Fish Packer From The Frozen North Becomes Greenland's First Chess Champion

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The story of Egon Mattaaq, who lives in Greenland's far north where he experiences both polar darkness and midnight sun, will warm your heart.

Greenland has its first national chess champion—a 24-year-old from the far north who works night shifts as a fish packer.

Egon Mattaaq, from Upernavik Chess Club, was crowned the winner of the autonomous territory's inaugural event this week.

The tournament was organised by Greenland's chess federation, the Kalaallit Nunaanni Skakkertut Kattuffiat (KNSK), which was only founded in 2014 and became a member of FIDE just two years ago.

In a sparsely-populated country, putting on a national tournament was a struggle, but the KNSK pulled it off.

The championship marks a historic milestone for Greenlandic chess. For the first time, chess players from several cities were brought together in an official national championship, where Greenland's large geographical distances were overcome with a new online platform skak.gl.

"It is a great day for chess in Greenland," a spokesperson for the KNSK said. "We have shown that it is possible to bring together players from across the country in a serious and official tournament, even though we live far apart."

The tournament ran from April 24 to 26 and was played over seven rounds with 10 participants and a total of 35 games.

Mattaaq, who holds a 1525 standard rating with the KNSK, finished first with 6/7 points, ahead of Hans Christian Dahl with 5 and Carl Fleischer in third place with 4 points.

The final standings of the Greenland Chess Championship.

Mattaaq's victory is also an inspiring story about how modern chess can be developed in new ways in Greenland.

His hometown Upernavik is way up north, where both polar darkness and midnight sun appear. The number of inhabitants was 1,064 in 2024. The largest income comes from fishing and hunting.

Mattaaq works night shifts at the state-owned seafood company Royal Greenland packaging frozen fish and managing the computer.

He is a self-taught chess player who has only been playing chess for four years. Since then has reached an impressively high level through a combination of YouTube videos, daily online training and many games played.

Mattaaq's performance shows that talent, discipline and digital opportunities can take Greenlandic players far—even without access to traditional chess environments in larger cities.

Greenland's relatively-new federation has big ambitions. It encourages chess players across the country to join existing or found chess clubs and the next big step on the historic journey is the establishment of a Greenlandic national chess team, and participation under its own flag in international tournaments.

Maybe one day, we'll see a Greenland team compete at the FIDE Chess Olympiad.

Full final standings and a cross chart from the tournament can be seen here.