Jón Kristinsson mynd: skakmyndir.com
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 what, that local master just entered the tournament! Jon Kristinsson (currently rated 2290) hasn’t played tournament chess in many years but has played some correspondence chess. Jon played over the weekend in the Icelandic league and despite some rust and unlucky moments played good solid chess and probably got the urge to play more. It’s fitting to have a player from the first tournament in 1964 playing in the 50 year anniversary edition!
GM Helgi Olafsson with his book on Fischer
The head coach of the Icelandic national team, GM Helgi Olafsson is also a late addition to the tournament. Helgi has been scoring some good results recently in blitz tournaments, winning the Icelandic blitz championship and started of a recent strong GM blitz tournament with 7/7 and a 3294 performance before finishing 2nd with 7.5 out of 9. He also played very solidly for his hometown club of Westman Islands over the weekend and remained undefeated for 9 games over the season.
Helgi is also the author of a book which will be published on the history of the Reykjavik Open. Helgi also doesn’t intend to succumb in the battle for most Reykjavik Open’s played and he is now entering his 16th Open and has been joint winner of the tournament in 1984 and 1990.
