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.

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:

In round two Chinese GM Yu Yangyi showed his class with a game that had the spectators enthralled:

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:

• Full results of all 227 players (with updated tiebreak evaluations)

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

Links Official tournament site Games in PGN format The games are being 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.

Copyright L'Ami/ChessBase