GAMMA Reykjavik Open 2019

[Nick Burrows]

So much for the conspiracy theory!

Sounds like a very English one!

[Nick Burrows]

Why did Gawain play 37.Qb2 dropping the c4 pawn, rather than simply 37.QxQ and an equal ending?

[LawrenceCooper]

Gawain drew, never in doubt

[Roger de Coverly]

Why did Gawain play 37.Qb2 dropping the c4 pawn, rather than simply 37.QxQ and an equal ending?

I'd imagine he was looking for active counterplay. The chessbomb stockfish seems to think his opponent was winning until very near the end, but if analysing without a tablebase it may be incorrectly reporting on some of the possible endings.

[Chris Rice]

As the Harpa is an Opera House there is always activity going on and the organisers can't always predict what is going to happen and when. Before the final round started they feared the worse as a multitude of people descended on the room next door for some pre-show event. Only there was no door, it was completely open next to the chess players and the sound was deafening. Having been through this before they immediately issued all the chess players with ear plugs:



First time I've ever experienced this and I guess kudos to the organisers for the contingency planning!

[JustinHorton]

Lupulescu has the last laugh

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Oh, does Gawain lose on tie-break? Still, maybe we can argue until the cows come home who is England's leading player by rating?

Oh, Gawain looks to be fourth on tie-break, with eight(!) players tying for first.

Final standings.

[Mick Norris]

It's not clear to me how such a thing would be accomplished, since if Gawain and Lupulescu both won, the tie-break would be direct encounter and Gawain has just beaten him, whereas if Parligras won it would be Median Bucholz, which I don't think we can predict. At any rate it seems a bit unfair at this stage to make that speculation public.

Absolutely, in the end Parligras has a worse tiebreak than Gawain; in the end, it was always more likely that they would draw on board 1, just a pity Gawain didn't win, though another good tournament for him; he's off to Malmo to play Sigeman & Co 3-9 May

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Having been through this before they immediately issued all the chess players with ear plugs:"

Last year they were aware there were sound checks for a concert later on, so they issued the earplugs before the start of the round. I thought the organization was very good.

Thanks to Chris for the illuminating reports.

[Ian Thompson]

"Having been through this before they immediately issued all the chess players with ear plugs:"

Last year they were aware there were sound checks for a concert later on, so they issued the earplugs before the start of the round. I thought the organization was very good.

I find it surprising that it's claimed to be such a good venue when the playing area is part of an open plan ground floor, with only partitions to separate it from other areas. Noise levels leave something to be desired, particularly if you're sitting on the periphery of the playing area at the opposite end to where the top boards are, and that's assuming you don't find, as I did one year, drum practise going on somewhere else in the building.