Tactics: Wreckjavik
Our Canadian Tactic comes from IM Shiyam Thavandiran's round 4 game at the 2018 Reykjavik Open. In the diagram, Shiyam is threatening Qxg7#; what happens after 18...g6 19.Rae1 ...?
Solution, and complete game with notes below.
2018 Reykjavik Open
The 2018 Reykjavik Open ran March 6-14, 2018. It was won by Indian GM Baskaran Adhiban with 7.5/9, 1/2 a point ahead of Maxime Lagarde (FRA) and Mustafa Yilmaz (EGY).
Still one of the strongest open events in the world, Reykjavik was noticeably weaker this year, with only two 2700+ players and only 12 2600+ entered -- by comparison, Gibraltar had 35 players over 2600 and 12 over 2700, including three of the world's top 10: Aronian, MVL and Nakamura.
To mark the 75th anniversary of Bobby Fischer's birth, a Fischer Random event was held on March 9th. Three GMs from the US federaion took top spots: Alex Lenderman won, ahead of Elshan Moradiabadi (on TB) and Josh Friedel (1/2 a point back). Elshan was born in Iran, but has been studying in Texas for years and recently changed federations.
Six Canadians played in the Open. None scored Norms, but 5 of the 6 outperformed their ratings, and collectively they brought back 208 FIDE rating points.
| Start | Name | FIDE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Pts. | Rk. | TPR | rtg+/- | |
| 42 | IM | Thavandiran Shiyam | 2399 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 6 | 27 | 2461 | 17.8 |
| 51 | IM | Cummings David H. | 2322 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 6 | 33 | 2423 | 13.5 |
| 106 | Buscar Michael | 2099 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4.5 | 107 | 2111 | 4 | |
| 135 | Zhou Aiden | 1977 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 4 | 172 | 2106 | 51.2 | |
| 138 | Murray Michael | 1975 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 4.5 | 127 | 1933 | -7.6 | |
| 182 | CM | Atanasov Anthony | 1767 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 4 | 158 | 1996 | 90 |
| 227 | AFM | Tsanaclis Albert | 1429 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 206 | 1457 | 38.8 |
One difficulty of earning Norms in an event like this is the yo-yo-ing in the pairings: a single loss can result in getting several pairings against much lower-rated opponents. This year, Shiyam lost only two games, to podium finishers Yilmaz (2619) and Lagarde (2587), and each time got paired against experts in the next round. Similarly, after losing to L'Ami (2634) in round 3, David Cummings was paired against 1900 players in the next two rounds.
Homepage
http://www.reykjavikopen.com/
Our Canadian Tactic comes from Shiyam's round 4 game against an Icelandic expert.
From the diagram, Shiyam is threatening Qxg7#; what happens after 18...g6 19.Rae1?
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Round: Result:
Round: Result:
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