Norway Chess 2015 is approaching with a fantastic field including Carlsen, Anand, Caruana, Topalov, Aronian, Nakamura, Grischuk, Giri, and Vachier-Lagrave, and Hammer. Chessdom.com is going to follow closely the event with live commentary, daily online pdf and pgn magazine, interviews, live games with analysis and more. But first we take a historic look at the Norway Chess events.
Replay: Norway Chess 2014 games / EnterCard Scandinavian Master games
Norway Chess is a super-tournament established in 2013 and traditionally held in the Stavanger region, Norway. The first edition was a round robin event with ten players. The games were played in various venues: Sandnes, Aarbakke factory (Bryne), Hidle and Stavanger.
Russian Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin won the tournament with 6,0/9 points, leaving Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura half a point behind.
Final standings after round 9 in 2013
| Pl. | Player | Rating (No.) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Sergey Karjakin (Russia) |
2767 (10) | X | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 6 | 24.00 |
| 2 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
2868 (1) | 1 | X | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5.5 | 22.75 |
| 3 | Hikaru Nakamura (USA) |
2775 (7) | 0 | ½ | X | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5.5 | 21.25 |
| 4 | Peter Svidler (Russia) |
2769 (9) | 1 | ½ | ½ | X | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5 | 21.50 |
| 5 | Levon Aronian (Armenia) |
2813 (2) | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | X | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5 | 20.50 |
| 6 | Viswanathan Anand (India) |
2783 (5) | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 19.25 |
| 7 | Wang Hao (China) |
2743 (16) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | X | ½ | ½ | 0 | 4.5 | 21.50 |
| 8 | Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) |
2793 (4) | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | X | ½ | ½ | 4 | 18.00 |
| 9 | Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) |
2745 (14) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | X | 1 | 3 | 10.75 |
| 10 | Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway) |
2608 (197) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | X | 1.5 | 6.50 |
The second edition took place in June 2014 at the venues Aarbakke AS factory at Bryne, Vågen Videregående Skole in Sandnes and Scandic Hotel Stavanger Forus.
Sergey Karjakin repeated the success and won the tournament again with 6,0/9 points, leaving Magnus Carlsen half a point behind.
Final standings in the 2014 event
| Pl. | Player | Rating | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergey Karjakin (Russia) |
2771 | X | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 6 | 26.25 |
| 2 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
2881 | ½ | X | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5.5 | 23.50 |
| 3 | Alexander Grischuk (Russia) |
2792 | 0 | ½ | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5 | 21.00 |
| 4 | Fabiano Caruana (Italy) |
2791 | 0 | ½ | 1 | X | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 4.5 | 19.75 |
| 5 | Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) |
2772 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | X | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4.5 | 19.50 |
| 6 | Levon Aronian (Armenia) |
2815 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | X | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4 | 18.25 |
| 7 | Peter Svidler (Russia) |
2753 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | X | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4 | 18.25 |
| 8 | Anish Giri (Netherlands) |
2752 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | X | 0 | ½ | 4 | 17.75 |
| 9 | Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) |
2783 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | X | ½ | 4 | 17.00 |
| 10 | Simen Agdestein (Norway) |
2628 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | X | 3.5 | 15.75 |
Norway Chess 2015
The 2015 edition is set to take place from 15-26th June at Flor & Fjære (introductory blitz tournament), Hotel Scandic Stavanger Forus, Utstein Kloster Rennesøy (round 4) and Vitenfabrikken, Sandnes (rest day).
From this year Norway Chess has joined forces with Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic to form the Grand Chess Tour circuit. Each of the three events will award individual prize funds of $300,000, with competitors also tallying points toward a tour prize fund of $150,000.
And while the organizers are hyped about establishing a gold standard, the players are not that enthusiastic. Alexander Grischuk said: “I don’t see anything special, it is just three tournaments combined”.
Hikaru Nakamura: “I know everyone makes a big deal about it, but I don’t really see the point. It’s three existing tournaments and I think each tournament had something unique about it before this tour.”
Norwegian Grandmaster Jon Ludvig Hammer won the EnterCard Scandinavian Masters to complete the field for Norway Chess 2015 tournament.
Participants:
Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
Viswanathan Anand (India)
Levon Aronian (Armenia)
Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria)
Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
Fabiano Caruana (Italy)
Alexander Grischuk (Russia)
Anish Giri (Netherlands)
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)
Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway)
The two-times winner Sergey Karjakin is not invited: “Of course I wanted to play in Norway and actually I was invited at first, but then they changed the format. But okay, this is a question for the organizers and not for me.”
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