It’s safe to say that people are looking forward to the 2014 Reykjavik Open which will open its 50 year anniversary edition tomorrow! Today the organisers and some volunteers were busy setting up the tournament hall in the lovely playing hall of the Harpa playing venue. Players were showing up and this year we have…
Today we got some late additions to the tournament. In an older news piece on the actual 50 year anniversary day of the first Reykjavik Open we told you about a game Mikhail Tal played against a local master when instead of succumbing to a repetition he sacrificed his queen for two pieces! Well guess…
If you haven’t already…do check out this illustrated tournament report by Alina L’Ami http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009075/the-chinese-are-coming-the-chinese-are-coming-080313.aspx
World Junior Champion Alexander Ipatov has written an article about his Reykjavik Open 2013. He also played in 2012 so he can make some comparisons. He was very happy with his time here and praises the organisation and gives credit to some of the people working really hard on the tournament, ICF President Gunnar Bjornsson…
It’s always nice to read what players are thinking about so it’s a pleasure to point you to these two excellent articles on the experience of two different but closely related players. First we offer Gawain Jones’s article. Gawain has now played the Reykjavik Open three times and two seasons in the Icelandic league so…
Lisa Orlova was one of many competitors in they 2013 Reykjavik Open. She has a chess channel on YouTube and did some interviews while she was in Reykjavik. Here is her interview with local IM Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson who missed a chance at a GM norm in the last round.
With some games still to be finished the final result of the tournament is clear. Pavel Eljanov and Wesley so finish on top with 8 points after their mutual draw but Amin Baseem managed to catch up with his last round victory. Therefore we have the 3 winners from 3 continents. Eljanov has the best…
It’s clear that one of the winners of Reykjavik Open 2013 will be named Wesley So or Pavel Eljanov. If one of them wins, that same player is a clear winner. If they draw some people can catch up. So the question is, if Eljanov gives the early offer “I offer a draw” will Wesley reply…
What do these results from the 8th round have in common? Alexander Ipatov – Ding Liren 0-1 Wei Yi – Vachier-Lagrave 1-0 Bartosz Socko – Hannes Stefansson 0-1 Hjörvar Grétarsson – Sopiko Guramishvili 0-1 Sebastien Mazé – Wang Jue 0-1 Cherednichenko – Aman Hambleton 1-0 Well, so what do the players in bold and losers…
With modern technology and internet, the question has become: Is it enough to look up your opponent in the chess databases? Going beyond that and googling/youtubing his opponent, IM Gretarsson would have found out that WGM Sopiko Guramishvili might have a thing for the Slav, well at least according to the above screenshot from…
