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…
DetailsAn 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”]
DetailsIt’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”]
DetailsIt’s Women’s Day in Iceland and so we decided to have a brief interview with Svetlana Cherednichenko, who also played last year and who came with her husband, Stelios Halkias. Next year she might bring her sister! [vsw id=”5R_tFs3umtU” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]
DetailsHere’s an interview with English grandmaster Simon Williams, who won a spectacular game today in a Botvinnik Semi-Slav against the young Danish IM Simon Bekker-Jensen. This is how it finished: Bekker Jensen,S (2405) – Williams,Si (2498) 25…Nf4+ 26.Kg1 Nde2+ and resigned because of 27.Bxe2 Qg3+! and mate. [vsw id=”VGBy3fDcIAA” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]
DetailsAn interview with Philippine GM Wesley So, right after his interesting draw with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. So also talks about Webster University, where he’s a freshman. [vsw id=”qcDq9Dr4RFY” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]
DetailsSo far, one of the surprises of the tournament has been the American Adarsh Jayakumar. Despite allowing a draw against a 1600 in the first round and then getting a 1610 rated player in the 2nd round, he was remarkably on course for an IM norm after 5 rounds! He followed his sub-par performance in…
DetailsOne of the fun things about chess tournaments is of course socializing, meeting old friends and gaining new ones. One way to do that is to have a friendly chess game, perhaps over 1-2 beers or a glass of white wine. One fun way to play is teams, and one fun variant of that is…
DetailsWith his victory in the 4th round, Yu Yangyi became a member of the 2700+ club. After the draw in the 5th round his is still 2701 according to www.2700chess.com
Anish Giri and Alexander Ipatov played each other in round 5 of the Reykjavik Open. Before the game, instead of preparing for the game both of them joined the Golden Circle tour, between 08:30 in the morning and 15:30 in the afternoon. At the board, Giri won convincingly, finishing with an hour extra on the…
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