Stefansson Stuns the Stars

Home favourite Hannes Stefansson delivered one of his best performances to date by winning the star-studded Reykjavik Open with a full point to spare. The Icelandic GM went undefeated through nine rounds of combat and strolled across the finish line with an impressive 7.5/9.

Further details and annotated games: Reykjavik Open

Results and complete gamefile at: http://www.simnet.is/hellir/Reykopen00.htm

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Karpov in China

Former World Champion Anatoly Karpov was recently in China on a promotion tour. In addition to various simuls and lectures, Karpov played a couple of exhibition matches against the local talent. The 48-year-old Russian started off with a comfortable 4-2 win over reigning Women's World Champion Jun Xie in Guangzhou.

After that it was off to Dalian, where he beat super-GM Ye Jiangchuan by 3-1.

Further details and annotated games: Karpov-Xie

Official site: http://www.gzdaily.com/chess/echess_index.htm

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Danish Championships

Denmark's national championship is currently underway in Aalborg. To the great disappointment of sponsors, organisers and spectators, The Great Dane, 65-year-old Bent Larsen, became seriously ill and had to drop out of this year's competition after losing his round one game against IM Steffen Pedersen. Larsen was hospitalised and had to undergo surgery, but his condition is reported to be stable.

After four rounds, heavy favourite GM Curt Hansen leads the nine-man field with two wins and two draws. His most impressive game so far is his round three demolition of Steffen Pedersen.

View game with annotations: Pedersen-Hansen

Daily coverage and live games at: http://www.dm2000.skak.stofanet.dk/index_uk.htm

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Pula Zonal

The first Zonal qualifier (zones 1 & 2) for this year's FIDE World Chess Championship runs from April 11-22 in Pula, Croatia. After eight rounds Slovenian Grandmaster Alexander Beliavsky is in the lead with 6 points.

Results and games at: http://www.crochess.com/turniri/pula/zonski/zonski.html

Pert wins Oakham

English IM Nicholas Pert won this year's Oakham GM-tournament with a score of 6.5 out of 9, half a point short of the GM-norm. American teen star Irina Krush secured her first IM-norm by finishing third with 5.5 points.

Results, games and daily reports by John Henderson at The Week in Chess: http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html

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All this week's Gausel Report annotated games in PGN Here

- Einar Gausel