Reykjavik Open 2013 : Three for the gold

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 ten-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.

Three for the gold

It is a dream scenario for any organizer: to have two leaders facing each other in the final round and fight out, in a direct confrontation, who will be the winner and get the trophy.  The two gladiators were Pavel Eljanov and Wesley So. They sat down at board one, played three moves and then… shook hands. (Maybe they decided that the Grünfeld is a draw after all?)

The game ended so quickly that some players hadn’t even entered the playing hall yet, like for instance board 2 player Gawain Jones. This way his opponent Anish Giri could follow the top game “live”, and like anyone else, the tournament’s top seed was disappointed that the players didn’t play “at least a few more moves”. Pavel Eljanov said he was planning to “play a little”, but when his opponent offered the draw, he saw no reason to decline.

This meant that six players had a chance to catch Eljanov and So in the standings. They were all paired against each other: Jones-Giri, Wei Yi-Cheparinov and Amin-Gajewski.

Only one of them managed to win his game: Bassem Amin. Amin explained that he had graduated a day before the tournament, and so he got himself a nice prize to celebrate! Eljanov, So and Amin shared 8250 Euros according to the Hort system (Eljanov had the best Buchholz and therefore received slightly more prize money).

Wei Yi and Cheparinov played a very spectacular draw. Unfortunately most of their moves were all theory!

Wei Yi showed he did not just have a deep voice indicating his maturity, but the wisdom
to neutralize an opponent who had hoped to capitalize on youthful impetuosity. Wei Yi
came in sixth on tiebreak.

Local hero Hjorvar Steinn Gretarsson still had a chance to gain his third and final GM norm, but for that he needed to beat 2700 grandmaster David Navara. The Icelander didn’t come close. No, in fact he got crushed by an unexpected tactic!

The winners: Bassem Amin (Egypt), Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), Wesley So (Philippines)

Final standings

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

Report by Peter Doggers

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.

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