FM jeffforever goes Norway Chess 2021

A few days since the end of Norway Chess 2021 have already passed, time for a recap!

How to travel to Norway Chess in Stavanger

Norway Chess 2021 took place from 7th to 17th September at the Clarion Hotel in Stavanger, Norway's fourth biggest city after Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. Preparing my trip a few months ago to Stavanger, it was the first time that I realized how big Norway actually really is: between Oslo in the Southeast of Norway and Stavanger in the Southwest, there is a distance of 450km which meant that most of the participants would actually take a(nother) flight from Oslo to Norway, as it would take otherwise another 7-8h by car or train from Oslo. Arriving from Stuttgart in the Southwest of Germany, it meant quite a long 12h one-way-trip via Stuttgart-Frankfurt-Oslo-Stavanger, but as it turned out it was totally worth it! After 12h, the Mini cars in front of the hotel made chess players feel like coming home:

Clarion Hotel Stavanger, the playing venue of the Norway Chess 2021.

Meetup with Offerspill Sjakklubb & Lichess members

Meetup with Lichess contributors Theo & Asbjørn
Playing on Lichess since Dec 2, 2013 with many contributors from Norway and not being able to meetup in the last two years because of the pandemic, I was excited to finally meet Lichess contributor Theo, who represented Lichess at Norway Chess and held several meetings about upcoming projects with various people from the chess community. Besides all the various online chats before, it was a lot of fun to finally meetup in person. After the tournament was over, there was also finally some time to play a few OTB bughouse games with Theo on 3 boards with 6 players! In addition to Theo, Lichess moderator Asbjørn alias DJ & LM @Assios who composed How to pronounce Lichess Remix also visited Norway Chess, which resulted in a small Lichess takeover Norway Chess ;-)

Lichess team from left to right: Theo, Asbjørn aka Assios feat. Horsey, and your author.
Photo credit: Lichess Streamer @cbruvold

Meetup with Offerspill Sjakklubb members
Besides meeting Lichess contributors Theo and Asbjørn, there was a delegation of 8 players of the Offerspill Sjakklubb who took part in the Masters and Elo group.

Since it's possible to play chess also online compared to many other sports who aren't able to, chess had a big boost of players who are started with chess within the last two years. Among them is Offerspill member Cathrine Bruvold, who started playing chess about two years ago and who recently celebrated her one year Lichess anniversary by climbing up the Lichess ladders to impressive 2000+ ratings in Bullet, Blitz and Rapid. After thousands of online games, the time has come to her first OTB tournament as an unrated player in the Norway Chess Elo group. After finding out about Cath streaming during an Offerspill stream a few months ago, I joined her Lichess Team Bruvis and hang out/chatted in streams with her community, where she plays various Lichess formats with viewers like Arenas, Puzzle Racers/Streaks or even sometimes non-chess related games for fun such as Drawy or Words on Stream. In addition to that, she manages to follow the chat always and makes every new viewer immediately welcome, for example by giving viewers the chance to vote for what will be done next on Stream together in a poll. If you're looking for new chess friends and like to talk about chess with people from all around the world, I highly recommend you to checkout her streams on Twitch & interacting with the chess community on Discord. Tusen takk for all the streams on Lichess and friendly/funny conversations in Stavanger. Congrats for absolving your first OTB games, showing fighting spirit in every game!

Meetup with Lichess Streamer @cbruvold

Preparing for the chess games with Cath

In Round 6, there was even a duel between me and fellow Offerspill member Christian Tunge, with whom there was also some time to analyze the game (see study below) and have a chat.

In addition to that, it was also great to meet the General Manager of the Offerspill Sjakklubb, CM Jon Kristian Haarr, who also worked for the Norway Chess Masters & Elo group as Deputy Arbiter. As we played already 40 Lichess Blitz games during various Offerspill Bullet & Blitz Arenas, it was a lot of fun to play a few OTB blitz and hand & brain games. Thanks also to @JakobAavik for broadcasting the Masters group & Elo group on Lichess besides the GM group. Shoutout also to Chief Arbeiter IA Kristoffer Gressli and FA Truls Jørgensen, who allowed Aksel Bu Kvaloy and me to get an extra 30 min break during a double round day for the afternoon's game after having fought in a 106 move endgame for 5 hours (see study below).

Last but not least, it was nice to meet the down-to-earth @DrNykterstein, with whom I had already played 8 thrilling Bullet games on Lichess before.

Selfie with Offerspill Sjakklubb founder & World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen alias DrNykterstein

Things that are good to know about Norway & impressions of the event

For everyone thinking about travelling to Norway, here are a few things I've learned that might surprise you: Printed cash is something that in Norway practically almost doesn't exist. Whatever you want to buy, even if it's just a small and cheap item, the usual way to go in Norway is by paying with Credit Card. Another german player, who participated in the Blitz tournament as well, also kind of had to pay his entry fee by credit card which came by surprise to probably everyone outside of Norway :)

Order everything online
In addition to that, Norway is very advanced when it comes to live in the new digital time era: whenever you go to a bar or restaurant, the menus aren't printed and ordered via a waiter or waitress, but instead you find a small card with a QR code, from where you order and pay online after which your order will be served directly to your table. To my surprise it was also always possible to get free tap water in every bar or restaurant.

Norway as a host
Norwegian people like being a host and therefore whenever I met someone new during the tournament, they were always friendly and interested talking to tourists visiting their country which led for example to many interesting and funny conversations about the similarities and contraries between Norway and Germany.

Stavanger Park "Byparken"

Stavanger Park "Byparken"

A dream come true for every chess player: Watching Chess on Norwegian TV2 (even replays during midnight!)

Behind the scenes: Live commentary with GM David Howell, World Champion Magnus Carlsen joining as guest and GM Judit Polgar

All my games in the Norway Chess Masters 2021

Having played the last rated classical OTB game a bit more than two years ago, it was clear that the tournament would become somewhat difficult and to find a good rhythm. Overall I was quite happy to gain +14 Elo after having lost about 100 Elo points since the beginning of 2018 and to comeback to 2303. Playing a chess tournament, it can always go two ways:

Meme idea inspired by Offerspill Sjakklubb members @cbruvold | @PusheenMeow | @JakobAavik

Results and standings:
All my results | Final standings GM group | Final standings Norway Chess 2021 - Masters group | Final standings Norway Chess - Elo group | Final standings Blitz tournament