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About Kees...




Kees was born on 24 August 1975.
He learnt to play draughts from his father when he was about nine years old. Dad allowed himself five pieces less and won the first games. Kees was stimulated by this fatherly powerplay and went to the library to get himself a draughts book. He got the famous book Dammen met Jannes.

Over a year later he visited the youth group of HDR (Heijmans Damclub Rosmalen), the club which later joined with Excelsior Den Bosch to become Heijmans Excelsior.
There he got in touch with the much praised, late Drs. Ton van den Elzen.
Ton van den Elzen was known and respected throughout the Dutch draughts society for all his work, including being the president of HDR and Heijmans Excelsior, but mainly for his draughts Sunday school for kids.
Ton van den Elzen was also active in many other associations and also in the board of the Heijmans-group. Kees sees Ton van den Elzen as the big stimulator behind his early developments.

kees thijssen and harm wiersma talking
Kees talking to draughts legend Harm Wiersma


During his youth years Kees often had to deal with his club mate Matthijs Robbens (in the meanwhile man of the social career), who ended one point in front of Kees and snatched away the Dutch title for cadets in 1989. Also Toby Hage, Marino Barkel and, later, Mark Kemperman, were, on a national level, often competitors for titles and top positions.
Internationally Kees had to deal with and to suffer under the Russians, mainly Alexander Georgiev who always won the World Championships. His most important triomph in his younger years is the Dutch Championship for juniors in 1992 and 1994.

kees thijssen, draughts, computer draughts
Kees behind the computer


When he was eighteen years old, Kees went to Amsterdam to study, became a member of draughts club Hiltex and got to meet, more or less accidentally, Anatoli Gantwarg, who introduced Kees to the strategical world of draughts. Kees learnt a lot of Anatoli and only a few months later he became the youngest Dutch Championships contender in ages (1994). Since then he regularly trains with Anatoli, who can claim an important part of the progression Kees has shown since then.
Also very important were / are the training sessions with Paul Oudshoorn and Martin Dolfing.
In the period that Kees worked intensively with Martin, he grew towards his first national title. In 2002 Martin got the Dutch title, but in 2003 Kees won his first national championship which he has kept until 2007.

Most important achievements :
Dutch Champion 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

8th position Challenge Mondial 1997 (Stadskanaal)

6th position World Championships 2003 (Zwartsluis)

6th position World Championships 2005 (Amsterdam)

Winner of many international tournaments :
Brunssum 1996, The Hague 1999, Bijlmer tournament 1999 en 2001, Zeeland Open 2000, Nijmegen 2003, Curacao 2003, Cannes 2004, Salou 2004 and 2006, Barnsteen 2006

Dutch Champion with Hiltex in 1999 and 2002.

kees thijssen, auke scholma, ron heusdens, nk 2006
The first three in the Dutch Championships of 2006
Auke Scholma (left) and Ron Heusdens
stand next to Kees


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