Chess in Stockholm - new GM/IM norm tournaments for young talents

Chess in Stockholm - norm tournaments for young talents

Since mid-February this year, norm tournaments for (W)GM and (W)IM norm chasers have been taking place in Upplands Väsby near the Swedish capital Stockholm. Just a fifteen-minute drive from Sweden's Arlanda Airport, the First Hotel Stockholm North is a newly opened hotel that can accommodate the participants at affordable prices.

The initiator of this new tournament series is 59-year-old IM Vladimir Poley, who, together with his chess partner IA & IO Sergii Larkin, organizes monthly GM and IM round-robin tournaments with live broadcasting of the games on Lichess! Poley, the former president of the Belarusian Chess Federation from 1996 to 2001, has a long chess career and knows lots of anecdotes to tell. The organizing team was completed by another arbiter, IA Jon Ulfur Hafthorsson, who grew up in Iceland and came to Sweden as a teenager.

The close-knit organizing team includes IA (arbiter Jon Ulfur Hafthorsson (left) and IA & IO (organizer) Sergii Larkin, who ensures a smooth broadcast.

Norm tournaments for Swedish talents - but which Swedish talents actually want to play?

The idea for norm tournaments came about shortly before the turn of the year, when Poley noticed at the established Rilton Cup in Stockholm that one of his students played a strong tournament and scored a lot of points - but in the end unfortunately lacked a title holder for a coveted norm. Poley empathized with his student and soon made contact with the First Hotel Stockholm North near his home and provided excellent playing conditions for the participants in one of the hotel's conference rooms.

Within a few weeks, the first norm tournament was organized with great effort from 17 to 21 February - to the astonishment of the organizers, however, the interest of the local up-and-coming young talents was initially quite low, with only IM Jung Min Seo and IM Edvin Trost ultimately taking part in the first edition for Sweden alongside GM Vitaly Sivuk, who plays for Sweden. Otherwise, participants from all over the world took part in the tournaments - GM Kazakouski from Lithuania, GM Miezis from Latvia, IM Rohith from India, FM Bilovil from Ukraine, GM Peng Li Min from Switzerland, IM Martinovici from Moldova and IM Kanyamarala from Ireland took part in the first tournament alone. Thanks to the excellent proximity to Arlanda Airport, the journey was very easy and inexpensive, as the airport is now mainly served by Ryanair.

Hospitality is written in capital letters - “cab driver” and GM (grill master)

Even before arrival, communication with the organizers was always uncomplicated and fast, Poley personally picked up all participants from the airport and back in his car and also provided snacks and drinks during the games to create a feel-good atmosphere. The Swedish chess news site schack.se, which regularly reports on the tournament series, dubbed Poley the “cab driver” https://schack.se/nyhet/sverige/2025/05/full-fart-nar-stormastarna-sivuk-och-galperin-spelar-i-sverige/

Although there was little time for a supporting program with daily double rounds, Poley even organized a small chess barbecue at his home in a family atmosphere in the middle of the tournament after a double round, at which about half of the participants were guests - so you could add another title (GM) to “ grill master” ;-) IM Poley himself was a very strong and ambitious player in his active career, playing against former world champion Anatoly Karpov twice and drawing with him once. Against Magnus Carlsen he even has a score of 1:1 in classical games. However, he decided to pursue a career as a businessman who still loves chess and is still very active as an organizer and coach - among other things, he also brought school chess to Swedish schools in the 1990s, some of which now have huge school chess tournaments with thousands of pupils. Poley held a presentation in the Swedish Riksdag in January 2009, in the 90s there was an exchange with chess school classes from Sweden to Belarus and vice versa.

Double rounds with a short Fischer time control - a blessing and a curse at the same time?

Now to the tournament itself: the round robin tournaments normally take place in a round robin system with 9 rounds and 10 participants. When I took part in the third edition, it proved difficult to find the players or due to unforeseeable cancellations shortly before the start of the tournament, so the mode was changed to 10 rounds or a first and second round of 5 rounds each with 6 players. This led to the unique situation that you knew at the end of the game that you would meet the same opponent again five rounds later in the opposite color. In itself, this also has an advantage - you get a fair chance against everyone and can determine who is the stronger player after both games.

The time control of the tournament series is kept to 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move without additional minutes after the 40th move. The short Fischer time control is currently in vogue and is now often used even in tournaments with only one round per day. The blessing of more games in less time / fewer tournament days is obvious, but the curse is that the quality of the games usually suffers significantly as a result, which in turn could be argued to provide more excitement and there will be more decisive games thanks to 30-second time battles at the end.

Round-robin norm tournaments - a good alternative to existing Opens?

Regardless of whether it's a short or longer Fischer time control - anyone taking part in one of the norm round-robin tournaments must be prepared to meet chess-hungry talents from all over the world - good all-round chess, mental and physical preparation is therefore an absolute must. Although norm hunters pay a much higher entry fee, which depends on their own Elo and GM or IM category, compared to a normal Open (which finances the title holders who already hold the titles), in return they are challenged to the utmost in every round and, as a strong player, do not have to win a few rounds against weaker opponents to get the opportunity to play strong opponents, as is the case in Opens. Another advantage:

“The best way to improve your chess would be to play against stronger opponents.” Quote by top grandmaster Peter Svidler.

At the round-robin tournament in Stockholm, this meant six games against grandmasters (!), two games against IM Talukdar and two games against WGM Ouellet, both from Canada - pairings you can only dream of at an open! If you also have a good run and the tournament performance is right, a big rise in rating and the big dream of a (W)IM / (W)GM norm are also quite realistic.

Ukrainian GM Vitaly Sivuk, meanwhile two-time Swedish champion, who has already won two of the three GM tournaments, here in a duel with your reporter.

Another plus point: in a familiar tournament atmosphere, there is also a little more time to talk about the games and chess with your opponents after the games, after all, all norm hunters come here with a common goal - which unites.

Past editions so far

Contact information & next series: September 22-26, 2025

The latest edition of the Young Talents norm tournaments took take place shortly after the editorial deadline of the July issue from June 9 to 13. It is to be hoped that the organizing team, which puts its heart and soul into chess, will keep the tournament series alive in the future and possibly also inspire other countries/organizers to set up norm tournaments for local and international talents. If you would like to find out more about the tournament series or would like to get in touch directly to take part in a round robin tournament yourself, I can warmly recommend the tournament series. Contact details IM & IA Vladimir Poley: vipoleychess.com , poleychess@hotmail.com, phone: +46 (0) 735-793205 and IA & IO Sergii Larkin: larkin197304@gmail.com, phone/WhatsApp: +371 24553404.

The organizers announced the 5th GM norm & 4th IM norm event on September 22-26, 2025.

If you consider to take part in this event, please also check out the excellent practical guideline "What really matters when choosing a chess tournament" by Vlad_G92 beforehand: https://lichess.org/@/Vlad_G92/blog/what-really-matters-when-choosing-a-chess-tournament/2LNBiuol

Note that this article will be published originally in German in the July 2025 issue of the German chess magazine Rochade Europa).