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”...from a country of no chess tradition” – Kasparov on
Magnus Carlsen after he became Grandmaster at 13
Kasparov is right that Norway used to be no big power in the
chess world. But we improved steadily during the 20th
century, and we think we still do. During the last 30 years
we have hosted quite a few international chess events also
on a high level, and we got a few very strong players. We
give you some Norwegian chess highlights, mostly about
events held in Norway, but also a few sporting victories
abroad. We say very little here about Magnus Carlsen, whose
merits are quite well known to the reader.
 CHRISTIANIA (OSLO) 1903: The Nordic championship of 1903 was
the first international chess tournament held in Norway, 11
years before founding our national federation (Norges
Sjakkforbund) on July 20th, 1914.
OSLO 1936: Right after the famous Nottingham tournament, the
Norwegian Workers’ Chess Association organized an
international tournament in Oslo, with two of the
top-10-players in the world. Reuben Fine (USA) won first
prize ahead of Flohr (Czechoslovakia) and Pedersen
(Denmark). Myhre (Norway) and Enevoldsen (Denmark) tied for
4th.
TRONDHEIM 1951/52: Our first international junior tournament
and also the first tournament victory of Bent Larsen, the
great Dane, and it was the first of several hundred(!)
tournaments organized by Arnold Eikrem (1932-96) who himself
represented Norway at the first World junior championship of
1951, and later transformed all the enthusiasm of a young
chess player into a life-long chess addiction.
OSLO 1954: The first official Students’ chess Olympiad was
held in Norway, because our team (surprisingly) had won the
first unofficial Students’ chess Olympiad in Brussels the
year before, ahead of England. In Oslo Czechoslovakia
surprisingly won ahead of Soviet Union.
ÖREBRO 1959: Svein Johannessen (21) won the Nordic
championship ahead of Ståhlberg, and was the first champion
from Norway during 60 years since the Nordic chess
federation was founded in 1899.
 HAVANNA
1966: The young Norwegian team qualified for the Olympiad
A-final. We beat USA 2½ - 1½ in spite of Johannessen’s loss
on board one to Bobby Fischer.
OSLO 1971: The first of so many international title
tournaments in Norway was held in memory of Olaf Barda
(1909-71). He was Norway’s first International master
(1952), a Grandmaster of Correspondence chess and 4th in the
first Correspondence world championship. In his only Chess
Olympiad, Hamburg 1930 (then named Olaf OIsen), he beat
Maroczy. The Barda memorial tournament was won by Ulf
Andersson, a new Nordic chess star.
 SKIEN
1979: The World Junior Championship was held in the
Norwegian town Skien, also known as birth place of Henrik
Ibsen. Yasser Seirawan (USA) became World champion, ahead of
Chernin (USSR) and Nikolic (Yugoslavia). Kasparov did not
appear.
GAUSDAL 1981-82: Leif Øgaard won two successive
international opens in Gausdal and achieved the Grandmaster
norm in both of them. These were Norway’s two first GM
norms, but it would take another 25 years before Øgaard
himself completed his GM title.
 GJØVIK 1983: The Gjøvik Chess club 75th anniversary
tournament was the fifth strongest tournament in the world
that year. Agdestein at 16 created sensation when he beat
Spassky, who had earlier this year won Linares ahead of
Karpov.
Top group: 1-3 Nunn, Browne and Adorján, 4 Miles, 5
Agdestein, 6-7 Spassky and Ftacnik, 8 Karlsson, 9 Helmers,
10 Øgaard
OSLO 1984: World champion Karpov honored the Oslo
Schakselskap 100th anniversary tournament with his
participation.
1 Karpov, 2-3 Miles and Makarychev, 4-6 Adorján, de Firmian
and Agdestein, 7 Hübner, 8-10 Wedberg, Hort and Arnason-
GJØVIK 1985: Simen Agdestein won his first Nordic
championship and became Norway’s first Grandmaster, and at
18 also the youngest GM in the world at the time!
GAUSDAL 1986: Another World Junior Championship, now
organized at the famous Norwegian chess resort Gausdal High
mountain hotel. After an exciting finish Walter Arencibia
(Cuba) was a surprising new World champion, ahead of
Agdestein (Norway) and Hellers (Sweden). Bareev was 4th,
Klinger 5th and Anand 6th.
ARNHEM 1990-91: Rune Djurhuus became European junior
champion, ahead of Hannes Stefansson and Vladimir Kramnik,
after he beat them both.
 GJØVIK 1991: Simen Agdestein drew 2-2 with Anatoly Karpov in
their classical match of four games, held parallel to the
Norwegian championship.
GAUSDAL 1990-95: The many internationals of Arnold Eikrem at
Gausdal had an extraordinary strength during the years after
the Berlin wall fell. Shirov completed his GM title in the
Gausdal Troll Masters of 1990, and Kramnik made a GM norm in
the Troll Masters of 1992.
 OSLO/SANDVIKA 1994: Simen Agdestein and Michael Adams (also)
drew their match 2-2. Smirin won the Open GM group ahead of
Serper, Korneev, Bologan and Hector.
DUBAI 2004: Magnus Carlsen achieved the Grandmaster title at
13.
 DRAMMEN 2004-05: A nice chess festival on occasion of the
100th anniversary of the Drammen chess club.
Top group: 1-2 Shirov and Heine Nielsen, 3 McShane, 4-6 Lie,
Korchnoi and Macieja, 7-8 Khalifman and L. Johannessen, 9-10
Carlsen and Stefanova.
BERGEN 2006: Ivar Bern became the 17th Correspondence world
champion.
 OSLO
2007: The finals in Glitnir Blitz staged in Oslo in
October 2007, with many strong players. Among them Carlsen,
Heine Nielsen, Agdestein and Gritschuk. The latter won after
beating Carlsen in the final.
TROMSØ 2006-08: Tromsø staged International open tournaments
Midnight Sun Chess challenge 2006, and Arctic Chess
Challenge 2007 and 2008. These tournaments were won
respectively by 2006: Shipov (Russia) ahead of Carlsen
(Norway), 2007: Moiseenko (Ukraina) ahead of Kjetil Lie
(Norway) and 2008: Kurnosov (Russia) ahead of Agdestein
(Norway). And Tromsø was in 2006 appointed Norwegian
candidate city for the 2014 Chess Olympiad.
These are of course only a few selected chess events on our
subject.
Norwegian grandmasters:
1985: Simen Agdestein
1995: Jonathan Tisdall
1995: Einar Gausel
1996: Rune Djurhuus
2002: Leif Erlend Johannessen
2003: Berge Østenstad
2004: Magnus Carlsen
2005: Kjetil A. Lie
2007: Leif Øgaard
2009: Jon Ludvig Hammer
Idea, text and most photos: Øystein Brekke,
Norsk Sjakkforlag
2008 |
