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The 29th edition of Reykjavik Open got under way this afternoon at Harpa, Reykjavik’s spectacular concert hall. There are finally 255 players (a new record!) from 35 countries taking part and with as many as 91 titled players this promises to be an extremely exciting and hard-fought tournament!
As expected, there were very few upsets on the top boards, with the notable exception of Daniel Abrahams (2055) holding Li Chao B (2700) to a draw on board 2. This might be due to the fact that Li Chao B, like Amin Bassem, Samy Shoker and young Chithambaram Aravindh, was participating in the very strong Cannes Open, which ended just 2 days ago. Playing two such strong tournaments in a row is hugely tiring and it will be interesting to see how Li Chao B recovers from this.
Some boards further down there were three decisive upsets with Tinna Kristin Finnbogadottir (1921) taking out FM Mate Bagi (2385) and Elise Forsa (1830) beating FM David Bekker-Jensen (2299). Now that is what I call girl power! Finally down on board 110 Marius Roets (1437) managed to overcome Runar Berg (2117) but with the help of the dreaded “Vodafone Gambit” since Runar’s phone went off!
Tomorrow is the much dreaded double round and the top seed grandmasters will already be facing 2300 opponents in the morning round, which will start at 9:30. Double rounds are especially prone to interesting games, so make sure you don’t miss any of the live action!
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