2015 Politiken Cup

Oddly enough, one of the reasons why last years numbers were down at the ANU Open (as opposed to this years good turnout) was due to a tournament on the other side of the world. The 2014 Politiken Cup in Denmark was scheduled to run just before the start of the Chess Olympiad, and so a number of strong Australian players used it (instead of the ANU Open) as a warm up.
This years event did not have the benefit of serving as a lead in for the Chess Olympiad, but it seems not have troubled the event, which has attracted a record field. Having a quick look at the tournament home page I can see why it is such a success, as apart from the main event, there are lectures and simuls for players to take part in. The line up of lecturers is quite impressive, with Timman, Sune Berg Hansen and  Agaard amongst the talent. There is even a lecture from Chessbase about how to use Chessbase effectively, which I am sure will be very popular.
As for the hordes of Australian's playing, this year it is down to 1. IM Justin Tan (who is based in Europe) is taking part, and after a 3/3 start has slowed down a little to sit on 3.5/5. With such a large field (431 players) 5 rounds is still not enough to separate the leaders and their are still 4 players with 5/5. The tournament is showing around 60 games live, and with online commentary, it may just be the distraction I need from what is turning out to be a catastrophic start for Australian in the cricket!