Kobalia wins Arctic Chess Challenge

Mikhail Kobalia crushed Loek Van Wely in the last round to finish on 7.5 points and share 1st place with 21 year old Manuel Leon Hoyos  winning on tiebreak.

And here is a gratuitous picture of the Women's prize winners

I ended my tournament with a rather lackluster performance against GM Normunds Miezis. After completely missing Nh4 I failed to put up any resistance. Losing your last two games with white is never good but I am not too unhappy with my result and the bright side is that it is easy to improve on the finish :-) Here is the disaster.

So tomorrow morning I am heading off to explore the sparsely inhabited Island north of Tromso. After 10 days of Luxury at the Scandic Hotel in Tromso I am again ready for the Wilderness.
Stay tuned for my Norwegian Saga Pt2