Milk Tournament in Hotel Selfoss

Round 8 Report by Rod McShane

In Round 8 of the Selfoss Milk tournament nine of the ten games were decisive.

The only draw came in the Category XII Masters in the encounter between the two top seeds Predrag Nikolic and Ivan Sokolov. The two Bosnian born players, now both resident in the Netherlands, declared a truce after just 19 moves.

Otherwise, it was a good day for White which claimed eight of the nine wins, the exception being Thorfinsson-Hracek, which the Czech GM says he won "quite easily".

The Russian GM Pavel Tregubov beat the young Englander Luke McShane´s King´s Indian Defence very convincingly. Luke says he was "absolutely slaughtered". Pavel was more generous about Luke´s chances: "At the critical point maybe he can take on c5 immediately. Earlier perhaps 9...d5 was better than 9...e5."

Tregubov´s win leaves Nikolic as the only unbeaten player in the Masters.

Nikolic and Tregubov now lead the Masters with 6/8. Sokolov is in third place with 5½ points. After his win against Helgi Olafsson, a 79 move marathon which went the full six hour session, Hannes Stefansson now moves up to share fourth place with McShane.

Forty moves of Stefansson-Olafsson (or Hannes-Helgi as you´ll always see it written here - local players are invariably known by their Christian names on demo and leader boards in Iceland) was a minor piece ending where Hannes claims his two bishops were always better than Helgi´s knight, bishop and doubled b pawns, and Helgi´s "39...h6 was a horrible move".

None of the remaining players can now catch these five.

In the Catgory III Challengers GM Jan Votava leads with 7/8 and needs only a draw in the last round to be assured of outright first place in this event. Jon Viktor Gunnarsson trails on 6 and fellow IM Steffen Pedersen has 5½ points. Pall Thorarinsson and Flovin Tor Naes share fourth place with 4½ points each. Again none of these five players can be caught by the rest of the field.

Votava won in just 15 moves when his opponent Thorstein Thorsteinsson missed an easy trick.

Flovin was unlucky to lose to Gunnarsson, his third defeat in as many rounds, when he blundered his rook in a queen and rook ending where both players had pawns on the seventh. "I had a win in the time trouble, well almost a clear win, a very simple draw on Move 40. In the ending, maybe I can try and draw, but I played 43...Rc8 and he simply took it."

In Pedersen-Karlsson, according to the Dane, "I won a pawn, then I sacrificed a rook for a massive attack and he just committed suicide suddenly."

Gudmundur Kjartansson, at 14 the youngest player at Selfoss, will have been pleased to have recorded his second win and point of the tournament when he beat WGM Lenka Ptacnikova.

Whatever the outcome of Wednesday´s final round the Selfoss Milk Tournament has been a remarkable success for the Hrokurinn Club and the organising team of Hrafn Jökulsson, Robert Hardarson and Ingvar Thor Johannsson.

After 40 games in each event there have been only 14 draws in the Masters and only 12 in the Challengers.

As an indication of fighting chess this is more remarkable in that five of the participants in the Masters (Sokolov, Nikolic, Oral, McShane and Kristjansson) and three in the Challengers (Votava, Tor Naes and Pall Thorarinsson) are all members of the Hrokurinn Club.

As a boost to chess in Iceland, the tournament has been an unqualified success in every regard. The venue, Icelandair´s brand new Hotel Selfoss, can´t be faulted for the facilities it has provided - spacious and comfortable rooms, excellent food and playing conditions. Manager Karl Rafnsson´s staff have been unfailingly friendly and helpful to both players and organisers, providing an environment for the tournament as good as any I´ve seen.

Discussions between the organisers, the hotel management, local councillors and sponsors are already well under way for a repeat of this tournament in 2003. This is a move which I´m sure will have the unqualified endorsement of all who took part this year.

Round 7 Report by Rod McShane

The shock of the day in Round 7 of the Masters at the Selfoss Milk tournament came when the top seed Ivan Sokolov lost with White to local GM Helgi Olafsson. Olafsson´s win allowed Predrag Nikolic to overtake Sokolov to become the sole leader with 5½/7. Sokolov, Luke McShane and Pavel Tregubov share second place with 5 points each. Hannes Stefansson follows in fifth place with 4 points.

The round saw seven wins out of ten games, no less than 6 of them by Black. Four of these Black wins were in the Masters event, the sole draw being McShane-Nikolic. According to Nikolic, this was "a complicated, correct game. I don´t think there were any serious mistakes." McShane was less positive about his play on the White side of a Ruy Lopez: "I tried to attack but it rebounded and then I had to defend." Olafsson was jubilant after his upset of the top seed after poor play as White the day before had cost him the point against McShane. This time his Nimzo-Indian proved effective against Sokolov who declined to castle. A complicated exchange of pieces in the middle game followed leaving Helgi with rook, knight and pawn for Ivan's queen. After a tricky ending in which he was allowed to pick off Olafsson´s a,b and c pawns, Sokolov resigned facing unmeetable threats from rook, knight and passed f and h pawns.

Sokolov´s sense of humour had returned the following day as players watched Kramnik lose his second game in a row to Deep Fritz in the "Brains in Bahrain" match. Shortly before Vlad´s resignation, Ivan observed, "For this kind of money you have to bleed a little. I had a very serious f...up [the author, whose hearing is somewhat defective, thinks the word he heard here was "foul-up"] yesterday and I receive nothing for it." Winning his fourth game in a row, with Black against IM Stefan Kristjansson, the Russian Pavel Tregubov commented, "I think Stefan chose the wrong line. The mistake is 20.Qh5. Later on he had some chances, but it´s not so easy for him."

Facing players of this strength round after round in this tournament has been something of a baptism of fire for the promising young Icelandic IM. In nearly every game he has ended in time trouble, but no doubt the benefits will show soon enough. In the worst tournament performance he can remember Zbynek Hracek, who will play on top board for the Czech team in the Olympiad later this month, lost once again, this time to national team-mate Tomas Oral, winning his first game of the tournament. Hracek said, "I played very risky and at one moment I should have made a draw. I think I was completely winning but I overlooked a very simple move and was immediately losing." Flovin Tor Naes after leading the Challengers tournament for five rounds lost with White to the Danish IM Steffen Pedersen with what he described as "a very bad positional blunder."

The only other winner in the Challengers was the Czech GM Jan Votava who with 6/7 looks to be running away with the first prize. It was not so easy for him yesterday against young Gudmundur Kjartansson who at 2099 is rated more than 400 points below Jan. "It was all the time a slight advantage for me but I could find no way to win so I just played until he got in to time trouble and was not able to cover all of my threats. He was not as easy as I expected." The Challengers leader board now has IM Jon Viktor Gunnarsson trailing Votava with 5 points, followed by Flovin Tor Naes and Pedersen each on 4½/7. With two rounds remaining there is still all to play for participants in both tournaments. Flovin Tor Naes now needs 2/2 against Gunnarsson and Votava for an IM norm in the Challengers. In the Masters all four of the leading players have tough final rounds. Nikolic faces Sokolov with White, then has Black against Olafsson. Sokolov will need to beat Tregubov with White in Round 9. McShane has the black pieces against Tregubov followed by White against Oral. Meanwhile, at least one of Hannes Stefansson and Helgi Olafsson will be trying to improve his place in the prize list after their Round 8 game.

Round 6 Report

The shakeout at the top in both events at the Selfoss Milk tournament continued in Round 6 here in Selfoss. With three rounds still to play just eight players seem likely to divide the lion´s share of the US$7500 prize fund in the Masters and US$2000 in the Challengers.

Ivan Sokolov now shares the lead in the Masters tournament with Predrag Nikolic, while Luke McShane is in third place on 4½ points, with Pavel Tregubov following on 4/6.

In the Challengers GM Jan Votava is the lone leader on 5 points, with Flovin Tor Naes and IM Jon Viktor Gunnarsson on 4½, and IM Steffen Pedersen a point behind them in fourth place.

The first game to finish in the Masters was Stefansson-Sokolov which was drawn after 22 moves. Sokolov´s Slav picked up a not very consequential pawn in 11 moves, which he sacrificed back a little later when peace was declared.

The first win of the round was in Olafsson-McShane which saw Luke pick up his third win in a row against Helgi. McShane thought Olafsson´s 17.a4 was "unwise. Then Helgi effectively blundered an exchange, I think, when he miscalculated that he was getting two of my pieces for his rook and then I finished off with a very satisfying mating attack with rook and two bishops."

After a slow start in the Masters Pavel Tregubov notched up his third win in a row, this time against Zbynek Hracek.

Pavel claims the variation played "is always better for White."

"I agree," said Zbynek Hracek, "but I wanted to surprise him and he played this line for the first time."

"Later on we both made some mistakes," added Tregubov. "The position remained all time slightly better for White. Maybe Zbynek did not defend very well in time trouble." Finally, an exchange for a pawn up, Tregubov picked off Hracek´s bishop with his rook for a won pawn ending.

Nikolic-Kristjansson was won by White after nearly six hours of play. The Icelandic IM defended with rook, knight and extra pawn against two bishops and knight. According to Stefan, "I had no counterplay and just had to wait. Maybe it was possible to make a draw, but Predrag is like a machine in these positions."

Flovin Tor Naes´s Hrokurinn team-mate Pall Thorarinsson struck a major blow to the Faroes player´s hopes for an additional IM norm in the Challengers at Selfoss in a line of the Gruenfeld which left him a pawn down from which he never recovered.

Flovin still has GM Jan Votava and IMs Steffen Pedersen and Jon Viktor Gunnarsson to face in the last three rounds with 2/3 looking a much tougher target than the 2/4 he needed going into this round.

All four of the remaining games in the Challengers were drawn.

Luke McShane met some unexpected opposition in his 24 board simul against Iceland´s Under-21 football team, sharpening its wits for its European Cup match against Lithuania at Akranes on Tuesday. Luke who hadn´t lost a game in at least his last five simuls, lost two against the Icelanders for a final score of 18+ 4= 2-

Winners were young star Magnus Sverrir Thorsteinsson and coach Olafur Thordason.

Before the simul Hrokurinn club President Hrafn Jökulsson presented the national team with set, clock and board to use during team training sessions. In turn Vidar Halldorsson of Iceland´s Football Federation presented Luke with a team shirt autographed by the entire squad, and honorary team shirts for all players and officials involved in the Selfoss tournament.

Round 5 Report

With four of the five games drawn in Round 5 of the Masters tournament here in Selfoss there was little change in the leader board.

Sokolov still leads with 4½ points, ahead of Predrag Nikolic on 4 and Luke McShane who has 3½ points.

Luke McShane spoilt Sokolov´s 100% score sheet with a draw in which he missed the chance for a clear advantage as White. According to Sokolov, "Luke had good chances after 23.c4 instead of 23.Nxg6. After capturing with the knight the game is more or less a forced draw."

Pavel Tregubov was the only winner in the Masters: "I was slightly better after the opening, then I made a mistake and should have played 8...a6, instead of 8...b6, followed by 9...b5 when I would probably have been better. 8...b6 allowed Bragi some counterplay. Finally, maybe the position with my doubled b-pawns was not enough for winning, but I eventually found some manoeuvres to force his resignation."

Much of the attention in the final rounds may well be on Flovin Tor Naes. The Faroes player has reached +4 and needs 50% in his last four games for his second IM norm. Easier said than done, though. After playing his Hrokurinn club mate Pall Thorarinsson in Round 6 he still has GM Jan Votava and IMs Steffen Pedersen and Jon Victor Gunnarsson to face in the last three rounds. Experience shows that hoping to halve out is not necessarily his best strategy in this situation.

Tor Naes won his game against WGM Lenka Ptacnikova with little difficulty. He had an avantage during most of the game which he converted to an ending with two connected knights and a pair of pawns against a lone black rook which could do little but stare miserably at Flovin´s advancing pawns.

Flovin, on 4½ points, shares the lead with GM Jan Votava who comfortably beat IM Steffen Pedersen in Round 5. Jon Viktor Gunnarsson follows on 4, while Pedersen is in fourth place with 3 points.

After the surprise defeat 2-0 of Iceland in its first phase European Cup football match, the first away win for Scotland in over a year, the streets of Reykjavik were full of jubilant Scots on Saturday night.

Perhaps the Iceland Under-21 team can salvage something from their simul with Luke McShane. The team stayed at the Hotel Selfoss earlier in the week for a few days of training for their match against Scotland´s Under-21s on Friday. After some discussion between the national Under-21 coach and Selfoss tournament organiser Hrafn Jökulsson, the challenge went out to Luke. He will take on their challenge at 9.00pm on Sunday after his Round 6 game against GM Helgi Olafsson in the Hotel Selfoss.

The tournament organisers here are doing a splendid job in creating renewed interest in the game here. Apart Ivan´s blitz match against GM Fridrik Olafsson and Luke´s simul, the day before the tournament began, Sokolov, Nikolic, Oral, Votava, McShane and Kristjansson faced 130 school children from the Southern Iceland area in simuls. I can´t recall ever hearing the sort of applause which greeted the Masters as they entered the playing hall.

All players in the simul received a copy of Anatoly Karpov´s Walt Disney sponsored book "Check and Mate", signed by the translator GM Helgi Olafsson. Five thousand copies of the book were printed by Iceland´s biggest publishing house, Edda, as its contribution to the tournament.

Round 4 by Rod McShane

The question after four rounds of the Category XII Masters event of the Selfoss Milk Tournament in Iceland is who can stop Ivan Sokolov? After the minor embarrassment of his loss to GM Fridrik Olafsson in their four game blitz match, the World No 18 recovered immediately to comfortably despatch local IM, the 21 year old Stefan Kristjansson.

Sokolov now leads with a 100% score, half a point ahead of Predrag Nikolic. In third place is Luke McShane on 3/4 with the other seven players following a point or more behind.

Nikolic and McShane both had interesting games yesterday.

In Nikolic´s words, his opponent IM elect Bragi Thorfinnssson was "more than okay" giving him some problems before he eventually won with queen versus rook and knight.

In an irregular Sicilian against Icelandic Champion Hannes Stefansson, McShane retaliated quickly as Black to sacrifice pawns, then a knight for considerable play. But after accurate defence from Hannes, Luke was eventually forced to sac a rook for a perpetual to force the draw.

Two others chalked up their first wins of the tournament.

Against Tomas Oral, Pavel Tregubov won eventually, following Dreev-Svidler from the last round of the European Cup held in Halkidiki, Greece in July:

"My opponent did not know the game and spent 100 minutes thinking before finding a strong new move. Then I had to think for about an hour."

Zbynek Hracek eventually won his rook and knight ending against Helgi Olafsson after letting his grip on the game slip somewhat during a time scramble where both players had only seconds left on the clock as Move 40 approached.

In the Category III Challengers, Flovin Tor Naes shares the lead with the Czech GM Jan Votava. They each have 3½ points, half a point ahead of IMs Jon Viktor Gunnarsson and Steffen Pedersen.

Pedersen was very quickly all over his opponent after only a dozen moves. Pedersen: "I think I had a very promising attack as White but he defended well. I probably missed finding the right way to win, eventually allowing his pieces to come out."

Votava´s win against Pall Thorarinsson was "a funny game. I had nothing in the position and played for some tricks. Instead of one natural move, Pall made a mistake and from then he can give up."

WGM Lenka Ptacnikova and Gudmundur Kjartanssson will both be relieved to have recorded their first wins.

Lenka´s two bishops and rook tightened a mating net on Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson. He resigned after his black king was pursued to a6.

The 14 year old Gudmundur forced Agust Sindri Karlsson´s resignation after passing a doubled h-pawn supported by knight and rook.

It´s been a tough week for Gudmundur and 19 year old Sigurdur Pall Steindorsson. They´ve been arriving for their daily 5.00pm round at Selfoss after a full day at school and the 50 minute drive from Reykjavik. Worse still, they´ve had school exams all week!

Tournament organiser Hrafn Jökulsson has announced that "we will organise a very strong tournament in the first half of 2003, even stronger than this one."

A contract for this tournament has been signed with Islandssimi, Iceland´s major telecoms company, with whom Jökulsson´s team "will work on many fronts."

Hrokurinn Chess Club, of which Hrafn is President, already has a sponsorship deal with the international investment bank, Kaupthing. Asked whether these other activities might not distract attention from the club´s league ambitions for 2002/3, a typically optimistic President replied, "We will win the top three divisions."

Round 3 by Rod McShane

Ivan Sokolov leads the Category XII Masters with a perfect score after three rounds of the Selfoss Milk Tournament in Iceland. Half a point behind are Predrag Nikolic and Luke McShane, which means that just three players have eight of the fifteen points.

There is a similar story in the Category III Challengers where Flovin Tor Naes from the Faroe Islands is the only player on 3/3. The three titled players in the event, GM Jan Votava and IMs Jon Victor Gunnarsson and Steffen Pedersen, follow by half a point. Flovin has yet to play any of these but must be eyeing the chances for his second IM norm.

Sokolov's claims his opponent Hracek overestimated his position as White and then ran short of time. The winner was very generous with his time in the commentary room after the game, demonstrating many variations for the spectators.

Sokolov was not so lucky in his blitz match with GM Fridrik Olafsson.

The match, played in the Laugardalsholl in central Reykjavik, went:

Sokolov 1-0 Olafsson Olafsson 1-0 Sokolov Sokolov draw Olafsson Olafsson 1-0 Sokolov

The final game was won after Ivan turned down the draw offer after Olafsson´s 23rd move.

Younger players who consider this result as something of an upset can be forgiven for not recalling Olafsson´s heyday. In the 60s and 70s Fridrik can boast of many good results against contemporaries including Fischer, Tal, Petrosian and Spassky.

The only other win in the Masters was McShane´s win with Black against Kristjansson. Luke claims Stefan didn´t have to play 12. g4 and later failed to make use of all the resources in his position.

Oral-Nikolic and Thorfinnsson-Olafsson were both relatively short draws.

Tregubov-Stefansson, the final game of the day to finish, went almost the full six hours playing time. Stefansson felt obliged to give up an exchange but Tregubov failed to find a win and offered the draw with less than five minutes left on his clock.

In the Challengers there were three winners.

Tor Naes offered a draw which his opponent "refuted" by making an immediate blunder. Pedersen won in a good line in the Gruenfeld with an extra tempo given him by his opponent. And Votava eventually solved some technical problems to win an ending an exchange for a pawn up.

Round 2 Report by Rod McShane

The second round of the Selfoss Milk Tournament was a repeat of the first with four decisive games out of five in the Cat XII Masters and three in the Cat III Challengers. But this time all four of the wins in the Masters were with White.

The two top-rated grandmasters Ivan Sokolov and Predrag Nikolic, both born in Bosnia, lead the Masters with two points each.

Sokolov's young opponent Bragi Thorfinnsson suffered from an inferior position out of the opening, a Nimzo Indian Defence, and was brutally punished after some inaccurate moves later in the game.

Nikolic's opponent Pavel Tregubov again suffered serious time trouble allowing Predrag to win a "slightly better" knight and pawn ending.

For more than 30 moves the young Englander Luke McShane outplayed his Bundesliga team-mate Zbynek Hracek (they both play for SV Werder Bremen), but had to concede the draw a few moves later. 32. f4 left him with too many complications to think about as the time control approached.

Tomas Oral blamed time trouble for the difficulties he got into against Helgi Olafsson in a queen and rook ending which saw several of his pawns drop off before he eventually resigned.

Stefan Kristjansson allowed the Icelandic Champion Hannes Stefansson to gain a big space advantage from the opening which ended in a quick win.

The Faroes player Flovin Tor Naes is the sole leader in the Challengers, the only player to have won both of this games. He beat the up-and-coming Icelandic talent, 14 year old Gudmundur Kjartanson after winning an early exchange in the Scotch.

Jan Votava eventually won with his extra pawn in an opposite coloured bishops ending, but only with a great deal of cooperation by way of mistakes from his opponent, Sigurdur Pall Steindorsson.

But the day´s biggest chess story here in Iceland was a television appearance by GM Fridrik Olafsson. As well as being Iceland´s first and still most distinguished grandmaster, Olafsson has been the Secretary-General of the national parliament for some 20 years. Olafsson declared that "things are finally happening again in Icelandic chess".

He was paying an indirect compliment to the Selfoss tournament´s organisers. Their club, Hrokurinn, as well as wresting the title of league champions from the Reykjavik club for the first time in many seasons, has staged many if not most of the major chess events in Iceland in the past year or so.

Olafsson, who entertained the spectators in a busy commentary room during the first round of the Selfoss tournament, will play a four game blitz match against Ivan Sokolov, currently the World No 18, top seed in the Masters and Hrokurinn´s top player. The event will take place in the Laugardalsholl, Reykjavik on Friday at 11.30am.

Olafsson´s participation in this match is surely yet another honour for both the Hrokurinn Club and all involved in the Selfoss tournament.

Milk Tournament in Hotel Selfoss - Round 1 Report by Rod McShane

The first Selfoss Milk Tournament made a successful start yesterday. Sponsored by the three major companies involved in lthe thriving dairy industry centred in the town of Selfoss, in the Arborg district of Southern Iceland, the event consists of two round robins, the Cat XII Masters and the Cat III Challengers.

The event is the brainchild of Hrafn Jökulsson and Robert Hardarson of Iceland´s leading chess club, Hrokurinnen, winner of the national league championship last season, from a standing start in the fourth division only as many seasons ago. Five of the players in the Masters represent Hrokurinnen in the league, making it the strongest all-play-all in Iceland since 1991.

With the superb playing conditions offered by Icelandair´s brand new four star hotel in Selfoss, the tournament promises some very extiting chess. Indeed 7 of the 10 games in the first round were decisive.

The biggest upset of the day was the young Icelandic IM Stefan Kristjansson´s conquest, with the black pieces, of the very experienced Czech GM Zbynek Hracek. Zbynek was better out of the opening, but an inaccurate move allowed Stefan to sacrifice a knight. With both players short of time Hracek failed to find the drawing line giving Stefan one of his best ever scalps.

Top seed Ivan Sokolov played a line similar to his last round game in the recent European Cup in Halkidiki, drawing with Rublevsky. This time he did better, winnning convincingly against the 24 year old Czech GM Tomas Oral, a frequent and popular visitor to Iceland.

The 18 year old English GM Luke McShane won comfortably against Bragi Thorfinnsson with the Gruenfeld, a recent addition to Luke´s opening repertoire. Thorfinsson recently impressed by making his third IM norm in the Icelandic Championship, but this was not his day.

The current Icelandic champion Hannes Stefansson lost with black to the second seed Predrag Nikolic in a line of the Queen´s indian which Nikolic has played for many years and which perhaps showed inadequate preparation on the part of Hannes.

Finally, the Russian GM Pavel Tregubov, making his first visit to Iceland, had a hard fought draw with local GM Helgi Olafssson in which neither player ever looked to have sufficient ascendancy to play for the win.

In the Challengers, Faroes player Flovin Tor Naes saced a pawn in the Gruenfeld, and in mutual time trouble his opponent Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson played himself into a mating net.

The Danish IM Steffen Pedersen won a pawn in the Bogo Indian and had no trouble converting in 44 moves. His opponent was the Czech WGM Lenka Ptacnikova who now lives in Reykjavik with her husband GM Helgi Ass Gretarsson and their young daughter.

Sigurdur Pall Steindorsson missed the win with Black against IM Jon Viktor Gunnarsson when he took the draw by repetition in 37 moves.

So, overall on the first day, good for Black with four of the wins versus three for White; and, surprisingly, only half a point for the four Czech players.