Norway Chess
Norway Chess is an annual closed chess tournament, typically taking place in the May to June time period every year. The first edition took place in the Stavanger, Norway, from 7 May to 18 May 2013. The 2013 tournament had ten participants, including seven of the ten highest rated players in the world per the May 2013 FIDE World Rankings. It was won by Sergey Karjakin, with Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura tied for second place. Norway Chess 2015 took place in mid-June 2015 and was a part of the inaugural Grand Chess Tour. The tournament has since decided to withdraw from the Grand Chess Tour.
In 2025, Norway Chess announced they were developing the Total [Chess World Championship Tour], with the approval of FIDE. Total Chess World Championship 2026 will be the first Total Chess World Championship event. It will be held in Norway on October 15, 2026.
In 2026, it was announced that the upcoming Norway Chess 2026 tournament would be held in Oslo instead of Stavanger.
2013
The 2013 tournament started with a blitz round played at the University of Stavanger on 7 May 2013. Rounds 1-3, 5-6, and 8 were played at Hotel Residence, Sandnes. Round 4 was played at Aarbakke factory in Bryne, and round 8 was played on the island Sør-Hidle in Strand. The final round 9 was played in Stavanger Concert Hall on 18 May 2013. In addition to the super tournament, there was a local school tournament and a celebrity tournament. Partly parallel to the tournament, Stavanger Open NGP 2013 was arranged by Stavanger Chess Club from 8 to 12 May. Games were streamed live with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and Simen Agdestein as commentators.The tournament was arranged by the foundation Norway Chess, with economic support from local businesses and municipalities within the Rogaland county. The cost of the arrangement was predicted to be about 5 million Norwegian kroner, of which about half was for prizes for the participants. The organizers planned to make the tournament a yearly event.
Vladimir Kramnik was originally among the expected participants, but in April 2013 it was announced that he had withdrawn and was replaced with Peter Svidler.
Blitz tournament
On 7 May 2013, a blitz tournament was played to decide the play order for the main tournament. According to the regulations, the winner of the blitz tournament had the right to choose the number in the table by his own, and Sergey Karjakin chose to be fifth in the main tournament table.2014
The second edition took place from 2 to 13 June 2014. The ten participants were Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler, Anish Giri and Simen Agdestein. Agdestein qualified by defeating Jon Ludvig Hammer in a rapid match that took place from 26 to 27 April 2014.Blitz tournament
On 2 June 2014, a blitz tournament was played to decide the play order for the main tournament.2015
The third edition of the tournament took place from 15 to 26 June 2015. This was the first tournament of a three tournament series in the inaugural Grand Chess Tour, where participants accumulated as many points as possible over the three tournaments for prizes in the overall tour. The players were Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, Veselin Topalov, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Grischuk, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Jon Ludvig Hammer. Jon Ludvig Hammer was not invited to the overall Grand Chess Tour; however, he qualified for the 10th spot in the tournament by winning the Enter Card Scandinavian Masters Tournament in May 2015.Wildcard qualifier
Jon Ludvig Hammer won the event to qualify as the wildcard for the main tournament.Blitz tournament
On 15 June 2015, a blitz tournament was played to decide the play order for the main tournament. It was won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France.2016
The fourth Norway Chess Tournament took place from 18 to 30 April 2016 with a new title sponsor, Altibox. The tournament withdrew from the Grand Chess Tour in early January 2016 citing differences on the future of chess supertournaments and tournament sponsorship.The players were initially announced as Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Veselin Topalov, Sergey Karjakin, Pavel Eljanov, Pentala Harikrishna, and a wildcard to be determined in a qualifying tournament.
On 6 April, Karjakin decided not to play in the tournament. His spot was taken by Li Chao.
Wild card qualifier
A qualifying tournament took place from 23 to 26 March 2016. It was a double round robin consisting of two stages: the first leg was played with a classical time control and 3–1–0 scoring system; the second leg was played with a rapid time control and 2–1–0 scoring system. It was won by Nils Grandelius.Blitz tournament
On 18 April 2016, a blitz tournament was conducted to determine the pairings in the tournament. The top 5 finishers in the blitz tournament earned an extra white game in the tournament.The following is the final crosstable of the event. Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladimir Kramnik, and Levon Aronian finished in the top 5 and, thus, earned their extra white game.