MAGNUS CARLSEN IN NORWEGIAN CHESS FESTIVAL
Magnus Carlsen faces Peter Svidler (Russia), Hikaru Nakamura (USA) and Simen Agdestein in a Super rapid tournament in Gjøvik, Norway from January 2nd to 5th.
The tournament has about the same format as the Mainz Classic, with a double round tournament followed by final and bronze final games. The Norwegian audience will be eager to see Magnus Carlsen on home-gound again, since he does not play a single tournament game in Norway during 2008.
The rapid contest is part of a chess festival with a big and varied program, held on occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Gjøvik chess club. The festival starts on December 29th, and the main tournament is a 9 round GM-Swiss open to players with a rating abov 2100.
Reigning European champion Sergei Tiviakov (NL) 2686 is the highest rated player of the preliminary list of participants. There is also a parallell group open for all players rated below 2100.
Gjøvik has been hosting some big chess events in the past, and Simen Agdestein played an important role both in 1983 when at 16 he beat Spassky in the 75th anniversary tournament and became an IM, in 1985 when he became Nordic champion and Grandmaster at 18 (just then the youngest in the world!) and in 1991 when he drew a classical mini-match with Karpov 2-2.
The home page of the festival (in Norwegian, English and German language) has the web address: www.gjovikfestival.sjakkweb.no.
We thank you for all mentioning of our festival, and we will be back with more information later.
Kind regards
Øystein Brekke
(chairman of the organizing committee Gjøvik International Chess Festival 2008-09)
Preliminary list of participants Gjøvik GM Swiss tournament, per October 15th:
GM Sergei TIVIAKOV NED 2686
GM Boris SAVCHENKO RUS 2648
GM Vadim MALAKHATKO BEL 2633
GM Oleg KORNEEV RUS 2623
GM Vasilios KOTRONIAS GRE 2587
GM Kaido KULAOTS EST 2556
GM Geetha GOPAL IND 2548
GM Nick DE FIRMIAN USA 2545
GM Aloyzas KVEINYS LTU 2533
IM Jon Ludvig HAMMER NOR 2522
IM Allan Stig RASMUSSEN DEN 2513
Go Magnus!