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Participants

Fabiano Caruana

Caruana was born in Florida, but early in his life he moved to New York, where he soon showed remarkable talent. When he was 11, his family moved to Europe, where they first lived in Madrid, but later on they moved on to Italy. Since he was both a US and an Italian citizen, he could chose which country he wanted to represent, and in 2005 he chose Italy. Since then, he has won the Italian championship 4 times.

His international breakthrough came at Wijk aan Zee, where he during the years 2008 and 2009 became the first to win Group C and Group B two years in sequence. In 2009, he also made it into the fourth round of the World Cup, where he got knocked out by Vugar Gashimov in the rapid chess tiebreak. Last year he also won the very strong AAI tournament in New Dehli, with 7 points in 10 rounds. He is currently the world's highest rated junior player and rated among the ten best chess players in the world.

Caruana makes his first start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament. With the highest rating and a number of impressive results he is, of course, one of the big favorites.

Photo: Calle Erlandsson
2770
Italy

Peter Leko

Leko's best tournament result is probably his victory in the Wijk aan Zee tournament in 2005, ahead of world champion Viswanathan Anand. He scored 8½ points over 13 rounds and did not lose a single game!

Leko is known for a solid opening repertoire and brilliant technical skills, and he very seldom loses a chess game. However, if challenged, he also excels at attacking chess and has on several occasions defated most players on the world top 10 list.

During the past few years he has played very few tournaments and has not participated in the big events. However, recently played in the European Team Cup, where he scored 5½ points in 9 rounds on board 1 and defeated Veselin Topalov. The Hungarian team finished in third place and the return of Leko contributed strongly to this.

Leko makes his first start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament and with his experience and impressive merits, he has to be one of the favorites.

Photo: Calle Erlandsson
2723
Hungary

Chao Li

Grandmaster Chao Li is the first Chinese player to participate in the Sigeman Chess Tournament. Since China is a rising power within chess, the arrangers are very happy to see him on the starting line. 22-year-old Li is currently rated as number 2 in China.

Despite his youth, his trip to Malmö will not be Chao's first visit to Sweden. Already in 2007 he won the Scandinavian Chess Tournament in Täby, where he scored an impressive 8½ points in 9 games.

During the last couple of years, he has been very successful in tournaments in Asia. Among his merits are victories in the Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur in both 2007 and 2008. However, Western chess media did not pay any attention until his surprise victory in the very strong Dubai Open in 2008. Last fall he also won the Indonesia Open with 7 points in 9 rounds. In the 2009 World Cup he made it to the third round, where he was knocked out by top player Vugar Gashimov. Lately, he has also started playing in Europe, and in 2010 he won the Group C tournament at Wijk aan Zee with 10 points out of 13, which is a very good result.

Chao Li makes his first start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament and is, of course, here to compete for first prize.

Photo: Calle Erlandsson
2703
China

Anish Giri

Anish is part of a truly cosmopolitan family. Together with his two sisters, his Nepalese dad and Russian mother, he has lived in St Petersburg in Russia and Osaka in Japan, and the family now lives in Holland. An odd effect of moving is that Anish became a grandmaster without ever having been an international master. He had five qualifying results when he needed only three, but by then he had left Russia. The results were never registered, and suddenly he had become a grandmaster instead. After moving to Holland he has also won the Dutch Championship.

Giri makes his third start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament. First time he participated, in 2010, he won the tournament with a score of 4½/5, a result which equaled a rating of 2900, and last year he shared first place with Hans Tikkanen and Wesley So. In the Chess Olympics in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2010, he scored 8 points in 11 rounds at table 4 playing for the strong Dutch team. His score was the third best of all players at this board. This year also started well with a victory in Reggio Emilia in Italy, but in the big tournament at Wijk an Zee he had a hard time in the very strong Group A tournament and finished last. The means that he, despite having won the Sigeman Chess Tournament the last two years, is looking for revenge.

Photo: Calle Erlandsson
2693
Holland

Emanuel Berg

After a long period of stability, with a rating over 2600, Emanuel has had some disappointing results and now finds himself trying to climb back over the magic 2600-limit. However, in the recent tournament in Gibraltar, he did very well against tough opponents and finished just one point behind shared winners Short and Hou. He was also rewarded a prize for best game of the tournament, for his victory against French grandmaster Vachier-Lagrave. Hopefully this was the beginning of a major comeback and it will be exciting to see what he can do against this year's qualified field.

Berg is a fearless fighter and with his newly regained form, he has to be considered an outsider when it comes to winning the tournament. Berg makes his sixth start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament.

Photo: Calle Erlandsson
2587
Sweden

Hans Tikkanen

In addition to chess, which is of course time-consuming, he has also found time to study math, physics and economy, and he also plays football to keep in shape. After his good results during the last years, his focus has shifted more towards chess. In addition to winning the Swedish Championship, he was also one of the most important members of the Lunds ASK team that finally broke Stockholm's dominance by winning the Swedish chess league Elitserien in 2010/2011. However, after winning the Swedish Championship, he did not play his best during the rest of 2011. The turning point came earlier this year, when Tikkanen participated in Group C at the Wijk aan Zee chess tournament in Holland. He fought for first place all the way, but had to settle for second, after Russian grandmaster Maxim Turov. The place in next year's Group B tournament went to Turov by the smallest of margins, but scoring 10 points in the 13 rounds was still a very good result.

In last year's Sigeman Chess Tournament he surprised everyone by not only finishing ahead of all his fellow countrymen, but he also shared first place with Anish Giri and Wesley So. This year the situation is somewhat different, after the latest very impressive results. The expectations are higher, but the opposition is very tough and he is far from the favorite. Time for a new surprise?

Tikkanen makes his second start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament.

Photo: Calle Erlandsson
2566
Sweden

Jonny Hector

Local grandmaster Jonny Hector participates in the Sigeman Chess Tournament for the sixteenth time. This by far makes him the most frequent participant, but this should come as no surprise, since he was born and raised in Malmo and represents the hosting club, Limhamns SK. Yet another reason for Jonny to be invited year after year is that he is an ambitious and creative player who always plays to win. Hector lives with his family in Helsingor in Denmark, not very far from Malmo.

A couple of years ago he became a father and decided to play less. The last few years he has played less but has had very good results, and he has probably never played better. In 2010 Jonny for the first time had a rating over 2600, and at his present 2562 he is still close to this level. Hopefully the many games he has played in the Sigeman Chess Tournament have contributed to this, since playing games against very tough opponents give you an opportuinty to really test your skills and your opening repertoire.

In 2010, Jonny came to close to winning the Swedish Championship, but Emanuel Berg managed to squeeze past, after Jonny leading almost all the way. In last year's Swedish Championship, the same thing happened, but this time it was Hans Tikkanen who passed in the last round. Annoying to say the least... However, Jonny has been playing well and late in 2011, he won the traditional Malmö Open tournament.

Jonny makes his sixteenth start in Sigeman Chess Tournament, and his best result so far is third place in 2002. He would probably be pleased if he could repeat this against this year's very strong opposition.

Photo: Calle Erlandsson
2560
Sweden

Nils Grandelius

Sweden's most interviewed chess player has, for a long time, been Nils Grandelius, who makes his fourth start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament.

Grandelius has an aggressive and innovative playing style and is totally fearless. He is a very active tournament player and has spent the last few years touring Europe playing chess. He won the grandmaster tournament in Olomouc in the Czech Republic in both 2008 and 2009, securing his first two grandmaster norms. In 2010 he secured the grandmaster title in a tournament in Bosnia, where he finished sixteenth with 7 points in 10 rounds against very tough opposition. At the Chess Olympics in Chanty-Mansiysk in 2010 he was Sweden's top scorer with 7½ points in 10 games.

His best result in 2011 was his victory in the European Youth Chess Championship for players up to 18 years old, which was played in Albena in Bulgaria. It was the first time in many years that a Swedish junior achieved that kind of success in a championship tournament. He was also part of the Swedish team in the recent European Cup team event, which was played in Greece.

Nils has gathered a lot of experience from playing against tough opponents and with a little bit of luck, he might very well win the tournament.

Photo: Calle Erlandsson
2556
Sweden