Reykjavik 2023

[Kevin Thurlow]

A bit late with this one...

https://chess-results.com/tnr655067.asp ... NG&flag=30

An Icelandic friend reminded me of this and he commented that Henry Adams has made rather a good start, 3.5/4 gaining 87 elo! Theres a good batch of English players.

(edit - finally noticed that I cannot spell, although I blame the keyboard.)

[Ian Thompson]

What does everyone think of this:

A special feature is that not only one handicapped player (rear table) but also some other players are allocated separate DGT boards in the front area right next to the stage. These are the streamers GM Simon Williams (ENG), WFM Anna Cramling Bellon (SWE), WFM Alexandra Botez (CAN) and WGM Dina Belenkaya (ISR), who are well known in the chess world.

With their own equipment (camera/smartphone + tripod), their tournament games are broadcast live on the internet via their own channels. Alexandra Botez, with 20,000 live followers, even brought her own photographer to Reykjavik in order to always be perfectly in the limelight.

I don't know whether their opponents are getting any say in this, but should their permission be required?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I don't know whether their opponents are getting any say in this, but should their permission be required?"

In this country, yes. I regret I am not an expert on Icelandic law.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Lovely game by Simon Williams covered here:

https://www.reykjavikopen.com/queen-sac ... ll-houses/

And on his Twitch channel:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1779725204

Also here:

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 023/2/1/44

[Event "Reykjavik Open"] [Site "chess24.com"] [Date "2023.03.30"] [Round "2"] [White "Williams, Simon K"] [Black "Rakhmangulova, Anastasiya"] [Result "1-0"] [Board "44"] [WhiteElo "2461"] [WhiteTitle "GM"] [WhiteCountry "ENG"] [WhiteFideId "404454"] [WhiteEloChange "2"] [BlackElo "2266"] [BlackTitle "WIM"] [BlackCountry "UKR"] [BlackFideId "14117479"] [BlackEloChange "-5"] 1. d4 {[%clk 1:29:14]} d5 {[%clk 1:30:55]} 2. c4 {[%clk 1:29:26]} c6 {[%clk 1:31:22]} 3. cxd5 {[%clk 1:29:03]} cxd5 {[%clk 1:31:48]} 4. Nc3 {[%clk 1:29:20]} Nf6 {[%clk 1:32:02]} 5. f3 {[%clk 1:27:36]} e6 {[%clk 1:17:32]} 6. e4 {[%clk 1:26:10]} dxe4 {[%clk 1:16:54]} 7. fxe4 {[%clk 1:25:43]} Nc6 {[%clk 1:15:57]} 8. Nf3 {[%clk 1:24:08]} Bb4 {[%clk 1:08:51]} 9. Bd3 {[%clk 1:19:40]} Ba5 {[%clk 0:57:10]} 10. e5 {[%clk 0:59:45]} Nd5 {[%clk 0:56:41]} 11. O-O {[%clk 1:00:10]} Nxc3 {[%clk 0:46:08]} 12. bxc3 {[%clk 1:00:32]} Bxc3 {[%clk 0:46:19]} 13. Rb1 {[%clk 1:00:10]} h6 {[%clk 0:23:37]} 14. Ba3 {[%clk 0:52:49]} a5 {[%clk 0:20:09]} 15. Qa4 {[%clk 0:48:03]} Bd7 {[%clk 0:11:58]} 16. Rxb7 {[%clk 0:35:12]} Nxd4 {[%clk 0:12:23]} 17. Nxd4 {[%clk 0:35:15]} Bxa4 {[%clk 0:10:19]} 18. Nxe6 {[%clk 0:32:36]} Qh4 {[%clk 0:04:11]} 19. Rfxf7 {[%clk 0:29:18]} Bb4 {[%clk 0:01:03]} 20. Rf8+ {[%clk 0:28:58]} 1-0

After 6 rounds, the leading England player is Matthew Wadsworth, recovering from a round 2 loss to defeat a GM in round 6 and reach 5/6. He is playing on board 4 in round 7, only half a point behind the joint leaders, but paired with Simon William's round 4 nemesis (GM Emre Can).

[LawrenceCooper]

After 6 rounds, the leading England player is Matthew Wadsworth, recovering from a round 2 loss to defeat a GM in round 6 and reach 5/6. He is playing on board 4 in round 7, only half a point behind the joint leaders, but paired with Simon William's round 4 nemesis (GM Emre Can).

Drawn in 24 moves.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Sadly, Matthew Wadsworth lost in round 8. There is a 5-way tie on 6.5/8 at the top ahead of the final round, with 14 players on 6/8. Nice illustration of zugzwang in the NvB endgame on board 2 (Gupta-Grandelius).

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Round 9 draw is up:

https://chess-results.com/tnr655067.asp ... TO&flag=30

Am wondering if there are any GM norm possibilities? I am not sure if the IM on top board has a high enough performance rating. Down in the score group on 6/8, there is Indian IM Sidhant Mohapatra with a performance rating of 2592 according to chess-results.com (I know that can't be relied on, but is an indication). Even with the lowest-rated player in his field being adjusted up to the 2200 floor, I think he would still need a win against GM Sebastien Maze.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Tournament won by Nils Grandelius. Matthew Wadsworth won in the last round to finish 16th. Wadsworth beat a German junior in the last round who had drawn with Jonah Willow in round 8.

Has anyone been following or playing through the games and spotted anything spectacular?

[Chris Rice]

Just a few musings on a tournament I absolutely love to go to.

The organisers set up a What’s App group for the players so they could find out whatever information they needed. Of course with 400+ people on it there was bound to be a raging argument about something and it appears there was a split between those who wanted more than the one section as it was difficult to get GM norms etc and those who prefer it just the way it is. The prevailing view appears to be that the record entries show that a lot of players come just to get a chance to play one of the big guys. However top players seemed short on the ground this year perhaps fearing massive rating losses. It was noticeable that even though Grandelius won this tournament with 7.5/9 he only improved his rating by 3.7 Elo points. I also noticed that there are many very strong players in the 1100-1700 rating band most of whom have no games on the database. The game has changed it seems to me and you have to be much better just to stay at the same rating.

The three streamers shouldn’t be ignored either and have shown a way to earn decent money with their various business models. Botez has Hammer doing the commentating with breaks every so often to advertise the various merchandise she is selling and with her huge following the advertising on her stream she makes some decent money. If it was just her chess ability she was relying on I doubt she would win much at these kind of tournaments.

Same with Anna Bellon Cramling who has her mum doing the commentating.

Simon Williams stream is wildly popular. I went for a drink with him on Saturday night with one of the organisers Ingvar Johanneson in some random Reykjavik bar and Ingvar and I had to look on while Simon was besieged by other people in the pub who recognised him from the streams, said he was their hero and bought him drinks.

Finally, there were quite a few rumours that they are going for the world record of something like 900 entries next year. Could be idle speculation but it does show that the tournament really appeals to a lot of people and the organisers must be doing something right.

[Bob Kane]

Just back, and confirm it was a fantastically organized event.
The little details matter to us chess players so the free pens , individual water bottles, same day PGNs, (majority hand entered) and quick pairings were very welcome.
Special events included a quiz, a blitz tournament, chess movie , chess book presentations.
Went on a wonderful day trip to the Bobby Fischer Centre and his final resting place , this was combined with a visit to the hot springs and spectacular waterfalls of the famous golden circle tour.
A friendly, entertaining city, if expensive .
Recommended

[Chris Rice]

Prize winners list. Simon's round 2 game was clearly the game of the tournament and is annotated and for Chris K's benefit:

Title norms

The following norms were reached at the tournament.

GM-norm- Sidhant Mohaptra
IM-norm- Sahithi Varshini
IM-norm – Patryk Cieslak

[Chris Rice]

Gunnar Bjornsson one of the organisers made some comments on FB after the tournament and gives us a few clues as to why it's so successful:

"Reykjavik Open concluded 4 days ago. As usual some days were needed to recover.

The tournament went very well. A record number of players 401 from 46 countries. Previous record was 272 from 2015. Where all the players came from is still an unsolved mystery! We must be doing something right!

Though this big numbers of players the tournament was very smooth and without any big problems.

Nils Grandelius was the winner. Took him 11 times to finally win the tournament

We had some streamers at the tournament. We made streamers corners where we kept the streamers at fixed boards. Worked very well and these people really helped us to gain more attention on the tournament. Both domestic and abroad. We will for sure continue that road.

The tournament was opened by the mayor of Reykjavik, Dagur B. Eggertsson. Lukasz Turlej, FIDE secretary of FIDE, visited us and made the ceremonial move of one round. FIDE supported us with their FIDE Aid package. Geert van der Welde, CEO of Chessable also visit and handed out the prizes with us. Chessable was one of the main sponsors of the tournament.

I have a great staff who really matter. Only local people – but for me it´s very important to give my people experience and opportunity. Even though we missed experienced people before the tournament new people stepped up and took the lead and did perfectly.

We have not finalized the dates of the 2024 but hopefully it will be clear soon. Is there a way to still grow? Or do we need to set limitation to the numbers of players? Let´s see what happens. Show must go on!

Thanks to everyone who came to Reykjavik Open. A great pleasure to see so many new faces. Great thanks to my staff which did a great job!

Excellent thanks to the sponsors but our main sponsors were Kvika Asset Management, Brim and of course Reykjavik City which has been with us since 1964.

See you 2024!"

Here's Gunnar doing a one arm press up:

[Satish Gaekwad]

amazing to see a record number of players - 401 from 46 countries, that I think beats any current tournament in England (food for thought to Organisers...)