Thomas Willemze is an International Master and author from the Netherlands.
Wasting no time getting his chess career started, IM Willemze won the Dutch youth championship at just 8 years old - a feat he would go on to repeat three times. In 2005, he won the Leidse Schaakbond local championship, getting him a spot in the Dutch National Championship preliminaries. While he ultimately did not make it past the preliminaries, he won an impressive game against a grandmaster in the process, at a time before he was even an International Master himself.
Knowing well the keys to be successful on the tournament scene, IM Willemze proved to be a natural coach. The Dutch Chess Federation thought so as well - in fact, IM Willemze served as the head youth coach for the Dutch federation for 3 years, in addition to other coaching stints in Suriname and Aruba.
With all his coaching experience, he found himself with an abundance of chess exercises and other materials. Ever the chess educator, IM Willemze wanted to put it to good use - and thus his acclaimed book, The Chess Toolbox, was born. In it, IM Willemze gives the ultimate toolkit to mastering positional chess, with heaps of practical exercises to make the reader a proficient ‘handyman’ in no time. Be sure to check it out along with his other great courses below:
