Two Dutch youngsters are poised to battle it out to become the next draughts world champion at a 12 match tournament in the Netherlands in December.

World number two, 18-year-old Jan Groenendijk, will take on Roel Boomstra, 23, for the title. The Netherlands has not provided a draughts world champion since 1984.

The title has become vacant following the decision by Aleksandr Georgiev not to defend his title against Groenendijk.

‘Its good that we will have a Dutch world champions but I would have rather that a Dutch candidate beat a Russian,’ said Boomstra. ‘Then we would have really broken the Russian dominance at draughts.’

The championship will run from December 3 to 18 and matches will be played in Groningen, Wageningen and The Hague.

In an effort to boost the popularity of draughts, hip hop record label Top Notch has been brought in as a sponsor and Dutch rapper Ronnie Flex is promoting the game in schools, NOS said.

Groenendijk and Boomstra are both products of a drive to bring in younger players which the Dutch draughts association launched 10 years ago.