The first rounds in Swiss tournaments tend to be relatively free of upsets. Despite the accelerated pairings the 1st round of the Reykjavik Open didn’t produce many upsets. The first upset was all the way down on the 65th board where the Faroese player Rani Baldursson (1989) managed to beat Englishman John Pigott (2326) .
The first upset should have been on a higher board though! Timofeii Krassel (2088) had been playing a great game and had a relatively simple win against IM Benjamin Haldorsen.
Despte having played 47.Qe3 which seems to set things up perfectly, after 47…Rc6 Timofeii Krassel somehow missed the easy 48.Qxg5! a puzzle-rush type of move that just ends the game. Instead he missed it and was even worse after 48.Rb1?? and soon lost after black infiltrated starting with 48…Rh6. The pain and agony of chess was on full display at the end of this game where both players were shaking heads and talking to themselves. One reminiscing what might have been and the other one presumably cursing himself for letting things get this close!
Norwegian IM Benjamin Haldorsen might survive a first round scare after all. His lower rated opponent had mate in about 14 with the fairly "PuzzleRush-ish" 48.Qxg5! …instead white played 48.Rb1?? and now black is probably better! #ReykjavikChess24 #Tactics #PuzzleRush pic.twitter.com/rrD7ZTGRA4
— ReykjavikOpenChess (@ReykjavikOpen) March 15, 2024
Another upset was in the cards on board 14. After the Englishman Oscar Pollack had sacrificed a piece with black in the French defence, his GM opponent Mert Yilmazyerli (2526) blundered with 20.Rf1??
Oscar didn’t miss 20…Bh3+ and was on his way to a nice win after 21.Kxh3 Qxf1+ 22.Kg4 h5+ 23.Kh4 Be7+ 24.Bg5 Bxg5+ 25.Nxg5 Qxa1 everything was going according to plan. Oscar was up two exchanges and getting perhaps the GM scalp of a lifetime. Black, perhaps unnecessarily, gave up one of the exchanges and was most likely still winning when the heartbreak happened.
One of those momentary loss of concentration moments all chess players know all too well. Somehow black forgot to move his rook out of the attack and played 39…Kf6?? and had to resign most likely in complete disgust after 40.Bxc8
Heartbreak for Oscar Pollack who came so close to one of the biggest upsets of the rounds only to have momentary loss of concentration to leave his rook hanging. #ReykjavikChess24 pic.twitter.com/VpBbWb60mf
— ReykjavikOpenChess (@ReykjavikOpen) March 15, 2024
The top boards got through the round relatively unscathed. Top seed Deac won on the first board but the manner of victory for the legend, Ivanchuk on 2nd board was much easier. The Chinese GM Xu won his games as did Jules Moussard. These guys will all remain on the big stage where the top 4 boards are placed.
Of the top seeds only a few lost half a point. Those included GMs Matthieu Cornette from France and Polish GM Marcin Krzyzanowski. Local GM’s Hannes Hlífar Stefánsson and Jóhann Hjartarson both lost half a point. Johanns was a topsy-turvy affair.
Lenka Ptacnikova
Jóhann had more or less outplayed his opponent Lenka Ptacnikova.
31.Qh8+?? was not good considering white had 31.Rxf7+ Kxf7 32.Qf4+ and the rook falls. After 31…Ke7 32.Rxf7+ Kxf7 33.Qxh7+ black should have lost after 33…Kf6?? when 33…Kf8 draws.
Jóhann returned the favour with 34.Dh6+?? and Lenka escaped since 34.Qh4+ wins. White will get a check on g3 or f4 picking up the c7 rook. Instead a perpetual on the 50th move was the result.
The streamers had mixed results. Zachary Saine (2010) aka Thechessnerd blundered badly in the opening with 11.a3?? against the aggressive and promising Chinese youngster Lu Miaoyi (2392).
11…e4! is not a move Lu Miaoyi will miss! White had to resign.
Ouchtown as @thechessnerd gets hit by a nasty tactic by the young Chinese phenom Lu Miaoyi #ReykjavikChess24 #Tactics pic.twitter.com/EXCSrtPwXm
— ReykjavikOpenChess (@ReykjavikOpen) March 15, 2024
The Botez sisters got off to a great start! Andrea Botez won her game against Steve Wollkind. Steve played Alexandra last year so it seems like another day at the office to get paired against a streamer! Alexandra Botez (1986) managed an upset of her own when she beat IM Karsten Jan (2323). Her first 2300+ scalp.
ALEXANDRA BOTEZ BEATS A 2300 PLAYER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HER CAREER!!!!!!!!!! ????????????https://t.co/CxXLETN1r7
????: https://t.co/JjJCUJUrZF#chess #womeninchess https://t.co/F0szLNqiVu pic.twitter.com/1cQdbAcLSv— Women's Chess Coverage (@OnTheQueenside) March 15, 2024
Swedish GM Galperin Platon went into full-troll mode when he employed the somewhat dubious Cow opening against Anna Cramling. Anna herself is one of the main proponents of this setup which still hasn’t met the approval of the world’s best players…perhaps Galperin is trying to change that or he felt confident trolling his opponent!
Results of top boards from the 1st round
The 2nd round has an early 9 AM start with a double-round day on Saturday!
Photoalbum from the 1st round (Hallfríður Sigurðardóttir)
Games can be followed live with a 15 minute delay on the following sites:
This year there is a record number of streamers with a total of 8 players streaming their games live.
- Anna Cramling streams on Twitch and Youtube with Pia Cramling commentary.
- The Botez sistersAlexandra og Andrea are also live on Twitch and on Youtube with Jon Ludvig Hammer providing commentary.
- WGM Dina Belenkaya is onTwitch and on Youtube with Julesgambit commenting
- Zachary Saine „The Chessnerd“ is onTwitch
- Tallulah Roberts „Lularobs“ is o Twitch
- Anna-Maja Kazarian is on Twitch and on Youtube
- Alexandra Prado is on Twitch
