The double round day started with only two players leading the pack. At the end of the day there were 11 players joined at the top!
GM Hedinn Steingrimsson and IM Jakub Seemann (who famously went viral following his U-16 World Championship win) led the way but drew their games in the 5th round, the morning round. Seemann was well prepared with black and finished the game with more time than his starting time, Steingrimsson had no surprises against the Nimzo and a quick draw was agreed.
Overall there were a lot of draws on the top boards and Jules Moussard used the opportunity to join the leaders by beating GM Vignir Stefansson.
With most of the games on the top boards ending in draws, french GM Jules Moussard joins the leaders with a win against local GM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson. 3 leaders with 4,5 out of 5! #ReykjavikChess24 #Chess pic.twitter.com/R5XRKgUkTG
— ReykjavikOpenChess (@ReykjavikOpen) March 18, 2024
Game of the round candidate for round 5 had to be IM Hilmir Freyr Heimisson effort with the black pieces against Turkish GM Cem Kaan Gokerkan. Hilmir sacrificed a piece and left white’s king stranded in the center of the board and the emergency evacuation of that king did not work and checkmate was imminent!
We therefore had 3 players in the lead after round 5. That number would however increase to 11 following a draw between Seemann and Moussard on the top board. Steingrimsson’s tough loss on board 2 against Deac meant that several players managed to catch up with a win in their games.
Young Lithuanian GM Paulius Pultinevicius seems to like playing in Iceland. He recently won the Icelandic team championship where he led his team with fantastic play. He played for mate against the in-form IM Alexander Katz who yesterday won the blitz tournament with 9 points out of 9!
Paulius played for mate and that he managed!
At this stage it’s impossible to predict what will happen or who if anyone will pull away from the pack. One thing is clear though, the winner will have to do really well in the remaining three rounds, there is no room for error!
Chess legend Vasyl Ivanchuk celebrated his 55th birthday by playing two games of chess, he probably wouldn’t have it any other way!
In the 7th round, Maze will face Deac, Moussard has white against Adhiban, Paulius plays against Seemann, Alisher Suleymenov faces Vahap Sanal, Balakrishnan against Emre Can and finally Gudmundur Kjartansson plays Vasyl Ivanchuk who upfloats with 4,5 points.
PHOTO ALBUM from the 6th round (Hallfridur Sigurdardottir)
Games with 15-minute delay can be observed here:
- This year there is a record number of streamers with a total of 8 players streaming their games live.
- Anna Cramling streams on Twitch and Youtube with Pia Cramling commentary.
- The Botez sistersAlexandra og Andrea are also live on Twitch and on Youtube with Jon Ludvig Hammer providing commentary.
- WGM Dina Belenkaya is onTwitch and on Youtube with Ben Finegold commenting
- Zachary Saine „The Chessnerd“ is onTwitch
- Tallulah Roberts „Lularobs“ is o Twitch
- Anna-Maja Kazarian is on Twitch and on Youtube
- Alexandra Prado is on Twitch
