Reykjavik Open: Rapport in the lead, Lenderman wins Chess960

Homestretch at the Reykjavik Open 2018

American dominates "Fischer-Random" Cup

After the fifth round "halftime" at this year's Reykjavik Open, only one player in the tournament's top ten remained in the leading group. Mustafa Yilmaz, was finally nicked for a draw against Emre Can. Yilmaz, the ninth seed, had been the only player to remain on a perfect score through four rounds after beating Suri Vaibhav. Top seed Richard Rapport gave up another draw against in-form GM Elsan Moradiabadi. The surprise was the Icelandic veteran Johann Hjartarson with his victory over Pavel Eljanov. The US duel Friedel against Kamsky ended in a draw. The young Indian Nihal Sarin impressively beat the strong Egyptian Ahmed Adly.

Ahmed Adly and Nihal Sarin

The fifth round was opened on board one by Iceland's Minister of Culture, Science and Education, Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir | Photo: Gerd Densing

The round brought a Turkish duel on top board, which ended in a draw, Aleksandr Lenderman prevailed against Hjartarson, and Nihal Sarin joined the lead group and is on course for a GM norm after another nice win over Moradiabadi. After the round, there were three players with 4½ out of 5 (Yilmaz, Lenderman and Sarin) and a dense group of 13 players with 4 points. Incidentally, on board eight we saw the "spouse duel" Cornette vs. Cornette, which ended after the minimum 30 moves for a draw, and the marriage was thus secured.

The Cornettes

The top game of the sixth round was Lenderman against Yilmaz, who split the point. Nihal Sarin played on second board and held his own against no one less than Gata Kamsky. Richard Rapport scored a much-needed win with Black against Joshua Friedel and Adhiban with White against Alejandro Ramirez. Maxime Legrande scored a point against Eugene Perelshteyn. Thus, after six rounds, there were six players with five points each in the lead.

Top results of round six

In round seven, the top seed finally got back into the pole position. Rapport knocked off co-leader Lenderman, actually delivering mate on the board.

After 23...d4 the attack got rolling with 24.h4! Lenderman's reaction 24...h6 was logical to keep the knight out of g5, but fatally weakened the g6 square. 25.Nh2 h5 26.Qg6 and White is winning.

On board two, Adhiban had the better end of a bishop ending, but was still a bit lucky to have it end so quickly when Maxime Lagarde made the curious time-trouble decision to trade into a losing king and pawn ending.

39.Bf4? Other bishop moves are far from clear but after 39...Bxf4 40.gxf4 Kg3 the Frenchman had already seen enough and resigned.

Sarin, meanwhile, gave up another half point but is still having a fantastic tournament.

It seems like a long time coming, but it actually isn't that long ago we first heard of @NihalSarin (for me, after his visit to @ChessBase in Hamburg). If he carries on, it could be the first career-defining result. So far, he has been amazing in Reykjavik. #chess https://t.co/EGRuO2VT4j

— Carsten Hansen (@CazHansen) March 12, 2018

Top results of round seven

Selected games annotated by GM Daniel Fernandez

The surprising Sicilian - Shock your opponent with an early ...Qb6

The Kveinys Variation : 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Qb6! is surprisingly little-played, yet gives Black excellent chances and on this new ChessBase DVD, Andrew Martin explains how the system works.

Standings after seven rounds (top 25)

...248 players

All available games

Aleksandr Lenderman wins Fischer-Random rapid tournament

On the day of rest of this year's Reykjavik Open, a Fischer-Random rapid tournament was held in honour of Bobby Fischer for the first time. The tournament was supported by the European Chess Union. The best European player received the title "Fischer-Random European Champion 2018". The tournament was attended by the Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, who also made the first move on the top board in a final round.

Some GMs probably played voluntarily and gladly. Other GMs would have preferred to use the rest day for recreation or preparation but were more or less indirectly forced to play — it was a prerequisite for receiving conditions from the tournament organiser. The tournament was therefore quite well attended. Nine rounds were played according to Swiss system with 10 minutes plus 3 seconds increment per move per player for the game.

The hall became remarkably quiet after each drawing of a new starting position. All players rushed to their boards quickly, followed by between 5 and 10 minutes until the first move could be played. It was as quiet as a church during prayer; one could have heard the drop of a pin. While players otherwise pass the time with small talk in this case these few minutes was devoted to "preparation" of the game,  working out a strategy the first few moves. For me as a spectator, it was always very interesting to see how, on the one hand, the concentration phase before the game was over and on some boards, similar positions emerged. Depending on the basic position and playing strength, similar or even identical strategies were chosen to treat opening from a given position.

After a thrilling drama, the American Aleksandr Lendermann won on tiebreak score with 7½ points edging out second-placer Elshan Moradiabadi, followed by Josh Friedel (7 points), also from the USA. The best European was Richard Rapport ahead of Konstantin Landa (7 points each) and Pavel Eljanov (6½ points).

The best woman in the field and thus title winner "European Fischer-Random Women's Champion" was IM Alina l'Ami who's having a great performance in Reykjavik this year. The best players under-20 were FM David Shailesh (13th, 6 points), IM Nihal Sarin (18th, 6 points) and IM Ramesh Praggnanandahaa (20th, 6 points).

It was a very nice and interesting event and the players enjoyed it very much. The Icelandic Chess Federation is considering a similar tournament in years to come, as a continuing part of the Reykjavik Open. WGM Susan Polgar was present at the awards ceremony and donated cash prizes to the tournament.

Final standings

Links

• Official site
• Full results (Chess-results)
• Gamma Reykjavik Open: The first three rounds
• Reykjavik Open 2018 begins