Gamma Reykjavik Open: The first three rounds

Accelerated Swiss surprises

The Reykjavik Open began Tuesday with 248 participants, but because of late arrivals and eight byes taken, only 120 boards were played in the first round. And because of this year's scheduled rest day, which will feature a Fischer-Random rapid tournament, this year the Reykjavik Open switched to nine rounds. That could make it harder for players hunting from FIDE title norms — for instance, the two Indian prodigies — so to help fulfil the requirements, the organiser opted for the "accelerated Swiss system".

The harbour at dusk

While I personally had expected a strong player (FM / IM) for the first round, perhaps somewhere in the upper half of the lower half, the accelerated Swiss system meant that the field was "quartered" and the two upper halves and the two lower halves were paired against each other. For the strong players, this meant that the Elo difference was not as big as the Swiss system. And for the better players in the lower half, this meant correspondingly weak opponents. The system meant that in the first round more or less surprising results were seen on individual boards.

The most prominent examples of surprise draws were seen on boards 4 and 10, with GMs Adhiban and Landa. The latter was skating on thin ice, in a wild game, and could play try to squeeze out a win in an endgame with a passed pawn, but his opponent's counterplay was just in time. Adhiban outrated his opponent by almost a whopping 375 Elo points.

Das Soham vs Baskaran Adhiban (annotations by GM Daniel Fernandez)

In round two, there were already more surprises, partly because the difference in playing strength on the top boards was not that big anymore and partly because the early start of the round at 9 o'clock might have been too early for some of the chess professional.

The 2015 Reykjavik winner, GM Erwin L'Ami (who has been in form of late, including a win against Naiditsch in the Bundesliga) suffered a significant upset. He came up against a Fort Knox French from the young English IM Ravi Haria.

Erwin l'Ami vs Ravi Haria (annotations by GM Daniel Fernandez)

The Fort Knox Variation in the French Defence

If you're one of those French Defence players who has been desperately searching for a reliable and easy-to-learn system against White's two main 3rd moves (3.Nd2 or 3.Nc3) then this is the 60 Minutes for you! The Fort Knox variation (3...dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7!

The two young Indian talents IM Nihal Sarin and IM Ramesh Praggnanandhaa started each with two wins. The Uzbek young star IM Nodirbek Abdusattorov made a draw in round two against a slightly weaker player.

IM Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Another former Reykjavik champion, the now-bearded Pavel Eljanov, was nicked for a draw by a more experienced Indian GM Kidambi Sundararajan. For fans of the Pirc / Modern, which was recently reviewed by Davide Nastasio, have a look at Gata Kamsky's game against local IM Gudmundur Kjartansson.

Click or tap the second game in the list to switch

Leningrad Dutch

On some occasions it would yield you a perfect win, on others it could cause you "shameful" defeats. This DVD is intended in the first line to offer strategical guidance for Black, based on the examination of the most typical structures.

Pavel Eljanov was the Reykjavik Open winner of 2013 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Round 3

The pairings brought some interesting "generational duels" to the top boards in the third round. On board one Nihal Sarin had to play black against top-seeded Hungarian 2700 grandmaster Richard Rapport. Sarin had to fight black for a long time on board one before reaching a well-deserved draw.

The Semi-Slav: A GM guide for the tournament player

The Semi-Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6) can arise via various move orders, has decided World Championships, and is one of Black's most fascinating replies to 1 d4. Magnus Carlsen's second, Grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen explains in detail what this opening is all about.

Richard Rapport vs Nihal Sarin (annotations by GM Daniel Fernandez)

Special guest Susan Polgar, who's arranged a Webster University scholarship to the top player under twenty years old, makes the first move on the board of Nihal Sarin and Richard Rapport

On board two, the second Indian youngster IM Ramesh Praggnanandhaa met the French Grandmaster Matthieu Cornette. "Pragg" was under pressure for a long time and was probably happy with a draw. Shortly before the end of the game, Cornette passed up a chance to give up two knights for a rook and pawn, but keep the initiative and a small edge.

Cornette vs Praggnanandhaa

Draws on the top boards reduce the number of players with perfect scores quite quickly. After three rounds, among the grandmasters, only the Turkish GM Mustafa Yilmaz, the Iranian GM (who now lives in the USA) Elshan Moradiabadi, and Vaibhav Suri from India remain with three points. But it's interesting to see that with the accelerated Swiss system, you could theoretically have seen a player as far down as board 41 and 42 still reach a perfect score.

Mustafa Yilmaz vs Eugene Perelshteyn (annotated by GM Daniel Fernandez)

Today there was be the traditional Golden Circle tour, with a special Fischer program scheduled for some participants during the day, before the fourth round at 5 pm local time (18:00 CET / 12:00 EST). 

Results of round three

Master Class Vol.1: Bobby Fischer

No other World Champion was more infamous both inside and outside the chess world than Bobby Fischer. On this DVD, a team of experts shows you the winning techniques and strategies employed by the 11th World Champion.

Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco delves into Fischer’s openings, and retraces the development of his repertoire. What variations did Fischer play, and what sources did he use to arm himself against the best Soviet players? Mihail Marin explains Fischer’s particular style and his special strategic talent in annotated games against Spassky, Taimanov and other greats. Karsten Müller is not just a leading international endgame expert, but also a true Fischer connoisseur.

All available games

Standings after three rounds

... 240 players

Live games and commentary

Commentary by Simon Williams and Fiona Steil-Antoni (when available)

Links

• Official site
• Reykjavik Open 2018 begins
• Full rankings and results (Chess-results)