The Norway Chess organisers today revealed a line-up with several surprises for this year's 10th edition of the super tournament, which takes place from May 31 to June 11. 4-time winner Magnus Carlsen heads the field, as expected, but Richard Rapport and Teimour Radjabov, who will take part in the Candidates Tournament just six days after their final game in Stavanger, have both accepted invitations. So have ex-World Champions Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov, and Wang Hao, who announced his retirement last year.
Richard Rapport finished 3rd in the 2021 edition of Norway Chess, and is back in 2022 | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess
The prestigious super tournament in Stavanger has reached its 10th edition in 2022, but this year the organisers faced some difficulties. Having focused on mainly inviting the very best players in previous editions, many of them are not available this year due to the Candidates Tournament starting just six days after the final game in Stavanger.
In addition, the Grand Chess Tour begins with the Superbet Classic May 3-15 and the Superbet Rapid & Blitz May 17-24. This likely explains why the organisers had to go way down the rating list to find players.
The organisers also made it clear that Russians are not welcome to Stavanger since the invasion of Ukraine. Alexander Grischuk is one player who was originally scheduled to play, but the invitation was withdrawn in agreement with the player, according to TV 2.
However, the field remains very strong, with World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who won the three last editions, once again heading the field and continuing his hunt to break 2900.
SR-Bank's premises will be the venue for the 10th edition of Norway Chess in Stavanger | photo: Sindre Ellingsen/SpareBank 1 SR-Bank
More surprising are the additions of Richard Rapport and Teimour Radjabov. Just six days after their final games in Stavanger, they will make their first moves in the Candidates Tournament in Madrid. Top players tend to be careful with tournament play in the weeks leading up to an event, but the duo may want to use Norway Chess as preparation for the more important event.
Another surprising addition is Wang Hao, who returns to Stavanger after taking part in the first Norway Chess event in 2013. The Chinese 32-year-old announced his retirement from professional chess after the second leg of the Candidates last year, citing health reasons. He now says he is feeling better and accepted the surprising invitation after considering it for a week.
Many fans will also be happy to see 5-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand back into action. The 52-year-old Indian legend will be playing his first classical event in 2.5 years, since finishing 7th in the 2020 Tata Steel Chess tournament.
Veselin Topalov is another favourite in Stavanger, having taken part in the first four editions, including a win in 2015. The Bulgarian ex-World Champion hasn't played a classical event since Gibraltar 2020.
Anish Giri, Wesley So, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave complete the field for the event, which features no player under the age of 25.
Norway Chess Director Kjell Madland said:
We are thrilled to welcome top chess players back to Stavanger to what will be an exciting tournament at Finansparken. This year we are celebrating our 10th tournament anniversary and we are looking forward to many side events and a great celebration of the game of chess.
The 10th edition of the tournament will have a completely new location. The tournament venue will be Finansparken, the premises of SR-Bank in Bjergsted near Stavanger's city centre.
Finansbanken was named Building of the Year and Wood Construction of the Year in 2019. The building is 22,600 square meters and is the workplace of approximately 650 employees. For the first time it will host a chess tournament.
The tournament will be broadcast live on Norwegian TV 2 and on chess24.
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