Reykjavik: Fire on the Board

Round Two

The Reykjavik Open continues at the Harpa Musical Hall and very few surprises were seen on round two as the grandmasters generally smashed through competition, one way or another.

The most eventful thing about the second round was a very noticeable interruption. A loud warning was overheard and the local players started getting up, while the international players looked confused. The message was repeated loud and clear in English: "The building is being evacuated".

We didn't know the reason, but the clocks were stopped and most players went outsidse. A little while later we returned to the playing hall only to find a building employee look dumbfounded at us. She told us: "The building is on fire... please go out side".

The interruption lasted a good 45 minutes, and some emergency vehicles showed up but the fire must have been very small as we never really learned where exactly it was.

The players left in anything but orderly fashion. Thankfully the fire was no real threat.

When players figured out that the fire was very small they went back into the building to escape from the cold, even though no one told them it was ok to do so

Some young players took time to meet the celebrities. Here with GM Gawain Jones.

Socializing was the way to kill time during the "fire'

Round Three

A big surprise happened on board one. Naiditsch had a pleasant positino, but he got overeager in an interesting attack:

Rappot on board three played the wild 1.Nf3 e6 2.g3 g5!? 3.Bg2 g4!? and scored a victory in a long endgame. Personally I had a hopeless position against my good friend Tatev Abrahamyan who is very close to completing her IM title, but a trick in time pressure allowed me to turn the tables.

Playing friends is never nice. Tricking them over the board is even less nice!

GM Galego from Portugal has a long history of being one of the top players of that country

Six time Iceland Champion Helgi Olafsson with 2.5/3

Harika Dronavalli is the only lady left with a perfect score

Sachdev fell in an endgame against Amin Bassem from Egypt

Rapport continues his unorthodox chess. He will play the author of this article in a couple of hours.

Awonder Liang lost to Steinn Gretarsson in round two

The top boards are littered with top GM duels today and the tournament will definitely go into full force from now on.

Replay select games from the top boards

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Photos by Fiona Steil-Antoni

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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.