Six Players Share the Lead After Two Rounds in Fagernes

Two rounds into the Fagernes International Autumn Tournament, six players share first place with perfect scores. The GM Swiss is running from 3 to 11 October at the Scandic Valdres hotel, about 187 kilometres north of Oslo.

The leaders on 2/2 are Sweden’s Tiger Hillarp Persson (2417), Norway’s Aksel Bu Kvaloy (2515), Germany’s Christian Gloeckler (2515), India’s Harika Dronavalli (2453), Norway’s Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal (2554) and Norway’s Mads Vestby-Ellingsen (2390). That makes three Norwegians in the group.

The seeds behind them

Norwegian champion Elham Amar, the top seed at 2567, won his first-round game with Black against Krishnan Ritvik but is not among the six on 2/2.

Second seed Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan (2564) is not among the leaders either. Abhijeet Gupta, G. B. Harshavardhan and Krishnan Sasikiran, the next three on the starting list, are also off the perfect-score list.

A quick finish in an all-Norwegian game

One round-one game ended abruptly. Lars Haugen, with White against Evsuld Myagmarsuren, played 24.Rf1?, which looks natural because it covers the weak f2-square. ChessBase’s note says White first had to dislodge the black queen on g5, with 24.Rg3 or 24.Qd2.

Black punished it at once: 24…fxe4 25.Rg3 Rxf2! White resigned after 26.Rxf2 Qc1+ 27.Qf1 Bxf2 28.Kxf2 Rf8+. The pawn on e4 stops the white rook from defending on f3, and Black’s second rook joins in for the finish.

Why the format matters

The GM group has ten rounds in nine days, with a double-round day on Tuesday and one classical game on the other days. The structure is meant to give norm seekers more flexibility, since performances can be counted over different nine-game stretches in certain circumstances.

The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 40 minutes for the rest, with 30 seconds per move from the start. First prize is €3,000. The section is open to titled players and to those rated 2000 or higher (1900 for women).

Early on, the field’s spread matters more than the table. Hillarp Persson at 2417 and Vestby-Ellingsen at 2390 sit on the same score as players more than 100 points above them. Swiss pairings will soon send the leaders against one another, which should sort the six quickly.

Fagernes has been a regular stop for Norwegian chess since Hans Olav Lahlum began organising events there in 2014. This autumn event, run with Sotra Sjakklubb, counts toward the Norges Grand Prix 2026-27 circuit. Games are broadcast with a 15-minute delay, and the final round is on Sunday 11 October in the morning.