Most of the top seeds escaped the dreaded early Tuesday round relatively unharmed. The top two seeds had to concede draws however as Gawain Jones was held by Dinara Saduakassova and Nils Grandelius was held by Zhen Low. The young and super talented Alireza Firouzja therefore become the highest seed sitting on 2/2 at this early stage. Alireza won a very smooth game against the Dutch Robby Kevlishvili.
Hjartarson among 28 players with 2/2
Board 4-12 went more or less fully according to plan for the higher seeds who all won and it wasn’t until board 12 where local FM Dagur Ragnarsson gave the Dutchman Jorden van Foreest all he could handle with a risky two piece sacrifice for dangerous passed pawns. Have a look at this one!
Gretarsson suffered an upset against IM Justin Sarkar
The first of the top seeded GM’s to lose a game this round was local GM Hjorvar Steinn Gretarsson
Hjörvar seemed to be escaping from a tough game when he gave Justin the change to finish in style after white’s 44.Rb6?
Sarkar seized the opportunity and played 44…f4! when after 45.exf4 (45.Rxd6 f3! also wins for black) 45…Rxc2! ended the game.
28 players are still sitting on 2/2 but the standings will take some time to “filter out” while the accelerated pairing system is in effect.
Live commentary starts 2 minutes into the round every team and is on Twitch.tv/fionchetta, embedded on Chess24 and on the tournaments homepage.
Replay round 2 broadcast here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/408449128
