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10.8.2008 Final Results
 The last round saw GM Matthew J Turner (2493) drawing GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) as white after only 8 moves on Turners proposal. The stronger player Kurnosov secured tournament victory by the result and Turner a place in the sun. Also at the 2nd board GM Sergey Kasparov and GM Vitaly Kunin played a grandmaster draw. 11 moves in the Queens Gambit Accepted brought Kunin (2532) to an excellent score with 7/9 and a TPR at 2631. Then it was all up to the sportsman GM Simen Agdestein to split the players in the lead.

Agdestein played another Norwegian, IM Bjørn Tiller with the white pieces in a Modern Defence. They was out if book after less than 8 moves and Agdestein got the centre and Tiller pressure against it as in all hypermodern openings. It soon became an original positional struggle where Agdestein gradually got an edge. After a tactical sequence starting out with 18...Nxb3 Agdestein ended up with a strong pass pawn at e5 and the better structure. Then Tiller tried to get life in his light squared bishop by sacrificing a pawn, a plan that backfired and Simen won the game fast. GM Simen Agdestein finished a nice tournament performance with 7/9 and a TPR of 2621 - he became second in this years Arctic Chess Challenge on tiebreak ahead of Turner and Kunin. Agdesteins next tournament is Rising Stars vs Experience in Amsterdam the 20. till 30. of August. This is a team tournament where he will meet players like GM Ivan Cheparinov, GM Wang Yue and GM Fabiano Caruana.

GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) faced FM Peter J Sowray (2327) as white in a Dutch Defence. They played the same variation with 2.Nc3 that Sowray lost with against Kunin but this time it ended up with castling to the same side. Malakhatko didn't get much out of the opening, but suddenly he won a pawn in the middle game. It still was far from simple and they soon reached a Queens-ending with 5 vs 4 pawns. But then Sowray went wrong with 46...Kc8 and he lost it quickly. A more stubborn defence was 46...Ke8 47.Qg8+ Ke7 48.Qxd5 Qe2+ and whites win is not clear at all even though he has chances.

GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) beat the young Norwegian Daniel Jakobsen Kovachev in a Maroczy Bind as white. Likavsky got the thematic break 12.a5! steering up problems for black at the Queens side. Kovachev didn't meet the threats well and Likavsky won a pawn and soon got the pair of bishops too. The grandmaster won it easily and the Slovakian GM ended up on 6.5/9. IM Amon Simutowe (2459) beat the local player Gunnar B. Hanssen in a slave defence as white. Simutowe played the opening rather original and black must have been more than fine during the early middle game. But when the game became sharp the IM was in his right element and won it clear cut. IM Simutowe ended up with 6.5/9.

Peter S Poobalasingam (2203) needed a win against IM Anna Zozulia (2346) to fulfil his dream of an IM-norm. The game was fought out full blooded and became very complex. Poobalasingam had an edge in the middle game but couldn't get anything substantial from it. He then steered up an attack that looked more dangerous than it really was and at a moment IM Zozulia could have turned the table around with the stunning 34...Re8! winning the queen for not enough compensation! In her time trouble Zozulia also got a second chance with 36...Na5 getting real winning chances a piece up but played it "safe" instead and it ended up with a draw. It looked like IM Anna Zozulia was satisfied with her prize as the best female player of the tournament. Peter S Poobalasingam became the best class 1 player.

The local FM Espen Forså got the last money prize for his 10th place after winning an attacking game in the last round. Forså just performed a bit over his own rating, but drew Agdestein and got attention by the local press. Lasse Østebø Løvik (2143) turned around a double rook ending to win the last round getting 6/9 and a TPR of 2372. Young Even Thingstad (2019) also won the final round doing a fine 2295 TPR. Everything went smooth here in Tromsø and the participant expressed their happiness with the tournament. It wasn't just another chess tournament, but a nice experience of the Arctic City of Tromsø with several social arrangements. We wish you all back here next year!

Final standings, 9 rounds:
1. GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) RUS 7.5
2. GM Simen Agdestein (2583) NOR 7.0
3. GM Matthew J Turner (2493) ENG 7.0
4. GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) GER 6.5
5. GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) BEL 6.5
6. GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) SLO 6.5
7. IM Amon Simutowe (2459) ZAM 6.5
8. GM Sergey Kasparov (2486) BLR 6
9. Peter S Poobalasingam (2203) ENG 6
10. FM Espen Forså (2282) NOR 6

10.8.2008 Final Results
 The server once agian went down, but here is the final results in pdf. The results on the mainsite will be updated when the server is back in track. (jsb)

Frank "Tiger" Remman celebrated 50 games whitout a singel draw!9.8.2008 The most implacable player in the world?
 Frank Remman from Tromsø celebrated a jubilee in round 8 with his game number 50 whitout any draws. In nearly two years he has been playing this kind of tigerchess! Is this some kind of record? Anyway we congratulate with this fighting way to play chess.

9.8.2008 Round 8
 On the 8th day of Arctic Chess Challenge 2008 we got 3 decisive games on the top boards after some tough fighting chess. Magnus Carlsen came to town late last night and watched parts of the games today. He will spend some time with his friends and family here and we are all happy to have such celebrity at our tournament. Even Frederic Friedel came to town, he was invited by Magnus's father Henrik and Tromsø 2014 and he will use the opportunity to go mountain walking together with Henrik Carlsen in the mountains nearby. It also was a Barbeque party with 70 of the participants including Magnus Carlsen and almost all the grandmasters. It was served cod and salmon and a big football match between the NTG-students with Magnus and the rest was arranged. Frederic Friedel took several photos of the session so maybe you will see it soon.

On the 1st board GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) took on GM Simen Agdestein (2583) with the white pieces. It might be decisive for the tournament victory that Kurnosov got white in this top fight since Agdestein is a typical white player. Anyway, it started out as a Ruy Lopez with 3...g6!? and nothing unusual happened before Agdestein played the dubious novelty 7...Rb8?! that brought him into trouble. Normal was 7...Nge7 and its still book. Kurnosov used his development to start kingside action with f4-f5 and after the strong 14.Bd4! black had to do some concessions. The Norwegian chose to do it the rough way by sacrifising a pawn but after looking at the game continuation it's easy to suggest the positionally ugly 14...g5 as a better option. The Russian 2600+ played the middle game well and didn't give Agdestein any chances to get back into the game. Maybe the Norwegian should have played 23...Nxe3 and prayed, since the white knight soon ended up at f5 as a monster and it all was over. A rather easy win for Kurnosov whom got it all out of the opening. He is now the sole leader of the tournament, but only half a point behind him we find two of his grandmaster colleges.

GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) and GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) met at 2nd board in a King's-side fianchetto where black played 2...Bg4. Malakhatko played the opening rather provocative allowing white to grab the centre with 7.e4. It's all played before and they only got a middle game position that was playable for both sides. Anyway I had this feeling that the white position got a little better all the time and when black did the concession 20...Bxd6 white already had a clear edge with his strong passer after 21.exd6. GM Kunin has extremely patience and the game went into a really long manoeuvring phase where white got his king over to the Queen-side and then prepared a pawn break at the kingside. Malakhatko didn't have the same patience and broke first with 55...g5 - a move that might not be any worse than other moves - whites positional edge was clear anyway. Kunin then exchanged at g5 and improved the position of his pieces till he was ready for the pawn break f4-f5. When it came at move 68 white was already winning and Kunin executed the win in fine fashion in 93 moves. The slow positional player Kunin is doing great under ACC and is just half a point behind Kurnosov.

The 3rd board saw GM Matthew J Turner (2493) vs GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) in an original game that started out as 1.d4 d5 2.Bg5!?. As early as move 6 they left previous examples and Likavsky followed up by sacrificing a centre pawn. He ended up getting fine compensation with some dangerous piece play and with 17...e4! 18.Qxe4 Qb5! he could have enjoyed a huge advantage keeping the white king in the centre. Instead it ended up in a complicated middle game position that white managed to play best and gradually improved his chances in. After 29.Qc5+! white was virtually winning and blacks only possibility to put a spinner in the wheel for white was with 31...Qa5! that produces some intricate perpetual check possibilities with 32.Rd6 Qa2+ 33.Kh3 Qa5! 34.Ra6 Qb5! and white can't avoid perpetual. This is by no means forced and white have several options to keep torturing black. With his win GM Matthew J Turner joined GM Kunin half a point behind the leader going into the last round. Turner will face GM Kurnosov with the white pieces in the last round.

IM Anna Zozulia played white in a Sicilian vs IM Amon Simutowe on the 4th board. It became a closed manoeuvring game where things gradually opened up without any players enjoying a huge edge at any moments. IM Amon Simutowe tried to win it for a long time but Zozulia defended well and it became a draw at move 67.

IM Bjørn Tiller won against the local hope Pål Røyset with the black pieces and faces GM Agdestein tomorrow.

GM Sergey Kasparov also beat one of the local players, Torben Sørås (2178). The Norwegian got quite a satisfactory position with kingside chances as white in a Scandinavian defence. But when he found a creative idea with 20.Ra4? it backfired since white totally overlooked 20...Qd5!.

We got the first grandmaster scalp today when Peter S Poobalasingam (2203) beat GM Heikki Westerinen (2376) as black in a Sicilian Defence. Poobalasingam got an early advantage and gained control over the centre. Then he manouvered a knight to d3, winning an exchange and with it the game. The young Brit Poobalasingam has done a strong tournament so far with a close to 2400 performance. If he beats IM Anna Zozulia tomorrow he will achieve an IM-norm! It was some highlights for the local players today too. Gunnar B. Hanssen won his game against the young Norwegian Nicolai Getz and has 5.5/8 facing IM Amon Simutowe tomorrow. The 12 years old local Peter Flermoen (1936) won as black vs Vladimir Paleologu (2198) and proved his huge talent. Flermoen has 5/8 and tomorrow he faces another 2200 player and has a chance to make an excellent tournament result scoring with the white pieces. Going into the final round 3 players can still win the tournament. The key game broadcasted live is GM Matthew J Turner (2493) vs GM Igor Kurnosov (2617).

 Standings after 8 rounds:
1. GM Igor Kurnosov RUS (2617) 7
2. GM Vitaly Kunin GER (2532) 6.5
3. GM Matthew J Turner ENG (2493) 6.5
4. GM Simen Agdestein NOR (2583) 6

9.8.2008 Pgn-file round 8
Because of a barbecue party with 70 of the 90 participants joining, webmaster can't get in contact with the Tournament-service-file and you have to be satisfied with the games directly from this pgn-file. (not all games yet, because of the same party :))  But soon, soon to a computer near you. Stay tuned.. (jsb)

8.8.2008 Round 7
The 7th day of Arctic Chess Challenge saw GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) facing the sole leader GM Simen Agdestein (2583) at 1st board. Agdestein played 1...e6 against Kunin’s d4 and then avoided the 2.Nc3 variation of the Dutch Kunin played earlier in this tournament. It soon became a normal Stonewall where white opted for the recommended theoretical approach of using both knight controlling the weak e5-square. Agdestein set up his centre play by b6 and c5 and typically manoeuvred around the two white knights with Na6(!) keeping pieces at the board. It became a complex middle game with chances for both sides and white soon opted for a position where black had hanging pawns. As yesterday’s game the positioned seemed balance when Agdestein again let his clock go down to the very last minutes. He for instance had less than 3 minutes for his last 4 moves and even though he is an amazing Blitzer its a dangerous policy in the long run. Today it might have cost him the game when he blundered a pawn in his own time trouble with 37...a6?. Kunin had several minutes left but didn't notice the tactical blow 38.Bxc4! winning the important c4-pawn with a winning edge. After this mutual mistake neither side got any new chances to take the game home. Agdestein defended well, got an exchange too, but white had excellent compensation in an overwhelming knight. The game finished when Agdestein found a nice tactical resource that delivered perpetual check. Except for move 37 it was an excellent fought game from both sides and both players keep their chances for tournament victory.

GM Sergey Kasparov (2486) played GM Kurnosov (2617) on the 2nd board in an original game. It started out as a Queen Pawn Fianchetto in the Modern Defense and already after 8 moves the players was out of previous games when Kurnosov found a fine idea with 8...a5!? known from the Sicilian. Black got a nice game out of the opening and when white probably miscalculated a tactical variation he even won a pawn early in the middle game. White had some compensation but Kurnosov kept his pressure and transformed it into an endgame where he had rook and 3 pawns vs bishop and 3 pawns. This should be theoretically won ending in most cases according to my humble knowledge. As the game went it looked like a draw though after blacks break with g5. Black got two weaknesses that didn’t allow his king to enter the game. The players went for a long manoeuvring period before black had to break with h4 to make further progress. Sergey Kasparov then had to exchange at h4 and its not at all clear how black would make further progress. Instead Sergey blundered with 109.g4? and black was just winning. It became a long fight of 138 moves and with this win Kurnosov moved to shared lead with Agdestein on 6/7.

GM Malakhatko (2612) played GM Westerinen (2376) in an Old Indian Defence. Westerinen defended well in the early middle game and they got a very interesting position where white had the pair of knights and black the pair of bishops. The position looked somewhat better for white with his spacial advantage and squares for the knights at the Q-side but it wasn’t anything substantial before the Finnish grandmaster lost patience and sacrificed a pawn to open up for his bishops. His whole plan to invade with the two bishops backfired and white won an easy victory. Malakhatko has 5.5/6 and is a joker going into the two last rounds.

IM Bjørn Tiller (2374) played GM Matthew Turner on the 4th board. The two friends fought it all out in a Kings Gambit. Tiller chose Fischers 3.Bc4 and even though it still was theory till move 12 black can't have been familiar with the opening. At least Turner spent a lot of time at an early stage, but he played it well I think and got a decent position. Then he screw it all up with 22...g5? weakening his kingside and walking into tactics. White then should have held the pieces at the table with 23.Se7+! Kf7 24.Ld6 with a huge edge in a complicated position. Instead Tiller ended up doing some mistakes that gave black kingside play. With perfect play it could still have been a game but in time trouble black quickly got a decisive attack and won. GM Turner is one out of 4 players with 5.5 out of 7.

GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) beat Peter S Poobalasingam (2203) with the black pieces in a c3-sicilian where the Slovakian grandmaster played 2...Qa5!?. The game was far from perfect and young Poobalasingam got his chances during the game. At the end he played poor though and lost. The Slovakian grandmaster joined the group at 5.5/7 and will play GM Turner tomorrow in one out of 3 grandmaster encounters. IM Amon Simutowe beat the young surprise Even Thingstad (2019) but the Norwegian played some creative ideas and had his chances to reach at least equal play during the middle game. IM Simutowe now have 5 points. IM Anna Zozulia (2346) also won convincingly against one of the young Norwegians, Johannes Kvisla. The local hope Pål Røyset (2234) took care of Lasse Østebø Løvik (2143) with the black pieces and the young sensation Løvik has both his feet’s at the ground again. The local players Gunnar B. Hanssen, Benjamin Arvola and Torben Søraas also won today and joined the group with 4.5/7. The tournament is important for chess in Northern Norway and hopefully a few of these players will have a nice finish here. When its two rounds left it's clear that the first place will be a struggle between 6 players. They meet each other tomorrow and we will have some new answers then. Tomorrow we will have the big clash between GM Kurnosov (2617) and GM Simen Agdestein (2583) that everybody is looking forward to.

Standings after 7 rounds:

1. GM Simen Agdestein (2583) NOR 6
2. GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) RUS 6
3. GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) BEL 5.5
4. GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) GER 5.5
5. GM Matthew J Turner (2493) ENG 5.5
6. GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) SLO 5.5

8.8.2008 Results round 7 and parings round 8
The server hosting the result-site is in trouble, but you can hear read the results and pairings in pdf.

7.8.2008 Round 6
The 6th day of Arctic Chess Challenge gave some answers about the hottest candidates for the tournament victory. It also was arranged a Blitz tournament today that had good competition. The winner was GM Simen Agdestein winning all his 9 games outdistances the rest of the field by 2 points! There was 3 other GM participating with GM Kurnosov on second place...

On the 1st board GM Simen Agdestein (2583) played white against GM Malakhatko (2612) in a Nimzoindian. Agdestein played the rare 5.Qb3!? which only is played in amateur games previously this game according to my database. It soon became clear why when black got a fine game by just doing natural moves. With 11...Rb8!? instead of 11...Ba6 black would be at least equal in a position with lots of play and still chances for both sides. As the game went it ended up in a double edged position where black had hanging pawns but looked OK. On move 24 Agdestein chose to go into an endgame where black had a spacial advantage and pressure against b2. It might have been better to keep the material on the board with 24.Nd4 Nh5 25.Qh2!? g6 26.Nc3 and the position is still double edged. The ending was probably no big deal either since black had his own weakness in the d-file and the most interesting thing at this point was Agdestein’s time management. He only had 5 minutes left for 10 moves and then he spent 3 of them on move 32 probably deciding whether he should go for 32.e4 or not. He didn't, but when Malakhatko played 32...Teb7 Agdestein spent 40 seconds of his last 1.50 to play 33.e4! Malakhatko then took on the spot with 33...dxe4? probably totally overlooking whites reply. When Agdestein immediately answered 34.Rd6!, winning a piece, the body language of the Belgian grandmaster clearly showed he was shocked. He spent 7 of his remaining 9 minutes playing 34...Rxb2 that loses without any resistance - a better try in the time trouble was 34...e3+! with the idea of 35.Kxe3 Re7+ 36.Kf2 Nd5! 37.Rxc6 Rxe2+ 38.Nxe2 Rxb2 and black regains his piece. White should play 35.Kg3! though still winning. Agdestein had no problems with his 70 seconds for 6 moves maintaining his winning advantage and won an important victory over one of the tournament favourites. Agdestein is then in a clear lead and has shown some good chess under Arctic Chess Challenge.

GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) played the surprise so far, Lasse Østebø Løvik (2143) from Norway with the white pieces. They played a topic line in the Russian Defence with 5.Nc3. They went out of book as early as move 11 and the position soon looked quite balanced. But Kurnosov had an ace up his sleeves and with the nice combination 18.Bxa6! followed by 21.Rd3! he was already winning. With precise play he transformed to a winning ending making it a technical win. GM Kurnosov is then half a point behind Agdestein and looks like his main rival.

GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) played white against GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) in a Queens Gambit Accepted. White got an opening edge and could perhaps have kept his pressure with 19.Nxg5!? Instead he went for a better ending that Kunin managed to turn around and even be a bit better in before it ended in a draw at move 54. GM Kunin is still at the top places with his 5 out of 6 with Likavsky half a point behind.

The last LIVE-board was GM Heikki Westerinen playing GM Sergey Kasparov in a Caro Kann. The most exciting thing about the game was opposite castling, but neither part did get an attack going and they agreed on an early draw after the queens had been exchanged. Then it was more action in IM Amon Simutowe vs GM Matthew J Turner in a 4.Qc2 Nimzoindian. White entered an early endgame with 11.Bxf6!?, a move that don't score well according to my database. He then followed up losing his weak c4-pawn and Turner conducted the win in fine fashion. GM Turner is one out of 8 players with 4.5 points. His student Peter S Poobalasingam has the same score winning on one of the lower boards today. Even Turners friend from Norway, IM Bjørn Tiller (2374) won today and joined the group at 4.5 - he will be facing GM Turner tomorrow and lets hope they fight it out full-blooded as good friends should!

We have mentioned Lasse Østbø Løviks fine 2480 performance. Another young Norwegian doing a splendid job is Even Thingstad who won a piece right out of the opening today against FM Peter J Sowray. Thingstad (2019) won in great style and have a 2400+ performance so far with his 4.5 out of 6. IM Anna Zozulia was among the winners today and has half a points lead on WIM Tatiana Kasparova for the women’s prize. Its now 3 rounds left and 7 out of the 8 first places are occupied by the Grandmasters - everything is going as scheduled here in Tromsø. The hottest names are now Agdestein, Kurnosov and Kunin and tomorrow we'll see the leader GM Agdestein playing GM Kunin as black on 1st board.

Standings after 6 rounds:
1. GM Simen Agdestein NOR (2583) 5.5
2. GM Igor Kurnosov RUS (2617) 5
3. GM Vitaly Kunin GER (2532) 5

6.8.2008 Round 5
On the 5th day of Arctic Chess Challenge the clouds came even though the sun broke threw from time to time. We are happy with the weather so far! The day started with a tour in the mountain. A delegation of 30 participants went up with a cable car and then walked the final distance to the top of “Fløya”, a local mountaintop with a spectacular view over Tromsø. Even 3 of the grandmasters forgot all about preparation and was with the group to the top, its not all about chess when you play north of the Arctic circle.

1st board saw GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) taking a grandmaster draw against GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) in the Kings Indian. Malakhatko didn't want to take any chances with his pole position and the Russian GM Kurnosov didn't feel like trying with the black pieces, especially not so after white’s modest and extremely solid set up from the start. Then nobody has a perfect score and it was up to the lower boards to see if anyone else could join Malakhatko in the lead.

The game of the day was between GM Matthew J Turner (2493) and GM Simen Agdestein (2583) who fought it out full-blooded. Agdestein went for the Stonewall variation of the Dutch defence, an opening that didn't get all the attention it deserves I think. It seems like fell out of fashion in top level chess for no good reason at all - at least there are no clear theoretical approach that should scare black from playing it. GM Turner chose to play a setup with b3, Bb2 and then played Qc1 to trade of black squared bishops at a3. Agdestein was challenged by this plan as early as 1987 when he was young and rising against GM Helgi Olafsson in a game that can be considered one of the classic Agdestein victories! I really don't know if Turner knew that Agdestein is Mr. Theory in this line, but we must expect so. GM Agdestein refused to exchange queens with his ambitious 12...c5 plan and the game was already out of Agdesteins previous practise with this opening. Anyway it was quite thematic. Turner should perhaps have played 15.e3 to prevent blacks subtle 15...f4(!) that grabbed possibilities at the K-side, but his first clear mistake was 18.Ng5?! that looked like a nice positional choice, but just gave black the initiative after Agdesteins strong response 18...Ng4! The next err from white came just a few moves later with the adventurous 21.Rd4? that loses on the spot. 21...Qe6! would have been a strong response, but Agdestein found a much more spectacular way with 21...Nxf2! - temporarily sacrificing a piece! When he also found the nice 24...Qe3+ with a kingside attack, instead of regaining the piece immediately, it became play against one goal. Agdestein scored and he then joined Malakhatko in the lead.

GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) has showed a sober positional style so far in the tournament and today he met FM Peter J. Sowray (2327) on the 3rd board. Kunin played the highly fashionable move 2.Nc3 versus the Dutch defence. It ended up in a closed position where white enjoyed two knights and the better structure but where black looked solid. Then they castled to opposite wings and white launched an attack early on with 10.b4. Black played the position extremely passive and soon ended up only defending. GM Kunin played the attack as sober as one could expect and won a nice game. It’s then 3 players in the lead - Malakhatko, Agdestein and Kunin.

The 4th board saw GM Sergey Kasparov (2486) playing the white side of a classical Sicilian that transposed to the Scheveningen-variation. His opponent, local Pål Røyset (2234), got a fine position when the Grandmaster didn't push as white and already when white played 13.Nxc6?! black seize the initiative at the Queenside. With both 19...d5! or 20...d5! black could have got a clear edge in a position where he has the dream of a French game. Instead Røyset went slightly wrong with 20...e5?! even though he still was better. Røyset then started to play real well and when he finally got his break 30...d5! black was in huge trouble. Actually the Grandmaster was dead lost as Røyset showed with his play in the early time trouble. With 36...R6-e3! instead of 36...R2-e3 it would have been completely winning for black as white doesn't have 37.Rd3 as in the game. He still was clearly better, probably winning but then Røyset started to play really poor and managed to lose the game in just 10 more moves! A sad sortie for the local hero that was soooooo close to a big setup!

GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) played black against the young Norwegian Johannes Kvisla (2180) and won a piece early in the middle game in a Ruy Lopez. The Slovakian Grandmaster is among those with 4 points. So is IM Amon Simutowe (2459) that also won convincingly today as white in an English opening. GM Heikki Westerinen is up there too after winning as black in a game with some swings against Tatiana Kasparova (2176).

The last person with 4 out of 5 is Lasse Østebø Løvik (2143) who beat FM Joachim Thomassen in a c3-Sicilian in a wild and short game. Østebø Løvik sacrificed a whole piece but black didn't pick it up with 20...Rxc2 21.Bf6 Ne4! and its hard to see how white will proceed. Instead black played 20...f5? giving white an overwhelming attack which Løvik conducted in fine fashion. A fantastic tournament so far for the NTG-student Løvik who has a TPR of 2632!

With 3.5 out of 5 we find the local talents FM Espen Forså and Benjamin Arvola. Also Nicolai Getz and young Even Thingstad (2019) are up there after excellent tournaments. Especially Thingstad can be satisfied with his 2335 performance! This tournament is a golden opportunity for the youth in Norwegian chess to show themselves and get new inspiration over the chessboard. IM Anna Zozulia (2346) joined WIM Tatiana Kasparova at 3 points for the fight of the women's prize, we got to hold an eye on that too. Tomorrow Simen Agdestein is at the top board facing Malakhako with the white pieces and with the attitude of a sportsman I’m sure we don't see a Grandmaster draw in that game.

5.8.2008 Round 4
Four of the family Carlsen on the top of Tromsdalstiden! Henrik is behind the camera
This photo is from Tromsdalstiden 5.8.2008  Henrik is the photographer.

The 4th day of Arctic Chess Challenge saw the first Grandmaster encounters when top seeded GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) met GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) and GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) met GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612). GM Agdestein and GM Matthew Turner had switched students today and met each others pupils. It’s still warm in Tromsø and Magnus Carlsen's father Henrik are among those using the nice weather for walks in the mountain. It’s plenty of nice mountains to climb in the area and this is the season to do so. Talking about Carlsen, Henrik is here with all his family except Magnus but on Friday Magnus will show up and share some time with his family and chess friends. 

GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) met GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) and it started out as a slow Italian game and neither part achieved anything substantial at any moment. It ended as a draw without much drama on move 27 in a balanced position. Then it was more action on board 2 where GM Tomas Likavsky (2485), Slovakia played GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612), Belgium. On all top boards today white adopted a slow opening approach, and so did Likavsky against the Slave defence where he went for a variation where he got the pair of bishops. The position became closed though, so they didn’t do much and ended up as Karpovian bishops at f1 and e1 waiting for things to open up. In the middle game both players attacked at opposite wings but it soon turned out that the blacks kingside-attack was the most dangerous one. He got a knight check at f3 transposing a pawn there with the King trapped in a box. GM Malakhatko broke threw the last resistance at move 40 and is the only player left with a perfect score.

GM Matthew Turner (2493) played Agdestein’s student FM Espen Forså (2282) in a c3-Sicilian. Forså had one of his worst days over a chessboard, blundering a piece just out of the opening and lost horribly.

GM Simen Agdestein on his side played GM Turners student Peter S Poobalasingam (2203) in an English opening. Agdestein played the somewhat unusual Bd2 and Qc1, to steer the game out of book as early as possible I guess. It was a good plan as Poobalasingam didn't solve the positional problems he was faced. Agdestein got a good position early on and won his game quite easily. The old soccer player is still a good sport and we expect him to fight for the top places. Agdestein is playing more chess these days than for a long while. After ACC he will take part on the experienced team in the match up Experience vs Youth in The Netherlands and he will also take part on the Norwegian team in the Chess Olympics at Dresden this autumn.

GM Sergey Kasparov (2486) played another of Agdestein's students, FM Joachim Thomassen (2357) with the black pieces. They took a rather short draw in the Caro Kann, a result 17 years old Thomassen was pleased with since it secured him to stay in the top spots where he still meets titled players. Thomassen is hunting an IM-norm in Tromsø.

The last GM, Heikki Westerinen, was also involved in a Caro Kann where he saced a pawn with 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5.Bd3. The young Norwegian Even Thingstad took it with 5...Qxd4 and Westerinen got an active game as compensation. Alekhine played this gambit so it can't be totally unsound even though it looks suspect. After some nice middle game tactics the Grandmaster won the game and is back on track after two draws.

FM Peter J Sowray (2327) played IM Bjørn Tiller (2374) in a most interesting game in the Modern Defence. IM Tiller was taken off guard in the opening but found a subtle way to offer an exchange. Sowray took the bait straight away, even though there might have been some inbetween moves like 11.c4 for him, and even though black was a whole exchange down it looked like he had fine compensation with his nice bishops, centre and developement. When Tiller, after excellent positional play, got his central break with 26...e4 it all ended up in a tactical firework where white sacrifised a whole rook for chaotic compensation. A piece up, Tiller didn't find the best defence, 31...Kg8! - that put the white idea to the test, and lost quickly. FM Sowray then joins the group with 3.5/4.

The young Norwegians Johannes Kvisla, Daniel Jakobsen Kovachev and Lasse Østebø Løvik all won their games today and are in the group with 3 points. Lasse Østebø Løvik, who got half a point out of GM Westerinen yesterday, got quite lucky today. He was 3 pawns down against IM Anna Zozulia (2346) but tricked her with tactical play and won. A lot can happen if you just have that fighting spirit! So far the favourites have performed excellent in Tromsø, tomorrow will see the game GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) - GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) that can be crucial for the tournament victory.

Standings after 4 rounds:

1. GM Vadim Malakhatko, BEL (2612) 4

2. GM Igor Kurnosov, RUS(2617) 3.5

3. GM Vitaly Kunin, GER (2532) 3.5

4. GM Simen Agdestein NOR (2583) 3.5

5. FM Peter J Sowray ENG (2327) 3.5

6. GM Matthew J Turner ENG (2493) 3.5

4.8.2008 Round 3
 The third day of Arctic Chess Challenge was sunny with rising temperatures. The titled players started to meet each other in this round and there was several interesting pairings. On 1st board top seeded GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) played black against the strong IM Amon Simutowe. On 2nd board husband and wife met when GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) played IM Anna Zozulia (2346). On both the 3rd and the 5th board coach and student met, and everything didn't go the way the public expected... This warm day finished with a delegation with 15-20 of the players go fishing. The report says they got plenty of fish and even the foreigners were lucky. Then they made tasty fish on the fire at the seaside and ate it while it still was fresh from the sea...

GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) played the black side of the Kings Indian versus IM Amon Simutowe (2459) and showed his aggressive ambitions early on. It looked like Simutowe made a premature c5-break before his pieces really was ready for it and Kurnosov got quite an acceptable position. He then won a central pawn early in the middle game and the Russian was then unstoppable with his overwhelming technique. This was an important victory for Kurnosov with the black pieces.

GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) played his wife IM Anna Zozulia and it never got really interesting. Black got passive and was overrun in the center at an early stage. Malakhatko is one of four players with still a perfect score.

GM Vitaly Kunin (2532) played white against the local hope Gunnar B. Hanssen (2232) who achieved a IM-norm last year. It started out as a Queens Indian where the Grandmaster used his strong centre to build up a kingside attack. It culminated in a damaged pawn-structure for black and then he dropped the exchange and it was all over. It’s hard to play black against these Grandmasters.

The 4th player with a perfect score is GM Tomas Likavsky (2485) who beat Hans Olav Lahlum (2201) with the black pieces in an Old Indian game. Likavsky won a pawn in the early middle game but Lahlum still struggled for a while and got into an ending that wasn't clearly won with perfect play. But as often happens the Grandmaster won it without to many technical problems.

It was two students versus coach meetings today. The English players Peter S Poobalasingam (2203) and GM Matthew J Turner (2493) made a friendly draw just out of the opening. It goes without saying that it was the English opening. Then coach GM Simen Agdestein (2583) was far more ambitions with the black pieces. Agdestein has his students from the Top Athletes Collage (NTG) with him to Tromsø and today he played one of his students FM Espen Forså (2282) - a talent from the Northern Norway. Forså was white in a Winawer French and Simen played the opening quite unusual with an ugly looking 7...Bd7!? But as usual with Agdestein he got a quite reasonable position with it when Forså went for Bg5 getting his pieces uncoordinated at the K-side after h6 and g5. In the middle game black got much better and Agdestein regretted he didn't play 23...Be8! that would make life hard for white. Instead they ended up in a position where the Queens got traded off and black still had an edge. Agdestein played it well till his timetrouble (yes, he is addicted to it...) where he let it slip by forcing matters. 18 years old Forså played excellent in defence and even ended up with a pawn more. But Agestein's pieces were too active for any real winning chances though - a draw was agreed. The students had good fortune against their masters today.

GM Heikki Westerinen (2376) played the same line in Winawer French with 4...b6 5.Qg4 Bf8 that Simen Agdestein adopted. His opponent, Lasse Østebø Løvik (2143) is another of Agdestein’s students. Young Løvik faced real problems in the early middle game, but found a spectacular queen sacrifice giving him practical chances to hold the game. Westerinen was still winning till about move 30 where he let both the two white rooks enter the 7th rank and the Grandmaster had to deliver perpetual check. GM Sergey Kasparov (2486) played another young Norwegian, Daniel Jakobsen Kovachev (2202) on the white side of the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez. Kovachev ended up in an ending he might hold against a weaker opponent but where his weaknesses became fatal in the end. It was no big upsets today, but young Elise Forså (1154), who beat an 1800+ player yesterday, drew a 1950 player today and was just a big smile of course.

Standings after 3 rounds:

1-4. GM Vitaly Kunin, GER (2532) 3
1-4. GM Igor Kurnosov, RUS(2617) 3
1-4. GM Vadim Malakhatko, BEL (2612) 3
1-4. GM Tomas Likavsky, SLO (2485)  3

(swn)

3.8.2008 Round 2
 On the second day of Arctic Chess Challenge 2008 the Sun came on a blue sky but still the temperatures are low, its August north of the Arctic Circle... The tournament has 8 GMs and 3 IM's and yesterday none of them was in trouble. Today the picture was totally different and several of the GMs and IM's had to struggle hard in their games when they started to meet 2100 players. The first big encounters of the tournament will be tomorrow when the titled players start to play each other.

On the first board GM Igor Kurnosov (2617) beat Johannes Kvisla (2180) quite easy. It started out as French where the GM got his opponent fast out of book with 2.d3 and it turned out to be a Sicilian a few moves later! In the early middle game the Norwegian went for a combination that had a flew, 22.Bg5! and white got his tactical fireworks and won. GM Vadim Malakhatko (2612) played WIM Tatiana Kasparova (2176) with black on the second board and won smoothly in a Taimanov-variation. The two favourites are not showing any weaknesses so far.

GM Simen Agdestein played Frode Bull Jæger (2148) who is an opening specialist. As black Bull Jæger played the Grünfeld and adopted the same pawn sac, 11...b6, as Magnus Carlsen played against Karjakin in Foros 2008 after Simen's mainline variation. Agdestein spent a lot of time and during the middlegame he outplayed his opponent getting the bishop pair, a rook at the 7th and still having his central majority. When Agdestein then got a break threw in the centre with 28.d5! he was certainly winning. In early time trouble he then overlooked the easy 32.Txh7+ Kxh7 33.Lxd8 Ld4+ 34.Kf1 Se3+ 35.Kf2! winning a pawn and exchanging down to an easily won endgame. When the time scramble was over they reached a minor piece ending that was close to winning for Agdestein, but theoretically probably just a draw. Bull Jæger played the endgame excellent till move 68 where he did blunder and lost. The position was then quite tricky and he had to find the only way to draw with 68...Nb3+! 69.Kb4 Nd4 and Master Rybka gives it as a draw going deep into it. Agdestein is still on track but the underdog had its chances.

The Swede Tobias Pettersson (2147) played an English opening against GM Sergey Kasparov (2486) and it ended up as a Hedgehog. It looked as The Swedish player knew his opening well and he got a quite reasonable position. In the middlegame the underdog continued to stear up problems for the GM and it ended up in a rook-endgame where Petterson was a pawn down, but where his active rook on the 7th rank compensated. He was able to hold the position and we then had our first GM without a perfect score.

Another Swede, Robert Danielsson (2100), had GM Heikki Westerinen (2376) in the ropes in an endgame. As black Danielsson was pawn up with the Bishop pair and a majority in the centre, clearly winning. But then he made a bad positional judgement by exchanging a pair of bishops becoming passive in the process and Heikki managed to draw the game in the end.

Also the young Norwegian Sondre Waage Tofte looked fine against GM Matthew J Turner (2493) for a while in a Vienna game. In the middle game it was quite a remarkable position where all the heavy material on the board and the white king at g4. Black even was a pawn up, but his back rank was really weak and so was h7. The GM got the chance to finish the game with a nice combination in a game you should look threw.

IM Bjørn Tiller made a draw with the young, up and coming, Nicolai Getz (2111).The local hopes FM Espen Forså and Gunnar B. Hanssen both won their games today and have 2 points each meeting tough competition tomorrow. IM candidate FM Joachim Thomassen (2357) didn’t show his best today and gave away a draw against the Italian Alessandro Granaldi (2082). Today's biggest upset was Elise Forså (National elo 1154) beating Frank Remman (1888). In an international tournament a lot can happen! So this was the day where the first real surprises came with GM Sergey Kasparov giving away half a point - more will follow. (swn)

2.8.2008 Round 1
 Wiev from 1. round. Scandic Hall Foto: Bjørn Berg JohansenArctic Chess Challenge 2008 started in Tromsø Saturday with 90 participants from 17 Countries including Russia, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Slovakia, England, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Scotland, Finnland, Denmark, Belarus, The Faroe Islands , The Nederland’s and Zambia. Top rated players are GM Igor Kurnosov 2617 Russia,  Vadim Malakhatko 2612 Belgium, Simen Agdestein 2583 Norway and GM Vitaly Kunin 2532 Germany. An interesting start is also IM Amon Simutowe 2459 from Zambia who will be the first player Sub-Sahara to achieve the Grandmaster title if he reaches an elo above 2500.

The first rounds of all International tournaments like Arctic Chess Challenge are seeded and this means that most results in the first round you can predict. But as we saw last year, when GM De Firmian lost and GM Carlsen drew, everything is possible... Anyway, we didn’t get the big surprises the year. All the Grandmasters won quite smoothly and even the 3 IMs didn't have a hard time winning their games, so did the two WIM's. But several of the FM's were struggling and Magnus' sister Ellen Øen Carlsen (1874) drew FM Peter J. Sowray (2327) and Brian Smith (1803) drew FM Richard Bjerke (2212). The biggest upset among the untitled players was Rune Handberg with an national elo of 1621 beating Torben Søraas (2178) quite convincing.

Igor Kurnosov Foto: Bjørn Berg JohansenOn the board 1 Igor Kurnosov played a rare variation of the Kings Indian where the light squared bishops was exchanged at an early point. He then played a quick b5 sacrificing a pawn and they soon reached a Benko type of position where black had fine compensation in the open files at the queen side. White probably played it well till about move 20 were from things started to go wrong. Typically the Grandmaster used every opportunity he got and won quite smoothly. Kurnosov was amazing concentrating at the board, he almost never took a single walk to relax and I feel this man will be dangerous in the week to come.

GM Simen Agdestein played the young Norwegian Vegard Koi Gandrud on 3rd board. It started out as a Queens Indian with g3 and ended up with a Hedgehog formation. Simen played a slow game as black and white was in the game till about move 20 when he went for the wrong idea with 20.c5?! A better option was 20.Qe3!? with the possible line 20.Bxa4 21.bxa4 Kg7 22.Nd4 Ne5 with a balanced position or simply 20.Nc3. The game shows that even against Grandmasters its possible to get OK out of the opening, but the middle game is quite another story.

Most of the other titled games was clear cut wins without much of a struggle. Tron Walseth got a bit activity against Vitaly Kunin (2532) with black and with sober play he could have managed to get a reasonable middle game position but when things got complex he lost control and lost rapidly. The usual mistakes the lower ranked players did against the GMs was spending to much time at an early stage, playing too passive and then overlooking something when time runs short. All in all a round with only a few surprises - but I'm sure we will see more of them during the week to come. (swn)

31.7.2008 PS! Round 8 starts at 13:00, not 16:00
Because of program in the evening of Saturday round 8 will start earlier then announced. What program ...?  YOU are invited to a big barbeque party at 19:00. You will get more information about this when you are here in Tromsø. (jsb)

30.7.2008 Three more days until the tournament starts and we are close to 100 participants
 All title players are now ready, and this year we count up 8 GM's and 3 IM's. Not so strong startingfield as last year, but close to the same number. Also when it becomes to numbers of countries we are proud to count 15. We look forward to meet new players, and of course will be happy to meet again players who visit us for the second or third time. This year Africa is also represented, and we are especially happy to have Amon Zimutowe (picture) from Zambia with us. Before the Olympics in 2014 the goal must be to have a total of 100 countries in our collection. (jsb)

20.5.2008 NTG and Simen Agdestein is coming, we introduce our second GM
Simen Agdestein (41) was the first chess player ever to become a familiar name to non-chess-playing Norwegians, and the only one until Magnus Carlsen entered the arena. That was mainly due to him becoming Norway's first grandmaster, but also to the fact that he was able to combine world class chess with representing his country in football.

Simen became Norwegian Champion in 1982 as 15-year-old – a record even Magnus Carlsen failed to beat. He became GM at 18, at the time the world's youngest. Some of the biggest successes of his career were 1st place at Lloyd's Bank Masters 1986, 2nd place in Junior-WC at home the same year, behind Walter Arencibia, but ahead of among others Bareev, Anand and Piket, and 2nd in the category 14 tournament in Hastings, 1992. June 1989 he was number 16 on the world ranking with 2605.

After an injury forced him to retire as footballer, his chess career also went into a decline. When he startet as chess teacher at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport, however, his performance almost rose with his pupils'. He won at Cappelle La Grande in 1999 with almost 2800 performance, and Monarch Assurance at Isle of Man, 2003.

Simen is a very competitive player and is well known for his creativity. As mentioned, he has worked mainly as a teacher lately, for Magnus Carlsen and others. He has also written books and taken part in «Strictly come dancing» on Norwegian television in 2006. Lack of playing recently makes him only an outsider in this year's Arctic Chess Challenge.

19.4.2008 Introducing our first GM        
Matthew Turner is a chess teacher at Millfield School in Somerset, England. He teaches all levels from beginners to experienced international top players.

He is a former professional and at some point in his career, this team line-up could be seen:

1.     Turner

2.     Morozevich

3.     Short

In 2001 he won a great game against the great Levon Aronian himself, so everyone should look out.

He brings one of his students when arriving ACC this year; 20 year old Peter Poobalasingam, rated 2165. The rating curve appearing to be sky rocketing…

The image below is from a TV-show, “Countdown”, Matthew participated in a few years ago where the purpose was to make the longest word containing 9 letters. He came second and was happy the second prize came in cash, and not 20 dictionaries, as first prize did. (Hm….isn’t the man to the left the policeman from the very popular TV-series “Heartbeat”)

We look forward to seeing Matthew (jsb)

13/4.2008 Worked together with Tromsø 2014 AS (Inc.)
 Ulf Hansen, Tromsø Chess Club’s youth, is elected to the board of Tromsø 2014, thereby representing the local chess environment when the strategy as to how to bring the Chess Olympics to Norway in 2014 is to be made. This year, the Olympics are in Dresden and one of the board of ACC’s area of commitment. (jsb)

12.4.2008 Does Carlsen come??

The big star of Norway, Magnus, participated in the tournament both last year and in 2006, both times without winning. Father Henrik played well in 2007 while Magnus dropped a few half points at the beginning of the tournament. Then it was time for something as rare as an encounter between father and son in round 6. Magnus, of course, defeated his father, but a point for the build-up to the game, I think has to go to  Henrik, as earlier that afternoon, teaming up with his wife, he climbed the mountain Blåmann! This year, Henrik has announced his arrival with the rest of his family. If Magnus shows up? Time will show…

9.4.2008 Welcome to ACC 2008
For the third year in a row Tromsø Chess Club invites to an open international chess during summer. As last year, the prizes are sky high by Norwegian standards. The prize fund is on 11. 000 euros, which, converted with the current exchange rate, amounts to app. 90.00 crowns. (jsb)