Norwegian Rapid and Blitz Championships

by Holger Blauhut
1/13/2016 – Magnus Carlsen, Norway's number one, did not start in the Norwegian Blitz- and Rapid Championships that were played in Fredrikstad at the beginning of January, and attracted a record number of participants. But Norway's number two Jon Ludvig Hammer and Norwegian talent Tari Aryan played. Hammer won the blitz tournament, Aryan the rapid tournament.

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At the beginning of January the Open Norwegian Blitz- and Rapid Championships were played in Fredrikstad. Despite the sudden onset of winter a lot of players traveled to the southeast of Norway to take part in the Championships. 154 players started in the blitz tournament, 240 in the rapid tournament, that's a new record. The Magnus-Boom continues.

The venue was packed

Tari Aryan (front left) and Jon Ludvig Hammer (in the rear, right) in action

Both tournaments were played in three groups:

A > 1750 > B > 1250 > C.

Favorites were GM Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway), GM Normunds Miezis (Latvia), and the 16-year-old GM-elect Aryan Tari (Norway). All three came directly from the Rilton Cup in Sweden.

Jon Ludvig Hammer started the blitz championship with 7.0/7 before suffering his first loss against the young IM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen in round eight. But with a last round win Hammer clinched the title with the impressive score of 8.0/9. With 7.0/9 Tari and Christiansen followed one point behind.

Results: A- and C-Tournament...

Results B-Tournament...

After the blitz-tournament on Friday followed the rapid tournament on Saturday (six rounds) and Sunday (four rounds). After the first day Hammer led the field with 5.5/6, followed by Aryan Tari with 5.0/6. In round six Tari was lucky because his opponent GM Kjetil Lie blundered a rook in an endgame with two extra pawns.

However, on day two Hammer blew his winning chances by losing against Tari and Christiansen, allowing Tari to become Norwegian Rapid Champion 2016 with a score of 8.0/10. IM Frode Urkedal also scored 8.0/10 but had the worse tie-break. Hammer finished with 7.5/10 and became third.

Hammer-Aryan

 

 

Final standings

Pl. Name NWZ FIDE-Elo Club Points Avg. FIDE Leistung
IM Aryan Tari Vålerenga
8.0
2395
 2614 ( +0)
IM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal 1911
8.0
2340
 2565 ( +0)
GM Jon Ludvig Hammer OSS
7.5
2390
 2567 ( +0)
IM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen Vålerenga
7.0
2326
 2452 ( +0)
FM Lars Oskar Hauge OSS
7.0
2250
 2375 ( +0)
GM Kjetil A. Lie Asker
6.5
2375
 2465 ( +0)
FM Sebastian Mihajlov OSS
6.5
2373
 2464 ( +0)
IM Atle Grønn OSS
6.5
2325
 2373 ( +0)
GM Normunds Miezis  
6.5
2304
 2395 ( +0)
10 
IM Eirik Gullaksen Bergens
6.5
2298
 2353 ( +0)
11 
Andreas G Tryggestad Nordstrand
6.0
2265
 2284 ( +0)
12 
IM Erik Fossan Stavanger
6.0
2229
 2276 ( +0)
13 
IM Maxim L Devereaux Black Knights
6.0
2171
 2209 ( +0)
14 
FM Jøran Aulin-Jansson Asker
6.0
2163
 2170 ( +0)
15 
FM Ole Christian Moen OSS
6.0
2134
 2153 ( +0)
16 
Håkon Bentsen Molde
6.0
2131
 2141 ( +0)
17 
Isak Sjøberg Nordstrand
6.0
2101
 2149 ( +0)
18 
FM Petter Fossan Stavanger
5.5
2268
 2278 ( +0)
19 
Holger Blauhut Fredriksstad
5.5
2168
 2161 ( +0)
19 
Vegar Koi Gandrud Hønefoss
5.5
2168
 2169 ( +0)

... 55 players

 

Winners of group A in the Rapid Championship

The winners of group B

The winners of group C

Despite the many participants who played in a somewhat crowded venue in the Scandic Hotel Fredrikstad the tournament went rather smoothly. The main arbiter Øyvind Bentsen mentioned only a couple of cases in which players did not want to accept that nowadays in rapid (just as in blitz) an illegal move leads to the immediate loss of the game.

Results...



 


Author, publisher and office worker. Holger Blauhut lives in Fredrikstad in Norway.

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