Looking back at Arctic Chess Challenge
Memories part 2...
The Norwegian bid for the Olympics is now clear. The Norwegian Government has decided to support the 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad with 70 million Norwegian krones which is about 12 million dollars. The decision of the Norwegian Government means that Norway will be among the favorites going into the last stage before one nation is elected to host the 41 Chess Olympiad in 2014. The desicion will be made in Russia during the 39th Chess Olympiad 2010. So far the Chess World remembers The Arctic Chess Challenge as the highlight of Chess in the Arctic - so let's have a round up on what happened last summer. Here are my last memories:

The winner of Artic Chess Challenge Monika Socko is married to a Super Grandmaster who beat Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces in Bundesliga 2008/09. His name is Bartosz and he came to Tromsø as a favorite but was overshadowed by his strong playing wife! This picture of a shining Monika Socko went world wide - it's utterly rare to see a female player winning such a strong open and I do think she won the strongest open of the year by a woman - way to go Monika!

Even though Midnight Sun ends in late July the skyline of Tromsø, and the mountains around the Island, are spectacular in August. Just look at those colors and imagine that up in those mountains over 1100 meters there might be some snow too in August. The south African delegation did find one of those holes of snow where they chilled during an mountain excursion at Fløya - a moutain at the mainland.

The Worlds most Northern Carmelite Cloister is situated in our City. It's the Totus Tuus Cloister of Tromsø and actually it is in walking distance from the playing venue. The Nuns almost all come from Poland and perhaps Monika Socko had spiritual connections during her days in the high North. At least she did have an outstanding result beating strong Grandmasters as GM Sarunas Sulskis and GM Matthew Turner to enter pole position where she stayed till the very end.

Monika and Bartosz with their son Szymon eating Pizza and celebrating the victory. Even though Bartosz was top seed with his elo of 2656 he was so happy for Monika that I didn't see one moment where he really was pissed by his own downfall. Monika told me that she did know about the Cloister here in Tromsø and basically it was easy to talk with these people about ordinary stuff and not only Kings, Rooks and Bishops.

I had taken with me the winner Monika and her family to Tromsø University Museum which is located at the south end of the Island. They have several arctic exhibitions. Here you see Monika with a Polar Bear which, of course, is not alive. Szymon wasn't so sure about that but when he saw a...

dinasour! He was playable for the photografer at once! Daddy also found it amusing to find such a creature at a museum but basically quite a few of them lived far North of Tromsø. Up at 80 degrees North at Spitsbergen they found fossile footprints, fossile material as vertebreas of both dinosaurs and lizard fish.

The Sami people have long traditions in Northern Norway. The University museum has a large exhibition from former times when the Sami people really lived in harmony with mother nature. Szymon got his Lizard T-shirt and nothing could of course beat that.
The Norwegian bid for the Olympics is now clear. The Norwegian Government has decided to support the 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad with 70 million Norwegian krones which is about 12 million dollars. The decision of the Norwegian Government means that Norway will be among the favorites going into the last stage before one nation is elected to host the 41 Chess Olympiad in 2014. The desicion will be made in Russia during the 39th Chess Olympiad 2010. So far the Chess World remembers The Arctic Chess Challenge as the highlight of Chess in the Arctic - so let's have a round up on what happened last summer. Here are my last memories:

The winner of Artic Chess Challenge Monika Socko is married to a Super Grandmaster who beat Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces in Bundesliga 2008/09. His name is Bartosz and he came to Tromsø as a favorite but was overshadowed by his strong playing wife! This picture of a shining Monika Socko went world wide - it's utterly rare to see a female player winning such a strong open and I do think she won the strongest open of the year by a woman - way to go Monika!

Even though Midnight Sun ends in late July the skyline of Tromsø, and the mountains around the Island, are spectacular in August. Just look at those colors and imagine that up in those mountains over 1100 meters there might be some snow too in August. The south African delegation did find one of those holes of snow where they chilled during an mountain excursion at Fløya - a moutain at the mainland.

The Worlds most Northern Carmelite Cloister is situated in our City. It's the Totus Tuus Cloister of Tromsø and actually it is in walking distance from the playing venue. The Nuns almost all come from Poland and perhaps Monika Socko had spiritual connections during her days in the high North. At least she did have an outstanding result beating strong Grandmasters as GM Sarunas Sulskis and GM Matthew Turner to enter pole position where she stayed till the very end.

Monika and Bartosz with their son Szymon eating Pizza and celebrating the victory. Even though Bartosz was top seed with his elo of 2656 he was so happy for Monika that I didn't see one moment where he really was pissed by his own downfall. Monika told me that she did know about the Cloister here in Tromsø and basically it was easy to talk with these people about ordinary stuff and not only Kings, Rooks and Bishops.

I had taken with me the winner Monika and her family to Tromsø University Museum which is located at the south end of the Island. They have several arctic exhibitions. Here you see Monika with a Polar Bear which, of course, is not alive. Szymon wasn't so sure about that but when he saw a...

dinasour! He was playable for the photografer at once! Daddy also found it amusing to find such a creature at a museum but basically quite a few of them lived far North of Tromsø. Up at 80 degrees North at Spitsbergen they found fossile footprints, fossile material as vertebreas of both dinosaurs and lizard fish.

The Sami people have long traditions in Northern Norway. The University museum has a large exhibition from former times when the Sami people really lived in harmony with mother nature. Szymon got his Lizard T-shirt and nothing could of course beat that.

The polish delegation in Tromsø: Arkadiusz Leinart, Monika Socko and Bartosz with his son Szymon. After the tournament they went back to Poland where Bartosz Socko among other things had a serious training session with Leinart (2390). Many new connections are made during a large tournament as this and Monika got new possibilities too. This autumn Monika visited Norway once again playing Glitnir Blitz in Oslo where Hikaru Nakamura won before Magnus Carlsen.

Ray Robson came to Tromsø without any GM-norms but with a convincing win from US Junior Championship in his luggage. He came with his family to the Arctic and they did visit Bergen first before they came to Tromsø. The family did spend quite some time on excursions and after talking to his dad I can confirm that they was thrilled by nature and really pleased with the City where Ray played football, took a trip with the Cable car and went to the Barbeque.

Ray did play excellent chess in Tromsø and he really deserved his 4-tie win Prizemoney. But of course, much more important was his GM-norm that he secured after a hard defense in an endgame versus Emanuel Berg. This was Robsons first GM-norm and an important landmark in his chesscarrier that looks bright in the years to come.

Ray is an amazing attacking player and he played the game of the tournament versus GM Allan Stig Rasmussen where he walked his King all over the board to make an mating attack on the white King! Robson won in great fashion and the game went worldwide in chess coloums after the tournament! Robson won the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational in Skokie, Illinois later in August and the autumn became his when he also won the Pan-American Junior Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay where he scored his last and final GM-norm. By October 2009 Ray Robson became the youngest US GM-elect ever. He was two weeks short of being 15 years old at this historic moment.

GM Susan Polgar came to Tromsø to visit friends and get the chance to look at the Olympic candidate. She really enjoyed what she saw and made some superb pictures and stories at her famous blog. I told her about Peter Flermoen who is the greatest talent among the young up and coming players in Northern Norway. Peter had just beat his first IM in Copenhagen a few weeks before Arctic Chess Challenge and the 13 year old did start out well in Tromsø. A 2229 performance was well done by the up and rising player.

GM Jon Ludvig Hammer became the best Norwegian player with his 6.5/9 and a 7th place. 2009 was a year where Hammer did excellent and he outperformed this result on several occations winning both Aker Chess Challenge 2009 and London Chess Classic FIDE Open. Two fantastic results that brought the 19 year old to an all time high elo of 2627. Hammer also made new connections during ACC 2009 and he played SPICE Cup 2009 in Texas where Susan Polgar invited him. The strong Norwegian is also invited next year.

Katrine Tjølsen is the greatest female chess talent in Norwegian chess. The 16-year old did excellent in Tromsø and earned her WIM-norm in style when she drew GM Matthew Turner in the last round standing better in the middle game.

Let this picture of a blonde South African with the Polar Bear at the playing venue remind us of the International format of Arctic Chess Challenge. With players from countries like Australia, United States and South Africa and a total of 120 participants from 26 countries it sure was a huge happening!

GM Simen Agdestein and Laila Arvola on a break in the cafeteria. Let their happiness be a sign of the atmosphere of the tournament. Both worked in the tournament staff and all the staff did an excellent job making the tournament special and something to be remembered.

Young Nicolai Getz from NTG and Oslo did his best tournament ever giving him an IM-norm.

Three other Norwegians did superb and deserve a last picture in this report. Kjetil Stokke from Bergen (left) is a trusted trainer and second for the young Norwegian players and he made an impressive IM-norm. Hammer did as expected and then Tjølsen did excellent with her WIM-norm.

... and the winners are GM Monika Socko, IM Ray Robson, IM Marijan Petrov and Emanuel Berg all 7/9! They made a 4-way tie and split the prize money.

Morten Sand is former legal advisor for FIDE and now he does an excellent job advising Tromsø 2014. He had a broad smile even before the tournament started. But we know he had some jokers up his sleeves. Inviting several well known GMs that he knows from his long journey in chess added extra spice on everything and with outstanding reports worldwide Arctic Chess Challenge became much more exposed than f.inc. Politiken Cup. It just was a huge media success!

Mr. Artic made it all possible with his high work ethic and huge energy. Jan Sigmund Berglund was high and low during this week and he managed to keep everything together and avoid all possible accidents. He also held a fantastic Barbeque at the Ranch where he lives and everything became close to perfect. When it was time for departure I asked people what they thought about the tournament. Most of them did mention the Barbeque as something quite special. Food was free of charge and there was a huge amount of it. Fish in all variants of course and meat too. I met 3 people from Spain that told me they had been in Curracao last year and attended a party arranged by the chess tournament that they thought was once in a lifetime. But you never know in this life and they said they found the Barbecue at the Ranch even better than in Curracao.

The last Grandmaster to leave Tromsø was GM Igor Khenkin from Germany. Khenkin has been Vladimir Kramnik's coach and when I reminded him of this and told him that I did spend a whole week at Gausdal in 1992 where I saw him and Kramnik together analysing games he smiles and replied. Yes yes, Kramnik won that tournament! After that I could talk a bit more freely with Khenkin. I guess his best memory from Tromsø was the fishing-trip where he went on bathing in Arctic water. It didn't last for long...

Weather was a sensation this year. All players will remember the blue sky and water with high mountains surrounding Tromsø. Here you see the Bridge over to the mainland where you see the Arctic Cathedral at the right side of the picture.
The official website of Arctic Chess Challange
All the games at Chessgames.com
The entire text and all photos by Sven Wisløff-Nilssen (C) 2010.

... and the winners are GM Monika Socko, IM Ray Robson, IM Marijan Petrov and Emanuel Berg all 7/9! They made a 4-way tie and split the prize money.

Morten Sand is former legal advisor for FIDE and now he does an excellent job advising Tromsø 2014. He had a broad smile even before the tournament started. But we know he had some jokers up his sleeves. Inviting several well known GMs that he knows from his long journey in chess added extra spice on everything and with outstanding reports worldwide Arctic Chess Challenge became much more exposed than f.inc. Politiken Cup. It just was a huge media success!

Mr. Artic made it all possible with his high work ethic and huge energy. Jan Sigmund Berglund was high and low during this week and he managed to keep everything together and avoid all possible accidents. He also held a fantastic Barbeque at the Ranch where he lives and everything became close to perfect. When it was time for departure I asked people what they thought about the tournament. Most of them did mention the Barbeque as something quite special. Food was free of charge and there was a huge amount of it. Fish in all variants of course and meat too. I met 3 people from Spain that told me they had been in Curracao last year and attended a party arranged by the chess tournament that they thought was once in a lifetime. But you never know in this life and they said they found the Barbecue at the Ranch even better than in Curracao.

The last Grandmaster to leave Tromsø was GM Igor Khenkin from Germany. Khenkin has been Vladimir Kramnik's coach and when I reminded him of this and told him that I did spend a whole week at Gausdal in 1992 where I saw him and Kramnik together analysing games he smiles and replied. Yes yes, Kramnik won that tournament! After that I could talk a bit more freely with Khenkin. I guess his best memory from Tromsø was the fishing-trip where he went on bathing in Arctic water. It didn't last for long...

Weather was a sensation this year. All players will remember the blue sky and water with high mountains surrounding Tromsø. Here you see the Bridge over to the mainland where you see the Arctic Cathedral at the right side of the picture.
The official website of Arctic Chess Challange
All the games at Chessgames.com
The entire text and all photos by Sven Wisløff-Nilssen (C) 2010.
Jon
06.01.2010 kl.22:09
Måtte Tromsø få sjakk-olympiaden! Når blir det avgjort forresten?
Tilfeldighetene (?) ville at topp 100 på FIDEs januar-rating 2010, var "rammet inn" av to tidligere ratingfavoritter i Tromsø siden Carlsen og Socko (ok, mannen til fjorårsvinneren) nå er henholdsvis 1 og 100!
Sven
06.01.2010 kl.22:24
Godt observert og en verdig ramme av topp-100. Det er jo helt fantastisk at Magnus topper listen i så ung alder men jeg har lenge vært overbevist om at han ville nå elo-toppen i godt tid til å slå Kasparov sin rekord. Likevel er det gøy å se at han faktisk klarte det og nå nærmer det seg Corus med stormskritt...
Jon
06.01.2010 kl.22:56
Sven
06.01.2010 kl.23:02
Jon
06.01.2010 kl.23:07
Sven
06.01.2010 kl.23:34
!
08.01.2010 kl.02:50
Sven
08.01.2010 kl.03:20
En mann som Kasparov kjenner sin besøkelsestid og vi kommer kun til å se han i show-matcher i fremtiden. Jeg håper at det å trene Magnus gir den gamle sirkushesten lukten av sagmugg igjen - og at vi får se han i flere hurtigsjakkmatcher og i lynsjakk. Skal jeg tippe så tror jeg dog at han velger å kose seg som sjakkpensjonist og gjøre andre ting i stedet. Kasparov er en ambisisøs herremann.
Jonny Vinter
09.01.2010 kl.15:22
Ps-Det heter ikke icebear... Hoho
Sven
09.01.2010 kl.18:06
Jonny Vinter
09.01.2010 kl.22:37
Sven
09.01.2010 kl.23:31
Et utsagn som "Dette er grove faktafeil og fæl engelsk" er typisk for en som ikke ønsker å være konstruktiv. Å bare skrive at Curracao ikke ligger i Mexico ville holdt lenge - og jeg ville fort skjønt at det var en stygg feil som burde rettes. Nå er de to feilene rettet opp så får du glede deg til neste blogg-post som igjen innholder mest sjakk og litt sjakksnakk.
Bobby Fiske
10.01.2010 kl.01:38
Temaene kommer og går så fort i disse bloggtider. Fint med et resyme, så husker vi hvilket flott arrangement Tromsø leverte i sommer. Herunder din omfattende omtale her på bloggen. Får Tromsø tilslaget på sjakk-OL, så tar jeg turen til ishavsbyen for å heie på Magnus, Hammer & co.
Sven
10.01.2010 kl.02:08
Jeg er svært optimistisk når det gjelder tilslaget på sjakk-OL - det ser lyst ut :-)
jon
10.01.2010 kl.16:06
Sven
10.01.2010 kl.18:20
Jon
10.01.2010 kl.22:34
Grishuk har spilt noen fine parti nå nylig i VM for landslag som fremdeles pågår. Hans seier over Gashimov, en annen som ligger i samme ratingsegmentet, var svært fascinerende. Grishuks sorte konge vandret helt til B1 før den avsluttet partiet med å ta hvits dronning (etter denne hadde tatt sorts)! Selv om Gashimov sliter litt akkurat nå, kan vi vel ikke helt avskrive ham heller. Det er spennende tider og snart er det Corus!
Sven
10.01.2010 kl.22:49
Spekulativ
11.01.2010 kl.17:16
Ellers støtter jeg Sven i flisepikkeridiskusjonen her og mimrer tilbake til gjesteboka til TSS som også til tider var preget av mye tull.KUTGW. Stå på Sven fantastisk spalte.
Joachim Solberg
11.01.2010 kl.19:59
Sven
11.01.2010 kl.20:18
Det mest relalistiske er vel at en sponsor kommer inn og bevilger penger til et norsk OL-lag. Det er slett ikke umulig og ville vært meget hyggelig. Frode O. O. Urkedal kommer med på landslaget til 2014 ut over det skal ikke jeg spekulere. Ellers takk for hyggelige ord.
Joachim,
Jeg var i min tid fødselshjelper til gjesteboka hos TSK men den hadde helt klart utspilt sin rolle når den ble tatt ned og de fleste jeg har snakket med i TSK-miljøet er glad for at den ikke er oppe lenger.
Joachim Solberg
11.01.2010 kl.21:07
Din blogg er på mange måter en god erstatter. Her kan man diskutere sjakkspesifikke ting og få servert dine interessante betraktninger omkring ulike tema.TBs side oppfattet jeg på mange måter som en plass hvor det var enda mer naturlig å diskutere ulike sjakkpersonligheter og historikk. Den blir også dypt savnet! Men det er vel noe i det gamle ordtaket: Alt til sin tid, eller var det sjakk nesten hele tiden:)
Sven
11.01.2010 kl.21:13
Bobby Fiske
12.01.2010 kl.00:00
Sven
12.01.2010 kl.20:06
Jan S.
15.01.2010 kl.00:37
Mitt råd til deg er å konsekvent slette surmagede innlegg av den typen som pseudonyemet Jonny Vinter krester ut - uten å svare på det. Som redaktør i gjesteboka til TSK gjennom 10 år angrer jeg på at jeg ikke valgte å holde gjesteboka vår som en hyggelig møteplass. Man har jo ingen plikt til å slippe folk ala Jonny Vinter til talerstolen.
Dette er din side - akkurat som gjesteboka til TSK var vår side. Du har full rett til å bare "kaste ut" personer som ikke kjenner sin besøkelsestid. At noen kan være så til de grader frekk å komme med kritikk av noen som driver frivillig og gratis arbeide på sier ALT om de som kommer med dette.
Fjern fjompene, og la dem øse dritt av seg på alle de andre stedene på internett der man finner drøssevis av denne typen.
Så på vegne av dine MANGE tilhengere - slett innleggene - la være å svare på dem! De er rett og slett ikke verdt det.
Sven
15.01.2010 kl.20:09
Dersom det utarter seg og blir mange surmager så vil jeg følge rådet ditt. Nå har jeg vært så heldig å hatt en god og konstruktiv atmosfære her på bloggen i 2.5 år uten behov for sensur. I sommer måtte jeg riktignok slette 3 innlegg - men det er det. Litt takhøyde velger jeg derfor å ha her på bloggen siden det er et sosialt medie der sjakkvenner fra fjern og nær kan uttale seg om spillet de er glad i og møtes på en felles arena. Da må også jeg tåle at alle ikke liker alt jeg skriver. Uansett så skal ikke Sjakkfantomet få utarte seg dithet at det blir en talerstol for ytringer som kun er destruktive - sjakkmiljøet er for lite og sårbart til det.