Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson wins Icelandic Championship

No draws for the champion

In August 2020, Iceland was one of the first countries to organize its national championship as an over-the-board tournament. The 108th edition of the championship was held about nine months later in Kópavogur, Iceland’s second-largest municipality by population. The city is located south of Reykjavík and is part of the Capital Region.

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Fischer liked to play aggressive but basically sound lines against the Sicilian and many of his variations are still very much alive and a good choice for players of all levels.

Defending champion Guðmundur Kjartansson was among the participants, as was 13-time champion Hannes Stefánsson, who won the tournament for a last time in 2019. The rating favourite, however, was 27-year-old Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson (rated 2588).

The playing hall in Kópavogur

Going into the final round Grétarsson was leading the tournament with 6 points despite having lost against both of his closest pursuers — Jóhann Hjartarson (5½) and Kjartansson (5/8). 

Playing black against Stefánsson, second-placed Hjartarson obtained a 48-move victory.

White is a whole rook up, but Black’s three connected passers not only threaten to promote but also to create mating nets. After thinking for 7 minutes, Stefánsson played the clever-looking but mistaken 48.Rd5. Probably the experienced grandmaster was mostly calculating 48...Nxd5 (28..Rxd5 is bad for Black as his strongest threat is to play ...Rg1), when after 49.cxd5 Rg1 50.Ke2 d3+ 51.Kxd3 Rxf1 the rook endgame is drawn.   

Chess Endgames 9 - Rook and Minor Piece

Endings with rook and minor piece against rook and minor piece occur very frequently, even more often than rook endings, yet there's not much literature on them. This endgame DVD fills this gap. The four different material constellations rook and knight vs rook and knight, rooks and opposite coloured (and same coloured ) bishops and rook and bishop vs rook and knight are dealt with. In view of the different material constellations Karsten Mueller explains many guidelines like e.g. "With knights even a small initiative weighs heavily".

What Stefánsson had missed is that Black can simply ignore the fact that his rook is en prise on g5 and immediately push his pawn with 48...d3

White resigned. Capturing the rook on g5, of course, loses to 49...e2+, while 49.Rxd3 fails to 49...Rg1 50.Rxe3 Rxf1+ 51.Kd2 Rd1+ 52.Kxd1 f1Q and the queen and knight are unstoppable.

In the first diagrammed position, Stefánsson needed to go for 48.Ra4, activating the other rook to create counterplay against the black king.

Hannes Stefánsson v Jóhann Hjartarson

Hjartarsson’s victory meant Grétarsson needed to win to get first place, since a draw would have given Hjartarsson tournament victory based on the first tiebreak criterion — direct encounter; Hartarsson defeated Grétarsson in round 2. The eventual champion had a superior position against Sigurbjörn Björnsson.

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Bjornsson, playing black, is already in trouble, and his best chance in this position is to grab the pawn with 45...Rxf4, looking to create counterplay on the kingside. Much like Stefansson in the aforementioned game, though, he chose the wrong rook manoeuvre to find himself in a lost position — 45...Rc7 is too passive, as White will be the one creating threats against the opposite king after 46.h6 while Black is no longer in time to create counterchances.

Grétarsson won the game in 60 moves, securing sole first place.

Final standings

All games

Links

• Official site