The Norwegian organizers decided to get out of the Grand Prix Tour this year, but this didn't keep them from arranging a gathering of champions in Stavanger. The line-up is impressive and, despite ther last-minute withdrawal of Sergey Karjakin - the Challenger - the tournament is strong and promises ten days of amazing chess. The super-tournament starts April the 19th at 10AM EDT - 16:00 CET.

Here is the list with the participants: Player Country Rating Magnus Carlsen  Norway 2851 Vladimir Kramnik  Russia 2801 Anish Giri  Netherlands 2790 Levon Aronian  Armenia 2784 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave  France 2788 Veselin Topalov  Bulgaria 2754 Pavel Eljanov  Ukraine 2765 Chao Li  China 2792 Pentala Harikrishna  India 2763 Nils Grandelius  Sweden 2649

 

ICC will have full coverage of the Norway Chess, with live commentary, GOTD service and the usual trivias and contests.   Here is the line-up of the ICC's dream team of commentators: Date Day/Time (EDT) Round Host Analyst 04/19 Tuesday/10AM 1 GM Ron W Henley GM Alex Yermolinsky 04/20 Wednesday/10AM 2 IM John Watson GM Ronen Har-Zvi 04/21 Thursday/10AM 3 IM Christof Sielecki GM Lars Bo Hansen 04/22 Friday/10AM 4 GM Pablo Zarnicki GM Jon Speelman 04/24 Sunday/10AM 5 GM Daniel King GM John Fedorowicz 04/25 Monday/10AM 6 IM Vojislav Milanovic GM Max Dlugy 04/27 Wednesday/10AM 7 IM John Watson GM Larry Christiansen 04/27 Thursday/10AM 8 IM Christof Sielecki GM Joel Benjamin 04/28 Friday/10AM 9 Mark Crowther GM Alex Yermolinsky