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As part of the Hrokurinn Chess Festival in Iceland in February, from March 3-5 a powerful rapid chess tournament was held in Reykjavik with over 100 players. The $30,000 prize fund kept most of the GMs from the category 15 closed event in town and attracted a host of others. Alexei Shirov won the Grandmaster tournament, but could only finish in a tie for 4-12 places in the rapid open.
Belgium's Mikhail Gurevich took clear first with a terrific 8/9 score, a full point ahead of Ivan Sokolov and Emil Sutovsky. Joining Shirov in the big pack at 6.5 were Mickey Adams, Loek van Wely, and Victor Bologan. Top tenner Veselin Topalov only managed six points, as did Denmark-based American Nick deFirmian.
Mikhail Gurevich teaching Teimour Radjabov some bad habits, like the French
Defense.
Gurevich pocketed the entire first prize of $10,000. The critical game was his win over Shirov in the final round in a back and forth battle. Gurevich employed his trademark French Defense and came out on top in an opposite-side castling melee that would not have looked out of place in a Sicilian.
In
fact, Gurevich had black in his last two games and won both of them with the
French! In round eight his complicated battle with Israel's Sutovsky came down
to a time scramble that was decided abruptly when Sutovsky picked an unfortunate
square for his king.
Instead of 50.Kc3, he kept his king "active" by playing it to e3. But 50..d4+! won a piece after 51.Kd3 (51.Rxd4 Rh3+) 51...Be2+ 0-1. (52.Kd2 Bxh5+ 53.Kd3 Rh3+ 54.Kc4 Bxe8)
Here is an online replay page of a selection of games from the event. Many of the available scores were cut off or obviously incorrect and we have tried to weed those out.
Below are the top standings from the official site.
1 Gurevich, Mikhail BEL 2634 8
2-3 Sokolov, Ivan NED 2688 7
Sutovsky, Emil ISR 2651 7
4-12 Lautier, Joel FRA 2670 6.5
Shirov, Alexei ESP 2723 6.5
Adams, Michael ENG 2734 6.5
Van Wely, Loek NED 2668 6.5
Nikolic, Predrag BIH 2638 6.5
Ehlvest, Jaan EST 2600 6.5
Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2671 6.5
Bologan, Victor MDA 2630 6.5
Votava, Jan CZE 2518 6.5
13-21 Macieja, Bartlomiej POL 2629 6
Topalov, Veselin BUL 2743 6
McShane, Luke ENG 2568 6
Stefansson, Hannes ISL 2569 6
Olafsson, Helgi ISL 2475 6
Krasenkow, Michal POL 2633 6
De Firmian, Nick USA 2537 6
Björnsson, Sigurbjörn ISL 2267 6
Oral, Tomas CZE 2550 6
22-29 Tregubov, Pavel RUS 2612 5.5
Hjartarson, Johann ISL 2634 5.5
Þórhallsson, Þröstur ISL 2441 5.5
Danielsen, Henrik DEN 2501 5.5
Hunt, Harriet ENG 2389 5.5
Pokorna, Regina SVK 2375 5.5
Þórarinsson, Páll ISL 2265 5.5
Gunnarsson, Jón Viktor ISL 2369 5.5
