Puffins player intros - FM Bjorn Ivar Karlsson

FM Bjorn Ivar Karlsson is the second youngest member of the Puffins.  Bjorn hails from the Westman Islands where the actual puffins reside so he both knows a lot about the the bird having saved about 5.000 baby puffins but also tasted several adult ones. „I have eaten a Puffins heart,“ says Bjorn with no remorse in his eyes. In his opinion the fat little bird tastes quite good and Bjorn recommends stuffed cranberry sauce with the puffin. The Westman Islands are for sure the puffin kingdom of Iceland.

Bjorn was a promising youngster and represented Iceland at Nordic scholastic level. During high school years he studied in the town of Akureyri and if memory serves me correctly they won both the Icelandic and Nordic team high school championship and formed the "Berjamógur" gang. The history of that gang is very dark and will not be reviewed here. Somebody has to think about the children.

In recent years Bjorn has mostly been teaching chess in schools to youngsters along with tutoring several of Iceland's most promising juniors. Bjorn made his senior team debut as captain in Baku when he was in charge of the Icelandic women's team.

Bjorn at the Baku Olympiad looking over the women's team

Bjorn doesn't have much time to play tournaments due to family obligations (father of two!) but made his first IM norm in the Icelandic league, almost single handedly justifying the switch from 7 rounds to the norm chasing 9 round format that is currently used. Bivark (as he is often called) is a dangerous opponent to anybody and has one of the most impressive memory around. He will be a very valuable member of the Reykjavik Puffins.

Here we see him easily holding a strong Polish GM to a draw from the recently concluded first weekend of the Icelandic Chess League.

In his spare time Bjorn likes romantic half-decent comedies.