Rafael Arruebarrena from Caracas, Venezuela writes:

Dear Mr. Silman,

I'm a chessplayer from Venezuela. Every month I read the articles on your page and I must say I find them very good and also entertaining, which is often a hard thing to achieve. Some time ago I even wrote an answer to one of your puzzles on a Nimzo-Indian middlegame position, and I was delighted to see myself quoted on the solution afterwards. I subsequently took up playing the opening on both sides.

I am writing this e-mail because I'm upset about IM Van der Weide's views on the Curaçao open. I played there in 2001 and I remember a very nice tournament. The organizers were very kind to all of us players, even those who were on a tight budget like myself. They even managed to take us to the beach for a whole day and gave us drinks and food to make it a truly memorable day. I particularly remember GM Macieja swimming so much that the next day he was totally sun burnt and could barely move! So to put Curaçao as a haven for drug traffickers and a terrible place to be is way over the top. Sure, it's quite impoverished, as many countries, including my own, oil notwithstanding, but this often has little to do with common people on the street, who are, I assure you, quite amicable.

I would like to thank Curaçao organizers for putting together a couple of nice tournaments annually under very difficult conditions. It's a nice place to play and I believe many U.S. and European players continuing to go there is a testimony to this. I hope IM Van der Weide has enough courage to correct his piece of opinionated writing, or at least to publish an alternative view on this issue, as I understand it may threaten future events if people take his word on the supposedly horrible playing conditions in Curaçao.
 
Saludos!

 
Grandmaster Karel van der Weide responds:

Dear Mr. Arruebarrena,

Many thanks for your response on my first article in the series, THE PAIN AND ANGUISH OF OPENING THEORY. It gave me great pleasure to read you had such a good time on Curaçao. All participants of the tournaments over there, me included, will agree that the organizers, the Meijer family with many volunteers, do the best they can.

This is not easy on such a barren island! I can assure you that in Holland there are opposite opinions of Curaçao and its inhabitants. After the Dutch colonial aggression in the 17th century, it is obviously payback time! Holland nowadays gets overrun with non-educated young "Antilians" (the Dutch Caribic islands are called "Dutch Antilles"), who strongly contribute to drug-traffic and other crimes. The government is helpless, the Dutch Antilles are part of the Kingdom and they cannot forbid their inhabitants to travel. In pure desperation, the Dutch Minister of Justice some years ago suggested to cancel direct flights between the Netherlands and the Dutch Antilles.

There are other issues as well: due to the colonial past (slavery, confiscating oil, etc.), the inhabitants demand compensation. Furthermore there is great commotion after the murder of an American tourist. As a result, relations between national/local governments and communities are tense, also on the islands themselves. It is not a surprise you "mingled" very well with the local inhabitants. But I can almost assure you, they can drink our "Arian" blood. There was a rumor your president, the controversial Mr. Chavez, was intending to invade Curaçao, because he considered it to be a outpost for American military aggression. Indeed, there is a Dutch naval base, but it turned out that the employees were involved in drug-traffic as well! Anyway, I am positive that the majority of the Dutch people would support such an action by Venezuela, they are fed up with the Dutch Antilles and its problems.

Enough about politics. As you see, it is very difficult to alter the view I expressed in my article. Combined with the bad hotel, I found Curaçao a horrible place to be. I respect different opinions. As a student of mine said to me: "Did we stay on the same island?" But because she is partly from Pakistan origin, she mingled better as well. Anyway, people who are curious can find out themselves.

Saludos cordiales,

GM Karel van der Weide