23 June 2016

Chess on Belgian News

Thursday, 16 June 2016, RTL Belgium, News at 19:00.


Les 10 meilleurs joueurs d'échec au monde sont réunis à Louvain
'The 10 best chess players in the world are gathered at Leuven'

The report begins, 'Back to Belgium with an unusual gathering in Flemish Brabant -- the 10 best chess players in the world.' Even more unusual is to see anything about chess on Belgian news. A Chessbase.com report Grand Chess Tour 2016 with two new events (February 2016) started,

Last year it was three events, in Norway, Saint Louis and London. This year Norway drops out and is replaced by two rapid+blitz events, in Paris and Brussels.

Later the report quoted a press release,

The 2016 Grand Chess Tour season will include rapid and blitz tournaments in Paris and Brussels-Leuven in addition to the Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic.

So where was the event held? In Brussels or in Brussels-Leuven? Short answer: neither. Long answer: in Leuven (wikipedia.org).

[Leuven (Dutch) / Louvain (French)] is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. [...] It is the 10th largest municipality in Belgium and the fourth in Flanders.

Most non-Belgians would say, 'Where the heck is Leuven?', but everyone knows where the capital of Europe is.

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