Maghsoodloo Wins In Reykjavik & Notes From My Travel To Iceland

The 2025 Reykjavik Open marked the return of one of the world’s longest running and ever-growing open tournaments. This year is special, sadly, due to the passing of Iceland’s first grandmaster, Fridrik Olafsson, just days before the tournament began (you can read our obituary here). The event was originally named in celebration of his 90th birthday, but it was then dedicated to his memory. 

I played in the tournament for the first time, while keeping a close eye on the grandmaster boards. We’ll first take a look at the most important results and games, and in the second part of this article I share my personal account as an amateur player who played in the same hall. 

Final Standings | Top 20

(See full standings here.)

A new record of 419 players, from 51 countries, participated in the nine-round Swiss that took place from April 9-15. The tournament regularly takes place in Harpa, a beautiful concert hall on the water. 

GM Parham Maghsoodloo won the tournament with 7.5/9 and a performance rating of 2806. Along with the gain of €5,000, Maghsoodloo is back in the 2700 club on the live rating list. 

The Iranian grandmaster played on board one in every round except for the fifth, after he took a half-point bye. Overall, it was a smooth victory that he was able to wrap up with a draw against GM Abhijeet Gupta in the last round, as not a single one of six players a half-point behind him managed to score.

With Parham drawing on board 1 and Ivanchuk on board 3 the only remaining top game is Amar vs Shanglei. If either of them wins, they win the tournament on tiebreaks. If the game is drawn, Parham wins! #chess #ReykjavikOpen pic.twitter.com/vl4964olVn

— ReykjavikOpenChess (@ReykjavikOpen) April 15, 2025

He went undefeated, with three wins against other grandmasters. My favorite was the time scramble between Maghsoodloo and GM Brandon Jacobson, which I managed to watch right after I finished my game in round five. By move 27, both players had just one minute on the clock each—a few times playing a move with one or two seconds. Maghsoodloo, despite looking nervous at the board, converted his advantage with no mistakes.

Maghsoodloo's win against GM Mahammad Muradli in round six was the most unexpected. Until that game, Muradli was on a perfect 5/5 score and leading.

When I saw the following position, a queen endgame with equal pawns on the board, I assumed the only possible result would be a draw. But not too many moves later, Black moved the king to the wrong square and, just like that, White won.

Despite that tough loss, Muradli still finished in the group of players on seven points and gained 12.5 rating points.

GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, at the age of 56, also finished a half-point behind the leader. His move 44...e4!!, a piece sacrifice in round six against GM Velimir Ivic, made my jaw drop. The Ukrainian's creative play was rewarded with victory, even if the move itself didn't lead to an objective advantage.

Ivanchuk seemed to always be in the playing hall, long after his games ended. After finishing, he would pace and observe all of the games, even of amateurs, including yours truly!

The former world number-two couldn't make it to the award ceremony because he was already on his flight to the next tournament, which started the following day in Spain. GM Susan Polgar nicely summarized the significance of his performance at this event, writing on X:

He does not pick and choose tournaments to benefit his rating. He plays in open tournaments and facing dangerous players who are young enough to be his kids or grandkids!

Legend!

Not enough people are talking about the legendary Ivanchuk! At 56 years old, he is still incredibly active! And at Reykjavik Open 2025, he is performing over 2700!!

He does not pick and choose tournaments to benefit his rating. He plays in open tournaments and facing… pic.twitter.com/S1VDwWdnd2

— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) April 15, 2025

There were plenty of other fun games. For example, Icelandic GM Gudmundur Kjartansson actually won the rare two knights vs. pawn endgame in round four. 

Besides endgames, of course there were incendiary middlegames. A lovely attacking game was GM Eltaj Safarli's king hunt against GM Adhiban Baskaran, with the shiniest two moves being the pawn sacrifices 31.a5+ and 32.b4+ at the end of the line.

Three players earned IM norms: Dutch FM Stefan Bekker (5.5/9), Indian FM Das Priansh (6.5/9), and Felix Borne from France (6.5/9). The last player jumped 131.6 points (he entered with a rating of 2225) and had a performance rating of 2503. In addition to the norm, he won three class prizes. (You can see all prize winners here.)

This was my first classical tournament outside of the United States. I arrived several days early and, of course, visited several important sites, starting with the grave of GM Bobby Fischer, in the town of Selfoss, which is about an hour's drive away from Reykjavik.

Not far from there is the Bobby Fischer Center, which is a museum that features several artifacts related to the match of the century and Fischer's life after. A recent edition (from 2022) was a note left by GM Hans Niemann inside the cover of Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, where he vowed to "bring back the crown to America." The museum now has this displayed.

I visited the Laugardalsholl Sports Center, where the match between Fischer and GM Boris Spassky took place. You can just imagine this photo in black and white, and the crowd of spectators.

The Russian grandmaster only just passed away two months ago, but the signatures of both legends have been preserved there, in a trophy case.

Of course, I spent plenty of time in nature. My favorite adventure was hiking up Fagradalsfjall, the volcano that erupted from 2021 through 2023. The experience was what I'd imagine landing on a different planet would feel like.

The city of Reykjavik itself, and in particular the sky above it, was equally as stunning.

In my nine games, I met opponents representing eight different flags. My performance was underwhelming, 4.5/9 with a 17-point drop in rating, but I learned from each and every game. In terms of days, it was the longest tournament I’d played, and I enjoyed the one-round-per-day format, something that's alien to most amateur players in the U.S.

I am also almost always alone when I travel to chess tournaments. This time, I lived in a house with 10 or so people; we rode the highs and weathered the lows, together. This is a picture of most of us at the award ceremony.

My resilience in tough positions was my best quality in the tournament, though it didn't save me every time. In round four, I was severely punished for a pawn grab in the opening, but I ultimately managed to turn the game around by finding a cheeky queen "sacrifice." The counterattack that followed, with some help from my opponent, was quick and efficient. 

The next round featured the best game of all nine, though I was on the losing side of it. When I drifted without a good plan, German streamer Marcel Petersen unleashed a torrent of sacrifices against my king and ended the game with a pretty checkmate. He ultimately finished with 5.5/9 and a 42.6-point rating gain. 

I had been winning games against lower-rated players and losing against higher-rated ones. But in round seven I had a "brain fart" and made a one-move blunder against Canadian player (and chess boxer) Dustin Koperski, about 200 points lower-rated. The rest of the tournament would be damage control. I saved a very dangerous position in round eight and won in round nine to at least finish on a high note.

My tournament wasn’t a disaster, and life goes on. On the last day, I walked back to the playing venue after the closing ceremony. I looked out at the wind-beaten waves and stoic mountains beyond them. Until this moment, every day had mostly been: wake up, prepare, play, eat, and sleep. For the first time, things slowed down. The earth was large again.

For 10 minutes I thought about the tournament, Fischer and Spassky, about Olafsson, and about Iceland's jagged beauty. The players that came before me and the games that are still to be played. I was far away from home.

I got a text. Blitz at the bar. I looked at the waves, I turned around. I’ll work harder, get better, and then return.