Magnus Carlsen To Play In Norwegian Chess Festival
The Norwegian Chess Festival runs from 29th December to the 7th January 2009. The event is being held in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Gjøvik Chess Club and is headlined by a fascinating rapid event, the "Aker Chess Challenge" between Magnus Carlsen (pictured), Hikaru Nakamura, Peter Svidler and Kjetil Lie.
The format will be a preliminary double round-robin tournament, followed by a final 2-game match between the top two finishers in the tournament. The time control will be 25 minutes plus a 5 second increment per move.
The schedule for the Aker Chess Challenge (local times) is:
| Fri 2nd Jan |
13:15 - 14:15 |
Round 1 |
| 14:45 - 15:45 | Round 2 | |
| Sat 3rd Jan |
13:15 - 14:15 | Round 3 |
| 14:45 - 15:45 | Round 4 | |
| Sun 4th Jan |
14:30 - 15:30 | Round 5 |
| 15:45 - 16:45 | Round 6 | |
| Mon 5th Jan |
13:00 - 14:00 | Final and bronze final, Round 1 |
| 14:30 - 15:30 | Final and bronze final, Round 2 |
The packed festival lineup also includes a GM Swiss, an Open Swiss, 2 ratings tournaments, a children's tournament, blitz tournaments and even more events!
The festival website can be found here.
