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 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.