Christian Laverton

As the “champion” of Sør-Trøndelag (this title shouldn’t be taken too serious, since the best players of Sør-Trøndelag didn’t compete for it…) and qualified to play in the master’s class in the norwegian championship, I really had no choice but to sign up for “Landsturneringa i Bergen“. To be honest I had planned to compete anyway.

Being a pessimistic human being, I very quickly started thinking about worst case scenarios. How awful it would be to lose all my games and end up last! Luckily that didn’t happen, although all my opponents were rated 150 points or more above me. I wont bore you with the details, and only mention that I scored 3.5 out of 9 points, with a performance of 1965. This gave me a 35th place of 44. Similar to TSSK NVGP I felt I could have played better, but all in all I played solid.

The trip to Bergen was really nice. One evening I went to the pub “Naboen” together with Hallvar Gisnås. This pub has an amazing selection of beer. One type, which we of course had to try, is “The deadliest ale”. It is dedicated to the Northwestern from the series “Deadliest Catch” on Discovery Channel.

Nice beer, and really strong! 14.5% alcohol. The price, 150kr for a pint!

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After winning Bondeofferet and TSSK NVGP I was suddenly the leader in the “Norske Vandrerhjem Grand Prix” (Norwegian Hostels GP). This meant I had no choice but to sign up for Tarva Chess Festival, to try to gather even more GP-points. You may ask why…well, the prize money is very good.

Tarva Chess Festival (20-21th June) was divided into two tournaments, one blitz and one rapid. In the 18-round blitz tournament I played very good, only losing to FM Kjetil Stokke and Stig Martinsen, both from Bergen. In the rapid tournament I was hoping to give the guys from Bergen a closer fight, but failed badly Thus, I didn’t get the GP-points I needed in the master’s class. However, in class 1 and class 2 I scored well, giving me the maximum score of 120 points in both.

At the end of the NVGP-season my final positions were:
Master: 3rd
Class 1: 2nd
Class 2: 2nd
This gave me prize money of 2000 + 4250 + 2500 = 8750,-
Not bad at all!!!

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The first weekend of May I competed in the student club’s 5 round long chess tournament. This tournament counted as a sort of championship for Sør-Trøndelag, meaning the winner would be qualified to play in the master class (second highest) in the Norwegian championship in Bergen.
Also, my chess friend Thomas Pronstad came to visit and play in the tournament.

Being the fourth highest ranked player, I naturally expected to be in the top part of the standings, but didn’t think too much about winning. However, I got off to a very good start, scoring 3 out of 3 the first day. I won game 1 and 3 fairly comfortable, but was lucky when Lasse Solbu blundered badly in an advantageous position in the second game.

In game 4 I played against Pål Andreas Hansen from Verdal. Being a young talent, becoming stronger every day, it’s fair to say he has passed my level. But still, he seems to have some problems when playing me (he hasn’t beaten me in long chess yet, but he sure will sooner or later…). With the advantage in the middlegame, he started making some mistakes, and soon I had a winning advantage.

Before game 5 the tension was building up inside me. I knew I would win the tournament with a draw in the last game! Here I faced Brede Hagen, with the black pieces. Again my opponent had the better position in the middlegame, but once again I was saved by a blunder! At that point, Brede offered a draw which I quickly accepted, although I could probably play on for the win.

All in all I played alright throughout the tournament, but I must admit I was quite lucky to finish first!
Anyway, that’s chess…

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