Round 2 February 19, 2003
Viktor Korchnoi - Photo © Ingvar Johannesson
After just one win yesterday, today´s play saw three decisive games leaving three players on 1.5 points. Bartlomiej Macieja, Viktor Korchnoi and Alexei Shirov share the lead at the end of Round 2.
One of the consequences of the standard Berger tables used for pairing round robins is that there is always one player who starts with two Whites and another with two Blacks.
Ivan Sokolov drew the two Whites. Bottom seed and the only non-grandmaster in the Category XV field Stefan Kristjansson drew two Blacks. Macieja-Kristjansson reached a complicated endgame in which Macieja´s space advantage eventually told as he broke through and won the Icelander´s pawns, leaving Stefan yet to get off the mark in the tournament.
Helgi Ass Gretarsson - Photo © Ingvar Johannesson
1994 World Junior Champion Helgi Ass Gretarsson may already have been in an unenviable position against Viktor Korchnoi, but he castled queenside into a huge attack and Viktor finished off in just 23 moves with a couple of dramatic sacrifices to get to the black king.
In Adams-McShane, the clash between the two English players, Mickey´s dark-squared bishop became severely restricted by the black pawn chain, although his initiative on the queenside balanced this and the game ended in a repetition which would have been risky for both players to avoid.
The 20 year old French champion Etienne Bacrot had gone 21 games without a loss until today when he tried the Petroff against Alexei Shirov. But Shirov was able to keep the initiative, albeit at the cost of a pawn sacrifice, and eventually won two pieces for a rook to grind out a win in the endgame.
Ivan Sokolov - Photo © Ingvar Johannesson
Stefansson and Sokolov had a relatively insipid looking draw, though doubtless there was plenty going on beneath the surface of this game, which lased only 25 moves.
But perhaps the most newsworthy event of the day was the fact that 160 children turned up for the Hrokurinn Chess School, a number far exceeding Hrokurinn´s expectations. Club President Hrafn Jokulsson was to be seen beaming with pleasure at this attendance. Icelandic Grandmaster Margeir Petursson, as well as Jokulsson and Club Vice-President FM Robert Hardarson conducted simuls for the children. Petursson was also to be seen entertaining spectators in the commentary room.
Both the tournament and the school are attracting generous local newspaper coverage with yesterday´s "Morgunbladid" even devoting its editorial to the widespread resurgence of interest in chess stimulated by Hrokurinn Club´s activities. chess.