Thursday featured the Reykjavik Open’s first double-round day, with Round 2 (09:00) followed by Round 3 (16:00).during a gruelling double-round day. The day was made even tougher by very harsh weather conditions. Players had to hustle to the playing hall to bet the bad weather and despite some tough conditions close to 400 players made it to the playing hall with only ONE exception! When you are here to play chess, you are here to play chess!
Round 2: top seeds keep rolling
The morning round saw the top seeds mostly escaping without trouble. GM Amin Tabatabaei continued his strong start with a win over FM Sohan Belkaid, while GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac defeated GM Bragi Thorfinnsson. GM Aryan Tari also took the full point against IM Dagur Ragnarsson, and GM Vasyl Ivanchuk beat WGM Zoey Tang. Iceland’s GM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson scored a good win against IM Olivier Moor.
Round 3: another round, and the leaders begin to separate
In the afternoon, Tabatabaei remained perfect by beating IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, the game looked drawn most of the way but the Iranian GM just kept fightingn and managed to pose enough questions for the talented Greek women’s number one to falter. Aryan Tari kept pace with a win over GM Nino Batsiashvili.
A notable result on the top boards was IM Rajat Makkar’s win over GM Max Warmerdam, while GM Jianchao Zhou stayed on 3/3 with a win against IM Noe Tutisani.
Young french IM Timothe Razafindratsima also kept pace by beating IM Oliver Kurmann to join the perfect-score group as did former world junior champion Marc’andria Maurizzi beating the GingerGM.
Standings after Round 3
After three rounds, the tournament has a large leading pack on 3/3, headed by GM Amin Tabatabaei, with GM Jianchao Zhou, GM Aryan Tari, GM Marcandria Maurizzi, IM F.Magold and IM Timothe Razafindratsima all still perfect. Two of the biggest early surprises are that Damirali Magzumov (1782) and Iceland’s Pétur Úlfar Ernisson (1738) are also on a perfect 3/3 profitting from the early accelerated Swiss pairings!
Looking ahead: Round 4 pairings (Friday 27 March, 15:00)
Round 4 immediately brings some interesting clashes at the top: Razafindratsima–Tabatabaei, Magold–Tari, and Maurizzi–Zhou on the top three boards.
Further down the top boards, Deac faces the in-form Makkar, and Iceland’s Markus Orri Oskarsson is paired with Vignir Vatnar Stefansson.
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Pictures from round 2:
Pictures from round 3:
Games can be watched from these links:
Streamers:
- Hannah Sayce
- Tamara Kadovic
- Matthew Perchard (channel of Lularobs)
- Simon Williams
- Keti Tsatsalashvili (tbd)
Reykjavik Open Social Media:
- Instagram Icelandic Chess Federation
- TikTok Icelandic Federation
- Twitter/X Reykjavik Open
- Facebook page
Annað:
