Vignir Vatnar Stefansson wins Gáldar Open on the Canary Islands

Stefansson beats Sumets in the final round

Gáldar is located 21 km west of Las Palmas on the Canary Islands. Las Palmas hosted a number of world-class chess tournaments in the second half of the 20th century. Among others, the capital of the Islands hosted the 1971 Candidates' Quarterfinal match between Bent Larsen and Wolfgang Uhlmann, the 1982 Interzonal Tournament (won by Zoltan Ribli) and the 1995 PCA Candidates' Final between Vishy Anand and Gata Kamsky.

The region, which has been declared a World Heritage Site, welcomes tourists looking to enjoy the warm weather, beautiful sights and historic architecture.

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This year, the local authorities and the Canarian Chess Federation organised the first edition of the Ciudad de Gáldar Open. The 9-round Swiss open attracted 147 players from 19 different countries. The top 5 seeds were Vignir Vatnar Stefansson (Iceland, 2531), Julen Arizmendi (Spain, 2517), Andrey Sumets (Ukraine, 2517), Thomas Beerdsen (Netherlands, 2509) and Nico Zwirs (Netherlands, 2509).

Going into Monday's final round, 5 players were tied for first place with 6½ points each: Stefansson, Sumets, José 'Pepe' Cuenca (Spain, 2448), Josep López (Spain, 2448) and Aleksandr Domalchuk-Jonasson (Iceland, 2366).

The only co-leader who managed a win in the deciding round was Stefansson, who got the better of Sumets with the white pieces in a 126-move (!) encounter which saw the Icelandic grandmaster converting an endgame with bishop and 3 pawns against rook and 1 pawn. López and Cuenca signed a 13-move draw, while Domalchuk-Jonasson was defeated by Beerdsen, who thus became 1 of 5 players who got 7 points in the final standings.

Thus, Stefansson secured outright victory with 7½ points. Beerdsen and Cuenca finished second and third on tiebreaks.

Stefansson, aged 21, won his maiden Icelandic national title in 2023, when he outscored Gudmundur Kjartansson and Hannes Stefansson in the blitz tiebreakers after the 3 GMs had collected 8½/11 points in the main event. Stefansson will play on the first board for Iceland in the upcoming Chess Olympiad.

Vignir Vatnar Stefansson (third from the left) happily receiving his prize after winning the 2023 Icelandic Chess Championship in Hafnarfjordur

On his way to victory, Stefansson found a couple of nice tactical blows to finish off his opponents. Can you find White's most straightforward path to victory in this position?

Given Black's lack of development, White can win in various ways, but the most direct is 29.Nxa6+, as played by Stefansson in round 4. After 29...bxa6 30.Qb6+ Ka8 31.Rc7, there is no way to prevent checkmate.

In the first round, Stefansson had the black pieces and was putting pressure on his opponent with a queen, a rook and two bishops. But how to break through?

The forcing 30...Bxg2+ 31.Rxg2 Rf8 is winning, simply attacking the f3-pawn. However, the eventual champion went for the more stylish - and also winning - 30...Rxa5, since recapturing with the white rook deviates one of the few defenders in the setup.

There followed 31.Rc2 Rxg2 32.Rxg2 Ra2 and White resigned.

Final standings

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• 50 years ago: Bobby Fischer is the 11^th World Champion!