Tromsø 2009 – the Arctic Chess Challenge

Tromsø – Arctic Chess Challenge 2009

Pictorial report by Frederic Friedel

For those of you who missed our previous articles on the subject, here's a geographical rundown of the place that is has become a hot-bed of chess (Tromsø is actually bidding for the 2014 Chess Olympiad). Those of you who have read the articles can skip the intro and proceed to the tournament part.

The Arctic Circle is one of the major circles of latitude, running 66.56° north of the Equator. It marks the southern extremity of the "polar day", which is when the sun is visible for 24 hours (usually referred to as the "midnight sun") at least once per year, and polar night, when the sun does not appear above the horizon for 24 hours. The midnight sun can be seen in summer for many days, weeks or months, depending on how far north of the arctic circle a place is located.

The places where people can see the midnight sun are Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and some extremities of Russia. At Finland's northernmost point, the sun does not set for 73 days during summer.

View Larger Map – zoom, pan, and choose map style.
The city of Tromsø lies in the northern-most region of Norway, 69° 40' 33" N, 18° 55' 10" E,
almost 400 km inside the Arctic Circle

The island city of Tromsø as seen in Google Earth

In Tromsø there are remains of settlement that go back to the end of the ice age. The first church was built in 1252, and in the 19th century it became a major centre for Arctic hunting. During World War II it served briefly as the seat of Norwegian government, and the German battleship Tirpitz was sunk off the Tromsø Island in 1944. Today there are over 100 nationalities in the town's population.

A note on the name: in Europe it is known as "Tromsö", but the Norwegians pronounce it "Troom-sa", the first vowel as in "rook" and the second consisting of a special Norwegian schwa which is not easy to transcribe, describe or even vocalise. But these Nordic people are generous and will accept various pronunciations.

The field in this years Arctic Chess Challenge is the biggest ever in Tromsø, with far more than 100 participants from over 30 different nations. With 14 grandmasters, 15 IMs and many more titled players its also the most compact challenge we ever have seen in Tromsø. At least eight of the GMs, all with ratings over 2550, have a fair shot at the first prize money. The average of the top ten players are an impressive 2590. Below these ten players we find another twelve with ratings between 2400-2500. That's good news for people trying to take GM or IM norms. In previous years the Arctic Chess Challenge had a strong top, but since ratings fell fast it was still very hard to make those norms. But this time chances to meet enough titled players are great and you also have the chance to meet reasonable opposition throughout the whole tournament, even after a loss or two.

With 132 participants so far this is also a big opportunity for the average club player to meet grandmasters and other titled players. It's a tournament for the masses, and we are particularly proud of having a delegation of participants from South Africa in the tournament, and Amon Simutowe of Zambia, the first grandmaster of sub-Saharan Africa.

Another interesting start is 19 years old GM Jon Ludvig Hammer (2566) from Norway. He won the Gjøvik 100th anniversary tournament in January this year with 7/9 and became with it Norways 10th and latest grandmaster. It all started with GM Simen Agdestein back in 1985 when he became the first grandmaster of this small nation, and isn't it charming that one of Agdesteins pupils from the Norwegian College for Top Athletes became the tenth GM? Hammer has several other strong results behind him this spring and as the young "up and coming player" in this years Arctic Chess Challenge he is well worth noticing.

Magnus Carlsen with his family last year in Tromsø

Previous years we had winners and participants that found their way to the top pages of every chess web side a short time after leaving Tromsø. Magnus Carlsen was such a great talent when he played here for the first time back in 2006 – that it goes without saying.

But not that many had heard of the winner GM Alexander Moiseenko from 2007 and GM Igor Kurnosov from 2008 when they first visited the capital of Northern Norway. The 2007 winner, Moiseenko, is now a solid 2690-player which the chess audience remembers from Aeroflot Open 2009 where he was beaten only on tiebreaks by Etienne Bacrot. The 2008 winner GM Igor Kurnosov won an impressive victory last year with the same score as Moiseenko the previous year – 7.5/9. He also won the the Hastings Chess Congress 2009 and made his name known among chess fans – but of course his name really got on everybody's lips when he played this infamous game against Mamedyarov where he was accused of cheating.

We also remember GM Vugar Gashimov who got third place during the Arctic Chess Challenge 2007 and now is steadily claiming into the worlds Top Ten! Back then Gashimov was 2655 and told us that he had this dream of getting over 2700. Then he could play among the best players for some years and retire and become a professional chess coach without economical worries. Gashimov worked hard and made it – today he is 2740 and number eleven in the world!

Most of the top players during Arctic Chess Challenge 2009 are hardcore professionals who play in what can be called the Euoropean chess circuit. Players like Bartosz Socko 2656, Igor Khenkin 2634, Yuri Drozdovskij 2620, Emanuel Berg 2610, Mikheil Mchedlishvili 2592 and Vadim Malakhatko 2610 travel all over Europe and make a living the hard way, playing tournament after tournament all year around. They also play in different European leagues, but have to rely on a huge number of opens to make their living as chess professionals. Several of them are accompanied by their wives in Tromsø, and yes you guessed right – some of them are chess players too! Bartosz from Poland brings his wife GM Monica Socko (2449) and Malakhatko has with him IM Anna Zozulia (2341). We also have WGM Natalia Zdebskaja (2412), so it will be a hard race even for the women's first prize this year. We look forward to August and chess in the Arctic Circle!

Ray Robson, born 25 October 1994, is the youngest International Master in the United States. He was born in Guam, an island in the western Pacific Ocean, but now lives in Florida. Ray started playing chess at the age of seven and there has never been any doubt about his great talent. Susan Polgar recently called him the new Bobby Fischer. Ray had been training with Grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov, but hasn't done so for almost two years now. Since last Fall he has been training with Alexander Onischuk and working a lot on his own.

In 2005 Ray defeated a grandmaster for the first time, and after that he started beating them regularly. Naturally, great tournament results followed, and over a period of only six weeks in 2007 he made three IM-norms and became the youngest IM in the United States. In the 2009 US championships Robson finished 11th with 4.5 out of 9 in an extremely strong field. It will not take long before Ray will become a grandmaster, and it will be very interesting to see him play in Tromsø. He is a hot candidate for making a GM norm.

Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen, born 1 March, 1979, has won the Norwegian championships in all age groups (U13, U16 and U20) and has represented Norway in World Junior Championships. Although he was very successful as a junior player he had some problems performing when he became older. For a long time he could score miserably in one tournament and do brilliantly in the next. He had to wait a long time before earning an international title, despite having scored IM-norms and a GM-norm.

In 2003 Ringdal Hansen finished third in the Norwegian Championships making an IM-norm, and a few months later he scored his first GM-norm in Rilton Cup 2003/2004. After that Ringdal Hansen did not live up to the expectations, and it took four more years before he made any similar results. In 2008 he made his final IM norm and scored his second GM-norm only a few weeks later. It seems like Ringdal Hansen has become more stable as a player and his rating is now 2440.

IM Ringdal Hansen has an excellent reputation as a coach, and his best pupil so far is no other than Magnus Carlsen. He has coached many of the best young players in Norway and today he coaches many players who will undoubtedly dominate Norwegian chess in the years to come. In 2009 Ringdal Hansen founded the company Sjakkhuset (The Chess House) together with WIM Silje Bjerke and IM Torstein Bae.

Planned side events in 2009 Arctic Chess Challenge

• Going by boat in the surroundings of Tromsø
• Trip to one of the many mountains around Tromsø
• Fishing in the sea (and also eating the fish on the spot!)
• Barbeque party (?)
• 2-3 Blitz events in the centre of Tromsø (they have a chess pub downtown this year)
• Guided tour in the centre of Tromsø

Top participants (Elo 2000 and higher)

• Arctic Chess Challenge web site
• Tournament details
• Playing venue (wireless LAN in the hotel free of charge!)

Previous ChessBase reports on Tromsø