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Peter Heine Nielsen won Fibertex
Cup
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 Photo: Thorbjørn Rosenlund |
GM (Grandmaster) Peter
Heine Nielsen, international rating 2644. Click on the photo to enlarge |
Born May 24 1973. Won a
brilliancy prize in the Danish Championship event in 1987, 13 years old. 3rd
U-18 World Championship 1990. Four times winner of the individual Danish
Championship: 1996-99-2001-03. Has won a string of major events, among them
the North Sea Cup 2001, Hastings 2002/03, Sigemann 2004, and Drammen 2005,
the strongest Norwegian event ever.
PHN is a formidable team player, who has played in five teams winning the
Danish Championship. He plays in leagues all over Europe and was in the
winning team of the English teams championship 2005. After several years in
the German Bundesliga he hopes to be in the winning side in 2006. He has
played 60 games in the national team, playing 6 chess olympics and one
European Teams, losing just 6 times. He earned a silver medal for the second
best result on board 3 in Moscow 1994, and in 2005 he was top scorer on the
top board of the European Teams in Mallorca with a score of 75% - undefeated.
His overall scoring percentage is 63,33.
PHN won the internet European Championship of blitz 2005 defeating several
of the world’s best players. He is at present no. 66 on the FIDE top-100
list but invitations for still stronger tournaments show that organizers are
aware that he is on his way to the top. At the same time he is a regular
analysis partner of Viswanathan Anand – and that tells a lot about his
abilities and potential. On several occasions PHN has seconded Magnus
Carlsen, one of them being the recent successful World Cup.
PHN writes a chess column in the Danish newspaper Weekendavisen.
 Photo: Thorbjørn Rosenlund |
GM Magnus Carlsen, Norge, international rating 2625 Click on the photo to enlarge |
Born November 30 1990. One
year ago the world’s no. 226, at new year for the first time in the top-100
as no. 89 after finishing 10th in the World Cup. An impressive achievement
by the 15 year old Norwegian who thus qualified for the next world
championship cycle. MC’s first chess tournament was the Norwegian U-11
championship 1999, and since then he has made fast progress. He made his
first IM-norm in Politiken Cup 2003, soon followed by GM-norms in Holland
and Moscow(!) and then the GM-title.
In the national championship MC has been runner up the last two years. In
2005 after a gruelling play-off that was decided in quick play with 8 games
in one day during more than 17 hours before experience took out its toll in
the shape of victory for GM Simen Agdestein.
MC who has been awarded the prize “The Best Nordic Chess Player 2003-04” has
already felt the media interest. In particular after an event in Reykjavik
where he defeated Karpov in a blitz game and had Kasparov dug down in a
speed game before the ex world champion escaped with a draw to win the two
game match 1½-½. Kasparov, however, declared Carlsen to be one of the most
interesting young players in the world today.
MC travelled so much in 2002-03 that there was hardly time for school but he
revenged himself the following year as he and his parents agree that another
education is necessary before an eventual career as a professional chess
player. Also, he does not neglect his physical form, playing soccer or
skiing whenever he has the opportunity.
By the way, you can’t reach MC on a mobil phone. He has none – making it
easier to escape the media on some occasions.
 Photo: Thorbjørn Rosenlund |
GM Lars Schandorff international rating 2521 Click on the photo to enlarge |
Born April 20 1965. An
outstanding positional player who finished his GM-title winning in
Copenhagen 1995 when the Copenhagen Chess Club celebrated its 130 years
existence. LS started to play as 11 year old and represented the chess club
of Holstebro in two European and two world junior championships. He has
played the top group of the Danish Championships no less than 19 times and
won in Odense 1988. This result was at the same time his first IM-norm. Once
he has been runner up and no less than 7 times he has finished third. In
2005 he lost the semi final to the eventual winner, GM Sune Berg Hansen.
LS is a super solid team player, almost impossible to defeat, and just now
he is reigning team champion in Germany (Werder Bremen) and Denmark
(Helsinge). In the national team he has played in 6 chess olympics, scoring
40½/68.
LS writes a popular chess column in the Copenhagen newspaper Berlingske
Tidende.
 Photo: Thorbjørn Rosenlund |
IM Nicolai Vesterbæk Pedersen international rating 2516 Click on the photo to enlarge |
Born June 27 1977. A
student of politics and economics at the Aalborg University. Started to play
chess at the age of 7 in a school chess club run by his father where he, his
brother and sister were dominant forces.
He scored his first GM-nom winning the Kavala Open in Greece 2002. Later
that year he made his olympic debut, scoring a second GM-norm, and these
achievements made him “Danish Chess Player of the Year 2002”. In the Danish
Championships he came 3rd in 2003 and reached the semi final of the
knock-out championship in 2005. Further he was 3rd in the Nordic
Championship 2005 but he has some 1sts, too, among them Gent Open 2004.
Living in Aalborg a huge home crowd will be rooting for him, and their hopes
grew when he recently finished in a tie for 2nd in the Travemünde christmas
tournament.
NVP hopes soon to finalize his GM-title and to raise his elo to 2550.
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