Magnus Carlsens blogg
Last week was quite busy. Monday 26th my father and I went to Gardermoen to welcome Garry Kasparov. He visited Norway to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum, a conference on human rights, and to participate in an event with one of my two main sponsors, SIMONSEN Lawfirm. An official visit by the russian president Dimitry Medvedev starting the same day, and the fact that Medvedev and Kasparov even stayed in the same hotel probably led to even more media attention than Garry expected.
Wednesday I went to Bergen for SIMONSEN to play blitz at their recruiting exhibition stand. SIMONSEN promised a permanent job to any student who could beat me but based on the outcome of the 26 games they will have to select a different criteria for recruiting :-) I really enjoyed the event. The opposition varied from beginners up to one Grandmaster and the atmosphere was excellent. Lots of spectators, TV 2 and other media covered the event, and I think SIMONSEN was satisfied as well.
Thursday I attended a pressconference in Sandvika to promote Tromsø' candidacy for the chess olympiad in 2014. It's now clear
that Tromsø and Albena, Bulgaria are the two candidates that have delivered bids.
I really hope that the FIDE congress will vote for Tromsø at their meeting in Khanty Mansisk during the 2010 Chess Olympiad
the coming fall.
Later the same day I attended SIMONSENS annual client event. Kasparov was the main speaker at this informal and popular gathering.
He was interviewed by TV journalist Gro Holm, and NRK Lørdagsrevyen interviewed me and covered the event in the double portrait
(of Kasparov and me) televised on Saturday.
This was another successful event. I´m fortunate to have sponsors like SIMONSEN and Arctic Securities as they are always extremely
professional in organising events.
Magnus