I suspect most non-Dutch readers will not even know his name, but he was very well-known in his native Holland, and deserves to be much better known elsewhere. He became an IM in 1965, and had a series of excellent results at the Hoogovens tournaments in Beverwijk in the late 1960s, beating such players as Kavalek, Pomar and others, although he was never a chess professional. But most of all he was known for his command of offbeat openings, especially 1.Nc3, which is named after him in Holland. He played and analysed this extensively (and also the black equivalent, 1...Nc6), and also wrote a small booklet on it, a copy of which I have. Van Geet was a very sharp tactician, but also a deep thinker about the game, which made him perfect for this type of opening. Once he got his opponents on their own resources, he could be very dangerous, and he won numerous sparkling miniatures with 1.Nc3.
Later, he stopped playing this opening and turned his attention to Larsen's 1.b3, once again endowing the opening with his own ideas, combining a sharp eye for tactics with an underlying strategic idea. Here, too, he won many interesting games, and he continued to use this opening in correspondence play, almost up to his death.
I never met van Geet, but I feel that I almost knew him, thanks to many conversations about him with Gerard Welling, who was a good friend of his. I shall return to the subject of van Geet's play over the next few weeks.
Chess has lost a fine and talented original thinker. Here is an example of his prowess with his eponymous opening:
