Berg who is Sweden’s youngest Grandmaster had a very successful 2006 chess year. After two years in the low to mid 2500’s, he shot up 40+ points to land right near the 2600 milestone mark. Among his achievements were second place in the strong SM Gruppen (8/12), winning a closed event in Spain (7/10), and high placing with 7/11 in the European championships. He has a very aggressive and dynamic style – quite contractual to the older generation of Swedish grandmasters (Berg is almost an ‘anti-thesis’ of Ulf Andersson).

A family man and a father of two chess professional, Emanuel is a member of his national Olympic team (he scored a lukewarm 5.5/10 in Turin), and also a club and team member of the Sollentuna SK, which recently won the Swedish team competition. As a junior player, he represented his country several time in youth world competitions.

Berg’s recent upswing must be enough of a motivation for him to try and clinch this event – a feat that would nudge his ELO across 2600.