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ChessVista.com is the website of chess photographer Frits Agterdenbos. The site provides the international chess community with high quality chess photos and chess news of chess players from international chess events. There will be visual reports and an album with chess photo collections showing all the visual aspects of the chess world.07.04.2008 Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau (1940) was women champion of Romania six times (1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1973) and of the Netherlands five times (1974, 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1979). She was one of the best women players of the world. In 1969 Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau had the fifth position in the women’s ELO listing. She was born as Alexandra Nicolau in Romania, married in 1974 with the Dutch Hendrik Cornelis van der Mije and obtained Dutch nationality. In the Netherlands people are used to refer to her as Cathy van der Mije, which has become common use, but it is not accurate. The inner circle knows it should be Käty van der Mije, which has the same pronunciation. The Romanian Chess Federation has published an interview (by Dinu-Ioan Nicula, in Romanian language) with Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau and was willing to give ChessVista permission to publish a translation in English. Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau(Haarlem, 2005-07-23, photo Frits Agterdenbos) Interview with WGM Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau What part has your family played in choosing chess as your lifelong occupation? My brother taught me to play chess when I was six. I played with him and with others in the family until I was enlisted in the Pioneers’ Palace, originally in the circle for airplane modelling. As I walked past the circle for chess playing one day, I went in and played with the other children there. The teacher of that circle was master Traian Ichim, the Romanian champion of 1947. He persuaded me to join the chess circle. My older colleagues there included Mircea Pavlov, Gentser en Joiţa. They organised tournaments, it was lots of fun. In the Constuctorul Bucharest team you and Margareta Teodorescu were an invincible couple for years on end. I became a member of the Constuctorul team when I was 14. Mr. Silbermann took me under his wings, taught me a great number of chess studies and would lecture about Lasker – a name I cannot hear to this day – and Goethe – an author it has taken me many years to appreciate. I felt honoured to be part of a team that included Victor Ciocâltea, Voiculescu, Stanciu and other masters. In the women’s team there was Rodica Manolescu; Margareta Teodorescu joined later. Margareta and I were an invincible couple: 10 Romanian titles. We were almost inseparable as well – I used to tease her by saying that she saw more of me than of her husband. Training, half finals, finals, training camps... I didn’t want to play for the University team (I studied Chinese at the time), which has caused me considerable problems. What place do the Candidates Tournaments of 1961 (Vrnjačka Banka) and 1967 (Subotica) take on your list of honours? The tournaments of Vrnjačka Banka and Subotica, in which I played, are called Candidates Tournaments because the winner had the right to challenge the World Champion, but they were not what we chess players nowadays call Candidates Tournaments. This was still the initial stage of world chess competition for women. In the Olympiads of ’63 and ’66 you achieved an exceptional percentage of over 80%, the second best score on the first board. What factors contributed to this result? Around 1963 Sergiu Samarian started to be my trainer. He became a good friend who has greatly enhanced my level of chess and my general education. And I liked playing ‘blitz’ games against the best Romanian players, who were better than me. From 1960 on I started playing international matches and tournaments. The first was in 1961, the Interzonal Tournament in Vrnjačka Banka. All in all, I played five Interzonal Tournaments and seven Olympiads. I ended first (either alone or shared) in 16 international tournaments and second or third 21 times. I’m particularly pleased with my three victories in Belgrade (alone or shared) among the world’s élite, and with Tbilisi 1970. I must add that I was champion of Romania six times and of the Netherlands five times. At the Olympiad in Split (at the first board), my score was 10 out of 12, in Oberhausen (also first board), it was 8 out of 10 and in Skopje (at the second board!) it was 7 out of 9. Medals for single boards were not accorded until 1972. My results are in the books and in the journals and I got a prize from Tito, but I didn’t get a medal because gold, silver and bronze medals for individual results were only introduced later. In an article on the Chess Base website, you are on a photo together with Nona Gaprindashvili, whom you defeated in a memorable game in the 1966 Olympiad. What in your opinion is the significance of this player in the history of chess? During my active career I have known only one world champion: Nona Gaprindashvili. She was in a class of her own. Her level was much higher than that of the rest of us. In 1971, Nona won the Belgrade tournament with 13 points out of 13 – I ended second with 10 out of 13. Did your victory at the tournament in ’66 at Wijk aan Zee prefigure, so to speak, your later settlement in the Netherlands some 10 years later? This tournament in the Netherlands was an astonishing experience for me. The country impressed me enormously. For years, whenever I felt I couldn’t stand Bucharest any longer, I would go to the KLM building just to look, from the outside, at freedom. After I stayed in the Netherlands, I met my husband. That was another revelation, but one on the human plane. I won ‘Hoogovens’ five times, alone or shared. Why weren’t you part of the Romanian team at the 1969 Olympiad in Lublin? In that year I had the fifth position in the women’s ELO listing, but I was suspended from competing at the Zonal Tournament and at the Lublin Olympiad. The suspension lasted 10 months. Regrettably I cannot recall the name of the ‘luminary’ who suspended me. It was a new vice-chairman of the national sporting federation, who hated civilized people. My case was discussed at a Comecon meeting! What made you fail to reach the Candidates Tournament in 1976? In ’76 I had insufficient faith in my own powers. I thought Lemačko was better than me. At what level was chess in the Netherlands when you arrived? At my arrival the level of women’s chess was quite modest. My only rival was Corry Vreeken. At the Haifa Olympiad in 1976, you were part of the Dutch team. For how long did you compete at the highest level? I played until 1988, but I consider 1980 my last serious chess-playing year. In that year I won the Cala Galdana tournament on a par with Garcia, before Achmilovskaya and Veröczi. After that, I continued as an amateur, with some bright moments, like the third place in the great open women’s tournament at Hyères – after Gaprindashvili and Semionova, in a field of players from Eastern Europe. In the last couple of years you have been playing in the Dutch competition for clubs. Wouldn’t you like to enter the international veterans’ competition, in which players of Hana Erenska’s and Elena Fatalibekova’s generation do very well? I’m playing for the club’s championship every Thursday. In my opinion it is very difficult, unless you’re a genius, to achieve excellent results over the age of 40. Interview by Dinu-Ioan Nicula, March 2008 © Federaţia Română de Şah Photo Gallery Chess Olympiad 1963 in Split: Margareta Teodorescu, Margareta Perevoznic and Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau (Photo courtesy of Romanian Chess Federation) Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau and Nona Gaprindashvili in front of the Grote of St. Bavokerk (Grand or St. Bavo Church) in Haarlem, Netherlands. Photo 2005-08-28. The interview refers to this photo which was published in a chessbase.com report (2005-09-10), by Frits Agterdenbos. Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau(Haarlem, 2005-09-04, photo Frits Agterdenbos) Alexandra van der Mije-Nicolau and Nona Gaprindashvili(Haarlem, 2005-09-04, photo Frits Agterdenbos)