My Rating as of September 2009

To have a rating, you need 10 games. Usually, the larger tournaments have 9 games. So, for those of us not playing club chess, but only entering the larger tournaments, we are a little bit out of luck. As of now, with 9 games completed I have no rating. I will have to wait until my next tournament which will be the next Norwegian Chess Championship in July 2010.

So, my rating as of September 2009, with 9 games played, is 0. That places me at number;

87 out of 99 players in Trondheim Chess Club and
2674 out of 3217 registered players in Norway.

Stealing the Headlines /2

I haven't played as a true member of Trondheim Chess Club since the 1980's. But on the few occations where I have played in tournaments, I have done so through their chess club. This time was no different. But having been away from the club for nearly 25 years, they do not know me, and I barely remember a few of the oldtimers by their name. In that sence it was a little strange seeing their news article on the Norwegian Chess Championship 2009, and finding out that I did the best play in the tournament out of their members that participated. I'm guessing that "who is this guy?" might be the question of the week.

16 players traveled from Trondheim Chess Club to participate in the tournament. I'm not sure if that is a good percentage or not. 10 days or more is a lot of vacation days just to play chess. At least if the rest of the family is not that interested. Anyway, I feel a little guilty for "best play", but for family members that might find it interesting I am posting it. And yes, I know, it's a personal little "ego trip".

"From the table (score) we see that Gaute Ferstad had best finish with 2nd place in Class 5. He and Jarl Ulrichsen stood for the best score with 7 of 9 points."

Pictures from the NCC 2009 Tournament Including the City of Bergen

I took a lot of pictures during the 10 days the tournament lasted. And so did my wife. Maybe too many. Because it has taken quite some time to figure out which pictures to delete, which pictures to keep and which pictures to upload to the web. I have now uploaded the pictures from the tournament itself. It does show the atmosphere and that's what I want to show. Yes, there are quite a few pictures of myself. But then again it's my album and will be used for more than this blog.

A lot of time was used googling the different websites posting albums. After days googling Picasa vs Flickr and others, negative forum views and limitations, I ended up with a Norwegian website called Expono. So here goes.
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The Norwegian Chess Championship 2009 in pictures. Click the link or just click the icon / picture below. More pictures will come from the sights from the city Bergen, where it all took place and maybe some of the drive itself.

139 pictures from the tournament itself.

Stealing the Headlines /1

Pictures are from the Norwegian Chess Magazine Nr 4, 2009.
Picture 1: The cover page showing GM Kjetil A. Lie from Porsgrunn Chess Club, which won the Norwegian Chess Championship 2009 with 6.5 out of 9 points.
Picture 2: Page 20, showing Henning Lohne from Bergens Chess Club, which won Class 5.

I used to get this magazine in the mail in the 1980's. And trust me when I say, it looked different. Now, it really looks like a magazine. This edition has it's focus on this years Norwegian Chess Championship. My focus is on page 20. The title is Class 5 "Good without Rating". This is true. Without a rating (there are exceptions), you end up in the lowest class, Class 5. Usually, there are always somebody that's better than the rating range, ranging from 0-999. This sucks, pardon my french, for those close to the upper limit of the range and maybe hoping for a medal. But usually the non rated players dominate in the top of this class. I checked the history of the U.S. Open Chess Championship and their lowest class was an unrated class. That would not be feasable here in Norway.

Anyway, my point is this. It's as official as can be. The funny thing is this. The article on page 20 is about Henning Lohne, but the headline is almost all about me. And lets not forget the YouTube games. Which makes my day. Henning gets the article, which is the way it is supposed to be, but I am at least mentioned. The magazine came in the mail on September 5th. My last post on the tournament was August 13th. At this time I have not told anyone about my TouTube videos nor my Chess Blog. So it is great having it being discovered.

Translation from the article headline :
"As usual the unrated dominated on top of class 5. Both the gold medalist Henning Lohne and the silver medalist Gaute Ferstad are relatively new in tournament play, but they played well and they definately know how to play chess. For a more detailed look into this class you can go into YouTube, where Ferstad has uploaded all his tournament games with thorough voice over comments."

Here is a link to the magazine itself, Norsk Sjakk Blad, Nr 4, 2009.