The Norway Chess 2016, sponsored by Altibox, is going to take place in Stavanger April 18-30. It is going to be a ten player single round robin event. Six of the players have been announced and they include the World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway), the ex world champions Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Anish Giri (The Nederlands), and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France). More participants will be announced in the near future and a qualification event will take place for the final spots.

This is the fourth year of the tournament. The 2013 and 2014 editions were won by Sergey Karjakin, while the 2015 event title was for Veselin Topalov

Replay games: Norway Chess 2015 / Norway Chess 2014 / Norway Chess 2013

Norway Chess is going to be one of the strongest events of the first half of 2016. Norway Chess 2016 live with analysis will be daily on Chessdom.com with analysis by the TCEC engines Komodo, Stockfish and Houdini.

Last year Norway Chess was part of the Grand Chess Tour. This year the organizers from Norway have parted ways with the tour. “After long and careful consideration, Altibox Norway Chess decided to leave the Grand Chess Tour. A sad, but for us necessary decision, since our views differ from the GCT’s on the future of top class tournaments. We wish all the best for the GCT and hope that our partnership may be renewed in the years to come. Altibox Norway Chess will take place in April this year with the same high standards as the previous events” states Kjell Madland, Chairman of the board at Altibox Norway Chess. See the full story here

The Norway Chess 2016 organizers note in a new press release, “The tournament takes great pride in being amongst the top rated chess tournaments in the world and has received a lot of attention by being a unique and different chess tournament.”

Review of Norway Chess 2015 – Carlsen with fantastic opening (part 1)

Part 2 – Carlsen shows how to dominate in the middlegame

Part 3 – Blunder by Magnus Carlsen in a won position