Players

Players 2010

Photo: © Calle Erlandsson
GM Anish Giri
Holland (2642)

When it comes to Anish Giri, the word prodigy is hard to avoid. At fifteen, he is a chess grandmaster, he speaks four languages (among those Japanese) and also does well in school. Another word that also suggests itself is "youngest": Giri is currently the world's youngest grandmaster, he is the youngest player to have played in the German Bundesliga, and he is the youngest participant in this year's Sigeman Chess Tournament. In the last three years, he has improved his rating with about 300 points.

Those who think he is here just to learn will be mistaken, though. He is the tournament's highest rated player and he recently won the "B" Group in the Corus Chess tournament, one of the world's largest and most prestigious chess tournaments. He thereby qualified for next years "A" Group, where he will face the world's best players for the first time. This year's Sigeman Chess Tournament will be an important step in preparing for his life's greatest challenge as a chess player.

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, and despite working hard in school he keeps improving steadily with each tournament he plays.

Photo: © Calle Erlandsson
GM Jon Ludvig Hammer
Norway (2610)

The 19-year-old Norwegian grandmaster Jon Ludvig Hammer has had some very good results during the last two years. Despite this, he still has not received much attention. The main reason for this is of course of course his fellow countryman Magnus Carlsen, who has made it all the way to the top of the chess world and who, by many, is considered to be the best chess player in the world. There is simply no space left on the chess pages in the Norwegian papers.

However, this does not seem to bother Hammer very much. On the contrary, he has been able to slowly build his game and has, during the last years, had a big break-through. In the European team championships, he filled in for Magnus Carlsen, who chose to prepare for an important tournament instead. This he did very well, scoring 6.5 points in 9 rounds against top opponents, a result corresponding to a rating of 2792 and the best in the whole tournament. After this brilliant result he followed up by winning the London Chess Classic Open with 8 out of 9 and Norway had yet another chess star. He also visited Malmo last year, winning the Malmo Open with 6.5 out of 7.

Jon Ludvig has been coached by Simen Agdestein, yet another credit to Agdestein's coaching abilities. Hammer is a very tough player, something he confirmed in the Gjøvik 100-year jubilee tournament, where he avoided perpetual check and instead won the tournament single-handedly, despite needing a draw to become a grandmaster. He makes his first start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament.

Photo: © Calle Erlandsson
GM Jonny Hector
Sweden (2609)

The most frequent participant in the Sigeman Chess Tournament is Swedish grandmaster Jonny Hector. This comes as no surprise, since he was born and raised in Malmo and represents the hosting club Limhamns SK. In addition to that, Jonny has always been popular with the local chess fans, since he is a very entertaining player who often plays spectacular games. Hector lives with his family in Helsingor in Denmark, not very far from Malmo.

For many years, he was a very active player who travelled all over Europe, playing various open tournaments. However, a couple of years ago he became a father and decided to play less. The effect of this was somewhat surprising, the last couple of years he has played better than ever before. Among other things, he has managed to win all nine games in the Danish chess league. Earlier this year, he also won the Brønshøj 75-year jubilee chess tournament with 8 points in 9 games, in front of, among others, Tiger Hillarp. Never in his career has his official rating been higher than today.

Hector makes his fourteenth start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament and in his current form, he must be one of the contenders for first place.

Photo: © Calle Erlandsson
GM Tiger Hillarp Persson
Sweden (2542)

Malmo-based Tiger Hillarp Persson is a frequent participant in the Sigeman Chess Tournament. After his convincing victory in 2008, the home audience had high expectations on him in last year's tournament, but he had a bad run and finished second to last. Despite tough opposition, he could hardly have been pleased with this result. In other words, he will be looking for revenge when the players sit down for the first game.

Tiger is a fighter with lots of energy, which he combines with a knack for finding original ideas at the board and an interesting opening repertoire. This interest in opening strategies has also led him to write books about them. His book "Tiger's Modern", where he investigates his pet opening the Modern Defense, is widely seen as the reference work for this opening system.

Tiger makes his ninth start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament and could very well be the winner.

Photo: © Calle Erlandsson
GM Pia Cramling
Sweden (2536)

Almost since she started playing chess, Pia Cramling has been Sweden's best female chess player. She soon also became one of Sweden's best chess players, regardless of gender. Nowadays, she is a rare visitor in Swedish chess tournaments, since she has been living in Spain for many years and mostly plays in southern Europe. Last season she played for Team Viking in the Swedish league, but she also plays in the Spanish, French and German chess leagues.

Pia became a grandmaster in 1992, at a time when two of her Sigeman opponents were not even born and one of them was only three years old. In other words, experience will work in her favor. Her playing style is sound and solid and she has great technical skills, something which might be hard for some of the younger opponents, since they tend to try to decide their games already in the opening or in the middle part of their games.

In last year's Swedish Championship she finished second to Emanuel Berg. Recently she has had a number of good results, the latest being her win in the Women's European Cup earlier this year. This was the second time Pia won this title.

Her latest appearance in the Sigeman Chess Tournament was in 2001, when she finished third to Gulko and Timman. She participates in the Sigeman Chess Tournament for the fifth time.

For a number of years, Nils Grandelius has been Sweden's most interesting young chess player. In last years tournament, he was rated number six out of six players, but did not let this bother him at all. Instead, he came very close to winning the tournament, but had to settle for second place, after English veteran Nigel Short.

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. Twice he has won a grandmaster tournament in Olomouc in the Czech Republic, securing two qualifying results out of the three he needs to become a grandmaster. Not having secured his third and final grandmaster norm was probably a great disappointment to him for a while, since the grandmaster title is important to anyone who wants to play chess professionally, with more invitations and better conditions. For a while it looked like the final grandmaster norm would come in the Corus "C" tournament this year, but a poor finish destroyed his chances.

Unfortunately, this year's five rounds would have been to few to make a grandmaster result possible. However, he managed to secure the grandmaster title right before the tournament, and with this out of the way, he will once again be a strong contender for first place.

Nils makes his second start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament.