Aryan Tari, the Norwegian chess grandmaster was Norwegian Chess Champion in 2015 and won the World Junior Chess Championship in 2017. He has however won his second Norwegian Championship title last weekend after narrowly edging GM Jon-Ludwig Hammer on tiebreak. Both players scored 6½/9 while Hammer eventually took 2nd place on tiebreak score.
The Norwegian Championship has been held nearly every year since 1918, and for the past 30 years attracts an average of around 500 players, across several sections. The “Elite” (Championship) section has qualification requirements — for instance having an Elo rating over 2350 is one way to qualify — and this year included 26 players.
Most of Norway’s Top 10 were there, with the notable exception of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who won the Championship in 2006 at age 15. The top three this year were Jon Ludvig Hammer (2637), Aryan Tari (2620), Frode Urkedal (2566). Hammer won the title in 2018 and 2017, but this year he lost his head-to-head pairing with Tari in round four.
