Thomas comes from a chess playing family – his older brother Jeroen is a strong player (over 2400) in his own right. For some years he was in the shadow of his brother, but of late seems to eclipse him. He started playing chess at age 6, joining his hometown of Leiden’s Op Eigen Wieken chess club. Later he played for Oegstgeest in his junior years, till he finally joined the Utrecht junior team in the top league.

Willemze is a multiple times Dutch youth champion (under 8, 10, 12 and 16), and represented his country in world events, finishing in 10th place in the European youth championship. He is a fierce tactician who now after improving his technical and positional skills became a very dangerous player. His results of late speak for themselves – most impressively his record against GM’s, where he seems to hold his own, and his strong showings versus players in the 2300+ level such as his convincing victory at the Cultural Village closed event in Wijk aan Zee last month (7/9, a point and a half ahead of his nearest rival, and a ticket to group C).

Thomas was a full time student of Business Administration in the university of Rotterdam and now has a parttime job at Hypercube Business Innovation in Utrecht. He currently lives in Leiden.