Sigeman & Co: Giri and Hammer score

This year's event is, to a large extent, a Nordic competition, with only one player from outside that region. Once again, the home team contains Tiger Hillarp Persson, one of Sweden's best chess players, and the most interesting young Swedish player, the 16-year-old Nils Grandelius. Add to that Pia Cramling, who has not played in the Sigeman Chess Tournament since 2001, and Jonny Hector, who probably has never been better than now. The Swedish players face young Norwegian Jon Ludvig Hammer, who has made a name for himself, despite having to compete with his fellow countryman Magnus Carlsen, with a number of impressive results during the last two years. Last, but not least, there is Holland's latest chess star and the world's youngest grandmaster, 15-year-old Anish Giri, who, in addition to being the youngest, is the tournament's highest rated player.

A buffet lunch at Sigeman & Co.

The organisers thank the City of Malmö, the Swedish Chess Federation, the Swedish Chess Academy, the law firm Sigeman & Co, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Bertil Rasmusson PA-Konsult, Kakel & Tegel i Veberöd, Serverhallen i Norden, Formo, and all others who have contributed to making this traditional chess event come true.

Round one results

Second seed GM Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway, 2610, comprehensively took apart third seed GM Jonny Hector of Sweden, who is nominally just one point below him. Top seed GM Anish Giri, Holland, 2642, defeated GM Pia Kramling of Sweden on the black side of a Queen's Gambit Accepted.

Cramling,P (2536) - Giri,A (2642) [D37]
18th Sigeman & Co Malmo SWE (1), 26.05.2010
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 dxc4 5.e3 a6 6.a4 b6 7.Bxc4 Bb7 8.0-0 Bb4 9.Qe2 0-0 10.Rd1 Nbd7 11.Bd3 c5 12.dxc5 Bxc5 13.Bd2 Qb8 14.Rac1 Rd8 15.Be1 Ne5 16.Bxh7+ Nxh7 17.Rxd8+ Qxd8 18.Nxe5 Qg5 19.Nf3 Qh5 20.Rd1 Ng5 21.Nxg5 Qxg5 22.e4 Rd8 23.Rxd8+ Qxd8 24.Bd2 b5 25.axb5 axb5 26.h3 b4 27.Na4 Bf8 28.b3 Qd4 29.Qe3 Qa1+ 30.Kh2 Bd6+ 31.f4 Qb1 32.Nb6 Bxe4 33.Nc4 Bf8 34.Qd4 Bd5 35.Qe3

35...Qf1 36.Qg1 Bxc4 37.bxc4 Qxg1+ 38.Kxg1 b3 39.Bc1 Bc5+ 40.Kf1 Bd4 41.c5 Kf8 0-1.

Organiser and sponsor Johan Sigeman with international Arbiter Anil Surender

Participant portraits

When it comes to Anish Giri, the word prodigy is hard to avoid. At fifteen, he is a chess grandmaster, he speaks four languages (among those Japanese) and also does well in school. Giri is currently the world's youngest grandmaster, he is the youngest player to have played in the German Bundesliga, and he is the youngest participant in this year's Sigeman Chess Tournament. In the last three years, he has improved his rating by about 300 points.

Those who think he is here just to learn will be mistaken, though. He is the tournament's highest rated player and he recently won the "B" Group in the Corus Chess tournament, one of the world's largest and most prestigious. He thereby qualified for next years "A" Group, where he will face the world's best players for the first time. This year's Sigeman Chess Tournament will be an important step in preparing for his life's greatest challenge as a chess player.

Anish is part of a truly cosmopolitan family. Together with his two sisters, his Nepalese dad and Russian mother, he has lived in St Petersburg in Russia and Osaka in Japan, and the family now lives in Holland. An odd effect of moving is that Anish became a grandmaster without ever having been an international master. He had five qualifying results when he needed only three, but by then he had left Russia. The results were never registered, and suddenly he had become a grandmaster instead. After moving to Holland he has also won the Dutch Championship, and despite working hard in school he keeps improving steadily with each tournament he plays.

The 19-year-old Norwegian grandmaster Jon Ludvig Hammer has had some very good results during the last two years. Despite this, he still has not received much attention. The main reason for this is of course his fellow countryman Magnus Carlsen, who has made it all the way to the top of the chess world and who, by many, is considered to be the best chess player in the world. There is simply no space left on the chess pages in the Norwegian papers.

However, this does not seem to bother Hammer very much. On the contrary, he has been able to slowly build his game and has, during the last years, had a big break-through. In the European team championships, he filled in for Magnus Carlsen, who chose to prepare for an important tournament instead. This he did very well, scoring 6.5 points in nine rounds against top opponents, a result corresponding to a rating of 2792 and the best in the whole tournament. After this brilliant result he followed up by winning the London Chess Classic Open with 8.0 out of 9 and Norway had yet another chess star. He also visited Malmo last year, winning the Malmo Open with 6.5 out of 7.

Jon Ludvig has been coached by Simen Agdestein, yet another credit to Agdestein's coaching abilities. Hammer is a very tough player, something he confirmed in the Gjøvik 100-year jubilee tournament, where he avoided perpetual check and instead won the tournament single-handedly, despite needing a draw to become a grandmaster. He makes his first start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament.

Photos by Calle Erlandsson

---

Tournament Schedule   Round 1    Wednesday 26 May    14.00-21.00 Round 2 Thursday 27 May 14.00-21.00 Round 3 Friday 28 May 14.00-21.00 Round 4 Saturday 29 May 14.00-21.00 Round 5 Sunday 30 May 12.00-19.00 Round two pairings Giri, Anish 2642 Grandelius, Nils 2476 - Hammer, Jon Ludvig 2610 Cramling, Pia 2536 - Hector, Jonny 2609 Hillarp Persson, Tiger 2542 - Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games were broadcast live on the official web site and with the kind cooperation of the organisers on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.

Sponsors