Picture: New in Chess
GM Lars Bo Hansen
Denmark (2563)

Despite being one of three Danish grandmasters named Hansen, Lars Bo Hansen is no ordinary chess professional. Lecturer, commentator, publisher, writer and businessman are some of his titles. Among all these activities, he has also kept his chess career going and he is one of Denmark's strongest chess players.

In the recent European team championship, he scored an impressive 4/7 and he shared second place in the latest Danish championship. He is very hard to beat and has to be considered an outsider in the tournament.

Hansen participated in the very first Sigeman Chess Tournament in 1993, where he finished second to Ferdinand Hellers. He makes his second start in the tournament.

GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson
Sweden (2491)

Tiger Hillarp-Persson is one of the Sigeman Chess Tournament regulars. He is one of Sweden's strongest grandmasters and a regular on the Swedish national team.

Hillarp is known for his uncompromising fighting spirit and his sometimes uncanny talent for finding moves that no one else sees. Another characteristic is that he is very active, Tiger likes traveling and frequently plays open tournaments, where the ability to solve problems at the board outweighs opening preparations. He has recently played open tournaments in exotic places like Guernsey and Bornholm. Last year, in Stockholm, he won the Swedish Championship for the first time.

Tiger has also written a very well received book, "Tiger's Modern", about the chess opening called the Modern Defence, his favorite weapon with the black pieces. It will be even more interesting to see if he plays 1.e4 during the tournament. This year he has done that on a number of occasions, after having been a 1.d4 devotee for most of his career. Tiger makes his seventh start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament.

GM Jan Timman
Holland (2565)

Jan Timman has twice reached the final stage of the World Championship qualification tournament, but both times he was denied a World Championship match, losing to Anatoli Karpov in 1990, and to Nigel Short in 1993. When Nigel Short and Garri Kasparov decided to play their 1993 match outside FIDE, the World Chess Federation, Timman finally got his chance. Timman played Karpov for the World Championship, starting in Dutch Zwolle and finishing in far-off Djakarta. Unfortunately, Timman once again lost.

Jan Timman is also a well-respected chess writer, having written several books. He is the chief editor of "New in Chess", the world's leading chess magazine.

He makes his tenth appearance in the Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament, where he has finished first-first-second the last three times.

GM Kjetil Lie
Norway (2558)

Grandmaster Kjetil Lie is the first Norwegian player in Sigeman Chess Tournament since Magnus Carlsen stopped in Malmo on his way to the top. Lie became a grandmaster in 2005 and was Carlsens second in the latest world championship tournament.

Kjetil is an aggressive, ambitious player who often defeats strong players. Recently, he finished second in the very strong tournament Arctic Chess Challenge, after Alexander Moiseenko. He is also a regular on the Norwegian national team.

Lie represents Porsgrunn in the Norwegian chess league, a small club that has established itself in recent years, with a Norwegian championship in 2006 as the club's main achievement. He is participating in the Sigeman Chess Tournament for the first time.

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GM Lajos Portisch
Hungary (2523)

Lajos Portisch has been one of the strongest chess players in the world for many years and is considered one of the leading opening experts. At the age of 70, he is still a very good player, the main difference is that he does plays less often nowadays. Last year, he played three tournaments, one of them being the Gausdal Classics in Norway, where he finished second to Magnus Carlsen.

When he was younger, he was a very active player. During a period of 25 years, Portisch played in 12 consecutive interzonal tournaments and qualified for eight world championship candidate match cycles, without ever reaching a world championship match. He also led the Hungarian team that created a big upset in the 1978 Chess Olympics in Buenos Aires, when they finished first, ahead of the mighty Soviets.

Portisch makes his first start in Sigeman Chess Tournament.

GM Daniel Stellwagen
Holland (2621)

At age 20, Daniel Stellwagen is Holland's youngest grandmaster, and also a full-time student.

Stellwagen has made steady progress up the rating list, after a dip in 2006. This is due to good results in the Dutch and German chess leagues and the latest Dutch championship (where he shared first place with Tiviakov).

Daniel has also some more original achievements on his chess CV. At 16, he won an endgame study tournament at the highest level with a perfect 100% score, something which nobody else has managed to do at this level.

Stellwagen finished fourth in his first start in Sigeman Chess Tournament and his goal this year is certainly to improve on that.

Picture: Calle Erlandsson
Axel Smith
Sweden (2428)

Sometimes young players improve very fast, but this usually happens in their early teens. In Axel Smith's case, this happened much later, and at the age of 20, he was still nothing more than a promising young player. Now, two years later, he is, together with Nils Grandelius, one of the the most interesting names in the new generation of Swedish chess players.

This amazing development started in 2006, when Axel decided to make a serious attempt at improving his chess game. The following summer, he won the Swedish junior championship, something which gave him a place in the 2008 Swedish championship group. This motivated him to follow an even more ambitious training program and ended with a sensational eighth place. After this, a number of tours in Europe, accompanied by other young players, have added to Smith's rating.

Despite his age, Axel has also been the chairman of his club, Lunds ASK, he has spent a lot of time coaching younger players, and he is a frequent writer and has his own chess blog.

Of course, this year's Sigeman Chess Tournament will be a real test for him, as he has never before faced this kind of opposition for nine consecutive rounds. He makes his first start in the tournament and his goal is a result that would take him one step closer to becoming an international master.

Picture: Calle Erlandsson
GM Evgeny Agrest
Sweden (2567)

A few years ago, Evgeny Agrest was number one on the Swedish rating list. With several Swedish Championship titles in a row, he looked liked he was going to be on top for many years. He also had success out in Europe and was one of the most important players on the Swedish national team.

However, the last few years, he has not been able to hold on to his position as Swedish number one. One of the reasons might be that Evgeny also is a chess trainer and has played a lot of speed chess, with less focus on other tournaments. In last year's EU Championship he was in a really good position until the second to the last round, where he lost to Italian grandmaster Godena, who went on to win the tournament.

Three generations of the Agrest family participated in the EU championships: Evgeny's father Roman, his daughter Inna, his son Anton, and Evgeny himself. In addition to that, Evgeny's wife Svetlana Agrest is one of Sweden's strongest women players; all-in-all, this makes the Agrest family Sweden's top chess family.

Picture: Jan Wikander
GM Ralf Åkesson
Sweden (2466)

Ralf Åkesson is one of two Swedish players to win the European junior championship (Ferdinand Hellers is the other). He became a grandmaster in 1995, and since then, he has done well in tournaments all over Europe. He has won the Swedish championships twice and he has also won the Rilton Cup.

This year, Åkesson played for Västerås SK, where he played an important part in establishing the team in the top division of the Swedish chess league. Åkesson makes his third start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament.

Picture: Calle Erlandsson
GM Vassilios Kotronias
Greece (2611)

43-year-old grandmaster Vassilios Kotronias has for many years been the strongest Greek chess player and he has done well in tournaments all over Europe. For the last couple of years he has been living in the Swedish city of Skara, where he has been a welcome addition to the city's team in the Swedish chess league. He also plays in the Hungarian and German chess leagues.

Last fall, Kotronias won the Kalamaria Open and came close to winning the Monarch Assurance International, where he lost the decisive game. He had a disappointing result in last year's Sigeman Chess Tournament and will be looking for revenge in his second start in the tournament.