Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are the top favourites to win tomorrow's BNbank Blitz 2009, a one-day blitz tournament in Oslo, Norway.A strong field of players will participate in the BNbank Blitz 2009 which takes place in Oslo on Saturday, November 28. Among the ten invited players is the 18-year-old Norwegian chess wonder Magnus Carlsen, who recently won the World Blitz Championship. The other contenders include Hikaru Nakamura, the 2009 US champion considered one of the strongest blitz players on the internet, Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark, the second strongest chess player in the Nordic region, Jon Ludvig Hammer who is ranked as the second strongest player in Norway and two of the strongest female chess players in the world Victoria Cmilyte, Lithuania and Monika Socko, Poland, who recently won the strongest chess tournament ever played in Northern-Norway.In the preliminary rounds the players are divided into 4 double round-robin groups. Two players from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals. The time control is 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move.Preliminary groups: 11.00 - 12.15 CET
Quarter-Finals: 12.30 - 13.30 CET
Side tournament for places: 9-16 12.30 - 14.00 CET
Semi-Finals: 14.15 - 15.15 CET
Final and Bronze final: 15.30 - 16.30 CET
Prize giving ceremony: 16.45 CET Six blitz tournaments took place on October 31st in Norway in the cities of Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Tromso, Trondheim and Porsgrunn. The winner from each city earned a spot in the final in Oslo, tomorrow, where he or she will compete against ten invited world class players for a prize fund of 74 000 NOK (app. 8700 Euros). The participants tomorrow are:
1. GM Magnus Carlsen (2802, NOR)
2. GM Hikaru Nakamura (2715, USA)
3. GM Peter Heine Nielsen (2697, DEN)
4. GM Emanuel Berg (2594, SWE)
5. GM Jon Ludvig Hammer (2588, NOR)
6. GM Kjetil A. Lie (2547, NOR)
7. IM Viktorija Cmilyte (2480, LTU)
8. GM Monica Socko (2457) POL)
9. WIM Ellen Hagesæther (2269, NOR)
10. GM Leif Erlend Johannessen (2528, NOR)
11. Anders Hobber (2132, NOR, winner of the qualifier in Porsgrunn)
12. Daniel Kovachev (2243, NOR, winner of the qualifier in Oslo)
13. FM Kjetil Stokke (2382, NOR, winner of the qualifier in Bergen)
14. Pal Andreas Hansen (2072, NOR, winner of the qualifier in Trondheim)
15. FM Vadims Daskevics (2380, LAT, winner of the qualifier in Stavanger)
16. Peter Flermoen (NOR, 2100, second place in the qualifier in Tromsø) The tournament will be covered live at
Chessbomb.
Here's the official site.