Edwin was born and raised in Leiderdrop, and played locally for years (as a junior in the 80’s he was board one on the team) till joining the strong LSG Leiden club and team. As a youngster he won several national titles with his team, and later achieved the IM title himself. He is not a chess pro, and has a regular job, having worked for 3M for many years.

His girlfriend of many years, Linda Jap who hails from Edwin’s hometown, is one of Holland’s leading women players and is rated over 2200. Although van Haastert is at a low point rating wise, and have had a rough chess time in most of 2006, he is one step away from qualifying to the 2007 Dutch championships. He upset GM Visser in his previous match and is scheduled to play for a spot in the finals versus GM Smeets, right before Corus begins.

Edwin who once was a part of the Corus pressroom as the bulletin editor, played last year in the ‘groups of 10’, and replaces Marc Overeem (who declined to play) as a qualifier to group C. If his semi-final form continues, he could lift his rating back to well over 2400.