We'll be back in 2021!

The next Fagernes tournament will be played during Easter, 28 March - 4 April 2021.

Please see the homepage for more information: fagerneschess2021.blogspot.com.

Urkedal won the GM group

Norwegian GM Frode Urkedal won the GM group very convincingly with 7½ points from 9 rounds and a rating performance above 2700.

GM Evgeny Postny (ISR) on 7 points took second place while IM Johannes Haug (NOR) was number three with best tie-break of five players with 6 points. 

Top-3 in the GM group: Postny, Urkedal and Haug

(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

Winner of the Open group was Sverre Lye (NOR) with 7½ points. He was half a point ahead of Mathias Lind Schouten (NOR) and Jamie Cross (AUS). 

Top-3 in the Open: Schouten, Lye and Cross

(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

The only title norm of the tournament was an IM-norm taken by 15-year old Matias Unneland (NOR).

Fagernes Blitz

Fagernes Blitz was played Saturday 10th October, after round eight in the main tournament.

Group winners were IM Tor Fredrik Kaasen in group A and Evsuld Myagmarsuren in group B.

Group winners Kaasen and Myagmarsuren
(Foto: Anniken Vestby)

Title norm candidates

With two rounds to go we have the following title norm candidates in the GM-group:

• Haug: needs 2 out of 2 for GM-norm (and must play a GM i in the last round)
• Ingebretsen: 1 out of 2 for IM-norm
• Unneland: 1 out of 2 for IM-norm
• Ranaldi: 1½ out of 2 for IM-norm
• Carlsson: 2 out of 2 for IM-norm
• Dahl: 2 out of 2 for IM-norm
• Hobber: 2 out of 2 for IM-norm and title (needs an opponent rated at least 2469 in the last round)

Fagernes Rapid

Our rapid tournament Fagernes Rapid was played 8th and 9th October, in the evenings after the main tournament.

FM Elham Abdulrauf took first place with 5½ points from 6 games. His closest competitors were Afras Mansoor, GM Ilmars Starostits and Aksel Bu Kvaløy on 4½ points. 

Abdulraf won the rapid tournament
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

 

Covid-19 Protection Regulations

Please see our Covid-19 Protection Regulations.

Update from the organizer

Five weeks before round 1 starts in the evening of October 4, we the Fagernes chess organizers are very well satisfied to see around 110 players and about the same number of hotel guests registered in our lists! 

Obviously 2020 is a very difficult year to plan an international chess tournament for players as well as organizers, and still we do not know whether all invited title holders and other foreign players will be able to arrive Norway as planned. 

Unfortunately we had to remove many strong players unable to come due to travel restrictions. With 13 GMs from 8 different federations on the current list we will however have a strong title tournament even in case of some more cancellations. Since the tournament is registered as our national championship in FIDE, it will be possible for Norwegian players to make title norms also if they do not play enough foreign opponents. 

We in Norway fortunately still have few registered Covid-19 cases compared to most other countries, and Fagernes is in a safe area with very low risk. We have had a constructive dialogue with local health authorities. Needless to say we should still have some special rules to minimize the risks further, and these will be published 1-2 weeks in advance. 

To assure sufficient distance between the players we are not sure whether we can allow more than 130 players, and also there can be a practical problem to get enough hotel rooms if we have many more registrations. Following this, we ask players who are not on the current list and plan to play our tournament to contact us as soon as possible! 

We remain optimistic for a successful tournament and look much forward to meeting many chessfriends again in a safe countryside environment October 4 to October 11!