Hikaru Nakamura (2657)

Not since the days of Bobby Fischer has US chess seen a talent like 17-year-old Hikaru Nakamura. His coach and step-father Sunil Weeramantry has seen him break a number of Fischer’s records. In 2003, he became the youngest US grandmaster ever at the age of 15 years and 79 days, beating Fischer’s record by three months. His older brother Asuka is also a strong chess player.
         Nakamura’s final break-through came in the 2004 world championship knock-out tournament in Tripoli, Libya. He defeated several strong grandmasters before being knocked out by Michael Adams, who went on to reach the final. Later the same year he won the US Championship by winning both tie-break games against Stripunski.
         Nakamura is a very aggressive player and fights hard even in losing positions, something that has upset a number of opponents but also has scored him some miraculous points.
On the latest FIDE rating list he has made big leap forward and very soon the US number one will no longer be an ex-soviet player. Nakamura is of course one of the favorites to win this year’s tournament.

Krishnan Sasikiran (2642)

Krishnan Sasikiran is the strongest player in the new generation of Indian chess players following the success of Viswanathan Anand. He is second on the Indian rating list and in the absence of Anand he played on the first board for India in the 2002 Chess Olympics. In 2002 he also became the first Indian player in many years to beat Anand and later on the same year he won the Asian championships.
        Sasikiran is 24 years old and comes from Chennai (formerly Madras) in Tamil Nadu in south-eastern India. He plays frequently in Europe and won the Politiken Cup in Copenhagen in 2003. He has also won a number of tournaments in India and plays a lot of Internet chess. Last year he won a big online tournament by defeating the Ukrainian prodigy Sergey Karyakin in the final.
        Sasikiran is mainly a positional player but does not play many quick draws. He is visiting Sweden for the first time and is one of the favorites in this year’s tournament.

Curt Hansen Denmark (2633)

In 1983, when 18-year-old Curt Hansen defeated the legendary Bent Larsen in a rapid chess match, he had already won the Nordic Championship. The following year, he won the Junior World Championship, but it was not until 1992 that he passed Larsen on the international rating list. During the nineties, he was undisputedly Denmark’s best chess player, but in the last few years, Peter Heine Nielsen has finally caught up with him.
Hansen is very solid and has been a key player in his club in the German Bundesliga, SG Porz. In 2003, he was the top scorer of the Bundesliga with an impressive 12 out of 15.
         Curt Hansen has won the Nordic Championship twice and is a frequent participant in Sigeman & Co Chess tournament. He played in the second tournament (1994), where he finished second to Ferdinand Hellers. Since then, he has participated a total of seven times, and last year he shared first place with Peter Heine Nielsen.

Viorel Iordachescu (2609)

The Moldavian grandmaster Viorel Iordachescu is not well known to chess fans in Scandinavia. However, he is an active player who during the last two years has played chess on the Bahamas, as well as in Dubai, England, Holland, Italy, Libya, Romania and Spain. In the Tripoli knock-out world championships he survived the first round but was eliminated by Sergei Rublevsky in the following round. In an open tournament in Holland he finished half a point behind the winner Krishnan Sasikiran, another participant in this year’s tournament. In the recent Aeroflot Open he scored 5.5 points in 9 rounds and finished just a point behind the winner.
          Twice in a row, Iordachescu has qualified for the knock-out stage in a large Internet competition arranged by the Association of Chess Professionals. However, after having reached the final stage he ran out of luck both times. The first time he was due in Dubai and was replaced by another player, the second time his Internet connection gave up on him. Despite these accidents he is still a very active Internet player.
          Iordachescu celebrates his 28th birthday during the tournament and plays in Scandinavia for the first time.

Jan Timman (2607)

Jan Timman might be remembered as one who almost became a world champion. He shares this fate with players such as Paul Keres, Bent Larsen, and Victor Korchnoi.
        Timman has twice reached the final stage of the World Championship qualification tournament, but both times he was denied a World Championship match, losing against Anatoli Karpov in 1990, and Nigel Short in 1993. When Nigel Short and Garri Kasparov decided to play their 1993 match outside FIDE, the World Chess Federation, Timman finally got his chance. Timman played Karpov for the World Championship, starting in Dutch Zwolle and finishing in far-off Djakarta. In a match surrounded by problems, Timman lost.
        In the next World Championship qualification round, the last of its kind, Timman made it to the quarter-finals, where he lost against Valeri Salov.
         In addition to playing chess, Timman is also engaged in organizational matters, as a board member of the now defunct GrandMaster Association (GMA). When Bessel Kok organized a reunion meeting for the GMA and FIDE, his trusted advisor Timman was by his side.
        Jan Timman is also a well-respected chess writer, having written several books, and is the chief editor of "New in Chess", the world's leading chess magazine. He makes his seventh appearance in the Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament.

Sune Berg Hansen Denmark (2553)

When Sune Berg Hansen won the Excelsior Cup in Gothenburg in 1998, he became Denmark's seventh grandmaster. The following year, he tied for first place with Peter Heine Nielsen in the Danish championships, but lost in the playoff. In 1999, he also won the Hamburg Open.
         In 2000, after finishing among the top three in the Nordic world cup qualifying tournament in Reykjavik, Berg Hansen qualified for the New Dehli world championship knock-out tournament. This great adventure ended in the first round, where he lost to Russia's Andrei Charlov (0.5-1.5).       
         In 2002, he finally managed to win the Danish championship. He used to play for Lunds ASK in the Swedish league but nowadays he plays for his home club Elsinor, and for Hamburger SK in the German Bundesliga. He no longer plays chess full time but in the 2004 Politiken Cup he scored an impressive 7.5 points in 10 rounds. He has a weekly chess column in the Danish newspaper Politiken and is a frequent speaker. He often participates in chess exhibitions, simultaneously playing a number of opponents.

Tiger Hillarp-Persson Sweden (2533)

Tiger Hillarp-Persson made a name for himself on the international chess scene when he won the Copenhagen Open in 1998. He secured the grandmaster title with an impressive result in the Elista Chess Olympics and then won the Nordic Championships in 1999.
          Hillarp-Persson’s greatest asset at the chess board is his fighting spirit and his ability to focus – he is a tiger at the board as well. He is not interested in quick draws and has an uncanny talent for finding the moves that no one else sees, which makes his games very interesting to follow.
         Tiger is a very active player who plays in open tournaments with great success. He has won tournaments in places like Guernsey and the Faroe Islands, and has represented Sweden in several Chess Olympics.
        Hillarp was born and raised in Malmo, but represents Skara SS in the Swedish chess league. After a disappointing result in last year’s tournament he will definitely be out for revenge.

Davor Palo Denmark (2525)

Not since the youth of Curt Hansen and Peter Heine Nielsen has Danish chess seen a talent like 19-year-old Davor Palo. At the Danish championships in 2003 he had to settle for second place behind Peter Heine Nielsen, but his 6½ points out of 9 were enough to secure him his first grandmaster norm at the age of seventeen. When he was chosen for the Danish national team that same year he became the youngest chess player ever to represent Denmark in the Chess Olympics.
         In the 2004 Gausdal Masters GM tournament he scored 6 points in 9 rounds for a second grandmaster norm. He came close to his third and final grandmaster norm in last year’s chess Olympics but his 7 out of 11 put him just short of the title.
          Palo has been known as a solid player who seldom lost, but has sharpened his game and is now considered to be very dangerous. One of his best assets is his ability to shake off a defeat and come back fighting even harder the next round. He is hoping to secure the grandmaster title.

Jonny Hector Sweden (2513)

Jonny Hector started playing chess at a relatively late age, 14, but became a very good player in just a few years. He quickly became popular with the amateur players, since he managed to combine brilliant attacking chess with romantic opening choices like the Goring gambit and other opening favorites of the 1800s. He is even rumoured to have been seen playing 1.h4…
         Today, his choice of openings is less spectacular, but he is still a very creative and aggressive player. As always, his games should be full of interesting variations and fierce battles, keeping the commentators busy.
         In the early stages of his career, Hector played almost non-stop. Few grandmasters have played more tournaments than Hector. He had a lot of success but spent many days traveling.
         He became a father last year and took a break for the first time in many years. A couple of months ago, he made his comeback and his results so far show that the break did him good. So far, he has scored 7 points out of eight for his club Limhamns SK in the Swedish League.
         Hector was born in Malmo, but has lived in Denmark for many years. He is Limhamn chess club’s only player in this year’s Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament. He participates for the eleventh time, which makes him the most frequent player in the history of the tournament.

Emil Hermansson Sweden (2432)

International master Emil Hermansson has never before faced competition like this. However, his goal is probably not to win the tournament. It will instead be to secure a grandmaster norm.
          This task will be hard, but not impossible. Emil is an experienced player who has trained with Vassili Ivanchuk, one of the previous winners of the Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament. He has also assisted Ivanchuk in his preparations for various tournaments.
          Hermansson has scored a number of impressive results in the last five years and he often shines against lesser opponents. It will be interesting to see how he does against a number of strong grandmasters.