Fagernes: Jumabayev takes title, Gloeckler secures second GM norm

by Stefan Liebig
10/12/2026 – Fourteen-year-old Christian Gloeckler secured his second grandmaster norm at the International Autumn Tournament in Fagernes, Norway. Although the German youngster lost his final two games, this did not affect the norm he had already secured. Rinat Jumabayev, Tiger Hillarp Persson and G. B. Harshavardhan (pictured, left) shared first place with 7½/10 points each. | Photo: Anniken Vestby
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Second GM norm for Gloeckler

Christian Gloeckler (photo below: Anniken Vestby) was one of the leading players in the GM tournament in Fagernes for much of the event. The sixth-seeded German youngster began with three wins, then drew against eventual tournament winner Rinat Jumabayev and continued his strong run with, among other results, a victory over grandmaster Frode Urkedal. After seven rounds, Gloeckler was the sole leader with six points.

In round eight, he held Swedish grandmaster Vitaly Sivuk to a draw. This meant that the 14-year-old had already fulfilled the requirements for his second grandmaster norm. He still had to play the ninth round, however, in order to have played enough games for the norm to count.

Gloeckler then lost with white against Indian grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran. The defeat cost him the sole lead, but no longer affected the norm: for a GM norm, the result of a nine-round tournament was sufficient.

The tenth and final game did not go as Gloeckler had hoped. He lost again, this time against G. B. Harshavardhan of India. He therefore finished the tournament with 6½ points from 10 games, still a very strong performance.

Harshavardhan v. Gloeckler 1-0

In an equal position, but short of time, Gloeckler went wrong here: 35...Ng6?? cost him the chance of a draw. After 36.f4 Qd8 37.g4 Rc4?+-, the Indian representative converted his advantage confidently and secured third place thanks to scoring 3/3 in the final rounds. Gloeckler was unable to fend off the ensuing attack on his kingside and resigned on move 50 in a hopeless position. With 35...Kh8 followed by ...f5 and ...Nd5, Gloeckler could have kept the highly tactical position balanced.

In the final standings, he finished level with several other players, including Sivuk, Semen Mitusov, Moksh Doshi, Bennet Hagner and Eivind Grunt Kreken. In addition to his second GM norm, Gloeckler also gained 8 Elo rating points.

Gloeckler had already earned his first GM norm in July at the Masters Open in Biel. There he won the tournament with 8/9 points and a performance rating of 2688. With his second norm in Fagernes, he has taken another important step towards the grandmaster title.

Christian Gloeckler's results

Round Result Colour Opponent Elo FIDE +/- Country Points
1 Win Black FM Saurabh Anand 2244 +1.70 IND 3.5
2 Win White IM Senthil Maran 2297 +2.20 IND 4.0
3 Win Black IM Mads Vestby-Ellingsen 2390 +3.30 NOR 5.5
4 Draw White GM Rinat Jumabayev 2564 +0.70 KAZ 7.0
5 Win White GM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal 2554 +5.50 NOR 6.0
6 Draw Black GM Elham Amar 2567 +0.70 NOR 5.5
7 Win White IM Lukas Dotzer 2474 +4.40 AUT 4.5
8 Draw Black GM Vitaly Sivuk 2485 -0.40 SWE 5.5
9 Loss White GM Krishnan Sasikiran 2520 -4.90 IND 6.5
10 To play Black GM G B Harshavardhan 2529 0.00 IND 6.5
Total 6.5 / 72% 10 games 2455 +13.20 6.5

Three players share first place

At the top of the standings, Rinat Jumabayev, Tiger Hillarp Persson and G. B. Harshavardhan all finished on 7½ points from 10 games. Jumabayev had taken the lead before the final round and remained one of the main contenders for overall victory until the end. The Kazakh tournament winner was the only player in the field to remain unbeaten. Hillarp Persson and Harshavardhan also finished with 7½ points, but had inferior tiebreak scores. Top seed Elham Amar of Norway withdrew from the tournament before the final round with 5½/9, as did Harika Dronavalli with 5/9.

Krishnan Sasikiran was unable to defeat Rinat Jumabayev in the final round. Admittedly, he only tried for 25 moves. The Kazakh GM therefore finished first, while Sasikiran came fourth, half a point behind. | Photo: Anniken Vestby

Sweden's Tiger Hillarp Persson secured second place with back-to-back wins in rounds nine and ten | Photo: Anniken Vestby

Krishnan Sasikiran followed on the next rung with 7 points. Behind him, a larger group finished on 6½ points, including Gloeckler. As the tournament table ranked players tied on points according to tournament performance, the German rising star did not finish near the top of this group.

Round 10 results

Board No. Fed White Result Black Country No.
1 5 IND GM Krishnan Sasikiran (6.5) ½–½ GM Rinat Jumabayev (7) KAZ 2
2 4 IND GM G B Harshavardhan (6.5) 1–0 IM Christian Gloeckler (6.5) GER 7
3 3 NOR GM Frode Olav Urkedal (6) 0–1 GM Tiger Hillarp (6.5) SWE 15
4 17 IND IM Moksh Doshi (6) ½–½ IM Semen Mitusov (6) NOR 12
5 18 NOR IM Mads Vestby-Ellingsen (5.5) ½–½ GM Aksel Bu Kvaløy (5.5) NOR 6
6 19 GER FM Keyvan Farokhi (5.5) 0–1 GM Vitaly Sivuk (5.5) SWE 8
7 11 GER IM Bennet Hagner (5.5) 1–0 IM Chan Kim Yew (5.5) MAS 20
8 25 IND FM Sarbartho Mani (5.5) 0–1 FM Eivind Grunt Kreken (5.5) NOR 22
9 35 IND FM Jaidambareesh N R (5) ½–½ FM Jacob Templen Grave (5) NOR 16
10 21 IND IM Apaar Saxena (5) ½–½ FM Adharsh K (5) IND 34
11 23 NOR FM Evsuld Myagmarsuren (5) 1–0 CM Snehal Bhosale (5) IND 43
12 40 ENG CM Samar Dayal (5) 1–0 FM William Olsen (5) NOR 24
13 33 KAZ FM Aituar Zhukenov (5) 1–0 FM Ritvik Krishnan (5) IND 32
14 30 IND FM Gaurang Bagwe (4.5) ½–½ IM Lukas Dotzer (4.5) AUT 10

Norm attempts by the other German-speaking participants

IM Bennet Hagner and FM Keyvan Farokhi of Germany, as well as Austrian IM Lukas Dotzer, also had norm ambitions in Fagernes, but these were not fulfilled.

Bennet Hagner finished the tournament, like Gloeckler, with 6½ points. This earned him prize money, but he did not come close to another grandmaster norm. Hagner did not face a single grandmaster in ten rounds. He had already earned a GM norm in July at the German Championship with 5½ points from 9 games. | Photo: Anniken Vestby

Hagner v. Chan 1-0

Hagner had built up a promising attacking position. His Malaysian opponent should have covered the weakness on e6 with 27...Nf8. Instead, he opened the gates to the attack: 27...fxe5?? Hagner took his chance: 28.Bxe5 Bf6 29.Bd6 Nh6 30.Nf4 Nf5 31.Rxe6, the decisive breakthrough.

31...Nxd6 32.Rxd6 Rxe1 33.Nxe1 and 1-0 on move 39.

Keyvan Farokhi scored 5½ points and missed the IM norm he had been aiming for. His performance rating of 2389 exactly matched his Elo. In the final six rounds, he faced five grandmasters: he drew with G. B. Harshavardhan, Harika Dronavalli and Aksel Bu Kvaloy, and lost to tournament winner Jumabayev and Vitaly Sivuk. | Photo: Anniken Vestby

Lukas Dotzer, who had lost to Gloeckler in round seven, finished with five points. His hopes of earning a norm in Fagernes were likewise not realised. | Photo: Anniken Vestby

Final standings after round 10

Sabartho Mani of India, born in 2016, is already an FM and finished 21st with a commendable 5½/10 score | Photo: Anniken Vestby

All games

Sharan Rao dominates the Open in Fagernes

In the open tournament of the Fagernes International Autumn, top-seeded Indian international master Sharan Rao won convincingly. The clear favourite won his first nine games and had therefore already secured tournament victory before the final round. After defeating Iceland's Hafsteinn Agustsson in round nine, Rao had nine points, two ahead of Ukrainian Stanislav Hohelj, who eventually finished second ahead of Norway's Martin K Andersen. Rao also won his final game and took first place with a remarkable 10/10. A total of 35 players competed in the open section.

The top three in the Open: winner Sharan Rao (centre), runner-up Stanislav Hohelj (left) and Martin K Andersen | Photo: Anniken Vestby

Final standings - Fagernes Open

Tournament information

The Fagernes International Autumn tournament began on 3 October and ran until 11 October at the Scandic Valdres Hotel in Fagernes, around 187 kilometres north of Oslo. The GM section, with 62 players, was played over ten rounds in nine days. The time control was 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 40 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment from move one. Local player Elham Amar was the top seed with a rating of 2567, followed by Kazakhstan's Rinat Jumabayev (2564) and another Norwegian, Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal (2554). Abhijeet Gupta, G. B. Harshavardhan and Krishnan Sasikiran are the next three players on the starting list, while Aksel Bu Kvaloy and German youngster Christian Gloeckler both have a rating of 2515.

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Topics: Christian Glöckler, Fagernes
Stefan Liebig, born in 1974, is a journalist and co-owner of a marketing agency. He now lives in Barterode near Göttingen. At the age of five, strange pieces on his neighbour’s shelf aroused his curiosity. Since then, the game of chess has cast a spell over him. Flying high in the NRW youth league with his home club SV Bad Laasphe and several appearances in the second division team of Tempo Göttingen were highlights for the former youth South Westphalia champion.
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