
The 28th Reykjavik Open 2013 is being held from February 19 to 27, 2012 in
Harpa, the spectacular 28,000 sqm. music hall on the harbour, just five minutes
walk to downtown Reykjavik, Iceland.
Panorama view of the harbour front of Reykjavik – pan to the right to
see the playing venue...
The event is a nine-round Swiss with a rate of play of 90 minutes for 40 moves,
followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment from
move one. Total prizes are €15.000, including many special prizes for various
ages and rating categories, in addition to the traditional top women prize.

The opening ceremony before the start of round one and the event

Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir welcomes
the players
In the first round the pairings saw high-rated facing amateurs, with the top
half of the draw "tending to murder the bottom half in cold blood,"
as John Saunders
puts it. But there was one notable and thoroughly sensational exception:
Soren Jensen rated 1909 beat Norwegian IM Frode Urkedal 2473 in just 21 moves,
using the Muzio in the King’s Gambit! "Now that’s kicking it
oldschool!" comments the official web site gleefully. Here is the game:

[Event "Reykjavik Open 2013"] [Site "Reykjavik ISL"] [Date "2013.02.19"] [Round
"1"] [White "Jensen, So3"] [Black "Urkedal, F."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C37"]
[WhiteElo "1909"] [BlackElo "2473"] [PlyCount "41"] [EventDate "2013.02.19"]
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Bc4 g4 5. O-O {The super-aggressive Muzio Gambit,
where White sacrifices the knight but brings three pieces to bear down on f7.}
gxf3 6. Qxf3 Qf6 7. e5 Qxe5 8. Bxf7+ Kxf7 9. d4 Qxd4+ 10. Be3 Qf6 11. Bxf4 Bc5+
12. Kh1 {The ChessBase online database has six games with this position, with
a 5-1 score for White (2-0 in master games)} Bd6 $146 {A terrible novelty (Deep
Fritz gives it +10, Houdini +13 for White)} (12... Ne7 13. Qh5+ Qg6 14. Qxc5
d6 15. Bxd6+ Nf5 16. Qxc7+ Bd7 17. Nd2 Rc8 18. Qxb7 Qxd6 19. Rxf5+ Kg6 20. Rg5+
Kxg5 21. Ne4+ Kh5 22. Nxd6 Rxc2 23. Qf3+ Kg5 24. h4+ Kxh4 25. Qe4+ {1-0 (25)
Yoos,J (2373)-Barron,M (2171) Toronto 2011}) 13. Qh5+ Qg6 (13... Ke7 14. Bg5
{also loses instantly.}) (13... Ke6 14. Nc3 {leads to a forced mate.}) (13...
Kg7 14. Bh6+ {and Black loses outright.}) 14. Bxd6+ {and it's mate in nine.}
Nf6 15. Qd5+ {Good enough.} ({The forced line is} 15. Rxf6+ Kg7 (15... Kxf6
16. Qe5+ Kf7 17. Qe7+ Kg8 18. Qf8#) 16. Rxg6+ hxg6 17. Qe5+ Kg8 18. Qe8+ Kh7
19. Qe7+ Kh6 20. Bf4+ g5 21. Qxg5+ Kh7 22. Be5 Nc6 23. Qg7#) 15... Kg7 16. Rxf6
Qxf6 17. Be5 Rf8 18. Bxf6+ Rxf6 19. Qg5+ Kf7 20. Nc3 d6 (20... Rg6 21. Rf1+
{mates}) 21. Nd5 {and the Norwegian IM resigned.} 1-0
In round two Chinese GM Yu Yangyi showed his class with a game that had the
spectators enthralled:

[Event "Reykjavik Open 2013"] [Site "Reykjavik ISL"] [Date "2013.02.20"] [Round
"2"] [White "Yu Yangyi"] [Black "Handler, L."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C84"] [WhiteElo
"2688"] [BlackElo "2369"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2013.02.19"] 1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 d6 7. c4 O-O 8. h3 Bd7 9. Be3
Re8 10. Nc3 Bf8 11. Rc1 h6 12. Nd5 $146 Nb8 13. b4 Nxd5 14. cxd5 c6 15. Bb3
a5 16. dxc6 Bxc6 17. b5 Bd7 18. Bd5 Bc8 19. Qb3 Re7 {Watch the game from this
position on!} 20. Bb6 $1 Qxb6 21. Rxc8 a4 22. Qc4 g6 23. Qc1 Kg7 24. Rxf8 $1
Kxf8 25. Qxh6+ Ke8 26. Qh8+ Kd7 27. Rc1 Qd8 28. Qf6 Ke8 29. Ng5 (29. Ng5 Kd7
30. Nxf7 {threatening 31.Qxd6+ and 32.Qxd8 mate} Qb6 31. Qxg6 { threatening
32.Qf5+ and mate} Nc6 32. bxc6+ bxc6 33. Rxc6 {and Black loses everything.})
1-0
After three rounds fifteen players led with perfect scores, but in round four
many of them dropped half or even full points. Here are the rankings after four
rounds of play:
Impressions from Reykjavik
By Alina L'Ami

Arriving in Iceland, Reykjavik from the air

The city with the Icelandic volcanic landscape as a backdrop

A view of the city and the harbour from elevated ground

A ship in the dry dock in the harbour

Harpa - the famous Reykjavík concert hall and conference centre
Explore in Google maps – Click
for a larger map

In place one: GM Yu Yangyi, CHN, 2688, with 4.0/4 points [photo by Hrafn
Jökulsson]

French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 4.0/4 points

Philippine GM Wesley So, 2684, with 3.5/4 points

Top seed Anish Giri, 2722, Holland, with 3.5/4 points

IM Irina Krush, USA, 2460, with 3.0/4 points

Young chess fans in Reykjavik
Dusk falls over the city, and soon, if you are lucky, you will see...

...the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights, caused by the collision of energetic
charged particles
from the sun with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere, directed by the earth's
magnetosphere

These last two pictures are by a family friend, Richard Stuivenvolt, and were
taken a week ago.
I would love to see the Aurora, but I am always unlucky with the weather in
Iceland
Copyright
L'Ami/ChessBase