Update from the organizer
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!
