GM Igor Kurnosov 2617
Igor Kurnosov from Russia was born on May 30th, 1985 in the large industrial city of South Ural
Chelyabinsk. His daddy taught him chess when he only was 4 years old. When at age 8 he started to study chess regularly and when he was 9 he started tournament play. He achieved the International Master title when he was 15 years old, and became a Grand Master (GM) when he was 18.

Kurnosov have finished the South Ural State University education on the speciality "Economy and
management". Now he is taking a postgraduate course and participation in chess tournaments abroad and in Russia. At leisure he likes to communicate with friends, read books, play football and swim.

In 2003 he became the Champion of Russia under 18. In 2004 as a member of the Russian team he became World Champion among students. Among his many tournament victories are Groningen 2003, Bad Wiessee Open 2004, Politiken Cup 2005, Inautomarket 2006 in Minsk, 4 stages Cup of Russia 2006, New Delhi Open 2008 and Moscow Open 2008. He was a finalist at the Russian Cup 2006, and took a strong 7.5 out of 11 at the European Championship 2007.

Kurnosov has a sharp attacking style playing 1.e4 as white and using defences like the Sicilian, Marshall, the Kings Indian and the Grünfeld with black.

GM Vadim Malakhatko 2612
Vadim Malakhatko is originally from Ukraine but he now lives in Belgium and plays under the Belgian flag. Vadim was born in 1977 in Ukraine.

He is married to Anna Zozulia and they play a lot of international opens together. In between rounds they are often seen playing cards with other east Europeans. Vadim have a silver medal from the European rapid championship. He was world champion world for teams in 2001 for Ukraine.

He played in 3 different leagues, the Belgian, the Spanish and the German. His Belgian team won their league this year. Malakhatko has won several open tournaments such as Basel Open 2006 & 2007, Copenhagen Open 2006, Lyon Open 2008 and Hastings Chess Congress 2008.

Malakhatko is a strong positional player with an aggressive opening repertoire with the Sicilian, the Benoni and the Benko gambit in his arsenal. His main weapon as white is 1.d4 with a positional squeeze.

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 1^st place at Lloyd's Bank Masters 1986, 2^nd place in Junior-WC at home the same year, behind Walter Arencibia, but ahead of among others Bareev, Anand and Piket, and 2^nd 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.

GM Vitaly Kunin 2532
Vitaly Kunin was born in Moscow, Russia the 2nd of October 1983. His daddy taught him chess at the age of 4 and Vitaly later became a Champion of Russia under 10. In the year 2001 he moved to Darmstadt in Germany with his family and now he plays under the German flag. Kunin was awarded the Grandmaster title (GM) in 2006. He is the winner of many open tournaments. He became second in the German Championship 2006 and got 4th place in 2008. He also plays in 3 different chess leagues, the German, French and the Austrian leagues.

Kunin has won against several famous Grandmaster colleges such as Korchnoi, Yusupov, Jakovich and Gustafsson. But his most prestigious victory is from rapid chess in Mainz where he defeated Alexei Shirov as black. Kunins highest elo is 2538 which he got on the January list of 2008. Kunin usually plays 1.Nf3 or 1.d4 with white and as black he plays a wide range of different openings from the Sicilian and the Benoni and to the Queens gambit. His style is sharp and many of his games become complicated.

GM Mathew Turner, 2493
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 of his student 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”)

GM  Tomas Likavsky 2485
Tomas Likavsky was born in Zvolen in Slovakia the 28th of July 1971. He achieved the Grandmaster title (GM) in year 2005 and his elopeak is 2514. Likavsky has participated on the Slovakian team in the Chess Olympics twice, in the years 2004 and 2006. He has won several tournaments including Tatranske Zruby 2001, Imperia 2001, Salgotarjan 2002, Weilheim 2002, Salgotarjan 2003, Imperia 2003, Ceska Trebova Open 2006 and Szombathely 2007. In the season 2007/08 Likavsky played the Bundesliga for the team Godesberger SK with a -1 scores over 15 games. 

Likavsky has played a huge number of games over the years. He opens his games with 1.d4 and is a typical positional player but he often play complicated openings. As black he plays openings as the French, the Sicilian and the King Indian.

IM Amon Simutove 2459
Amon Simtowe was born the 6th of January 1982 in Ndola, Zambia. He has earned a degree in finance and economics with high honours from the University of Texas, Dallas in 2006. Amon was taught chess by his older brother at the age of 10 and won his first tournament when he was 12 years old. At age 14 he won the Zambian championship. He then had a greater success than any other player from the African continent in the years to come. Amon won the African Junior Championship in both 1999 and 2000 with GM norms in both tournaments!

Simtowe has played tournaments all over the world in over 30 countries and had his success. His best tournament achievement was perhaps an equal 2nd at the World Junior Championships with the scored 8½ out of 13 in year 2000. He won the silver medal on board one for his country in the Chess Olympiad at Istanbul, Turkey year 2000. He has qualified and competed in the FIDE World Championship three times. After finishing his education Amon was eager to full fill his Grandmaster title. In the Euwe Stimulus tournament 2007 Amon achieved the stunning score 7 1/2 out of 9. Both winning the tournament and taking his third GM-norm.  If he completes FIDEs rating requirement of elo > 2500 he will be the first Grand Master from the sub-Saharan region.

GM Heikki Westerinen 2376
Heikki Markku Julius Westerinen was born in Helsinki, Finland the 27th of April 1944. He became a national master at the age of 16. He took an education in mathematics, physics and chemistry to become a teacher but devoted his life to professional chess instead. In 1967 he was awarded the International Master (IM) title and he became the first Finnish Grandmaster after winning the Dortmund tournament in 1975. Heikki became Finnish Champion in 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1970. He has represented Finland in the Chess Olympiads 19 times from 1962 till 2006!

Westerinen was among the first players from abroad playing Bundesliga when he started to compete there in 1973. He won the European Team Championship for teams with Solingen in 1976. His best tournament results include 3rd at Berlin 1971, 2nd at Oslo 1973, 1st at Palma de Mallorca 1973, 1st at Sant Feliu de Guixols 1973, 1st at Stockholm 1975,  1st at Dortmund 1975 and 1st at London 1979.

Westerinen has a special relationship with Norway - he has played more tournaments at Gausdal than any other Grandmaster. His playing style is aggressive, combinative with a touch of originality to it. He enjoys himself in sharp positions and plays 1.e4 as white and as black he plays openings as the French Defence and the Kings Indian.

IM Bjørn Tiller 2374
Bjørn Tiller was Born in Oslo in 1959 and his subject is philosophy. He is a member of Oslo Schakselskap, the largest chess club in Norway, and had a long break without competitive tournament chess in his chess carrier. His primetime at the chess board was the early 80s when he was playing 1.board for Norway in the chess Olympics in Valletta in Malta 1980 with a strong 75% score over 8 games. He also participated in the Olympics in 1976. In 1982 he was awarded the International Master title (IM) and the same year he lost a tiebreak match with the young Simen Agdestein after shared victory at the Norwegian Championship. In 1983 it was time for Tiller, he then won his one and only Norwegian Championship. Tiller is an excellent blitz player known from his club in Oslo as a real shark. He qualified to Glitnir Blitz Norway 2007, a super strong blitz-tournament with Carlsen and Grischuk, by winning quite a strong field in the qualifications in Oslo.

Internationally Bjørn Tiller is probably best known in Great Britain where he plays for Wood Green 2 in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). He is also a frequent guest at the International open tournament in Davos, Switzerland, where he got two second places from the years 2003 and 2006. Tiller is a typical positional player - playing in the spirit of the hyper-modernism with at least one fianchetto bishop. Anyway, he often opens his games with 1.e4, but typically he then chooses the closed Sicilian. Tiller has also quite a few ideas of his own already in the opening play.

IM Anna Zozulia 2346

IM Anna Zozulia er gift med Vadim Malakhatko og hun er opprinnelig fra Ukraina men hun spiller nå for Belgia. Hun ble født i 1980 in Ukraina. Hun har vunnet verdensmesterskapet for jenter under 16 år. Hun har også 2 andreplasser fra europamesterskapet for jenter under 18 og jenter under 20.

Anna er en svoren 1.e4 spiller med en aggressiv spillestil. Anna har både kongeindisk og siciliansk i åpningsrepertoaret som svart.

WIM Tatiana Kasparova  2176
Tatiana Kasparova ble født i 1969 og bor i Hviterussland. Hun er gift med GM Sergey Kasparov og er en hyppig gjest under åpne turneringer over hele Europa, der hun og mannen hennes har deltatt i mange år.

Kasparova har en uredd spillestil og hun spiller åpninger som Benkø-gambiten. Med hvit åpner hun partiet med 1.e4 og med svart spiller hun forsvar som fransk, Caro-Kann, Benkø og 1...d6. Spillestilen hennes kan karaktriseres som lett aggressiv.