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The Reykjavik Open 2015 will be held for the 30th time from March 10th to March 18th 2015 in Harpa, the 28.000 sqm. concert hall. The 2015 tournament is expected to be very strong and will double as celebration of the 80th birthday of legendary Icelandic Grandmaster and former FIDE president, Fridrik Olafsson.
The 2014 Edition was voted the 2nd best open tournament in the world by ACP. Only Gibraltar was higher on the list.
The City of Reykjavík has sponsored the tournament since its inception in 1964, when Mikhail Tal won it with a record 12½ points out of 13. The tournament was initially held every two years, but has since 2008 taken place every year. It was closed i.n its early years, but has been an open event since the 1980s. Throughout its history the Reykjavik Open has featured many of the strongest chess players in the world at the time, including Mikhail Tal, Nona Gaprindashvili, David Bronstein, Vasili Smyslov, Bent Larsen, Friðrik Ólafsson, Mark Taimanov, Lev Polugaevsky, Jan Timman, Victor Korchnoi, Samuel Reshevsky, Anthony Miles, Nigel Short, Hikaru Nakamura, Judit Polgar, Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana and Hou Yifan.
Round Nine
The penultimate round of the Reykjavik Open 2015 was filled with exciting games of chess. Erwin L’Ami continued his dream run in the tournament scoring a win against Hrant Melkumyan and taking his tally to 8.5/9. He is now 1.5 points ahead of others and has thus won the tournament with one round to spare. In this report, we bring you five games annotated by Sagar Shah along with recommendations through which you can improve your game.
The decisive match. Erwin l'Ami beat Hrant Melkumyan to seal the deal in Reykjavik.
The most important game of the day. The question on everyone's mind was, "Can somebody stop Erwin L'Ami?" The Dutch player had simply outrun the field and was leading by a full point with 7.5/8 at the start of the penultimate round. In the ninth round he was up against Hrant Melkumyan.
[Event "Reykjavik Open 2015"] [Site "Reykjavik ISL"] [Date "2015.03.17"] [Round "9.1"] [White "L'Ami, Erwin"] [Black "Melkumyan, Hrant"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D85"] [WhiteElo "2605"] [BlackElo "2676"] [Annotator "Sagar Shah"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "1r1r2k1/p3pp1p/6p1/qp1Pb3/2p1P3/2P3P1/P1QB1PKP/1R1R4 w - - 0 20"] [PlyCount "121"] [EventDate "2015.03.10"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] {L'Ami played the topical line of the Rb1 Grunfeld and reached the above position after 19 moves. How do we assess this position? The most important factor are the majorities. White has a central majority while Black has one on the queenside. The problem for Black however is that is going to take him time to get his queenside majority rolling while White is all ready to go f4. It is also clear that currently the black bishop on e5 is superior to the one on d2. But it need not be the case after White gets in f4-e5. Hence, Erwin's next move comes as a surprise to me.} 20. Bf4 $6 {Erwin exchanges the important e5 bishop with his own passive bishop on d2 but this weakens his kingside pawn structure. A fact that will make it difficult for him to advance his central majority.} ({Very natural seems} 20. f4 $5 Bg7 21. Be1 {To keep c3 defended and to protect the d5 pawn with the rook.} e6 22. d6 (22. dxe6 fxe6 23. e5 Bf8 24. Bf2 {looks pretty promising for White but after} Rxd1 25. Rxd1 Rd8 26. Rxd8 Qxd8 $15 {Black seems to be alright.}) 22... Qb6 (22... e5 23. Rd5 $1 exf4 24. gxf4 $16) 23. e5 {It looks clearly better for White but Black has the strong move} f6 $1 24. Qe4 fxe5 25. fxe5 Qb7 $13 {White's e5 pawn is beginning to fall.}) 20... Bxf4 21. gxf4 Qc7 22. Qc1 {Just by having a looks at the position it should be clear that Black has absolutely no problems here.} a5 23. a3 b4 $6 {Too impatient. Melkumyan should not have released the tension so soon.} ({Better would have been} 23... e6 $5 {getting rid of the potential central passer.} 24. dxe6 fxe6 25. Rxd8+ Qxd8 26. Qe3 Qd6 $11 {And Black seems to be doing pretty well.}) 24. axb4 axb4 25. Rxb4 Rxb4 26. cxb4 {White wins a pawn. Black has excellent compensation in the form of his c-pawn but it should only be enough for compensation and not for an advantage.} c3 $6 (26... Rb8 $5 27. d6 (27. Qc3 Qxf4 $11) 27... exd6 28. Qc3 Qb7 29. Qxc4 Qxb4 $11 {would end in a draw.}) 27. Qe3 Rb8 28. Rc1 c2 29. Qd2 Qc4 $6 (29... Rc8 {keeping the strong pawn on c2 was imperative.}) 30. Qxc2 Qxb4 31. Qd3 $16 {The complications have ended. White is just a simple pawn up and he played excellently to increase his advantage.} Qa4 32. Rc4 Qd7 33. h3 Qd6 34. e5 Qd7 35. Rd4 Qb7 36. f5 Rd8 37. Kh2 Qb2 38. Qe3 Qc2 39. fxg6 hxg6 40. d6 exd6 41. exd6 Qf5 42. f4 Rd7 43. Kg3 Kh7 44. Rd2 Qb1 45. Qd4 Qe1+ 46. Kg2 Qe6 47. Qe5 Qc4 48. f5 Qc6+ 49. Kh2 Qf3 50. fxg6+ fxg6 51. Qd4 Qf5 52. Re2 g5 53. Re5 Qg6 54. Rd5 Qe6 55. Qd2 Qf6 {Erwin has played fantastic chess upto this move. He had a very nice way to finish off the game which he misses.} 56. Kg2 (56. h4 $3 g4 (56... gxh4 57. Rh5+ Kg7 58. Qg2+ $1 Qg6 (58... Kf7 59. Rh7+ Ke8 60. Qg8+ $18) 59. Rg5 Rxd6 60. Rxg6+ Rxg6 61. Qe4 $18 {With an easy win for White.}) 57. Qd3+ Kg7 (57... Qg6 58. Rh5+ Kg7 59. Rg5 $18) 58. Qd4 $1 Qxd4 59. Rxd4 Kf6 60. h5 (60. Kg3 $2 Ke5 $11) 60... Kg5 61. Rd5+ Kf4 62. Kg2 Ke4 63. Rd2 Kf4 64. h6 $18) 56... Qg6 57. Kg3 Qf6 58. Qd3+ (58. Qe3 $1 {A strong move that takes control of all the important squares. Black is almost in a zugzwang. His rook cannot move as the pawn will advance. His king cannot go to g7 or g8. Kg6 will be met with Kg4! when the king takes part in the attack.} Kg6 59. Kg4 $18) 58... Kg7 59. Qd2 Kg6 60. Kg2 (60. Kg4 {cannot be played because of} Qe6+) 60... Kh7 61. Qe2 (61. Qe3 $1 {With the idea of bringing the king up was unusual but very strong.}) 61... Kg7 62. h4 $6 {Erwin finally takes the break but the positioning of his pieces is not the most optimal.} Rxd6 $1 63. hxg5 Qe6 $1 64. Qb2+ Kf7 {Black has now equalised completely. It is impossible to win here if Black plays accurately but when the game goes on for so long and with so much pressure it is easy to go wrong.} 65. Qb7+ Qe7 $2 {A bad mistake by Melkumyan.} (65... Kf8 $1 $11) 66. Rf5+ $1 Ke8 67. Qb8+ $1 ({Also winning was} 67. Qc8+ $1 Qd8 68. Qc4 $1 {And only computers can find moves like these.} Rd2+ 69. Kf3 Qd3+ (69... Rd3+ 70. Ke4 $18) 70. Qxd3 Rxd3+ 71. Kg4 $18 {is a winning rook endgame.}) 67... Qd8 68. Qb5+ Qd7 69. Qb8+ Qd8 70. Qb5+ Qd7 71. Qe2+ Kd8 72. Rf8+ Kc7 73. Qc4+ Rc6 (73... Qc6+ 74. Qxc6+ Rxc6 75. Kf3 $18) 74. Qf4+ Qd6 {Black has no choice but to exchange the queens. The rook endgame is just losing.} (74... Kb7 75. Rf7 $18) (74... Kb6 75. Qb4+ Ka7 76. Qa4+ Kb7 77. Qa8+ Kb6 78. Rb8+ Kc5 79. Qa3+ Kd5 80. Rd8 $18) 75. Kg3 Kd7 76. Qxd6+ Rxd6 77. Kg4 Ke7 78. Rf1 Rd8 79. Kh5 Rg8 80. Kh6 {A grimly fought battle. Once again Erwin's fighting qualities and will to win helped him emerge victorious. With this win, he takes his tally to 8.5/9 and has won the tournament with one round to spare.} 1-0
The most impressive feature of the game was the way in which L’Ami made use of his central pawn majority. If you would like to learn the technique of playing with the central majority, then this DVD is for you.
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Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won an opposite colored
bishop endgame (with rooks) against Jacek Stopa
This game between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Jacek Stopa was a very wierd one. Stopa has been playing excellently in this tournament and has already made a GM norm with a round to spare. Mamedyarov on the other hand is of course a world class player. Yet in the first 20 moves, both of them commit loads of inaccuracies and mistakes.
[Event "Reykjavik Open 2015"] [Site "Reykjavik ISL"] [Date "2015.03.17"] [Round "9.5"] [White "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"] [Black "Stopa, Jacek"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D41"] [WhiteElo "2756"] [BlackElo "2544"] [Annotator "Sagar Shah"] [PlyCount "39"] [EventDate "2015.03.10"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 cxd4 $5 (5... exd5 6. g3 {would lead to the normal lines of the Tarrasch.}) 6. Qxd4 exd5 7. Bg5 (7. e4 {is the other option in this position.} Nc6 8. Bb5 dxe4 9. Qxd8+ Kxd8 10. Ng5 Be6 11. O-O Bb4 12. Ncxe4 Nxe4 13. Nxe4 Ke7 14. Be3 Rhd8 $14 {Twelve positions have reached this position with nine draws and three wins for White. So this is a solid line but with almost no winning chances for Black.}) 7... Be7 (7... Nc6 $6 8. Bxf6 $14) 8. O-O-O $6 (8. e3 {is much better and the main move in the position.}) 8... Nc6 9. Qa4 Be6 (9... Qb6 $1 {Would have given Black quite a comfortable position out of the opening. For eg.} 10. e4 dxe4 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. Qxe4+ Be6 13. Bc4 O-O 14. Bxe6 fxe6 15. Qxe6+ Kh8 {With excellent compensation thanks to the strong f6 bishop.}) 10. e3 $6 (10. e4 $1 {Would have given White a nearly winning position. It is very surprising that Mamedyarov missed this simple move.} O-O 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. exd5 $18) 10... O-O 11. Qb5 $2 {A very bad move. White already was worse but this move should have simply ended the game.} Qb6 $2 {Excessive respect for the opponent? How else can you explain a move like this?} (11... a6 $1 12. Qe2 {If this is the best option for White then the position should be lost.} (12. Qb3 d4 13. Qc2 Nb4 14. Qb1 Qa5 $19) (12. Qa4 b5 13. Qc2 Rc8 $19) (12. Qxb7 Na5 $19) 12... Qa5 $19) 12. Bxf6 $1 {Now Mamedyarov is not only back into the game but also holds the advantage.} Bxf6 13. Nxd5 Bxd5 14. Rxd5 Nb4 15. Qxb6 axb6 16. Rb5 Nxa2+ 17. Kb1 Ra4 18. Ne1 Nb4 19. Nd3 Nxd3 20. Bxd3 $14 {White is as good as a pawn up due to the doubled black pawns and went onto to win the game after a few moves. The mutual mistakes made by both the players in the opening were pretty unusual at such a high level.} 1-0
The opening employed by Jacek Stopa was surely not a main stream opening. Often it happens that our opponents employ such systems which leave us clueless as we have never studied it before. The series on ChessBase Opening tutorials can be quite useful. The series has five DVDs. If you are looking for a DVD that covers what Stopa played in this game and everything related to d4 d5 from both the colours including Queen’s Gambit Declined, Slav, Ragozin, Catalan etc., this DVD can be very useful.
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Zhansaya Abdumalik should be congratulated for scoring an IM norm in this tournament. If she would have beaten Abhijeet Gupta in the ninth round, then she would have made a GM norm.
[Event "Reykjavik Open 2015"] [Site "Reykjavik ISL"] [Date "2015.03.17"] [Round "9.8"] [White "Gupta, Abhijeet"] [Black "Abdumalik, Zhansaya"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A35"] [WhiteElo "2625"] [BlackElo "2379"] [Annotator "Sagar Shah"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/6k1/3N4/2K1p3/8/P1n5/8/8 w - - 0 56"] [PlyCount "25"] [EventDate "2015.03.10"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] {Winning this game and making a GM norm is not possible for Zhansaya because the position on the board is almost a draw. I say 'almost a draw' because knights are very bad against the rook pawns. So White has some practical chances here but with accurate play black should hold the draw.} 56. Kb4 Nd5+ 57. Kc4 Nb6+ 58. Kb5 Nd5 59. Ne4 Kg6 $6 (59... Kf7 {was the easiest way to draw.} 60. Kc6 Ne7+ 61. Kd6 Ke8 62. a4 Kd8 63. a5 Nf5+ $1 64. Kxe5 Ne3 65. Kd4 Nf5+ 66. Kc5 Kc7 $11) 60. Kc6 Ne3 $2 {The final mistake. The pawn runs through now.} ({It was still possible to draw with} 60... Ne7+ 61. Kb7 Kf5 62. Nc5 e4 $1 63. Nxe4 Kxe4 64. a4 Nd5 65. a5 Nb4 $11) 61. a4 Kf5 62. a5 Nc2 63. Kc5 $1 { Black knight has been dominated.} Kxe4 64. a6 Kd3 65. a7 e4 66. a8=Q e3 67. Qf3 Kd2 68. Qd5+ {A tragic loss for the young girl but a lesson for all of us to be careful in knight endgames when facing rook pawns.} 1-0
Finally I have to share this game with the readers for an amazing king walk that was orchestrated by the White player. Its move number 13 and the game ends in another 11 moves. Out of those 11, six are made by the White king!
[Event "Reykjavik Open 2015"] [Site "Reykjavik ISL"] [Date "2015.03.17"] [Round "9.21"] [White "Sarkar, Justin"] [Black "Hamitevici, Vladimir"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E39"] [WhiteElo "2376"] [BlackElo "2450"] [Annotator "Sagar Shah"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "rn1q1rk1/pb1p2pp/1p2p3/2b2p1n/2P5/P1N2N2/1PQ1PPPP/2BRKB1R w K - 0 13"] [PlyCount "23"] [EventDate "2015.03.10"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 13. e4 $1 {Gaining space in the center and opening up the f1 bishop.} Bxf2+ $6 {A bold decision by Hamitevici. This sacrifice can only be refuted by a daring outing of the White king.} 14. Kxf2 (14. Qxf2 $2 fxe4 $15) 14... fxe4 15. Nxe4 Qh4+ 16. Ke3 $1 {Of course the knight on e4 had to be defended.} (16. Ng3 Nxg3 $17) 16... Qf4+ 17. Kd4 $1 {Here is a king that is leading from the front!} ( 17. Kf2 Qxe4 $15) 17... Qf5 (17... Nc6+ 18. Kc3 $18 {would lead nowhere.}) ( 17... Qg4 {was an interesting try.} 18. Bd3 Bxe4 19. Bxe4 d5 20. Ne5 Qxe4+ 21. Qxe4 dxe4 22. Kxe4 $16 {Thanks to the beautifully centralised knight and the king, White keeps an advantage.}) 18. Bd3 Nc6+ 19. Kc3 d5 20. Neg5 Qf6+ 21. Kb3 g6 22. Ka2 {The king has made a long but a very successful journey from e1-f2-e3-d4-c3-b3-a2! And after the days of danger, he can finally breathe a sigh of relief.} Rac8 23. Rhf1 Na5 24. Nxh7 {The final position is a picture of harmony for White. A very nice game and both the players must be congratulated for playing in bold and uncompromising fashion.} 1-0
Hansen and Eljanov split the point on the second board
Gawain Jones and Alexander Fier also finished in a draw
GM Eric Hansen, from Canada
Daniel Naroditsky is using this Open as preparation for the super strong and upcoming US Championship
Hrant Melkumyan: the latest of the victims in Erwin l'Ami's wake
A nice thematic pen
Sahaj Grover from India
Idani Pouya from Iran
Jon Ludvig Hammer is almost Norway's strongest player. Only one player above him.
When the weather tends to be gray, vibrant colors are pleasing to the eye
The harbor
Close to Harpa
Julio Granda taking a stroll in the playing hall
The Northern lights, in the middle of the city!! I still cannot believe we saw them just like that, while walking with the winner to the restaurant: I was glued to the monitors before and just couldn't do anything else but watch Erwin's game... at some point I thought I should go to the playing hall and bring him some tea... but why tempt destiny?! So I stayed in the room, biting my nails, and in the end we got rewarded - a full point and Northern lights, for which I always wanted to book a tour but never managed to get around on doing it.
Standings after round nine
| Rk. | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | Rp | n | rtg+/- |
| 1 | L'ami Erwin | NED | 2605 | 8.5 | 2952 | 9 | 30.1 |
| 2 | Eljanov Pavel | UKR | 2727 | 7.0 | 2718 | 9 | 0.4 |
| 3 | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | AZE | 2756 | 7.0 | 2743 | 9 | 0.1 |
| 4 | Fier Alexandr | BRA | 2601 | 7.0 | 2728 | 9 | 15.7 |
| 5 | Naroditsky Daniel | USA | 2633 | 7.0 | 2683 | 9 | 7.5 |
| 6 | Gupta Abhijeet | IND | 2625 | 7.0 | 2666 | 8 | 4.7 |
| 7 | Hammer Jon Ludvig | NOR | 2651 | 7.0 | 2608 | 9 | -2.2 |
| 8 | Libiszewski Fabien | FRA | 2514 | 7.0 | 2676 | 7 | 13.7 |
| 9 | Hansen Eric | CAN | 2566 | 7.0 | 2674 | 9 | 12.9 |
| 10 | Jones Gawain C B | ENG | 2642 | 7.0 | 2627 | 9 | -0.4 |
| 11 | Navara David | CZE | 2736 | 6.5 | 2687 | 8 | -2.3 |
| 12 | Gao Rui | CHN | 2533 | 6.5 | 2595 | 9 | 9.0 |
| 13 | Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn | ISL | 2554 | 6.5 | 2584 | 8 | 4.1 |
| 14 | Melkumyan Hrant | ARM | 2676 | 6.5 | 2602 | 9 | -5.3 |
| 15 | Danielsen Henrik | ISL | 2514 | 6.5 | 2519 | 9 | 2.6 |
| 16 | Jussupow Artur | GER | 2573 | 6.5 | 2616 | 8 | 5.6 |
| 17 | Wang Yiye | CHN | 2433 | 6.5 | 2486 | 9 | 8.5 |
| 18 | Maze Sebastien | FRA | 2564 | 6.5 | 2666 | 7 | 9.7 |
| 19 | Pakleza Zbigniew | POL | 2498 | 6.5 | 2559 | 9 | 8.9 |
| 20 | Stefansson Hannes | ISL | 2560 | 6.5 | 2585 | 8 | 3.6 |
Pairings Final Round
Don't forget you can follow the action live on our www.playchess.com server.
Photos by Alina l'Ami
Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games
LinksThe games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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Know the Terrain Vol. 3: Central Majority
ChessBase Tutorials Openings # 03: Queen's Gambit and Queen's Pawn games
