Wesley So and Pavel Eljanov lead at Reykjavik before the last round

Wesley So and Pavel Eljanov lead at Reykjavik before the last round 
 The penultimate round of the Reykjavik Open started with six players sharing the lead. Two of them – Pavel Eljanov and Wesley So – scored victories and go to the last round as the leaders.
Eljanov will have white tomorrow in their direct encounter.

Participants / Live games

Today Eljanov played with black against Ding Liren. The game was highly tense from the beginning because both players decided to expand their pawns on the flanks, leaving their kings uncastled. The Ukrainian was the first one to break in the center with a knight sacrifice for two pawns. The Chinese needed to play precisely to avoid losing immediately, but was not able to do so. He resigned on move 22 when black was about to create a strong passed pawn on the queenside.

Wesley So, on the other hand, played with white against Marcin Dziuba. The Polish GM chose the Caro-Kann Defense and So demonstrated that he was very well prepared to face this opening. The game became exciting when the Filipino went for a queen sacrifice in exchange of a rook and bishop. The position was very sharp and Wesley claimed a winning advantage with an exchange sacrifice. A very nice final sequence finished in checkmate on move 41.

Pavel Eljanov will have the white pieces tomorrow in their direct encounter.

Still, there are six players that might catch the leaders if there is a draw on the first board tomorrow. Three of them have the same score on the two first tie-break criteria: Grzegorz Gajewski, Anish Giri and Ivan Cheparinov. Coincidentally, none of them face each other and they all play with black tomorrow.

To get to this position, Anish Giri defeated fellow Dutchman Erwin L’Ami. The compatriots created a closed pawn structure and took the battle to the center of the board. L’Ami’s king was more active, but also more vulnerable, and this proved to be the decisive factor in the game. Giri played some accurate attacking moves and L’Ami had to resign on move 40.

Do not miss tomorrow’s coverage of the tournament on Chessdom. The games will be broadcast live with computer analysis and there will be minute by minute updates in the Chess bits section.