Norwegian Chess Festival – great fun in beautiful Fagernes

The Festival included several events for all friends of chess, irrespective of their level, from beginner to grandmaster:

• The Open Norwegian Championship 2012 – Fagernes April 28 to May 5. An attractive international open tournament divided into three groups.
  • Group A: A semi-open IM and GM tournament of nine rounds, open to players with a FIDE rating or Norwegian rating 1800 or higher.
  • Group B: Seven-round tournament open to players with a rating between 1000 and 2000, Closed to players with a rating 2000 or higher.
  • Group C: Seven-round tournament open to players with a rating below 1250 or with no rating.
     
• Fagernes Grand Prix 2012 – open tournament from Thursday 3rd to Saturday 5th with all players in one group. Time control 1 hour each for 40 moves, and then 30 minutes extra to finish the game.
   
• Fagernes Blitz Tourney 2012 – A blitz tournament open to all. Counts in the Norwegian Grand Prix curcuit 2011/12. Group A: players with a rating 1500 or higher. Group B: players with a rating below 1500. Thinking time: 5 minutes per player per game.
   
• Fagernes Children Grand Prix – Two open Children’s Tournaments on Saturday 28 April and Wednesday 2nd May. Each tournament has five rounds and 20 minutes thinking time for each player and game.

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Top final standings A-Group

• Full results and standings of all players
• Round by round reports by Hans Olav Lahlum

Final top standings B-Group

• Full results and standings of all players

Pictorial report by WFM Maria Bolshakova (Emelianova)

The Quality Hotel & Resort Fagernes, where the event was held, deserves the name"chess hotel" for the great organisation of comfortable living conditions and for promotion of chess among chess players of all ages.

First participants gather for the chess tournament – just kidding. Actually, these lovely polar and brown bears invite chess professionals and fans to proceed downstairs, where all the rooms are given for the event.

The main playing hall: perfect silence, soft light and access to a sunny terrace

View of the beautiful lake that starts right next to the hotel

Breath-taking composition of reflections and the snow, still covering some parts of the mountains

Norwegians! The water is bone-chilling, but this young lass cannot resist taking a dip

As a part of the festival a FIDE arbiters’ seminar for National Arbiters from Norway and Sweden was organized by Norwegian Chess Federation with help of the company Tromsø-2014. The seminar's presenters are the festival's guests of honor: FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong (above) and International Arbiter from Israel Almog Burstein.

On the 2nd of May a open blitz tournament was held as a part of Norwegian Grand Prix 2012. Anybody who likes quick chess games in a friendly atmosphere was invited to play. You can see that even FIDE General Secretary couldn’t stay just watching.

Hah, they did not notice I'm a cyborg clone! Everybody got their full share of adrenaline and positive emotions, but the winners took some money prizes as well: First to third positions were shared by Leif E. Johannessen (Norway), Sipke Ernst from Netherlands and Sergey Kasparov representing Belarus.

Okay, not a cyborg clone – but one of two Kasparovs playing in group. Wife Tatiana, WIM, scored 5.0/9.

Friends and opponents: Leif and Sipke can play chess against each other from the morning till deep evening (see at the end of report). In the background you can notice chief arbiter Hans Olav Lahlum, who is easily recognizable by his "chess" waistcoat.

Hans Olav is also a historian, writer, professional chess player and organizer, who also actively participates in the political life of the country. Above you see one of his books.

Beside the Open there were many blitz, rapid and classical events for kids

Of course after the long and intense battles there always will be...

... lucky winners and not so happy players ...

... and every day there are new trophies, which will be treasured for a lifetime

We wish these children a great chess future

12-year-old Norwegian Aryan Tari, rated 2202, is already showing big results: he finished fifth in the World Youth Championship under 12. Here he was competing with more experienced players, and finished with 5.0/9 points and a performance of 2222.

The round eight top board game between a Ukrainian and a Spanish GM ended in a draw

A special guest of the festival was International Advisor Morten Sand, seen above giving
a lecture on the bidding for the Chess Olympiad: all the steps from 2006 to Tromsø-2014!

100,000,000?! The numbers projected for the 2014 Olympiad are quite impressive

... says organiser Morten Sand – that would be in August 2014

At 21.30-22.00 every day all spectators can take a part in the analysis of the
“GM of the day”, grandmasters who shared is impressions of the game

And even after a long day sitting in the bar with a glass of local beer (non-alcoholic,
of course!), we can’t stay away from beloved 64-squared board?

In the end beautiful Fagernes is falling asleep: the festival is over and the participants
are leaving this amazing place.

About the author

Maria Bolshakova is 25 years old (born on April 5th in Ekaterinburg, Russia), Women FIDE Master, with a 2113 Elo rating. She played seriously only until she was 17 years old, won local women and a few youth championships in the Sverdlovsk region, and participated in the Russian championship under 16 in 2003 – "not too much to be proud of."

After finishing school Maria moved to Moscow to studying at the university, so chess were forgotten for some time. She worked for about a year with Alexander Roshal in the chess magazine "64", but until 2010 was not attending chess events outside of Russia. Her carrier as a chess photographer started at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. "It was just a hobby, but somehow became an interesting job," says Maria, who works with a Canon EOS 7D. "Now I am finishing my studies at two universities in Moscow, and am looking forward to a future in the big world of chess."

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.

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