Three Icelanders have joined the foreign guns at the top of the table with 2 out of 2 after the first round of the day, they are Throstur Thorhallsson, Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson and Guðmundur Kjartansson. Today is the dreaded double-round day and many players used the opportunity to take the one bye that is allowed during this tournament to avoid the morning round.
In the third round we start to get Grandmaster clashes on the top boards. Anish Giri meets Alex Smith and Vachier-Lagrave is black vs Simon Williams after a very hard fought victory this morning. Icelandic Champion Throstur Thorhallson has to defend the black pieces vs Bu Xiangzhi and they will have a feel for each others style after playing twice in the rapid match between Iceland and China last weekend.
Most eyes will be focus on Fridrik Olafsson vs David Navara as Fridrik returns from his bye to meet the Czech Super-GM who had to allow a draw vs Mammadova from Azerbaijan in the 2nd round.
The 2nd round was quite hard-fought. Vachier-Lagrave had to battle hard vs Thorfinnsson like we mentioned earlier and Dagur Arngrimsson made Anish Giri work hard for the full point as well.
This round had several surprising results and the Icelandic youngsters performed well. The 11 year old Nansý Davíðsdóttir defeated a German player despite a 400 rating point difference. Gauti Páll Jónsson did the same to Bjarni Sæmundsson and Dawid Kolka and Veronika Steinunn Magnúsdóttir drew much higher rated players.
This day is especially interesting as the Icelandic Music awards will be handed out tonight during the 3rd round and those not using earplugs might be a bit distracted. This will be the only two rounds allowing such excuses!
