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……
An interview with England’s 5th grandmaster Gawain Jones, who participated in the London Chess Classic in December and “learnt a lot”, then won the Hastings open and then finished his Reykjavik Open with the same score. [vsw id=”Y7UIpbsQxCA” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]
About one and a half years ago it was discovered that ritual human sacrifice was practiced during paganism in Iceland. Archaeological research of pagan graves in the valley Þegjandadalur in Suður-Þingeyjasýsla county, in the northeast of Iceland, supported this theory. As Morgunblaðið reported, an L-shaped turf wall was discovered, which was believed to have been constructed before Icelanders…
An interview with Egypt’s number one chess player Bassem Amin, who beat the strong Czech grandmaster David Navara in round 9 of the Reykjavik Open. Amin is a doctor and will spend his next year between hospitals and tournament halls! [vsw id=”TTzhYEYUQig” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]
An interview with IM Irina Krush (USA), who has been to Reykjavik many times already. After this tournament she will travel to Astana, Kazakhstan to play the Women’s World Teams Championship. [vsw id=”EspIiJBZK34″ source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]
There’s something special about this year’s Reykjavik Open. Not only do we have a record number of 227 participants from no less than 37 federations, but there’s an especially big delegation from China: GM Ding Liren (2709), GM Yu Yangyi (2688), GM Bu Xiangzhi (2675), GM Xiu Deshun (2530), IM Wei Yi (2501), WGM Huang Qian (2478), IM Lou Yiping (2468), WGM Tan…
An interview with one of the most successful Icelandic grandmasters ever: Johann Hjartarson. In 1987 he finished equal first at the Interzonal tournament in Szirak, Hungary and qualified for the World Championship Candidates Tournament in 1988. he defeated Viktor Kortchnoi but lost to Anatoly Karpov in the quarter finals. Hjartarson talks about the tournament, about…
An interview with 14-year-old Chinese IM Wei Yi, who will probably clinch the GM title in Reykjavik. He already has two GM norms, and it looks like he has secured his third with a round to spare. That will make him the youngest grandmaster in the world! [vsw id=”Af5AgEvALNc” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]
The Reykjavik Open is more than just a tournament; it should be called a chess festival. In the last few days there have been quite a lot of side events, such as a pub quiz, a blitz tournament and a soccer football match! It’s not easy to be modest and at the same time write about something you…
It’s Women’s Day in Iceland and so we decided to interview Sopiko Guramishvili, the girlfriend of top seed Anish Giri and quite a strong player herself! She studies international languages and focuses on English, which you can tell from this interview. [vsw id=”jP8J4VFIiWU” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]
