GAMMA Reykjavik Open 2019

[John Moore]

Terrific stuff, Chris. Thanks very much.

[Chris Rice]

Round 7 report. Lupulescu leads by a clear point with a great win Black side of a French against Firouzja. David Eggleston, after 5 wins in a row, lost to Grandelius but as you'll see in the report he had his chances.

[JustinHorton]

Round 7 report. Lupulescu leads by a clear point with a great win Black side of a French against Firouzja.

I'd not seen 9...Qa5 before, but I'm surprised White sees that move and then thinks oh, I'll castle queenside here.

[Chris Rice]

Round 7 report. Lupulescu leads by a clear point with a great win Black side of a French against Firouzja.

I'd not seen 9...Qa5 before, but I'm surprised White sees that move and then thinks oh, I'll castle queenside here.

Simon Williams has annotated the game here. He is about to publish an article on the line and reveals some great insight into the ideas. I'd not seen 9...Qa5 either but after this game if I ever get the opportunity...

[Jonathan Rogers]

Gawain about to win a smooth game on top board. Gosh, all those wasted years with the Kings Indian, and he was a Grunfeld player all along!

Peter Sowray beat GM Alexandr Fier, also a great result even if it doesn't alter the whole tournament in quite the same way.

[Chris Rice]

Had the whale tonight at Fischer's favourite restaurant in Reykjavik



According to the bar staff Fischer had his own alcove. Sometimes a chess player would be brave enough to go up to him but Fischer would then ask some obscure question such as what did Botvinnik play against Keres on move xx in such and such tournament? When the poor chess player just stood there staring Fischer would say "call yourself a chess player? You're not a chess player! Get away from me!"

Oh btw whale looks and tastes just like roast beef! Apparently the trick is not to cook it too long otherwise it starts to smell and taste too fishy.

[JustinHorton]

According to the round
report Gawain is above 2700 for the first time

[Jonathan Rogers]

Deservedly so - consistently strong results for a long while now.

[JustinHorton]

Anyway he would win the tournament (for which he is top-seeded) were he to beat Erwin L'Ami, who has black, and the top board game were drawn.

[Chris Rice]

Round 8 report and the final round pairings. Speculation is rife here that there might be a stitch up on Board 1 (those players apparently share a room) to prevent Gawain winning.

[Nick Burrows]

Round 8 report and the final round pairings. Speculation is rife here that there might be a stitch up on Board 1 (those players apparently share a room) to prevent Gawain winning.

What is the scenario that would stitch it up? Does a victory for one of them give them a better tie break?

[JustinHorton]

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.

[NickFaulks]

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.

Remember that they are using the Hort system, which dilutes this effect.

At any rate it seems a bit unfair at this stage to make that speculation public.

I agree, but it is difficult not to notice that the emphasis on first prize means that the combined finances of the players would not be well served by a draw. That would be the case whether they were close friends or not.

[Simon Brown]

So much for the conspiracy theory!

[NickFaulks]

So much for the conspiracy theory!

Indeed, and you can't say that either of them really went for it. I hoped they would try to make it a game.