The 12th edition of the Norway Chess Tournament will be held from 27 May to 8 June in Stavanger, Norway. The prestigious tournament will this year be played in a slightly different format inauguring an equal female tournament which will be played simultaneously with the Open tournament. Each section will gather six, instead of ten players, who will compete in a double round-robin tournament.
The two parallel events will be held under the exact same format and equivalent prize fund. “Our aspiration is for the tournament to serve as an inspiration for young female chess players to pursue a professional career. Furthermore, we hope that other super tournaments will follow suit, organizing women’s events with prize money on par with the open class“, explained Norway Chess Project Manager Benedicte Westre Skog and Norway Chess Founder and Chairman Kjell Madland.
World No1 Magnus Carlsen tops the line-up of the Open section and plays for his sixth Norway Chess crown this year. Hikaru Nakamura is the third seed and will be there aiming to repeat his success from last year when he won the Norway Chess, Reigning World Chess Champion Ding Liren, World No2 Fabiano Caruana, World No6 Alireza Firouzja, and the Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa R complete a very strong battlefield.
The first Norway Women’s Chess Tournament gathers reigning Women’s World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun, World No2 Humpy Koneru, World No4 and World Women’s Championship challenger Lei Tingjie, World No7 Anna Muzychuk, one of the most perspective Indian female players Vaishali Rameshbabu, and legendary Pia Cramling.
Norway Chess 2024 – Players in the Open section:
- Magnus Carlsen (Norway), 2830, World No. 1
- Fabiano Caruana (USA), 2804, World No.
- Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 2788, World No. 3
- World Champion, Ding Liren (China), 2776, World No. 4
- Alireza Firouzja (France), 2765, World No. 6
- Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (India), 2748, World No. 11
Norway Chess 2024 – Players in the Women’s event:
- Koneru Humpy (India), 2554, World No. 2 among women.
- Lei Tingjie (China), 2550, World No. 4 among women.
- Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun (China), 2547, World No. 5 among women.
- Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), 2525, World No. 7 among women.
- Vaishali Rameshbabu (India), 2481, World No. 14 among women.
- Pia Cramling (Sweden), 2437, World No. 31 among women.
The absence of Russian and Belarus players is notable and Norway Chess maintained its policy of excluding players from Russia and Belarus in each edition held after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
