The 23rd annual International Chess Tournament opens in Reykjavík today. Guest players include 11-year-old Ukranian wunderkind Illya Nuzhnyk, who beat the oldest player in the tournament, Bjarni Magnússon, in a friendly game yesterday.
Nuzhnyk practices chess for six hours a day and is exempt from regular school attendance. He said he is excited about competing in the Reykjavík tournament, a world-famous event and the first international tournament for which he had received a special invitation, Morgunbladid reports.
Nuzhnyk added he was sorry to have missed the opportunity to meet late chess legend Bobby Fischer.
Other guest players include the young Indian chess masters Sahaj Grover, Tania Sachdev and Srinath Narayanan, who paid close attention to Magnússon and Nuzhnyk’s game yesterday.
