Next tournament in March 2024

The next Fagernes tournament will be Fagernes International, played during Easter from Sunday 24 March to Sunday 31 March 2024.

All details to be found at fagerneschess2024.blogspot.com.

Final standings

The two top boards in the GM-group both ended with short draws in the last round. This led to six players topping the table with 6.5 points. 

GM Mads Andersen of Denmark had the best tie-break and won the tournament ahead of IM Elham Amar of Norway and GM Guha Mitrabha of India. 

Also with 6.5 points, but outside top-3, we find GM Kaido Kulaots of Estonia, GM Ido Gorshtein of Israel and GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan. 

Mads Andersen won the GM-group
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

The two highest-rated players finished at the top in the Open group. Terje Lund and Trond M. Thorgersen both finished with 7 points, but Lund had better tie-break and got first place. 

Sebastian Lien had a stong finish with two wins, and ended in third place as the only player with 6.5 points. The seven highest placed players in the Open were all Norwegian.  

Lien, Lund and Thorgersen
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

 

Fagernes Autumn Blitz II

Fagernes Autumn Blitz II was played Saturday 14th October with 24 participants. 

IM Elham Amar of Norway and GM Guha Mitrabha of India both made 8 points in 9 games. Mitrabha beat Amar in round 4, but the Norwegian in the end had a better tiebreak and got first place. FM Ritvik Krishnan of India was third with 6.5 points.

Krishnan, Amar and Mitrabha
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

Possible title norms

List of remaining title norm candidates before round 9:

 

FM Suresh Harsh (IND):	Needs a win as white against GM Robert Hovhannisyan for an IM-norm.
Itay Sitbon (ISR) :	Needs a win as black against GM Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen for an IM-norm.
Additonally
IM Elham Amar (NOR):	Needs a draw as white against GM Mads Andersen for a GM-norm, but Amar already has completed all demands and sent his application for the GM-title.

 

Fagernes Autumn Slow Blitz

Fagernes Autumn Slow Blitz was played Friday 13th October with 37 participants. 

The A-group was won by GM Guha Mitrabha from India with 6 points from 7 games. FM Shazil Shehzad from Norway and S Rohit from India both had 5 points and took second and third place respectively.

In the B-group the top-3 were all Norwegians. Sigmund Ellingsrud and Even Huneide Hetland both took 6 points, but Ellingsrud had the better tiebreak and got first place. Alina Shehzad om 4.5 point was third.

Top 3 in the A-group:
Rohit, Mitrabha og Shehzad
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

Top 3 in the B-group:
Hetland, Ellingsrud and Shehzad
(Photo: Tom Eriksen)

Teamtalkingchess cancelled

Due to issues with the playing venue the Teamtalkingchess tournament has been cancelled. The two blitz tournaments, Friday and Saturday, will go ahead as planned.

FIDE Circuit 2023

We are happy to report that Fagernes International Autumn will be part of FIDE Circuit 2023.

 Welcome to Fagernes International Autumn!

The tournament is played at the major Norwegian Chess Hotel Scandic Valdres

at Fagernes, 187 km north of Oslo.

Main organizer is Hans Olav Lahlum in cooperation with Sotra Sjakklubb.

Hans Olav Lahlum

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Hans Olav Lahlum (born 1973) is a well known Norwegian chess player, chess organizer and chess TV commentator, having the titles of International Organizer (IO) and International Arbiter (IA) from the World Chess Federation FIDE. 

Lahlum organized numerous international tournaments at Gausdal 1999-2008, Oslo 2011-2014 and Fagernes 2014-2023. 

He has also been chief arbiter in many other large tournaments including the Norwegian championships 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2019.