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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...
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.
| Pl. | Name | NWZ | FIDE-Elo | Club | Points | Avg. FIDE | Leistung |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
IM Aryan Tari | Vålerenga |
8.0
|
2395
|
2614 ( +0) | ||
|
2
|
IM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal | 1911 |
8.0
|
2340
|
2565 ( +0) | ||
|
3
|
GM Jon Ludvig Hammer | OSS |
7.5
|
2390
|
2567 ( +0) | ||
|
4
|
IM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen | Vålerenga |
7.0
|
2326
|
2452 ( +0) | ||
|
5
|
FM Lars Oskar Hauge | OSS |
7.0
|
2250
|
2375 ( +0) | ||
|
6
|
GM Kjetil A. Lie | Asker |
6.5
|
2375
|
2465 ( +0) | ||
|
7
|
FM Sebastian Mihajlov | OSS |
6.5
|
2373
|
2464 ( +0) | ||
|
8
|
IM Atle Grønn | OSS |
6.5
|
2325
|
2373 ( +0) | ||
|
9
|
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.
