Round 8 February 26, 2003
Alexei Shirov kept his sole lead after Round 8 of the Category XV Stormot Hroksins tournament today in Reykjavik. It was a peaceful day for the leaders with all three of the overnight leaders having drawn games.
Although maintaining his lead with 6/8 Shirov still has to face Ivan Sokolov in Thursday’s final round. Macieja and Sokolov remain half a point behind the Latvian. The trio are the only unbeaten players in the tournament.
The European Champion Bartek Macieja played quietly with White against Shirov, forcing a tactical melee into an exchange of queens after 13 moves. Shirov stood slightly better in the endgame with the bishop pair. He sacrificed a pawn which Macieja soon returned for the draw in 20 moves.
Ivan Sokolov failed to gain any advantage as White against his friend Mickey Adams. Again, the game was drawn after an early exchange of queens.
It was another bad day for the Icelanders. All three players lost to foreign grandmasters.
Taking his opponent´s approaching time trouble into account young Luke McShane decided to sacrifice a pawn to activate his pieces against former World Junior Champion Helgi Ass Gretarsson. After some apparent inaccuracies Luke found time to coordinate his rooks and bishops and broke through to the black king by move 40.
Icelandic champion Hannes Hlifar Stefansson stood well against Viktor Korchnoi from the opening. At move 20 he had a pawn with a solid position. In the commentary room Icelandic grandmaster Johannes Hjatarson thought Hannes’ position was likely to be winning although he would need to be very patient. But the old fox Korchnoi defended powerfully. Hannes used a lot of his time approaching move 40 and Korchnoi turned the tables with some tricky play.
Finally, Etienne Bacrot beat IM Stefan Kristjansson a la Karpov with an extra pawn, but only a small advantage in their rook ending. With three kingside pawns for the French champion’s four, Stefan may have had brief chances for the draw, but these soon slipped away.