Reykjavik 2024

[Simon Myles]

This popular event returns again today. The usual good number of English entrants, including Daniel Fernandez who should be amongst the favourites, and Bodhana being paired with a 2500+ GM in round 1.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

She (Bodhana) is playing in a lot of events! (This is good, but was wondering what, if anything, is 'normal' when developing as a chess player, is it whatever suits the player best - do some players play intensively and then train/learn - I know some other prodigies have revealed their approaches - I guess it really does depend on the player and what their trainers/coaches advise.)

[Leonard Barden]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/ ... 1972-match

[Roger de Coverly]

The usual good number of English entrants, including Daniel Fernandez who should be amongst the favourites, and Bodhana being paired with a 2500+ GM in round 1.

English participants are at
https://chess-results.com/tnr792656.asp ... NG&flag=30

Titled players
12 GM Fernandez Daniel Howard 2532 ENG
29 IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2450 ENG
53 FM Lohia Sohum 2354 ENG
59 IM Pigott John C 2326 ENG
72 FM Bisby Daniel L 2273 ENG
76 IM Large Peter G 2262 ENG
79 IM Povah Nigel E 2202 ENG
116 WCM Sivanandan Bodhana 2088 ENG

I suppose Fernandez is looking to be in contention to win the tournament with Wadsworth, Lohia and Sivanandan being Norm seekers as mentioned in Leonard's Guardian piece.

The other four titled players being veterans are presumably essentially tourists like the rest of the ENG field although John Pigott got his final IM Norm there some years ago and beat Shirov into the bargain.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Didn't know that Povah's rating had gone that low, though he is in his 70s now.

[Nick Burrows]

Surely the Pollack game didn't end like that? He had a winning endgame and just dropped a rook to lose. Chess-results also showing a loss

[LawrenceCooper]

The usual good number of English entrants, including Daniel Fernandez who should be amongst the favourites, and Bodhana being paired with a 2500+ GM in round 1.

English participants are at
https://chess-results.com/tnr792656.asp ... NG&flag=30

Titled players
12 GM Fernandez Daniel Howard 2532 ENG
29 IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2450 ENG
53 FM Lohia Sohum 2354 ENG
59 IM Pigott John C 2326 ENG
72 FM Bisby Daniel L 2273 ENG
76 IM Large Peter G 2262 ENG
79 IM Povah Nigel E 2202 ENG
116 WCM Sivanandan Bodhana 2088 ENG

I suppose Fernandez is looking to be in contention to win the tournament with Wadsworth, Lohia and Sivanandan being Norm seekers as mentioned in Leonard's Guardian piece.

The other four titled players being veterans are presumably essentially tourists like the rest of the ENG field although John Pigott got his final IM Norm there some years ago and beat Shirov into the bargain.

I'm not sure I would call Daniel Bisby a veteran, although he has reached his mid 40s.

[Kevin Thurlow]

It's a really nice tournament and really nice venue, although accommodation costs can be scary. Dan Bisby and Nigel Povah have played there before. Good luck to the English contingent - I assume the two Hills used Wells as a warm-up tournament. It's a shame a Korean player got the bye.

[LawrenceCooper]

Board 2 tomorrow: FM Sohum Lohia 2354 1 1 GM Vasyl Ivanchuk 2625

https://www.chess.com/events/2024-reykj ... chuk_Vasyl

[LawrenceCooper]

Board 2 tomorrow: FM Sohum Lohia 2354 1 1 GM Vasyl Ivanchuk 2625

https://www.chess.com/events/2024-reykj ... chuk_Vasyl

Game drawn in 29 moves.

[Richard Bates]

The usual good number of English entrants, including Daniel Fernandez who should be amongst the favourites, and Bodhana being paired with a 2500+ GM in round 1.

English participants are at
https://chess-results.com/tnr792656.asp ... NG&flag=30

Titled players
12 GM Fernandez Daniel Howard 2532 ENG
29 IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2450 ENG
53 FM Lohia Sohum 2354 ENG
59 IM Pigott John C 2326 ENG
72 FM Bisby Daniel L 2273 ENG
76 IM Large Peter G 2262 ENG
79 IM Povah Nigel E 2202 ENG
116 WCM Sivanandan Bodhana 2088 ENG

I suppose Fernandez is looking to be in contention to win the tournament with Wadsworth, Lohia and Sivanandan being Norm seekers as mentioned in Leonard's Guardian piece.

The other four titled players being veterans are presumably essentially tourists like the rest of the ENG field although John Pigott got his final IM Norm there some years ago and beat Shirov into the bargain.

I'm not sure I would call Daniel Bisby a veteran, although he has reached his mid 40s.

I suppose one could just about put up with being called a "veteran" by a teenager, but by Roger!!! Scary stuff...

[Leonard Barden]

Board 2 tomorrow: FM Sohum Lohia 2354 1 1 GM Vasyl Ivanchuk 2625

https://www.chess.com/events/2024-reykj ... chuk_Vasyl

...and draw just agreed, in a better ending for Lohia!

https://lichess.org/broadcast/reykjavik ... z/NZ966siD

That's a big rating boost for the 14-year-old in his quest for his second IM norm.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

<snip>

59 IM Pigott John C 2326 ENG
72 FM Bisby Daniel L 2273 ENG
76 IM Large Peter G 2262 ENG
79 IM Povah Nigel E 2202 ENG

<snip>

The other four titled players being veterans are presumably essentially tourists like the rest of the ENG field although John Pigott got his final IM Norm there some years ago and beat Shirov into the bargain.

I'm not sure I would call Daniel Bisby a veteran, although he has reached his mid 40s.

I suppose one could just about put up with being called a "veteran" by a teenager, but by Roger!!! Scary stuff...

Are you not a veteran, yet, Richard?

You could count veteran status by how long you have been playing chess, rather than by absolute age. So if you started when you were under the age of 10, and didn't have a period of time out from the game, you would have been playing for 40 years by the time you get to your late 40s, which is probably sufficient to make you a battle-hardened veteran! Or you could go by number of games? I passed the 1000-game mark at some point, and I know others and titled amateurs/professional players will over the course of their careers easily get towards or exceeding 10,000 OTB games (online games do not count!).

Not to encourage excessive playing of chess... But what are the numbers for most rated games in a lifetime of chess, most games in the databases by a single player, most games in personal databases/scoresheet collections, and so on? Please don't bring in the number of games played by identifiable accounts for online chess (those numbers get silly).

Maybe it is better to just follow the chess from Reykjavik! Good luck to all playing there.

PS. Ivanchuk definitely a veteran!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

IM Peter Large won his Round 2 game against a 2467 GM from China (Jiner Zhu).

IM Matthew Wadsworth also on 2/2 but was the rating favourite in both his games.

IM Stephen Mannion (SCO) is still playing his game against GM Vladislav Nevednichy (but is probably losing).

Ifan Rathbone-Jones (WLS) got a good result with a draw against FM Dan Bisby in R1 and followed up with a draw against another FM in round 2.

[Mick Norris]

Zh Jiner v Peter Large great result