There are parts in the world where, during a certain period of the year, the sun never sets. The northern Norwegian town of Tromsø, which lies well within the Arctic Circle, is one such place.

Tromsø is also becoming famous as a chess venue with the growth in popularity of the Arctic Chess Challenge and now becoming an official candidate city to host the 2014 Chess Olympiad - and last week, a large delegation from the Sports Board and athletic federations in Norway met in Tromsø to discuss - among many things - future sporting issues and the Chess Olympiad bid.

In Norway, chess is classed as a sport with equal billing among all the other activities. And world #1 Magnus Carlsen is regarded as the biggest sporting star in Norway, and he was on hand in Tromsø last week to help their 2014 Chess Olympiad bid. And to kick things off, Carlsen played a special exhibition blitz match for the national TV media with Sigurd Rushfeldt, one of the country's top soccer stars and avid chess player. To view the NETT-TV coverage of the event (in Norwegian), click here.

  ICC Arctic Chess Challenge qualifier

GM Alex Fier

ICC recently ran a qualifier tournament for the Arctic Chess Challenge that was won by the young Russian grandmaster Dmitry Andreikin (Vladimirovich), who beat Indian grandmaster Laxman Rajaram (INDIAN-ELEPHANT), 9-7 in the final after their scheduled six-game match went to tiebreakers. Andreikin though will be the Russian candidate to play in the all-important World Junior championship which clashes with the Arctic Chess Challenge, and he - regretfully - had to decline his invite to Tromsø. Likewise his defeated finalist, Laxman, cannot make the trip due to his work commitments in India, so the ICC qualifying spot passes goes to Brazilian grandmaster Alex Fier (Fier), by virtue of losing in the semifinals to Andreikin. Full details and scores of the ICC Arctic Chess Challenge qualifier can be found by clicking here.