Magnus Carlsen Visits Reykjavik Where Mamedyarov, l'Ami and Fier Lead

World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen visisted the Reykjavik Open today and joined the Chess.com live show for almost 45 minutes.

After six rounds GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, GM Erwin l'Ami and GM Alexander Fier are tied for first place.

For the first time since 2006 Magnus Carlsen is back in Iceland. He played in Reykjavik in 2004 and 2006, but this time he is just a “chess tourist”, visiting the tournament and his parents who are here as well.

During the sixth round Carlsen joined the Chess.com live show where he answered questions from host Fiona Steil-Antoni as well as Chess.com members in the chat. Below you can watch it again, or read the highlights:

The night before Carlsen participated in the traditional pub quiz, where he played with his friend and second Jon Ludvig Hammer. The two vikings snatched away victory from 2013 winners GM Ian Rogers and yours truly, scoring an impressive 26 out of 30 (against 25/30 for us).

"Arrives in Reykjavik and takes away the 1st prize at the pub quiz with Jon Ludvig Hammer. Who is this chess player?" pic.twitter.com/djrM7ez1bk

— ChessVibes (@ChessVibes) 13 maart 2015

On this pub quiz, Carlsen said to Steil-Antoni: “It was interesting. I spent a lot of time not only playing chess but also studying all kinds of classic but also obscure games, so that was fun to be able to use some of that knowledge.”

Like last year, Carlsen's father Henrik plays in the tournament. Magnus: “I talked to him today about the games. He was very excited to do well. (...) He was telling me about the games, going through them. He was also driving me crazy because he couldn't remember it!

“He loves chess. He likes to come here and also my mother likes Iceland very much.”

Steil-Antoni asked what he thought about Vladimir Kramnik and Anish Giri playing in the Qatar Open recently. First Carlsen joked with “Well, Kramnik can't win any of the best tournaments anymore!” but then continued: “As longs you play on the top boards I think the opposition is quite interesting. These 2600 players, especially the young ones, are very ambitious. It's interesting to play them.”

On participating in an open himself: “I don't know. For me, it had to be something special.”

During the round Carlsen gave GM David Navara excellent winning chances in his game with GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, the only player on 5.0/5. However, Navara at some point played too creatively where simply pushing the pawn would have been very strong.

Carlsen: “I don't get it. If you can push the pawn, then push the pawn. Ne3... I mean, that's clever but it's... much too clever. (...) It's really bizarre.”

The day before Mamedyrov had grabbed the sole lead with a quick and easy win over one of Iceland's young grandmasters, while Eljanov-Stopa and Fier-Gao on boards 2 and 3 ended in draws.

On Saturday Mamedyarov was caught by two players: GM Alexander Fier and GM Erwin l'Ami. Fier faced Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta, who went for a sharp attack. White's coffeehouse play was probably not fully correct and despite 20...Bc8 (frowned upon by many, including Carlsen!) Fier refuted it rather easily.

l'Ami has a much more quite style, and it's a joy to see how he slowly but surely outplayed the Polish IM in his round 6 game:

One local hero is having a great tournament so far. After six rounds IM Jon Viktor Gunnarsson (2443) has a performance rating of 2752, and so he is well on his way to score a GM norm. After two easy wins he drew with Navara, beat GM Gawain Jones and GM Nils Grandelius and then drew with GM Hrant Melkumyan!

2015 Reykjavik Open | Round 6 Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here)