Espen Lie (born January 3, 1984) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player who currently holds the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

, and was the Norwegian Chess Champion for 2007. He is the younger brother of GM Kjetil A. Lie. Lie plays for the chess club in

Porsgrunn is a city and municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Porsgrunn. The municipality of Porsgrunn was ...

. In the 2007 Norwegian championship, played at

Hamar Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...

, Espen Lie and Geir Sune Tallaksen (also representing Porsgrunn) shared first place with 6.5 points out of 9. The result was viewed as surprising, for Lie and Tallaksen were ranked as number 9 and 10 (out of 20) in the tournament, behind a number of grandmasters. A play-off between the two was arranged September 21–23 in Porsgrunn to determine the champion, and Lie prevailed in the sixth game after the first five games all were drawn. Espen Lie has two GM norms, the first one after 5.5/9 in an international tournament in Reykjavik, and the second after 7/9 in the 2012 Norwegian chess championship in

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

, where he tied for first with IM Frode O. O. Urkedal. Lie lost the play-off for the title after losing the first game and drawing the second. Apart from chess, Lie's training to become a teacher.

References

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* * 1984 births Norwegian chess players Chess International Masters Living people People from Porsgrunn {{norway-chess-bio-stub