Grandmasters Hans Niemann and Lukasz Jurmala are the only two players remaining with a full house after three rounds at the 2022 Reykjavik Open. Hans opened the day by winning an absolutely wild game against the birthday girl, Irene Sundakar. Sundakar was winning close to the end but timetrouble was the enemy. 31.Rb1 to defend…
Finally, finally, we have a proper Reykjavik Open! For the first time since 2019 before the pandemic, we have a proper open edition of the Reykjavik Open! It seems like the chess players are equally happy as the organizers as the nice turnout of 245 players is more or less business as usual as it…
With the start of the 2022 Reykjavik Open just over a month away it’s time to take a little stock and remind chess players about the upcoming event. Perhaps some people are hesitant to make a decision on participating in a chess tournament many months in advance due to the ongoing Covid situation. We can…
The Reykjavik Open will return to its normal setting in the Harpa music and conference center in 2022. The dates have been set from the 6th of April until the 12th of April. We will play 9 rounds in 7 days! The tournament will again be an open tournament after having “doubled” as the European…
Russian Grandmastesr Anton Demchenko today became the European Chess Champion, finishing the 11 rounds with 8,5 points. He secured the win with a draw against Bogdan-Daniel Deac in the last round. Meanwhile, one of his competitors, Vincent Keymer, caught up by winning against Daniele Vocaturo. Demchenko however had better tiebreaks having played near the top…
Anton Demchenko is in pole position, leading before the final round with 8 points out of the 10 rounds. Four players trail him with 7.5 points. Only these five can win the tournament. Demchenko had the white pieces vs Vincent Kemyer who played the trendy …exf6 line in the Caro-Kann. Keymer managed to attack in…
Anton Demchenko took advantage of a draw on the first board in the game between Keymer and Mamedov to take the outright lead with only two rounds remaining at the Reykjavik Open / European Chess Championship. Rauf Mamedov repeated his rare 7…h6!? in the King’s Indian against Keymer. Maybe this is the new “meta” to…
Young German star Vincent Keymer has joined the leading pack after a fantastically resilient win against Czech top GM David Navara. In a way, Keymer had to win the game twice after missing a relatively straightforward win in time trouble. Keymer’s win was for sure the most exciting game of the round. After a great…
Anton Demchenko of Russia caught up to Rauf Mamedov with a nice win against Alexander Donchenko in the 7th round. Demchenko and Mamedov now lead the pack with 6 points out of 7. Rauf Mamedov was offered a short draw on the top board with the black pieces against Kacper Piorun, which he accepted. 7th…
After round three we were approached by a player who expressed that he had symptoms of Covid-19. He went through all the necessary tests and was declared by the doctors as a positive case. As consequence, everyone who was in contact with him was examined by the tracing team of the Icelandic Directorate of health…
