"Sunny" Reykjavik

by Alejandro Ramirez
3/8/2014 – The sun finally came out for one day in Reykjavik. A nice respite from the cold and harsh weather that has been terrorizing the players. Over the board leaders have emerged: L'ami, Amin Bassem and Van Kampen are all tied for first with 5.5/6. However there are still four rounds left and anything can happen. Overview of the last three rounds.

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Round Four

Bo. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg
1 Hansen Eric 2587 3 1 - 0 3 Berkes Ferenc 2687
2 Rapport Richard 2681 3 1 - 0 3 Ramirez Alejandro 2599
3 Harika Dronavalli 2487 3 ½ - ½ 3 Amin Bassem Dr. 2657
4 L'Ami Erwin 2646 3 1 - 0 3 Panjwani Raja 2460
5 Browne Walter S. 2444 3 0 - 1 3 Van Kampen Robin 2603
6 Grandelius Nils 2600 3 1 - 0 3 Bisby Daniel L 2314
7 Ezat Mohamed 2439 3 ½ - ½ Rozentalis Eduardas 2623
8 Galego Luis 2463 0 - 1 Li Chao 2700
9 Jones Gawain C B 2651 ½ - ½ Hamitevici Vladimir 2456
10 Gledura Benjamin 2385 ½ - ½ Stefansson Hannes 2541
11 Dubessay Bastien 2362 ½ - ½ Molner Mackenzie 2528
12 Bekker-Jensen Simon 2418 1 - 0 Olafsson Helgi *) 2546
13 Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn 2511 1 - 0 L'Ami Alina 2398
14 Gullaksen Eirik 2359 1 - 0 Pavlovic Milos 2506
15 Kristjansson Stefan 2503 ½ - ½ Cawdery Daniel 2362

Round four saw bloody battles in the top boards. A mistake by me against Rapport allowed him to seize the initiative and he won a very clean game from then on. Hansen beat Berkes who is exactly 100 points ahead of him in another good showing of chess. Harika held no Amin in a wild game while L'Ami, Van Kampen and Grandelius all won against players considerably lower rated than them.

My lucky hat didn't help me in round four

Grandelius had a tough time focusing on his game with the spectacular view
from the playing hall, but still managed to win

Amin Bassem (left) is a monster in open tournaments, always in the top boards

Round 5

Bo. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg
1 Van Kampen Robin 2603 4 1 - 0 4 GM Rapport Richard 2681
2 Grandelius Nils 2600 4 0 - 1 4 GM L'Ami Erwin 2646
3 Amin Bassem Dr. 2657 1 - 0 4 GM Hansen Eric 2587
4 Li Chao 2700 1 - 0 GM Harika Dronavalli 2487
5 Elsness Frode 2479 0 - 1 GM Kobalia Mikhail 2646
6 Ezat Mohamed 2439 ½ - ½ GM Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn 2511
7 Idani Pouya 2496 ½ - ½ IM Bekker-Jensen Simon 2418
8 Urkedal Frode 2495 ½ - ½ IM Gullaksen Eirik 2359
9 Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2395 3 0 - 1 3 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2706
10 Berkes Ferenc 2687 3 1 - 0 3 IM Karavade Eesha 2408
11 Arngrimsson Dagur 2382 3 0 - 1 3 GM Jones Gawain C B 2651
12 Olafsson Helgi *) 2546 1 - 0   Edvardsson Kristjan 2233
13 Gajewski Grzegorz 2631 3 1 - 0 3 IM Thorfinnsson Bjorn 2389
14 Rozentalis Eduardas 2623 3 1 - 0 3 FM Gledura Benjamin 2385
15 Ramirez Alejandro 2599 3 ½ - ½ 3 FM Cawdery Daniel 2362

Sunny Reykjavik! For the first time since the tournament started the weather can be described as something else than "stormy, windy, cold with snow if you're lucky and rain if you're unlucky". A pleasant sun showed itself and it allowed the players to go out and explore the city a little more than the couple of blocks surrounding Harpa, the playing hall, and the hotel which is basically next to the playing site.

The five minute walk to the two streets with plenty of restaurants is not bad, but the weather has lately been making it very miserable. With the sun, though, we were reminded momentarily why Reykjavik is a pretty tourist destination.

This is the view just before entering the playing hall

The city (which feels more like a town) is very colorful
and the architecture has been described as "cartoony" by a player or two

The view from the hotel. When the sun is out, at least.

Chesswise two leaders emerged from the pack as Van Kampen beat Rapport in a crazy game while L'Ami beat Grandelius in an endgame that should very likely have been a draw. The Swedish player decided to give himself many pawn islands, the contrary of what you are supposed to do, and all his pawns dropped like flies.

After the round there was a very fun pub quiz at the "official bar" of the tournament: the Skybar. Many players showed up in pairs to answer thirty questions about chess history and chess trivia. The winning team was composed of two legendary people in chess: Helgi Olafsson, an Icelandic grandmaster playing the event, and New In Chess editor Dirk jan ten Geuzendam.

Round 6

Bo. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg
1 L'Ami Erwin 2646 5 ½ - ½ 5 Van Kampen Robin 2603
2 Kobalia Mikhail 2646 ½ - ½ Li Chao 2700
3 Berkes Ferenc 2687 4 0 - 1 Amin Bassem Dr. 2657
4 Naiditsch Arkadij 2706 4 1 - 0 4 Danielsen Henrik 2501
5 Rapport Richard 2681 4 1 - 0 4 Idani Pouya 2496
6 Jones Gawain C B 2651 4 1 - 0 4 Urkedal Frode 2495
7 Krush Irina 2490 4 ½ - ½ 4 Gajewski Grzegorz 2631
8 Rozentalis Eduardas 2623 4 1 - 0 4 Hamitevici Vladimir 2456
9 Browne Walter S. 2444 4 1 - 0 4 Grandelius Nils 2600
10 Hansen Eric 2587 4 ½ - ½ 4 Ezat Mohamed 2439
11 Tania Sachdev 2423 4 ½ - ½ 4 Stefansson Hannes 2541
12 Gislason Gudmundur 2314 0 - 1 Olafsson Helgi *) 2546
13 Gullaksen Eirik 2359 4 ½ - ½ 4 Molner Mackenzie 2528
14 Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn 2511 4 ½ - ½ 4 Thorhallsson Throstur 2435
15 Kristjansson Stefan 2503 4 0 - 1 4 Bekker-Jensen Simon 2418

The leaders drew a long game in which L'Ami obtained chances to win from a drawish endgame. However no repeat of round five occurred and Van Kampen was able to salvage the half point. Li Chao seemed to be simply down a pawn against Kobalia but the Russian player was nice enough to return it and they agreed to a draw in an endgame.

Walter Browne won an important game by upsetting Nils Grandelius

Carlsen is playing the event! Henrik Carlsen, Magnus' father.

Li Chao bounced back from his first round draw and is back in the leaderboard

Kobalia will be giving a lecture to amateur players tomorrow morning

Berkes suffered his second defeat of the tournament

Lamb! It's a traditional dish here in Iceland.

Replay select games

Pictures by Alin l'Ami

Links

The games will be 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.


Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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