Carlsen takes on all rivals One of the highest-rated fields of all time
By Malcolm Pein, Chess correspondent
11:25AM GMT 06 Feb 2013
Stavanger in Norway will host one of the highest-rated tournaments of all time from May 7-18. The Norway Chess tournament will include world number one Magnus Carlsen, who will be challenged by the next seven players in the rating list, plus Wang Hao of China and Carlsen’s friend and countryman Jon Ludvig Hammer. I can only recall one previous event which boasted the world’s top eight rated players. Wijk aan Zee 2001 had the world’s top nine.
With an average Elo of 2776, the Norway Chess event is just fractionally below this year’s Tal Memorial, which averaged 2776.4. The Candidates’ tournament taking place in London next month will average over 2786. It will be interesting to see if Carlsen manages to cope with the pressure of playing on home soil.
More here.
