Ending strong

One of the most popular open tournaments in the calendar, the Reykjavik Open took place on March 15-21 at the Harpa Conference Centre in the Icelandic capital. With a bit over 400 participants, the tournament was a huge success, as organizers had to close the registrations by mid-February when the maximum capacity of the playing hall had been reached.

The event was a 9-round Swiss open, with four players rated 2600 or above: Bogdan-Daniel Deac from Romania, Vasyl Ivanchuk from Ukraine, Xu Xiangyu from China and Jules Moussard from France.

Going into the final two rounds, Alisher Suleymenov was the sole leader with 6/7 points. Suleymenov made headlines in October last year, when he defeated none other than world number one Magnus Carlsen in the second round of the Qatar Masters.

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In round 8, Suleymenov held a draw with black against third seed Xu, allowing five players to catch him in the lead: Deac, Paulius Pultinevicius, Praveen Balakrishnan, Sebastian Maze and Gudmundur Kjartansson.

On the final day of action, Suleymenov was paired up against Deac on the top board. The rating favourite had the black pieces and was the only co-leader to grab a full point in the final round, thus becoming the outright winner of the event. Deac had defeated Hannes Stefansson with the white pieces in the previous round.

Seven players finished with 7/9 scores, a half point behind the tournament winner. According to the event’s tiebreak criteria, the players who finished 2^nd to 8^th were Sebastian Maze, Paulius Pultinevicius, Praveen Balakrishnan, Vahap Sanal, Matthew Wadsworth, Gudmundur Kjartansson and Hedinn Steingrimsson, in that order.

The inimitable Vasyl Ivanchuk finished with a 6/9 score | Photo: Hallfríður Sigurðardóttir

In both of his final two wins, Deac outplayed his opponents in endgame positions. In round 8, Stefansson faltered in a pawn-down yet drawn rook ending on move 48.

Here 48...h5+ draws for Black, while 48...Kg8, as played in the game, led to a quick resignation after 49.Kh4 Rb3 50.g4, and White is perfectly coordinated to make the most of his material advantage.

In Thursday’s final round, Deac also had an extra pawn, this time in a rook and bishop endgame. The purely technical phase began on move 55.

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Deac needed 63 moves to force Suleymenov’s resignation from this position, as he secured tournament victory after claiming a 118-move win — in an almost empty hall!

Bogdan-Daniel Deac v. Alisher Suleymenov | Photo: Hallfríður Sigurðardóttir

Final standings

...401 players

All available games

Links

• Official website
• Nils Grandelius clinches Reykjavik Open with final-round win (2023)
• Pragg beats Gukesh after sudden twist, wins Reykjavik Open (2022)