Indians at halfway mark of the Reykjavik Open 2019

by Sagar Shah - 12/04/2019

Seven Indians are participating at the Reykjavik Open 2019 in Iceland. We have Abhijeet Gupta, R. Praggnanandhaa, D. Gukesh, Prithu Gupta, Tania Sachdev, R. Vaishali and Savitha Shri. At the halfway mark after five rounds we have three Indians Abhijeet, Praggnanandhaa and Tania on 3.5/5. Gukesh, Prithu and Savitha are on 3.0/5. Vaishali is not having a great event and is on 2.0/5. It is quite unusual that not many Indians are participating at one of the best open events in the world, and also that no one is in the leader's pack or half point behind the ones who are on 4.5/5. 12th of April is a rest day where a Fischer Random tournament will be played. Four rounds remain to be played, and we hope that our youngsters make a strong finish.

Usually when big events happen in different parts of the world, we have Indian players in huge numbers participating in those tournaments. Be it Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Aeroflot, Dubai or Sharjah. Reykjavik is one event where you will find Indians, but not so many! At the Reykjavik Open 2019 taking place in Iceland, we have only seven Indians participating. But each one has created an identity for themselves and is well known in the chess world. Let's have a look at who they are!

Mr. Commonwealth, also known as Abhijeet Gupta! | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

The youngster who caught the fancy of not just Indian chess fans, but the chess population all over the world - R. Praggnanandhaa | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Second youngest GM in the world after Sergey Karjakin - D.Gukesh | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

There is a lot of talent in this picture! | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Prithu Gupta, 15 years old, a tremendous chess talent from Delhi. Elo 2478 and 2 GM norms! | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

A well-known and popular face in the chess world - Tania Sachdev, who dons many hats. Sometimes a commentator, sometimes a reporter and sometimes a promoter. But at the core she remains a chess player! | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

R. Vaishali, one of the biggest female talents of Indian chess | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Savitha Shri the current world under-12 champion | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Performance of Indian players until round 5

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Rk.	Rp	K	rtg+/-
12	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2602	IND	½	1	0	1	1					3,5	37	2342	10	-8,60
21	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2537	IND	1	1	½	0	1					3,5	35	2534	10	1,80
22	GM	Gukesh D	2536	IND	1	1	0	½	½					3,0	49	2376	10	-7,80
31	IM	Prithu Gupta	2478	IND	1	1	1	0	0					3,0	47	2485	10	3,20
44	IM	Tania Sachdev	2397	IND	1	0	1	1	½					3,5	21	2466	10	5,20
50	WGM	Vaishali R	2353	IND	0	1	1	0	0					2,0	155	2024	20	-41,00
127	AGM	Shubham Shukla	1992	IND	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0,0	238	0	20	0,00
146		Savitha Shri B	1895	IND	½	½	1	0	1					3,0	93	1867	40	7,20

Prithu Gupta (right) started off brilliantly with 3.0/3. In the third round he played a fascinating game to beat GM Maxime Lagarde with the white pieces. But in rounds four and five he lost his games to Nils Grandelius and Aryan Tari | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

IM Sagar Shah analyzes the game between Prithu Gupta and Maxime Lagarde and also tells you more about this prodigious Indian talent

Tania has been the best performing Indian until now. She has 3.5/5. However, we think that in round 5 she left her opponent off the hook a bit too easily. | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

White to play. Tania took on c8, but she could test her opponent a bit more here. How do you do it?

Abhijeet Gupta, who has been the former winner of the Reykjavik Open, could very well have been on 4.5/5. His loss against Bragi Thorfinnsson was not called for.

Pragg was doing well in the tournament. He scored two wins in the first two rounds, then a draw against Erwin l'Ami (left). But in the fourth round, in an equal position he played not so well and went down to Lupulescu | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Until now Gukesh has 3.5/5 and has lost one game to Sergei Movsesian.

11-year-old Siddharth Jagadeesh originally hails from India. He plays for the Singapore flag. He is currently on 2.5/5. | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Standings after round 5

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	Rp	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	3	GM	Firouzja Alireza	U16		IRI	2669	4,5	0,0	5	10,5	4	2845	5	4,5	3,65	0,85	10	8,5
	8	GM	Hovhannisyan Robert			ARM	2630	4,5	0,0	5	10,5	4	2857	5	4,5	3,29	1,21	10	12,1
3	5	GM	Movsesian Sergei			ARM	2637	4,5	0,0	5	10,0	4	2849	5	4,5	3,42	1,08	10	10,8
4	6	GM	Lupulescu Constantin			ROU	2634	4,5	0,0	5	9,0	4	2818	5	4,5	3,60	0,90	10	9,0
5	9	GM	Tari Aryan			NOR	2615	4,0	0,0	5	10,5	3	2659	5	4	3,69	0,31	10	3,1
6	4	GM	l'Ami Erwin			NED	2647	4,0	0,0	5	10,0	3	2683	5	4	3,74	0,26	10	2,6
7	13	GM	Van Foreest Jorden			NED	2598	4,0	0,0	5	9,5	3	2621	5	4	3,83	0,17	10	1,7
8	10	GM	Lagarde Maxime			FRA	2612	4,0	0,0	5	9,0	4	2484	5	4	4,05	-0,05	10	-0,5
9	42	IM	Eggleston David J			ENG	2401	4,0	0,0	5	8,5	4	2441	5	4	3,65	0,35	10	3,5
10	1	GM	Jones Gawain C B			ENG	2698	4,0	0,0	5	8,0	3	2631	5	4	4,25	-0,25	10	-2,5
11	29	GM	Libiszewski Fabien			FRA	2488	4,0	0,0	4	9,5	3	2622	4	3,5	2,83	0,67	10	6,7
12	20	GM	Cornette Matthieu			FRA	2556	3,5	0,0	5	11,0	3	2628	5	3,5	2,86	0,64	10	6,4
13	17	GM	Fier Alexandr			BRA	2570	3,5	0,0	5	10,5	2	2479	5	3,5	3,95	-0,45	10	-4,5
	23	GM	Brunello Sabino			ITA	2534	3,5	0,0	5	10,5	2	2551	5	3,5	3,18	0,32	10	3,2
15	2	GM	Grandelius Nils			SWE	2687	3,5	0,0	5	10,0	3	2600	5	3,5	3,89	-0,39	10	-3,9

Alireza Firouzja is 15 years old and has an Elo of 2669. He gained 6 Elo points at the Sharjah Masters 2019 and 8.5 already at the Reykjavik Open. This takes his Elo rating to a mind boggling 2683! | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

Gawain Jones is the top seed of the tournament with an Elo of 2698 | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

Nils Grandelius with 2687 is the second seed. He is on 3.5/5 | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

The famous chess photographer Alina l'Ami | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

FIDE President Arkadij Dvorkovich with Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

The playing hall of the Reykjavik Open | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

A unique photo gallery at the tournament venue | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

Do you prefer the spiderman avatar? | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

...or the gentleman look! | Photo: Fiona Steil Antoni

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