The 2 or 3 first rounds in major opens are usually “transport stages” for the best players, since they usually play considerably lower rated players and are supposed to win their way to the big battles against their peers later on. As we all know, theory and practice are different things, so the 12 super GMs with 2600+ already had to give three points away in the first 2 rounds.

After 2 rounds, 32 players were on 2/2, and as expected the highest ranking Norwegian players were among them. On the 16 highest tables, we found IM Espen Lie, FM Kjetil Stokke, FM Frode Urkedal, IM Bjørn Tiller and IM Frode Elsness. As a result, all of them met a GM in round three.

The fight on the chess boards are tightening, and after yesterday’s round 3, only 11 players have a perfect score. IM Frode Elsness is the only Norwegian, and in fact the only IM on the first 8 boards. This round is when the GMs start meeting each other in earnest.

has his first bulletin about the tournament. We also see that Susan Polgar follow us every day, and Erik Gullaksen is of course writing news bulletin as usual on Bergen Chess Club. Tobias Petterson is the tournament’s most loyal and is participating for the fifth time. He also has a blog where we gcan read about his ACC experiences. Lars Grahn’s great blog gets firsthand information from Kaj Engstrøm and has a steady flow of news from the tournament.

Yesterday the side events calendar had a city walk on the agenda, and a small video update can be found under Video in the main menu. The videos are made by Macauley.

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