Nils Grandelius is a Chess Grandmaster from Sweden with Elo ratings exceeding 2600 from FIDE, making him one of the best Swedish chess players of all time.
Full Name: Nils Grandelius
Title: Grandmaster (1990)
Place of birth: Lund, Sweden
Born: June 3, 1993
Federation: Sweden
Ratings
World ranking: 94
Rapid: 2652
Blitz: 2617
Classical: 2655
Peak rating: 2694 – Reached in March of 2019
Peak ranking No: 44 Reached in September of 2019
Profiles
Biography
Nils Grandelius is a Swedish chess Grandmaster, born on June 3rd, 1993 in Lund, Sweden Grandelius was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2010, the International Master title in 2008, and the FIDE Master title in 2007. As of August 2022, Grandelius’s FIDE rating was 2655 while his Peak rating was 2697 as of March 2019. In his country, Grandelius still holds the record of being the highest-ranked chess player. As of September 2019, he had a Peak ranking of number 42 while in August 2022, he ranked number 94 globally.
The Beginning
Grandelius did make a great impact in his maiden competitive chess tournament when he shared 2nd place in the Under-16 Category of the 2008 European Youth Chess Tournaments. Grandelius placed fourth on countback with FM Nyzhnyk IIIya, FM Ter-Sahakyan Samwel, and IM Prohaszka Peter coming 1st to 3rd position respectively. The same year, Grandelius claimed the top spot in the Olomouc Open, a Round-robin tournament held in the Czech Republic from July 30th to August 7th, 2008. The contestants played through 9 rounds attaining a result of 6.5 points out of 9 games.
Grandelius beat notable players like GM Stefansson Hannes- who came second with 6 points, IM Luch Michal, and GM Danielsen Henrik who shared third place with a score of 5.5 points. The impressive result helped him attain his 1st norm needed for the Grandmaster title. Grandelius shared 1st spot with a similar score, coming 2nd on deciding set in the 2009 Olomouc Open tournament.
In the following year’s edition, he placed tied for first place with the same score, placing second on tiebreak behind the champion, Grandmaster Maslak Konstantin, and followed closely in third place by Grandmaster Vigen Mirumian. He also achieved the second GM norm. Grandelius earned the title of Grandmaster by finishing 3rd and final in the 40th edition of the Bosna International Championship in Sarajevo, where he ended 15th overall in the junior category having attained a score of 7 points while the winner, Wang Hao from China scored 23 points and the runner-up, Efimenko Zahar scoring 22 points. Grandelius became a bronze medalist in the U18 division at the World Youth Chess Tournament in 2010.
The following year, at the European Youth Tournaments in Albena, Bulgaria, Grandelius claimed gold in the identical age group. Grandelius finished 3rd at the 20th Sigeman & Co Chess Championship in Malmö in May 2012, after the champion, Fabiano Caruana, and the 2nd place, Peter Leko. Afterward that year, in August, Grandelius tied for 3rd place at the 2012 World Junior Tournament in Athens, finishing 4th in deciding set. Evgenij Agrest has been his trainer since 2013. Grandelius attained victory at the 22nd Abu Dhabi Int. Chess Festival Masters Tournament held from 23rd to 31st August 2015, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Reserved to players with an ELO rating of 2000 or higher except for Abu Dhabi chess participants. The contest was a 9-set Swiss format with a time limit of 90 minutes for every participant and a 30-second incremental for every stroke.
Achievements
The 2015 Swedish Chess Festival was held in the Selma Spa Hotel in Sunne, Sweden, from 1th to 19th July. The 2015 Swedish Tournament Grandmaster-Group, a 10-participant round-robin competition, was the event’s headliner. The winner was chosen by a semifinal game for the 3rd occasion in 4 years, and it’s no coincidence that Sweden’s top competitor Grandmaster Nils Grandelius was engaged for the 2nd attempt. In 2013, he was defeated by Grandmaster Hans Tikkanen in a match that proceeded through to Armageddon. Following the final set, Grandelius had a full point edge against Grandmaster Emanuel Berg, the only contender for the trophy. Just the final set clash between the two should have determined the champion. Berg had to prevail and went with the clearest tactic following 1.e4 e5, King’s Gambit Variation. After a difficult contest, he was able to seal the win and sweep it all. He achieved victory in the tournament, edging Emanuel Berg in a semifinal following the shared points for 1st place with 6.5 points of 9 games.
Furthermore, Grandelius emerged victorious in the 22nd Abu Dhabi Masters event the next month, defeating Martyn Kravtsiv, Baadur Jobava, Alexander Areshchenko, and Richárd Rapport in a deciding set. Grandelius defeated Norwegian elite players Jon Ludvig Hammer-came second with 8 points and Aryan Tari-came 4th with 2 points, as well as Women’s World victor Hou Yifan who came 3rd with 6 points, in a 4-player competition for the final slot in the Norway Chess 2016 field from March 23rd to 26th 2016. It was a two-leg round-robin competition with conventional time management on the 1st round and quick time management on the reverse fixture-25 minutes+10 second increase.
The 4 participants each contested one match of classical chess and one match of rapid chess versus the other 3 contestants. A victory in classical chess was worth three points, while a victory in fast chess was worth two points. A tie resulted in just one point, regardless if the game was classical or quick. Grandelius triumphed in both forms. He tasted the success of his 3 matches in both classical and rapid chess and tied one, totaling 12 points. Grandelius got off to a high note in the event. In the opening set of classical chess, he faced defending champion Jon Ludvig Hammer with Black and emerged victorious in an exciting match possibly due to his challenger being over-countered. In the tournament, Grandelius achieved victory after attaining a commanding 12 points.
Grandelius was among the choice of Magnus Carlsen’s backups at the 2018 World Chess Tournament final. Grandelius shared the top spot with Vladislav Artemiev at the European Individual Tournament in Skopje in March 2019, with 8.5 points out of the 11 games. On deciding set, he picked up the silver medal.
Since 2010 Grandelius has represented Sweden at the Chess Olympiads and the European Team Chess Tournament 2011. Additionally, Grandelius competed in the World Team Chess Tournament in 2019.
Grandelius Other Notable Achievements
- Won the bronze medal at the Under-18 World Youth Chess Tournament in 2010.
- Won the gold medal at the Under-18 European Youth Tournament in Albena, Bulgaria.
- Emerge the winner at the Swedish Chess Tournament in 2015.
- Won at the 22nd Abu Dhabi Masters Championship in August 2015.
Did you enjoy reading about Nils Grandelius? If you did, you might be interesting in reading other player profiles such as Arkadij Naiditsch, Rauf Mamedov, and Rey Enigma.
Sources
- http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml?ina=1&country=SWE
- http://chess-results.com/tnr14808.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30&wi=821
- http://chess-results.com/tnr24298.aspx?lan=1&art=1&flag=30&wi=821
- http://chess-resucom/lts.tnr39341.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=11&flag=30&wi=821
- http://en.chessbase.com/post/sigeman-caruana-wins-sigeman-with-2852-performance
- http://chess-results.com/tnr178422.aspx?lan=16&art=1&rd=9&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984
- http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/4-tournaments/11502-vladislav-artemiev-became-the-european-champion-.html
- https://en.chessbase.com/post/carlsen-vs-caruana-an-interview-mit-rustam-kasimdzhanov-second-of-caruana