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The XXIII Reykjavik Open 2008 is taking place from March 3rd-11th, 2008. The tournament is open for foreign players above 2200 FIDE and Icelandic players above 2000 FIDE. Rate of play: 90 min. / 40 moves + 15 minutes after 40 moves. 30 sec. increment for every move.
The venue of the XXIII Reykjavik Open
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We counted 24 GMs and 18 IMs in the field. The top seed is Chinese GM Wang Yue, rated very close to 2700. He was unexpectedly beaten by the organiser of the tournament, FM Bjorn Thorfinnsson, rated 2364, in round one.
Organiser vs star, FM Bjorn Thorfinnsson vs GM Wang Yue. Result: 1-0
Thorfinnsson,Bjorn (2364) - Wang,Yue (2698) [A00]
Reykjavik Open 2008 Reykjavik (1.1), 03.03.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Be2 Nfd7 7.0-0 0-0 8.Be3 a6 9.Qd2
e5 10.dxe5 dxe5 11.Bg5 Qc8 12.Nd5 Nc6 13.Nd4 exd4 14.Bxg4 f5 15.exf5 gxf5 16.Bh5
Kh8 17.Ne7 Qb8 18.Nxc6 bxc6 19.Be7 Ne5 20.Bxf8 Qxf8 21.b3 f4 22.Bf3 Qf5 23.Rae1
Rd8 24.Be4 Qf6 25.f3 c5 26.Bb1 Bf8 27.Re4 Bd6 28.Qxf4 Qxf4 29.Rxf4 Nxc4 30.Rh4
Ne3 31.Bxh7 Nxf1 32.Bd3+ Kg7 33.Kxf1 a5 34.a4 Re8 35.Re4 Rh8 36.h4 Kh6 37.Kf2
Kh5 38.Bb5 Rf8 39.g3 Rg8 40.f4 Rb8 41.Re8 Rb6 42.Kf3 Kg6 43.g4 Kf7 44.Re2 Rb8
45.g5 d3 46.Rd2 Rf8 47.Kg4 Ke6 48.f5+ Ke5 49.f6 1-0.
Bjorn Thorfinnsson called this game and result "insane" – he hadn't beaten many grandmasters in the past, certainly none over 2600, so this was quite a leap. Bjorn joked that he was a little bit worried about claims of match-fixing – the organizer beating the top rated player doesnt look so good! Now his main task was simple; "not to humiliate myself and Wang Yue by playing like the patzer I truly am." He drew in round two against Iranian GM Elshan Moradiabadi, rated 2506, then lost to GM Luis Galego of Portugal, rated 2529 in round three. Meanwhile Wang Hao drew former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova in round two, then drew to FM Nils Grandelius, 2371, in round three. He is currently languishing on place 15.
Top seed Wang Yue of China, rated 2698
| Rk. | Ti. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. |
| 1 | GM | Caruana Fabiano | ITA | 2598 | 3.0 |
| GM | Halkias Stelios | GRE | 2580 | 3.0 | |
| 3 | IM | Gaponenko Inna | UKR | 2422 | 3.0 |
| 4 | IM | Paehtz Elisabeth | GER | 2420 | 2.5 |
| IM | Tania Sachdev | IND | 2417 | 2.5 | |
| 6 | GM | Kveinys Aloyzas | LTU | 2521 | 2.5 |
| 7 | GM | Adly Ahmed | EGY | 2551 | 2.5 |
| IM | Hammer Jon Ludvig | NOR | 2441 | 2.5 | |
| FM | Grandelius Nils | SWE | 2371 | 2.5 | |
| 10 | GM | Stefansson Hannes | ISL | 2564 | 2.5 |
| GM | Galego Luis | POR | 2529 | 2.5 | |
| 12 | IM | Kristjansson Stefan | ISL | 2476 | 2.5 |
| 13 | GM | Lie Kjetil A | NOR | 2556 | 2.0 |
| IM | Lie Espen | NOR | 2428 | 2.0 | |
| 15 | GM | Wang Hao | CHN | 2665 | 2.0 |
| GM | Dizdar Goran | CRO | 2564 | 2.0 | |
| FM | Robson Ray | USA | 2389 | 2.0 | |
| 18 | GM | Mikhalevski Victor | ISR | 2632 | 2.0 |
| GM | Malakhatko Vadim | BEL | 2600 | 2.0 | |
| GM | Carlsson Pontus | SWE | 2501 | 2.0 | |
| IM | Vavrak Peter | SVK | 2472 | 2.0 | |
| GM | Stefanova Antoaneta | BUL | 2464 | 2.0 | |
| FM | Narayanan Srinath | IND | 2210 | 2.0 |
In place one with a perfect score and the best performance so far (3100+) is our friend Fabiano Caruana, fifteen years old. Very pleasant to see three women in the top five bracket: IM Gaponenko Inna Gaponenko of Ukraine, rated 2422, IM Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany, 2420 and glamour girl IM Sachdev Tania of India, rated 2417.
IM Anna Zozulia 2344 of Belgium faces GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy, 2598,
in round
one. The two are playing in front of a Fischer-Spassky portrait. Fabiano won.
German IM Elisabeth Pähtz (pronounced pay-ts)
Indian IM Tania Sachdev
FM Illya Nyzhnyk of Ukraine, rated 2405, just eleven years old
