Photo: Peter Doggers
On his way from his golf round, traffic in Malmo made Magnus Carlsen late for the opening ceremony. However, once he arrived at the TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament opening ceremony, he was not irritated at all.
On the contrary. When he picked up the pawn holding his number in the draw, he said:
– I remember these pieces! I used to play with these when I was a kid. Aren’t they called “Swedish chess pieces”?
There was nostalgia in the air when Magnus Carlsen took the stage at Malmo Town Hall. This is where he played his latest classical chess tournament on Swedish soil; in 2004, in the same tournament as now.
Then he had just become a grandmaster – today, he is the brightest star of world chess. A superstar.
However, he has not forgotten his past when he was a young man touring Europe in search of title norms, when he got a lot of help from Sweden. He has long wanted to thank TePe Sigeman and the Swedish chess community, and now it is the time.
Of course, he would also like to add another tournament victory to his collection. Magnus Carlsen has won 21 world championship titles and numerous chess tournaments – but never the TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament. In 2004, he finished third. That year, the tournament was won by Peter Heine Nielsen from Denmark, who used to be one of Magnus’s coaches for a number of years.
So, what does Magnus think about this year’s opponents? He is full of respect for the tough opposition. And there is good reason for this. Among the opponents are world class players Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Arjun Erigaisi, as well as a very strong Jorden van Foreest and an experienced Nils Grandelius who has won the TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament on several occasions.
Add to this the brilliant Zhu Jiner, rated number 4 among the ladies, and two of the chess world’s fasted rising young stars, teenagers Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus and Andy Woodward. This makes this year’s field extremely exciting!
All credit to the trio Joel Eklund, Johan Sigeman and Johan Berntsen who have managed to put together the strongest tournament we have seen in Sweden in decades.