Chess News

Norway Chess eliminates clock increment for 2019 edition

AltiboxThe Altibox Norway Chess Tournament has introduced some major changes in its competition system for the 2019 edition. Most notably, the drawn games will continue with the Armageddon to determine the winner, while the time control will be G120 without increments.

The organizers are excited about the new format, while the fans’ reaction is mixed.

GM Samuel Shankland tweeted:
“Excited to see @NorwayChess trying a new format with tiebreaks after drawn games! Maybe it’s genius, maybe it will fall on its face, but it definitely deserves to be tried. Props to them for trying to increase excitement while still maintaining the integrity of classical chess.”

Press release:

Norway Chess has since its inception in 2013 aimed to increase the commercial aspects of chess in order to bring chess to new fans around the world.

Norway Chess is the first chess tournament screened on national live television in Norway. Norway Chess introduced innovative aspects to chess tournaments such as the confessional booth, unique playing venues, and commercial sponsorships.

New format

We are now introducing a new, exciting playing format. The overall goal is to create a tournament with fewer draws per game, create more excitement for spectators and put more pressure on the players.

How it works

Each player will have 2 hours on the clock per game, without any increments.

2 points will be given for victory, ½ point for draw and 0 points for loss.

The players that have games that end with a draw will continue in an Armageddon play-off only a few minutes after their game. The player with the white pieces will continue with white in the Armageddon game. With this, there will be a winner in each game due to the fact that black pieces will win if the game ends in a draw. The winner in the Armageddon play-off gets 1 point.

The Armageddon games will not add to the rating of the players, only contributing to the results list in the tournament, which is FIDE rated.

Players will get following points per round:

Victory main game: 2 points
Loss main game: 0 points
Draw main game & loss Armageddon: 0,5 point
Draw main game & victory Armageddon: 1,5 points

The 7th edition of Altibox Norway Chess will take place June 3-15, 2019.

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