When Pavel Eljanov and Wesley So became joint winners of the Reykjavik Open (with Amin Baseem later joining them) five minutes or so into the last round they were immediately given a hard time about their quick draw on board one. For instance in the above picture we see the response of Silvio Danailov. Later…
DetailsIt’s always nice to read what players are thinking about so it’s a pleasure to point you to these two excellent articles on the experience of two different but closely related players. First we offer Gawain Jones’s article. Gawain has now played the Reykjavik Open three times and two seasons in the Icelandic league so…
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Lisa Orlova was one of many competitors in they 2013 Reykjavik Open. She has a chess channel on YouTube and did some interviews while she was in Reykjavik. Here is her interview with local IM Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson who missed a chance at a GM norm in the last round.
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…
DetailsIt 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……
DetailsAn 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.
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With some games still to be finished the final result of the tournament is clear. Pavel Eljanov and Wesley so finish on top with 8 points after their mutual draw but Amin Baseem managed to catch up with his last round victory. Therefore we have the 3 winners from 3 continents. Eljanov has the best…
DetailsWesley 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…
DetailsAbout 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…
DetailsAn 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!
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