usual chess arenas. Since the start of the millennium, Harmen’s rating had been seesawing between large gains and drops. His current rating makes him underrated, a status he might strive to change in January.