Yesterday we had the closing ceremony of the N1 Reykjavik Open. Óttarr Proppé of the city council welcomed guests to the ceremony and said the city was delighted with the tournament proceedings. Agreeing with him was minister of Education and Culture, Katrín Jakobsdóttir who gave away the prizes along with the members of the Icelandic…
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……
Wesley So didn’t feel like rocking the boat with the black pieces versus the super solid Pavel Eljanov and offered a quick draw. Eljanov accepted and all this transpired while some players hadn’t even begun their play, yet alone arrived at the board (Gawain Jones on the top boards among those) This secures them both…
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…
It’s February 27th, the last round of the Reykjavik Open 2013. Here is your guide to what you should be watching for and who! The total prize package is €15.000 so we can expect some jockeying for position in the last round. This year the rules have been changed so that prizes aren’t distributed evenly for…
As we have reported before, all Wei Yi needed for his 3rd norm was for his opponent to show up in the 9th round as he can even lose this game and get the coveted 3rd norm and the GM title (since his rating is already over 2500). Wei Yi now becomest the current youngest…
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…
Six players are on 6,5 out of 8 with 2 rounds to play! Ding Liren has sneeked up on the leaders after some early mistakes. The new 2700-club member, Wesley So also has white versus Dziuba of Poland in the penultimate round and Gajewski has white vs the young Chinese sensation Wei Yi. None of…
The rusty winger Peter Doggers surely wouldn’t like me calling the beautiful game “soccer” so we’ll stick to football because it’s played with the feet (unlike American Football which has very little to do with feet). Well…basically more or less (The trademark Ivan Sokolov opening of a story) we played the 3rd annual Football match…
by Ian Rogers At the Reykjavik Open, the conditions for the top players include coupons for some of Reykjavik’s best restaurants. The Grandmaster couple Erwin and Alina l’Ami have been enjoying their meals at a rather later time than most, given their propensity for marathon games. In the fourth round Alina found herself in a…
