Norwegian Elite Series: Valerenga claims title, Carlsen scores 3/3

by André Schulz
3/11/2025 – Magnus Carlsen representend his team Offerspill last weekend at the end of this year's Norwegian Elite Series and won all the three games he played. However, it was not enough to win the championship. Vålerenga (pictured) became Norwegian team champions ahead of OSS and Offerspill. | Photo: Kaido Kulaots via Facebook
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Local hero makes star appearance

The Norwegian Elite Series is the national team championship organised by the Norwegian Chess Federation (Norges Sjaakforbund). Ten teams play a single round-robin. Each team match is played on six boards.

The nominally strongest team is the team from Offerspill, which is mainly due to the fact that the team's first board, Magnus Carlsen, has such an immensely high Elo rating. Carlsen founded the Offerspill Club himself in order to gain control of the association in a dispute with the Norwegian Chess Federation during a board election, which was backed by an offer from a betting operator who wanted to enter the Norwegian market with Carlsen and chess. This did not succeed, but Carlsen's Offerspill team has been a permanent fixture ever since and is always one of the favourites, especially in the European Club Championship.

At home in Norway, the dominance is not so great. The boards are usually filled with local players. Only a few players from other countries are active in this league.

Behind Magnus Carlsen, Offerspill also has Frode Urkedal as the second grandmaster in its ranks. The Oslo Schakselskap, on the other hand, can boast five grandmasters. In addition to Simen Agdestein and the newly crowned U20 runner-up Elham Amar, the team list also includes Lars Oskar Hauge, Jon Ludvig Hammer and the Swede Leif Erlend Johannessen - the latter two as substitutes.

With his busy schedule, the world number one had little time to help his team in the Norwegian Team Championship, but at least he sat down at the board for the last three rounds last weekend and scored three points for his team.

On Friday, Magnus Carlsen faced his former coach Simen Agdestein. The evaluation was balanced for a long time, but eventually the student once again prevailed against his teacher.

It was not enough for Offerspill to win the championship. The Norwegian champions were Vålerenga (14 points) ahead of Oslo (13 points). Offerspill took third place with 13 points.

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.