Reykjavik Open 2017: Anish Giri takes sole first

by Albert Silver
4/29/2017 – It is always a risky affair for a top GM to play in an open such as the Reykjavik Open, simply because his rating alone is the level usually attained by the winners in the end. In other words, he is unlikely to leave earning more, but Giri showed he was up to the task, winning the event, and even downed Jobava in a Najdorf Poisoned Pawn with black! The unexpected second place was 17-year-old Dutchman Jorden Van Foreest. Final report.
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Reykjavik Open 2017: Anish Giri takes sole first

All photos by Lennart Ootes

The big winner of the tournament was Anish Giri, the top seed. One question that many did not voice but did think was whether he could score heavily enough to make it work, but he showed unwilting disposition as he even played the Najdorf Poisoned Pawn as black(!) against no less than Jobava Baadur. After repelling the Georgian's attack, he counterattacked himself in queenless middlegame, and was mating his opponent when the latter resigned.

Dmitry Andreikin was less fortunate and was persecuted mercilessly by prepubescent international masters, one who held him to a draw (Nihal Sarin), and the other he defeated in the last round (Praggnanandhaa).

A magnificent result by young Jorden Van Foreest, for a double Dutch treat at the summit. The Dutchman secured it by a key win in the last round against Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi, and ended with a 2700 performance. Take a look at his 22-move miniature in round eight.

Jorden Van Foreest vs Liang Awonder

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MoveNResultEloPlayers
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 c5 6.0-0 Nc6 7.c3 Bg6 8.Be3 Qb6 9.Na3N 9.Qd2 c4 10.Qc1 Nge7 11.Nh4 Nf5 12.Nxg6 hxg6 13.Bf4 f6 14.h3 fxe5 15.dxe5 Bc5 16.Nd2 g5 17.Bh2 0-0-0 18.b4 cxb3 19.axb3 Rdf8 20.b4 1-0 (33) Renet,O (2495)-Thorsteins,K (2485) Reykjavik 1992 9...c4?
This was Jorden's dream reply. It is a serious mistake, and there is no question his reply was well-prepared. 9...a6 keeps the balance. 10.Nxc4!± White is clearly better. dxc4 Taking the knight implies a huge attack on the king in the center, and Black had to realize he had fallen into a nasty trap. Damage control was called for. 10...Qc7 As ugly as it might be, this was perhaps Black's best practical choice. 11.d5 Bc5 12.Bxc5 Qxc5 13.dxc6 Qxc6 14.Nd4 Qa6
Black's king is in the center and his development is poor. How can White exploit this to his best?
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Van Foreest,J2584Liang,A24831–02017B1232nd Reykjavik Open 20179

12-year-old Nihal Sarin was not quite able to repeat his GM norm result in Norway a couple of weeks earlier, but still ended with a very respectable 2468 performance. He did hold second-seed Andreikin to a draw in round nine nonetheless.

11-year-old IM Praggnanandhaa lost his final two games, preventing him from scoring that much coverted GM norm, but it is sure to come. He finished with 6.0/10 and a 2480 performance.

Gawain Jones, who had just won the Dubai Open was possibly fatigued as he started with a supreme 5.0/6, but then faded away with 1.0/4 in the final rounds

Alexei Shirov was not at his best and played more like "Sparks on the Board" than his trademark

Still, it was not all about giant Elos, and was all about chess

A suitable way to analyze is with ski hats and large steins of beer

No less important is enjoying some time with that special person

Alina and Erwin L' Ami enjoying the chess and sightseeing together

This is the sort of majestic views one can enjoy in Iceland (click on pic for high-res)

GM Torre visits Bobby Fischer's grave

The production team did a great job with live video commentary. Here you can see Giri commenting his game live for viewers.

Ever wonder what it looks like from the other side? Now you know!

WGM Tatev Abrahamyan had an excellent event, finishing strong and within a half point of an IM norm

The top female performers: WGM Tatev Abrahamyan (2nd), GM Harika Dronavalli (1st), and IM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (3rd)

The runners-up: Sergei Movsesian (2nd), Gupta Abhijeet (4th), Jorden Van Foreest (2nd), and Gata Kamksy (5th)

Final standings

Rk. SNo   Name FED Rtg Pts  TB  Perf rtg+/-
1 1 GM Giri Anish NED 2771 8,5 55,0 2865 10,7
2 16 GM Van Foreest Jorden NED 2584 8,0 52,5 2699 15,0
3 6 GM Movsesian Sergei ARM 2677 8,0 52,0 2729 6,4
4 14 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2607 8,0 53,0 2775 22,8
5 9 GM Kamsky Gata USA 2668 8,0 52,0 2736 8,4
6 61 IM Kavutskiy Konstantin USA 2347 7,5 46,5 2505 43,4
7 22 GM Blomqvist Erik SWE 2548 7,5 45,0 2443 -8,8
8 55 FM Pigott John C ENG 2381 7,5 46,5 2492 27,2
9 10 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2641 7,5 55,0 2757 17,1
10 4 GM Almasi Zoltan HUN 2696 7,5 54,0 2746 6,7
11 17 GM Can Emre TUR 2578 7,0 49,0 2577 2,7
12 27 GM Perelshteyn Eugene USA 2509 7,0 48,5 2512 2,6
13 36 GM Torre Eugenio PHI 2455 7,0 44,5 2464 3,2
14 11 GM L'ami Erwin NED 2614 7,0 50,0 2575 -2,2
  23 GM Hjartarson Johann ISL 2536 7,0 50,0 2559 5,2
  40 IM Christiansen Johan-Sebastian NOR 2429 7,0 50,0 2526 14,5
17 25 GM Harika Dronavalli IND 2521 7,0 48,5 2509 2,0
18 57 WGM Abrahamyan Tatev USA 2364 7,0 48,0 2432 22,4
19 18 GM Stefansson Hannes ISL 2566 7,0 43,5 2536 -0,5
20 39 IM Hambleton Aman CAN 2434 7,0 53,0 2619 25,9
21 2 GM Andreikin Dmitry RUS 2734 7,0 51,0 2629 -10,7
22 12 GM Yilmaz Mustafa TUR 2614 7,0 50,5 2602 0,5
23 15 GM Beliavsky Alexander G SLO 2597 7,0 48,5 2510 -8,0
24 30 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2491 7,0 47,5 2500 3,7
25 35 IM Thorfinnsson Bragi ISL 2457 7,0 46,0 2461 3,5
26 8 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2670 7,0 54,5 2689 5,1
27 20 GM Donchenko Alexander GER 2554 7,0 52,5 2600 7,8
28 13 GM Landa Konstantin RUS 2611 7,0 50,0 2595 0,2
29 26 IM Bailet Pierre FRA 2510 7,0 49,5 2486 -1,0
30 69 FM Kleinman Michael CAN 2289 6,5 50,5 2489 51,6

Click for complete standings

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Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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