In our last report from the biannual Reykjavik Open, Viktor Korchnoi had just taken the lead by downing Ivan Sokolov. At this point the 69-year-old super-veteran looked like he was going to go all the way. Take a look at how easily he disposed of the Bosnian in their round five encounter.

View annotated game Korchnoi-Sokolov

Pretty impressive stuff, wouldn't you say? In the next round, however, Korchnoi allowed Nigel Short and home-favourite Hannes Stefansson to catch up with him by playing a fairly short and uneventful draw against the Dutch Ace Jan Timman.

Stefansson's game against Luke McShane was a crazy affair, with the young Englishman having a decisive material advantage at one point. Probably dizzy with his own success, Luke failed to pay attention to what the Icelandic GM was doing until it was too late. Seemingly out of nowhere, Stefansson cooked up a decisive counterattack which ended with all of his pieces taking shots at the enemy king.

Nigel Short picked up an easy win after the young Russian Alexander Grischuk decided to sac a piece in a fairly balanced position.

View annotated game Grischuk-Short

Round seven saw Short drawing Korchnoi and DeFirmian drawing Timman, leaving Stefansson in clear first after creating a major upset in his game with Sokolov.

View annotated game Stefansson-Sokolov

I guess it's safe to say that this was not Sokolov's tournament. Every time the Bosnian managed to climb up to the top boards, he got his head handed to him. Plain and simple.

So, who's tournament was this? Definitely Stefansson's. No matter how hairy things got, the young Icelander consistently managed to calculate his way out of trouble and come out on top. In round eight he effectively decided the tournament by outplaying Korchnoi with the Black pieces. The Swiss veteran normally thrives in murky waters, but in this particular game it was clear that "Vic" didn't know what was going on.

View annotated game Korchnoi-Stefansson

This left Stefansson ahead by a full point going into the final round, and a quick draw with Grischuk the following day was more than enough to secure clear first and a $5.000 pay day. As it turned out, Stefansson could have lost and still won this event, since the games on boards two, three and four all ended with a quick handshake. Apparently, no one was willing to play "triple or nothing" with a thousand bucks on the line. What a bunch of Nancy Boys, eh?

One of the few people who showed up for the last round with every intention of putting in a full day at the office, was Viktor Korchnoi. I hasten to add that his opponent in this game, American GM Larry Christiansen, didn't have much to play for on this occasion, since he would be looking at "chump change" even with a win.

View annotated game Christiansen-Korchnoi

What about the youngsters? Well, the world's youngest Grandmaster, Xiangzhi Bu (14), proved that he was no joke by sharing second place and notching up a 2620 rating performance.

Luke McShane (16) scored an "iffy" GM-norm, which might count if accompanied by two good ones. McShane managed to reach the performance requirement (over 2600), but there's a rather silly rule that says you have to count your own Elo in your final rating average. On a title application, this would bring the young Englishman's "performance" down to just under the magical 2600-mark.

This is all somewhat academic when one takes into consideration the fact that McShane is already GM-strength and will have no trouble scoring the necessary norms within the next year or two. As my plumber frequently reminds me: Good things come to those who wait.

Final standings:
1.GM Hannes Stefansson (Iceland) 7.5
2-8.GM Nigel Short (England) 6.5
GM Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland) 6.5
GM Alexander Grischuk (Russia) 6.5
GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz (Poland) 6.5
GM Anthony Miles (England) 6.5
GM Xiangzhi Bu (China) 6.5
GM Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia) 6.5
(76 players).

- Einar Gausel

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