Reykjavik Open 6-13 March 2012

[LawrenceCooper]

Boards 1-4: http://live.chess.is/2012/RvikOpen2012/r1/tfd.htm (includes Navara-Goodger)

Boards 5-8: http://live2.chess.is/2012/RvikOpen2012/r1/tfd.htm (includes Jones-Doell)

[Ian Thompson]

Three English players on the live boards today (15:00 hrs start):

Sokolov-Williams
Stefan Kristjansson-Jones
Hunt-Hou Yifan

[Paul Cooksey]

On 4/4 in Reykjavik after a really crazy game yesterday. Today top board and White against Caruana. Interesting to play someone in top 10

[Christopher Kreuzer]

On 4/4 in Reykjavik after a really crazy game yesterday. Today top board and White against Caruana. Interesting to play someone in top 10

That's a great result! How many rounds is the tournament? (oh, hang on, he's playing Caruana today, I misread that and thought Gawain had beaten him).

[Paul Cooksey]

http://live.chess.is/2012/RvikOpen2012/r5/tfd.htm(including Jones-Caruana) webcam

http://live2.chess.is/2012/RvikOpen2012/r5/tfd.htm (including Williams-Thorhallsson)

Caruana responded very solidly to Gawain's g3 anti-sicilian - I can't decide if I think the resulting IQP is a little better for white or equal

[Thomas Rendle]

Caruana responded very solidly to Gawain's g3 anti-sicilian - I can't decide if I think the resulting IQP is a little better for white or equal

Definitely some edge for White now and Simon also looks to be doing well

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 6 is currently in progress with Gawain on 4.5/5 playing on board 4 and Adam Hunt (4/5) is playing on board 8

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Round 6 is currently in progress with Gawain on 4.5/5 playing on board 4 and Adam Hunt (4/5) is playing on board 8

Is there any chance of Adam getting his third and final GM norm from this tournament? I couldn't find any information on the official website about what category the tournament is or what scores are needed for norms.

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 6 is currently in progress with Gawain on 4.5/5 playing on board 4 and Adam Hunt (4/5) is playing on board 8

Is there any chance of Adam getting his third and final GM norm from this tournament? I couldn't find any information on the official website about what category the tournament is or what scores are needed for norms.

He currently has 4.5/6 against an average of 2345 (one player rounded up to 2200) so he needs to have played an average of at least 2380 for a score of 7/9 to suffice and he needs to play two more titled players (incl one GM). So 2.5/3 against an average of 2.5/3 or 2/3 against an average of 2612 roughly.

[PeterTurland]

I'm really looking forward to 13:00, Hou is playing Caruana if she takes him, it will be another very high scalp she will have taken, currently Caruana is number 7 in the live rankings.

Experience tells that the last day of tournaments usually has lots of draws, so they will probably draw, but after the way she demolished Shirov who knows?

According to http://www.chessgames.com Caruana has beaten Hou 3 times, with 2 draws. The last time they played was last June in India with a win to Caruana, but after her triumph at Gibraltar who knows?

If Hou became world champ, more women would play and would teach their sons to play and hopefully our species will fight each other using our minds instead of metaphorically using our fists.

[LawrenceCooper]

http://live2.chess.is/2012/RvikOpen2012/r9/tfd.htm

Gawain Jones and Simon Williams are both white in the last round whilst Adam Hunt plays black. All three are on live at the above link.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

http://live2.chess.is/2012/RvikOpen2012/r9/tfd.htm

Gawain Jones and Simon Williams are both white in the last round whilst Adam Hunt plays black. All three are on live at the above link.

I'm guessing from the round 7 loss and the average rating of his opponents, that even a win for Adam Hunt won't be enough for a GM norm, or is there still a chance?

[LawrenceCooper]

http://live2.chess.is/2012/RvikOpen2012/r9/tfd.htm

Gawain Jones and Simon Williams are both white in the last round whilst Adam Hunt plays black. All three are on live at the above link.

I'm guessing from the round 7 loss and the average rating of his opponents, that even a win for Adam Hunt won't be enough for a GM norm, or is there still a chance?

That's correct. He needed 2.5/3 so the loss in round seven put him out of contention. Having two norms though the rating points are very important to him so I hope he can have a good result to finish with.