The first two rounds of the Nordic Chess Championship started off with a bang today. The biggest bang came in the first round when the ten Finnish player managed to score 9,5 points, dropping only half a point! The Fins dropped a few points in the second round of the day but they finished with 16 points out of 20, quite the haul!
Lets see what happened on day one, group by group!
A-group U20
The top seed Aleksandr Domalchuk-Jonasson got through the first day with 2 out of 2. He had to grind out his 1st round win but in the 2nd round he got more or less a gift from fellow Icelander Benedikt Briem.
Benedikt mixed up his lines and was basically lost after his 6…c6??
Luijten Apol, Aarni Odner and Rogvi Heinason Olsen have 1,5 points. Rogvi won a very tense game in the 2nd round where his opponent flagged after a prolonged time-trouble battle.
Luijten and Aleksandr will play on the top board in the 3rd round.
B-group U17
Icelander Markus Orri Oskarsson played well on day one and won both his games as well as Norwegian William Alexander Olsen. Both players managed upsets on day one and William especially when he beat fellow countryman and top seed Nicolai Maxime Ostensen.
William and Markus will naturally meet in the 3rd round
C-group U15
The C-group has three players still with 2 points after the two rounds. The top seed Evsuld Myagmasuren has played well and won his games but he is joined by the „Finnish attack“ of Eeli Asikainen and Pessi Heino who have done well so far as the fifth and ninth seed!
D-group U13
Finnish 5th seed Radmir Vorobyov is the only player with two out of two in this group. Four players chase him with 1,5 points in what looks like will be a very interesting group.
Icelandic hopeful Birkir Hallmundarson will command the white pieces against Vorobyov in the 3rd round.
E-group U11
Three players have 2 points in the E-group as well. Once again, two Finnish players have exceeded their starting rank, Aghajan Mashhadi Rayan and Zhang Yiming. Samuel Bro Jacobsen joins them after two tough games against the Icelandic players. This looks like a very interesting group to follow over the weekend!
