Congratulations to the winners!

We congratulate GM Samuel Shankland (USA) with winning the GM-group at Fagernes,
half a point ahead of Norwegian IM Frode Urkedal.

The IM-group was won by Spanish GM Marc Narciso Dublan and the Elo-group by Norwegian Johannes L. Kvisla.

Title norms were taken by Urkedal (GM-norm) and FM Joachim B. Nilsen (IM-norm).

Fagernes Easter Blitz

Fagernes Easter Blitz was played Saturday night (26 March) with 44 participants.

Norwegian IM Aryan Tari took clear first place in the A-group after winning all his nine games.

FM Ward Al-Tarbosh was second with 7 points, while GM Leif Erlend Johannessen with 6½ points ended in third place.

The B-group was won by Andreas Sebastian.

Grandelius wins Altibox Norway Chess Qualifier

Grandelius

GM Nils Grandelius took clear first place in Altibox Norway
Chess Qualifier after getting the best score in both the classical and rapid parts of the tournament.
GM Jon Ludvig Hammer took second place, while Women's World Champion GM Yifan Hou placed third. Young IM Aryan Tari finished in fourth and last place.

The Swedish grandmaster is now qualified for the super tournament Altibox Norway Chess played 18th -24th April 2016 in Stavanger. The other participants are Carlsen, Kramnik, Giri, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov, Karjakin, Eljanov and Harikrishna.

Daylight Saving Time

Late Saturday night (actually Sunday 27 March at 03:00 hrs) Norway will go to Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time).
This means the clocks will be turned forwards 1 hour, giving one hour less sleep for all players and participants at Fagernes.

Drawing of lots for
Altibox Norway Chess Qualifier 2016

The drawing of lots for Altibox Norway Chess Qualifier was done tonight at Fagernes.

See pictures at http://norwaychessqualifier2016.bergensjakk.no/.

The pairings are as follows:

Classical games: 
Round 1: Wednesday 23 March at 14:30: Tari – Hou Yifan, Hammer – Grandelius
Round 2: Thursday 24 March at 14:30: Tari – Hammer, Hou Yifan - Grandelius
Round 3: Friday 25 March at 14:30: Grandelius – Tari, Hammer – Hou Yifan
Rapid games:
Round 4: Saturday 26 March at 11:00: Hou Yifan – Tari,  Grandelius – Hammer
Round 5: Saturday 26 March at 14:00: Hammer – Tari, Grandelius – Hou Yifan
Round 6: Saturday 26 March at 16:00: Tari – Grandelius, Hou Yifan – Hammer


Playoff in case of a tie for first place: Blitz games Saturday 26 March at 18:00.
Closing ceremony and prize giving: Saturday 26 March at 19:30.

Scoring system: Classical games (3 - 1 - 0) | Rapid games (2 - 1 - 0)
  

The playing venue

Photo: Tom Eriksen

The playing venue will 
soon be ready for more 
than 100 participants. 

First round at 17.30 CET.

Live games:  www.akademisk.org/live

TV 2 new main sponsor

The chess festival at Fagernes has a new main sponsor,
Norway's largest commercial television station, TV 2.

TV 2 is doing a great job promoting chess in Norway and will be covering Norway Chess next month with daily broadcasts.

Due to the new sponsorship the Fagernes festival has been renamed
TV 2 Fagernes International.  

Photo: Oleh Kokhan

Yifan Hou world champion!

GM Yifan Hou won her match versus GM Maria Muzychuk and regained her Womens' world championship title.

The Fagernes organizers are happy to welcome the new champion to Norway next week, where she will take part in Altibox Norway Chess Qualifier.

Altibox Norway Chess Qualifier 2016

We are happy to announce that Altibox Norway Chess Qualifier will be included in the chess festival at Fagernes.

Four players, from Norway, Sweden and China will compete for one spot in the super tournament Altibox Norway Chess 2016.

 

The qualification tournament will be played from Wednesday 23 March to Saturday 26 March with 3 rounds of classical chess and 3 rounds of rapid chess.
In case of a tie, blitz and Armageddon games will be played to determine the winner.
 

 

 

Welcome to Fagernes Chess International!

The tournament is played at the new Norwegian Chess Hotel Thon Hotel Fagernes (formerly Quality Hotel & Resort Fagernes) at Fagernes, 187 km north of Oslo.

Main organizer is Hans Olav Lahlum in cooperation with Hedmark og Oppland Sjakkrets.

Hans Olav Lahlum

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Hans Olav Lahlum (born 1973) is a well known Norwegian chess player, chess organizer and chess TV commentator, having the titles of International Organizer (IO) and International Arbiter (IA) from the World Chess Federation FIDE.

Lahlum organized numberous international tournaments at Gausdal 1999-2008, Oslo 2011-2014 and Fagernes 2014-2015. 
He has also been chief arbiter in many other large tournaments including the Norwegian championships 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013.