The 19th Reykjavik Open, which runs from April 5 to 13, boasts no less than three former World Championship Challengers and a total of six Super-GM's. Leading scores after five rounds:

1.GM Viktor Korchnoi 4.5 pts 2-8.GM Nigel Short, GM Hannes Stefansson, GM Larry Christiansen, IM Alexander Grischuk, GM Jan Timman, GM Nick DeFirmian & IM Luke McShane 4 pts (76 players).

As is usually the case in big open tournaments, the first round saw the top half beating to the lower half to a pulp.

The most brutal hammering was administered by Estonian Ace Jaan Ehlvest.

View Ehlvest-Schnabel

The reigning Nordic Champion, Swedish GM Tiger Hillarp Persson, also got the opportunity to strut his stuff in the opening round.

View Hillarp Persson-Kleinert

Round two, however, saw some major upsets on the top boards. Larry Christiansen (2596) was outplayed by 16-year-old Luke McShane (2438), Jaan Ehlvest (2622) was pinned to the floor by Harmen Jonkman (2466) and Tony Miles (2579) suffered a long technical massage at the hands of Olli Salmensuu (2418).

Pre-tournament favourite Nigel Short was also in trouble in his board one encounter with Polish GM Tomasz Markowski.

View Markowski-Short

After this close shave, Short settled for a quick draw with Markowski's compatriot Alexander Wojtkiewicz in the following round. So much for "charity", though. The next day Short made light work of GM-candidate Luke McShane, after the latter issued a rather dubious piece sacrifice in the early middlegame.

View Short-McShane

Not one to be discouraged, young Luke bounced back in the following round, beating Czech GM Tomas Oral (2545) with the black pieces, thus pushing his rating performance over the 2700 mark! I smell a GM-norm in the making here, but there's still four rounds to go. Luke's round six encounter with Icelandic GM Hannes Stefansson (2566) will certainly be a tough one.

We'll be rounding up this tournament next week. Stay tuned.

- Einar Gausel

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