From 15th to 21st March I, along with 400 other participants, played in the Reykjavik Open. It was my second time playing in the tournament, and my experiences this year cemented it in my mind as one of the best opens in Europe. Reykjavik is a beautiful city, and the playing hall, the Harpa Concert Hall, is one of the best places I have ever played chess. It is therefore no wonder that the tournament is so popular, particularly with English players - almost 10% of the section was English, giving the tournament a familiar feel. At the top 27 GMs were playing, including the near-2700 Bogdan-Daniel Deac and the legend Vasyl Ivanchuk. Deac, the top seed by almost 70 points, ended up winning the event outright with 7½/9, after converting a marathon six-hour, 118-move game in the final round.
Going into the event, my goal was relatively simple: I wanted to make a GM norm, which requires a 2600 rating performance along with a host of other criteria. Getting norms in open events is notoriously difficult, as you are often at the mercy of an unforgiving Swiss pairing system. A bad pairing at an inopportune time can easily derail someone’s norm chances through no fault of their own. With FIDE now requiring at least one of your norms to come from an open event, this is, I’m sure, a sentiment shared by many!
The first half of the tournament went more or less exactly to plan. I started with two nice wins against lower-rated opposition before a solid draw with Black to an Icelandic GM, Throstur Thorhallsson, in round 3. Following another win in round 4, I was beginning to feel confident - I felt I was playing relatively well, my preparation for each game had paid off nicely, and the inaccuracies I had made up to that point had gone unpunished by my opponents.
Rounds 5 and 6 were likely to be the key to the whole tournament. Firstly, it was a double-round day, with the morning round annoyingly early at 9am. Secondly, my opponent in the morning was Paulius Pultinevicius, a very strong Lithuanian GM who would go on to finish 3rd overall in the event. I managed to hold a nervy draw in the Fianchetto Grünfeld, and mercifully the game finished fairly quickly, giving me time to recuperate for the afternoon round. In that, I was paired against GM Sebastien Maze, another strong GM whom I had played alongside in the Guildford 4NCL teams a few years ago. I had decided to go all out for the win, and after turning down a quick draw built up a nice advantage on the white side of a King’s Indian. Unfortunately, I then rushed my queenside play and lost the thread completely, allowing him to win material and eventually convert a knight endgame. The loss most likely put the norm out of reach, but with three games left there was still a lot to play for!
I was probably still feeling the effects of the loss in the next two rounds - I won both games, but did not play at all well, and probably should have lost both. Nevertheless, the wins put me on 6/8 with one round to go, gaining a decent amount of rating and with a chance of finishing in the prizes if I won the last game. In it, I was paired as Black against Jules Moussard, a French grandmaster who had crushed me in our only previous meeting, at the European Individual Championship last year. Going into the game I knew that even a win would not be enough for a norm, which is probably what gave me the freedom to just play a normal game and enjoy the experience. I by no means played perfectly, but managed to score my highest-rated classical win to date, and my best win with Black by some distance.
Moussard, Jules (2621) - Wadsworth, Matthew J
Reykjavik Open 2024 (9), 21.03.2024
1.e4 e5 In our previous meeting I played 1...c5 and lost quite badly in a sharp line of the Taimanov. This time I decided to go for something a little more solid.
2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Historically, Moussard had played 3.Bb5 and 3. Bc4 about equally. In my preparation, I had spent more of my time on the Spanish, but I had a couple of ideas here as well.
3...Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.0–0 d6 6.c3 a5 7.Re1 Ba7 This move, given by Gawain Jones in his recent course on 1.e4 e5 (which I highly recommend!) is quite trendy at the moment. The idea is to delay castling, and potentially save a tempo by avoiding a later ...h6.
8.Nbd2 0–0 9.Nf1 Ne7 A fairly standard manoeuvre for Black in these positions: on g6 the knight protects e5, eyes the f4-square and gets out of the way of the c7-pawn.
9...Be6 was Gawain's recommendation, which also looks good for Black.
10.Ng3 Ng6 11.h3 c6 I prepare to break in the centre with ...d5 next move. I could even consider ideas like ...b5 and ...a4 if White allows it.
12.Bb3 White wisely retreats his bishop.
12...d5
Quite a risky move, but I was confident at the time that everything held together, and afterwards I was very happy to see that it had been played before by Kramnik, Firoujza and Karjakin among others.
13.Bg5 The move I was expecting. White develops his last piece, and prepares to remove a key defender of the d5-square.
13.exd5 Nxd5 14.Nxe5? White does not win a pawn here, because of the nice tactic 14...Nxe5 15.Rxe5 Bxf2+! 16.Kxf2 Qf6+, and Black picks up the loose rook.
13...h6 14.Bxf6 Qxf6 15.d4! An important move, creating a tricky central situation.
15.exd5 looks natural, and had been played in every game to reach this point. However, Black has the very strong intermezzo 15...a4!, and White is barely holding on. After 16.Bxa4 cxd5 White is a pawn up, but Black's position is overflowing with compensation, with a strong centre, good development, the bishop pair and excellent attacking chances on the kingside. I am not at all surprised that Black has won in all three games to get to this position.
15...dxe4? 15...exd4 was the correct recapture. I was worried about 16.e5, but after 16...Qe7 17.cxd4 Nh4! Black creates strong pressure against the white centre.
16.Rxe4? 16.Nxe4 is just very strong for White. In the game I intended 16...Qf4, but White has a fantastic position after 17.g3 Qf5 18.Nd6 Qxh3 19.Nxf7! Rxf7 20.Nxe5 Nxe5 21.Rxe5 Bg4 22.Qd3 Raf8 23.Rae1, and I am completely lost despite the extra piece. White's pin on the a2-g8 diagonal is simply too powerful, and ties down my entire position.
16...exd4 17.cxd4
The more natural recapture - White accepts an IQP, but his active pieces should give him good attacking chances on the kingside. On the other hand, I have the bishop pair and a static weakness to aim at, so was relatively happy at this point.
17...Nf4 heading for the blockading square d5.
17...Bb8 was perhaps stronger, keeping control of the e5-square.
18.Qd2 Nd5 18...Nxh3+? does not win material, as the black queen gets trapped after 19.gxh3 Qxf3 20.Rf4.
19.Ne5 Be6 20.Rae1 Rfd8 21.Kh2?
I was very surprised by this move; this does not seem like the sort of position where such a quiet move would be effective. Additionally, I am not convinced that the king is better on h2 than g1, which the rest of this game shows in great detail.
The slightly counterintuitive retreat 21.Nf3 was best, and White keeps some annoying pressure on the kingside.
21...a4! A nice tactic that allows me to take over the initiative.
22.Bc4 22.Bxa4 Bb6 is the point; I threaten Rxa4 and Ba5. White does not necessarily lose material, but he must seriously contort his position.
22...Bb6 23.R1e2 Ba5 This manoeuvre seemed logical, even without the skewer. White's queen is ideally placed on d2, so forcing it away should be to my benefit.
24.Qc1 a3! More tactics. White cannot take on a3 because of Nc3, forking the two rooks. Objectively, White is still fine here, but I have all of the momentum in the position, and White needs to play quite carefully to avoid disaster.
25.f4 White secures the knight on e5, but at the cost of weakening his kingside structure. We were both beginning to run low on time at this point.
25...axb2 26.Rxb2 Nc3 26...b5 was correct, but the position remains very unclear.
27.Bxe6 Qxe6 28.f5 Qf6 29.Rg4
29.Qe3! is a very strong exchange sacrifice, which I had completely overlooked. The key line is 29...Nxe4 30.Nxe4 Qxf5 31.Rf2 and White picks up the f7-pawn, with fantastic compensation for the exchange.
29...Rxd4! I have always loved playing exchange sacrifices, and have often been guilty of forcing them in positions where they were unsuitable. However, this one seemed fairly obvious, and Black's compensation is very clear.
30.Rxd4 Qxe5 In return for the exchange I have a pawn, well-placed pieces, but most importantly a very unpleasant pin on the h2–b8 diagonal. I can ratchet up the pressure on that knight very quickly with ideas like Ne4, Bc7 and h5–h4, and it is not immediately apparent how White can hold on.
31.Rd3 Ne4 32.Re2 White's only hope is in tactical defence. From here on, the game gets extremely sharp, but the pressure is definitely more on White than Black to find accurate moves.
32...Bc7 Strengthening the pin on the knight, so that Rxe4 can simply be met by Qxe4.
33.Qb1? A nice tactical idea. White threatens 34.Rxe4 Qxe4 35.Rd8+, with a discovered attack on my queen. Unfortunately, b1 is the wrong square, however natural it may look to attack the b7-pawn.
33.Qc2! it was crucial for White to keep control of the c5-square, to prevent Qc5+ in certain lines. Covering the a4-square is another important detail: 33...Re8 34.Kg1 and I have nothing better than the amusing repetition after 34...Bb6+ 35.Kh2 Bc7.
33...Re8 33...Ra4! was the correct way to defend the knight. The main difference is that the rook does not get pinned on the e file, which will allow Black to capture on g3 a move sooner.
34.Qxb7 h5 Now that all of my pieces are perfectly placed, the h-pawn joins the attack. White cannot tolerate this pawn getting to h4, so his move is essentially forced.
35.h4 However, h4 now becomes an additional point of weakness which I can target.
35...Qf4
36.Qxc6?? The losing blunder.
36.Kg1! A theme seen before was the only holding move. I can either play a repetition with Qc1+ Kh2 Qf4, or go for a murky-looking endgame after 36...Rb8 37.Qxb8+! Bxb8 38.Rxe4 Qc1+ 39.Kh2 Kh7, where I wouldn't particularly want to play either colour!
36...Re7! After this calm move White is simply lost, as there is no good defence to Qxh4+, Nxg3 and the mating net that concluded the game.
37.f6 Nxg3 Other moves win, but this is the most immediate.
38.fxe7 Qxh4+ 39.Kg1 Qh1+ 40.Kf2 Qf1+ 41.Ke3 Qf4#
0-1
Moussard sportingly played this out, allowing this picturesque final position to be reached.
As a result of this win I finished in 2nd= (6th on tiebreaks) on 7/9, almost certainly the best tournament result of my life. Despite this, I’m not sure my performance was even the most impressive by an English player at the tournament! IM Peter Large played fantastically to finish on 6½ /9, beating multiple titled players and winning both the Senior and 2201-2400 categories. There was additional English success: Nigel Povah and Harry Zheng both finished 2nd in the Senior and 2001-2200 rating categories respectively. Overall, it was a highly successful tournament for English players, and I cannot recommend the tournament enough.