L'Ami's rampage continues

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 Eight

Bo.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.	Name	Rtg
1	Granda Zuniga Julio E	2646	6	0 - 1	6½	L'ami Erwin	2605
2	Eljanov Pavel	2727	6	½ - ½	6	Naroditsky Daniel	2633
3	Hansen Eric	2566	6	½ - ½	5½	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2756
4	Navara David	2736	5½	0 - 1	5½	Fier Alexandr	2601
5	Melkumyan Hrant	2676	5½	1 - 0	5½	Maze Sebastien	2564
6	Stopa Jacek	2544	5½	½ - ½	5½	Movsesian Sergei	2665
7	Hammer Jon Ludvig	2651	5½	1 - 0	5½	Danielsen Henrik	2514
8	Jones Gawain C B	2642	5½	1 - 0	5½	Idani Pouya	2496
9	Pakleza Zbigniew	2498	5½	½ - ½	5½	Gupta Abhijeet	2625
10	Grandelius Nils	2603	5	1 - 0	5	Galego Luis	2461
11	Abdumalik Zhansaya	2379	5	1 - 0	5	Steingrimsson Hedinn *)	2530
12	Preotu Razvan	2447	5	½ - ½	5	Cornette Matthieu	2585
13	Jussupow Artur	2573	5	1 - 0	5	Gunnarsson Jon Viktor	2443
14	Stefansson Hannes	2560	5	½ - ½	5	Esserman Marc	2426
15	Arngrimsson Dagur	2366	5	½ - ½	5	Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn	2554
16	Le Roux Jean-Pierre	2548	5	0 - 1	5	Norowitz Yaacov	2422
17	Gao Rui	2533	5	½ - ½	5	L'ami Alina	2393
18	Rasmussen Allan Stig	2532	5	½ - ½	5	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2357
19	Grover Sahaj	2519	5	1 - 0	5	Hauge Lars Oskar	2380
20	Libiszewski Fabien	2514	5	1 - 0	5	Nguyen Thai Dai Van	2338

All results...

What a victory for Erwin l'Ami, and one that came with sweat and suffering. Julio Granda, the Peruvian magician, was conjuring up a positional victory slowly but surely, outplaying his Dutch rival and reaching a pleasant endgame. But Granda faltered and l'Ami took advantage of it in an excellent way. He won a piece, and with this extra piece he ground down Granda in an endgame that was far from trivial.

Eljanov was unable to beat Naroditsky, while Hansen was held to a draw by Mamedyarov. This means that l'Ami is a full point ahead in the standings and that there is a huge contingency of people with 6.5/8 that follow him. This does not include Mamedyarov, who only has 6.0/8, or Navara, who fell to the powerful Aleaxndr Fier.

Ex-World Championship candidate Artur Jussupow also played a fine game and used one of his pet lines to beat Jon Viktor Gunnarsson.

lf you are interested in this variation, Nigel Davies has a DVD for you:

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Level: Advanced, Tournament player
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Torre Attack, with 1.d4 followed by 2.Nf3 and 3.Bg5, is a solid and easy to learn opening system with hidden dynamic potential. An understanding of the plans and ideas is more important than a precise knowledge of variations which means that it can be played for a lifetime without the need to worry about shock moves or surprises. These are amongst the reasons that several great players have been attracted by the Torre, including those with such diverse styles as Tigran Petrosian and David Bronstein.

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An interesting endgame occurred in the game between Hannes Stefansson and Marc Esserman.

Impressions by Alina l'Ami

The reason the night owls, alias the chess players, can
be seen during breakfast in this tournament... the view is incredible!

Expect the unexpected in Reykjavik, at least concerning the weather

Oh, did I mention the view?

A sculpture close to the playing hall

Erwin l'Ami continues on his winning streak with 7.5/8

Julio Granda from Peru

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is 1.5 points behind the leader

Hammer won an important game and is tied for second

Alexander Fier with a huge victory with Black over Navara

Sergei Movsesian was unable to overcome Jacek Stopa

Very unusual material balances were seen in this game

Eric Hansen with a draw against the number one seed

Danya Naroditsky feeling tired after eight long rounds

Another view of the playing hall

Standings after round eight

Rk.	Name	FED	RtgI	Pts.	Rp	n	rtg+/-
1	L'ami Erwin	NED	2605	7.5	2931	8	24.1
2	Eljanov Pavel	UKR	2727	6.5	2741	8	2.5
3	Fier Alexandr	BRA	2601	6.5	2742	8	15.1
4	Naroditsky Daniel	USA	2633	6.5	2691	8	7.2
5	Jones Gawain C B	ENG	2642	6.5	2634	8	0.2
6	Hansen Eric	CAN	2566	6.5	2671	8	10.8
7	Melkumyan Hrant	ARM	2676	6.5	2666	8	0.7
8	Hammer Jon Ludvig	NOR	2651	6.5	2609	8	-1.9
9	Stopa Jacek	POL	2544	6.0	2637	8	10.8
10	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	AZE	2756	6.0	2714	8	-2.2
11	Libiszewski Fabien	FRA	2514	6.0	2593	6	6.9
12	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2625	6.0	2650	7	2.8
13	Granda Zuniga Julio E	PER	2646	6.0	2655	7	1.8
14	Jussupow Artur	GER	2573	6.0	2642	7	6.6
15	Pakleza Zbigniew	POL	2498	6.0	2564	8	7.9
16	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	NOR	2351	6.0	2530	8	40.2
17	Movsesian Sergei	ARM	2665	6.0	2572	8	-6.0
18	Grandelius Nils	SWE	2603	6.0	2581	8	-1.1
19	Norowitz Yaacov	USA	2422	6.0	2487	8	9.0
20	Abdumalik Zhansaya	KAZ	2379	6.0	2525	8	33.0

Pairings Round Nine

Bo.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.	Name	Rtg
1	L'ami Erwin	2605	7½		6½	Melkumyan Hrant	2676
2	Eljanov Pavel	2727	6½		6½	Hansen Eric	2566
3	Naroditsky Daniel	2633	6½		6½	Hammer Jon Ludvig	2651
4	Fier Alexandr	2601	6½		6½	Jones Gawain C B	2642
5	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2756	6		6	Stopa Jacek	2544
6	Movsesian Sergei	2665	6		6	Grover Sahaj	2519
7	Libiszewski Fabien	2514	6		6	Granda Zuniga Julio E	2646
8	Gupta Abhijeet	2625	6		6	Abdumalik Zhansaya	2379
9	Norowitz Yaacov	2422	6		6	Grandelius Nils	2603
10	Pakleza Zbigniew	2498	6		6	Jussupow Artur	2573
11	Steingrimsson Hedinn *)	2530	5		5	Vuilleumier Alexandre	2349
12	Cornette Matthieu	2585	5½		6	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	2351
13	Esserman Marc	2426	5½		5½	Navara David	2736
14	Maze Sebastien	2564	5½		5½	Sequera Paolini Jose Rafael	2408
15	Tania Sachdev	2404	5½		5½	Stefansson Hannes	2560
16	Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn	2554	5½		5½	Soors Stef	2408
17	Thorfinnsson Bjorn	2403	5½		5½	Gao Rui	2533
18	Foisor Cristina-Adela	2394	5½		5½	Rasmussen Allan Stig	2532
19	Danielsen Henrik	2514	5½		5½	L'ami Alina	2393
20	Idani Pouya	2496	5½		5½	Arngrimsson Dagur	2366

All pairings of round nine...

Don't forget you can follow the action live on our www.playchess.com server.

Photos by Alina l'Ami

Replay Round Eight (top boards)

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Links

Official tournament site

The 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.