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Snorre Open (= the blitz tournament played Saturday evening) attracted 17 participants from Troll Masters and 1 present family member - another strong evidence for the fact that most chess players prefer playing full time games? The results were surprising, as IM Mikael Agopov surprisingly finished third in one of the qualification groups, while GM Alexei Lugovoi finished approximately fifth in the other one - giving FM Magnus Carlsen - GM Sergei Ovsejewitch in one of the semi-finals, and Øystein Hole - FM Riku Molander in the other. The semi-finals started as expected, as group winners Ovsejewitch and Molander convincingly won their first game as black. Both Carlsen and Hole however surprisingly hit back in the second game, and even more surprisingly did it again in the decisive third game where white got six minutes against five, but needed a win to pass. While Ovsejewitch snatched the last moneyprize (100 NKR) ahead of Molander following a thundering bronze final, the final became a small anti-climax, as Hole appearing tired and/or unconcentrated played well below his earlier games in the tournament - and so a dymanic and still chess hungry Magnus around 23.30 cashed in 2-0 and 400 NKR without too much excitement. The games of the final match can be found here. |