Welcome back in 2022!

There will be a new similar tournament next year.

Fagernes Chess International 2022 will be played during Easter, from 10th to 17th April.
More information may be found on the 2022 homepage: fagerneschess2022.blogspot.no.

Congratulations to the winners!

Swedish GM Tiger Hillarp won the GM-group with 7 points in 9 games. His countryman GM Erik Blomqvist also reached 7 points, but had a worse tiebreak.

GM Vahap Sanal of Turkey, GM Frode Urkedal of Norway and GM Vitaly Kunin of Germany all took 6½ points, with Sanal taking third place on tiebreak.

The Open group was won by Eivind Grunt Kreken (NOR) with 7½ points. Dion Krivenko (UKR) took second place with 7 points, while Torbjørn Dahl was third with the best tiebreak of six players on 6½.

Hillarp and Blomqvist
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

Kreken and Krivenko 
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

Title norm candidates

Before the last round we have four title norm candidates in the GM-group:

• Altarbosh: must win for IM-norm
• Carlsson: must win for IM-norm
• Ingebretsen: must win for IM-norm
• Unneland: must win for IM-norm

Fagernes Blitz

Fagernes Blitz was played 16th October, in the evening after round 8 of the main tournament. There were 55 participants.

GM Vahap Sanal of Turkey won the A-group with 8 points from 9 games. Runner-up was FM Gustav Tørngren (SWE) with 7 points, while IM Jung Min Seo (SWE) captured third place with 6½.

The B-group was won by Leander Eriksen with 6½ poeng ahead of Torgeir H. Bø and Amund Pihl Strand with 6 points.

Sanal, Törngren and Seo with arbiter Henrik Sjøl
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

Top-3 in the B-group

Fagernes Rapid

Our rapid tournament Fagernes Rapid was played 14th and 15th October, in the evenings after the main tournament.

GM Vahap Sanal of Turkey took first place with 5½ points from 6 games. His closest competitors were IM Julian Martin (GER) and FM Ward Altarbosh (NOR) with 5 points.

Martin, Sanal and Altarbosh with arbiter Henrik Sjøl
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

Report after round 5

The Swedes after round five took over the lead for the first time: GM Tiger Hillarp following a successful opening won a nice attacking duel against GM Stellan Brynell on second board, while IM Jung Min Seo on first board had few problems saving a draw as black against Norwegian GM Frode Urkedal.

First rated GM Vahap Sanal meanwhile picked up an exchange in the middle game and much later won the endgame as black against Gudmundur Kjartansson.

Third rated GM Vitaly Kunin, fifth rated GM Erik Blomqvist and sixth rated GM Kaido Kulaots meanwhile all won more or less convincingly in five-hour games against young Norwegian opponents. The GMs above 2500 made an outstanding 6,5 out of 7 today, as Alon Greenfeld of Israel elegantly won a much better endgame against so far solid Swedish FM Fredrik Lindh.

Hillarp following a brilliant first half of the tournament is now leading alone at 4,5/5, but still the tiger no way can feel safe as Sanal, Urkedal, Blomqvist, Kulaots and Seo are all running half a step behind him at 4,0.

Following the very strong result for the GMs above 2500 this was not a great round for the title norm candidates below 2500, but Seo still is on schedule for a GM-norm. Two Norwegian juniors, FM Elham Abdulrauf and FM Jens Ingebretsen, are around schedule for IMnorms and several other players can still be in that run.

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Read the full report in our bulletin.

The tournament has started!

Follow the live games here.

One week to go!

One week before the clocks start in the first round, the organizers of the Open Norwegian Championships/ Fagernes International are very well satisfied to find a record 147 registered players in our list.

We find it very inspiring that there is so much interest in playing physical tournaments again after a long period with few tournaments. The number of participants and feedback from other interested players is very promising for the upcoming years, and the organizer is considering whether it may be possible with both an Easter holiday tournament and an autumn holiday tournament in 2022.

We strongly regret, but of course understand very well, that a few foreign players have had to withdraw due to continued uncertainty about the possibilities of entering Norway before the tournament. Among these are GM Nihal Sarin and GM Abhijeet Gupta from India, who have withdrawn with the approval of the organizer after a very constructive dialogue. We hope and believe that we will instead meet both for the Fagernes tournaments in 2022 and/or 2023. Titas Stremavicius from Lithuania has meanwhile registered as a new GM in our list of players, and we hope being able to bring in 1-2 more new GMs before the tournament starts.

With 11 GMs, 11 IMs, 1 WGM, 18 FMs and a median rating around 2250 among 75 registered players in the GM group, this year's tournament will in any case offer the participants great chances for title norms. Nearly 20 different countries seem to be represented in the tournament, and this year we are especially happy for a large increase in the number of participants from Sweden and Germany. With changed regulations after the reopening of Norway, we still have room for a few more participants. The registration deadline is therefore extended until Friday 8 October.