With chess world champion Magnus Carlsen among its members, Norway’s chess federation thinks it has put together the “best chess team ever” to play in the upcoming 2014 Chess Olympiad. It starts in Tromsø on August 1.
The team unveiled by the federation (Norges Sjakkforbund) on Monday includes Carlsen and grand masters Simen Agdestein, Jon Ludvig Hammer, Kjetil Lie and Leif Erlend Johannesen. “Magnus Carlsen will lead the way, but will have a great gathering of strong players behind him,” Thomas Robertsen, of the federation.
The federation also continues to mount efforts to host the next Chess World Championships in Oslo in November. The deadline for applying to arrange another meeting between Carlsen and Vishy Anand of India has already passed, without any city submitting a bid to the international chess federation FIDE.
With a new deadine expected, Carlsen’s manager Espen Agdestein (brother of grand master Simen) and the Norwegian chess federation’s president, Jøran Aulin-Jansson, met the government minister in charge of culture and sports Thorhild Widvey last week. They asked for state support to back a world championship in Oslo, which is expected to cost around NOK 40 million. Commercial sponsors are needed as well, with large companies Telenor, Yara and Statoil on the list of potential contributors.
newsinenglish.no staff
