Kjetil Aleksander Lie

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Kjetil Aleksander Lie (born November 18, 1980) is a Norwegian chess player, and Norway's eighth International Grandmaster (GM). Representing the chess club in Porsgrunn, Lie is the first Norwegian GM not from the Oslo vicinity.

Lie started playing scholastic chess at the age of eight. In 1994 he won the Norwegian championship for the cadet age group (14 to 15 year olds). He won the Open Norwegian Championship in 2000, and finished first in the top age group in the Norwegian Youth Championships every year from 2000 to 2003.

In 2002, Lie was awarded the title of International Master. The required three Grandmaster norms came in the Norwegian team chess championship of 2003 to 2004, Politiken Cup in Copenhagen in 2004, and Smartfish Chess Masters in Drammen in December 2004 and January 2005. Even after these norms, Lie had still not achieved the required Elo rating of 2500 until he won the first two rounds in a local tournament in Porsgrunn at the end of February 2005. These wins gave Lie a rating of 2500.5, and it did not matter that Lie immediately proceeded to lose the third game.

Lie's playing style is aggressive and sacrificial, and he is known as a dangerous tactician. With White, Lie has varied between 1.c4 and 1.e4, with Black he prefers sharp defenses such as the Sicilian Defense and Benoni Defense.