2018 Fischer Random Cup PGN

The 'Blog Archive' on the right shows that my normal schedule is two posts per month, usually on the third and fourth Saturday of the month. Since this month has five Saturdays, I used the extra day to collect games from the recent Fischer Random Cup in Reykjavik.

For an overview of data about the event available from Chess-results.com, see the first post from this month, Lenderman, Rapport Take Reykjavik. For an overview of data available from Chessbomb.com, see More on the Fischer Random Cup. In that post I wrote,

How about some games? Since 100 players participated, 50 games were played per round -- nine rounds should give 450 games for the tournament. The page Fischer Random Cup (reykjavikopen.com) has results for 20 games per round, presumably for games which were recorded automatically while they were in progress. [...] A similar interface producing the same information is on GAMMA Reykjavík Fischer Random Chess Memorial 2018 (chessbomb.com).

I used Chess-results.com to identify the top five boards per round, then used Chessbomb.com to create a PGN file of those games. That makes 45 games from the event (in fact, 46 games, because one game from round one defaulted after the first move). The following table shows the start position used in each round. The start position for round five was not recorded correctly at Chessbomb.com, so those games are effectively missing.

Rd Start Position (SP)
01 SP342 NRBKQBRN
02 SP592 BBRQNKRN
03 SP570 RNKNBBRQ
04 SP276 NBBRKNRQ
05 SP???
06 SP244 NBBRKQNR
07 SP095 NNRKRQBB
08 SP752 BBRKNNRQ
09 SP013 QNNBRKBR

The PGN file can be found at m-w.com/c960/blog/c96-ic31.pgn. If you find a problem with the file, please flag it using the comment section for this post.

More on the Fischer Random Cup

After last week's post Lenderman, Rapport Take Reykjavík, what more can be said about the event, aka the 'European Fischer Random Cup'. How about some games? Since 100 players participated, 50 games were played per round -- nine rounds should give 450 games for the tournament.

The page Fischer Random Cup (reykjavikopen.com) has results for 20 games per round, presumably for games which were recorded automatically while they were in progress. Clicking on a game opens a viewer to play through and download the game. Clicking on the PGN download button gives only the message 'Not logged in'. Logging in to Chessbomb.com gives the message 'Only Premium accounts can download PGN'. A similar interface producing the same information is on GAMMA Reykjavík Fischer Random Chess Memorial 2018 (chessbomb.com).

Back to Reykjavikopen.com, a number of side events were held in conjunction with the Fischer Random Cup (GAMMA Reykjavík Open 2018 – Bobby Fischer Memorial):-

• 2018-03-05: Simultaneous Fischer Random exhibition by Nihal Sarin • 'One of the Worlds most brilliant young talents, IM Nihal Sarin (2532), the World no. 1 in the under 14 category'
• 2018-03-09: European Fischer Random Cup 2018 (Free day) • The Fischer Random Chess960 event was held on Fischer's 75th birthday.
• 2018-03-12: Fischer Memorial Tour I – Fischer Center and Fischer’s Grave
• 2018-03-13: Fischer Memorial Tour II – Playing venue of the Match of the Century and the National Museum • 'GM Helgi Ólafsson will deliver a lecture about Fischer, based on his book “Bobby Fischer Comes home: The Final Years in Iceland, a Saga of Friendship and Lost Illusions”'

The page announcing the Fischer Memorial Tour I, 'a trip to the Fischer Center in Selfoss and Fischer’s Grave nearby', included a map of Selfoss:-

For more about the Fischer Center, see Welcome to the Bobby Fischer Center (fischersetur.is).

Lenderman, Rapport Take Reykjavik

Ever since posting about the special Fischer Random Chess960 event as part of the 2018 Fischer Memorial (December 2017), I've been counting down the days, eagerly awaiting the results. The following table shows the top-20 of the 100 players who participated.

Reykjavik Fischer Random 2018 - European Fischer Random Cup
(chess-results.com)

An undated report from the official site, Lenderman wins the Bobby Fischer Cup - Rapport European Champion (reykjavikopen.com; 'GAMMA Reykjavik Open 2018 - Bobby Fischer Memorial'), started,

The first official European Championship in Fischer Random was played on the 9th of March, on Bobby Fischer’s [75th] birthday ... fittingly! The tournament was held by the GAMMA Reykjavik Open organisers in co-ordination with the ECU and with great support from Susan Polgar. The atmosphere in the playing hall was tremendous and many players claimed it was the most fun they had in a while playing chess! Before every round the starting position was randomly drawn so before the game instead of being relaxed you usually saw the players already pondering the starting position and possible plans.

I'll have more about the event in my next post.