Jeroen Piket seemed destined to reach the world top in chess, but suddenly disappeared from the scene at a young age. Since then, the four-time Dutch champion has been playing with the money of billionaire Joop van Oosterom, which of course also required some strategy.
We can teach that chess player everything, thought Van Oosterom, who is active in the sport as a sponsor. Piket retrained as an asset manager and hasn’t touched a chess piece since. He was suddenly family officer in Monaco.
Cigars and books by Hein Donner
“I had seen the chess world,” says the now 52-year-old Piket, who grew up in a very different time. “As a high school student I smelled of smoke the day after a club night. In front of you, someone would often sit for hours smoking a pipe or cigars, a few feet away.”
Computers were not yet used, so the studious Piket read the books of Grandmaster Hein Donner.
“Women can’t play chess, he preached. I remember that I once said that to my Dutch teacher in secondary school. It was nice to generalize, I liked that at the time. But the proportions have been straightened over the years. Look to Eline Roebers, our youth world champion.”
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