Historical review at Gausdal Høyfjellshotell:
The Tennis Hotel and the Mecca of Chess in the Nordics
Starting in 1937, annual tennis tournaments were organized at Gausdal Høyfjellshotell. The chess tournaments began in the 70s. Gausdal built up an international reputation as an arena for well-known tournaments.
By Åse Kari Gravråk
- The tennis courts were covered with courses and tournaments throughout the main season, says former hotel director Andreas Smith-Erichsen. - We had to build a third court in the mid-60s so that "ordinary people" would also have the opportunity to play.
Jan O. Gundersen
From 1963, the tennis legend Jan O. Gundersen had courses and gatherings throughout the summer at Gausdal. He is considered one of the most legendary tennis coaches in Norwegian tennis history.
- Gundersen was in the breach the whole time, continues Andreas. - But I would also like to mention Hans Jevnhagen, who was employed as office manager at the hotel and keen tennis player. He and Gundersen were two zealots who really stood by and kept it all going. Without such cranks, it would have stopped.
Gausdal was early
In Norway, tennis was already an exercise sport at the end of the 1870s, and the Norwegian Tennis Association was founded in 1909. In 1900, Gausdal had two lawn tennis courts, the third was completed the following year. These courts were useful until 1936, when they were converted to clay courts and the game of tennis was taken more seriously.
Tournaments and championships
In addition to the Holmenkollen Tennis Club's gausdal tournaments, which had the largest participation in the country after the tennis NM, Ullern and Sundbyberg (Sweden) tennis clubs had their regular family tournaments at Gausdal. Holmenkollen Tennis Club had its first Gausdal tournaments in 1938, ´39 and ´40. The Høyfjellsmesterskapet, an open elite tournament organized by the Oslo club Njård, was held at Gausdal from 1958. Another memory is the Nordic women's national championship in June 1967, which opened in snow and gale, continued the next day in sour "autumn weather" and ended on the third day in glorious sunshine and 25 degrees heat. From 1970, the circuit championship for Hedmark and Oppland Old boys was added to Gausdal.
Bridge
There have also been many bridge tournaments at the høyfjell hotel. Previously, bridge had been organized at Winge Turisthotell in Tretten, but when the hotel burned down in 1957, the tournaments were moved to Gausdal.
- There could be up to 100 participants who played bridge over the course of a week, says Andreas. We had up to three tournaments a year, we added them to the autumn and after Easter, thus allowing us to extend the seasons.
Chess comes to Gausdal
- Here you play both bridge and tennis. Why not chess? It was a journalist from
Morgenbladet who asked. - We don't know how to play chess, we just know that there are some pieces that are moved on a board, answered Andreas. - But maybe we can try?
Arnold J. Eikrem
Two months later, a man called Arnold Johann Eikrem from the Jarl chess club in Trondheim called, they agreed to try a tournament. - It started small and nice and got worse very quickly, says Andreas. - It turned out that Eikrem was very well known in the international chess community.
Vladimir kramnik
Eikrem later became known for all the Gausdal tournaments that he organized in the period 1970-1996, a total of 187 tournaments.
- Russia had superb chess players, including Vladimir Kramnik, who has many tournaments behind him at Gausdal, continues Andreas. - Kramnik "escaped" in Norway, but the family remained in Russia. In order to get his family out of Russia, an action committee was formed that worked against the Russian authorities to get the family out of the country. It ended with the family being allowed to come to Norway. The initiator behind the committee was Arnold J. Eikrem.
- It is this effort that Eikrem made to help Kramnik's family out of Russia, which I remember particularly well, clarifies Andreas. - And what it meant for Norwegian chess that a Norwegian could become so central in the international chess environment at that time.
Arnold J. Eikrem was honored as honorary gausdøl in 1991.
Important start for Magnus Carlsen
- When Magnus came here and started playing chess as a 9-year-old, he was so small that he had to have two extra cushions on his chair to reach the chessboard, recalls Andreas. - But he played the trick of most even then!
Great significance
The traditional chess tournaments at Gausdal must also have been very important for Magnus Carlsen at a young age to receive opposition from a high national and international class. Former president of the Norwegian Chess Federation, Lars Torstein Bae, stated in an interview with GD in 2013:
- As far as I remember, Magnus participated for the first time in 2000, and since then he played a significant number of tournaments in Gausdal. Magnus himself has emphasized several times that these tournaments meant a lot to him when he was on his way up. I remember him at the very beginning playing some tournaments where he was the lowest ranked. Therefore, he suffered some losses. On the other hand liked he to go skiing. The Carlsen family used the chess tournaments in Gausdal as an outing. It was Hans Olav Lahlum who organized and ran the big chess tournaments in Gausdal during the years Magnus Carlsen played there.
Per Audun from Gausdal
Not many Gausdøls can boast of a chess tournament at Gausdal, but Per Audun Øvstehage took part in several tournaments in his younger days.
- I met, among other things, Rune Djurhus, one of the Norwegian grandmasters. I beat him! But then he was a boy of 10-12 and I was in my 20s. He played for Elverum. It was a lot of fun. Simen Agdestein was there and many top players from all over Europe. There were a number of originals that wandered the chess community. Some of the international players thought that Gausdal was the capital of Norway, they did not know of any other places in Norway.
Per Audun participated in three Norwegian championships, in Kirkenes, Gausdal and Oslo. In the NM 1981 in Kirkenes, he was No. 13 out of approx. 100 participants.
Chess Holmenkollen
"Since the end of the 80s, the vast majority of international tournaments in Norway, and in ever increasing numbers, have taken place here in Chess Holmenkollen, also called Chess Mecca in the Nordics," says the book Chess Holmenkollen (1997).
Source: Ivar B. Blekastad, 125 years during the Skeikampen (2001)