Nurgyul Salimova finished second in the women’s event and 19th overall at the Reykjavík Open.

Salimova finished the Icelandic Open with 6.5 points out of a possible nine, with five wins, three draws and only one loss, which was to Lithuanian grandmaster Paulius Pultinevicius. In the last nine round she drew with the white pieces with Turkish grandmaster Emre Can, who has 125 points higher ELO than her.

In the ladies’ competition, the Bulgarian was beaten only by Russia’s Leia Garifulina. She also scored 6.5 points, but had better additional indicators.

Only eight chess players scored better than Salimova, with the winner being Romanian Bogdan-Daniel Deac, who was the only one to accumulate 7.5 points. The different scores in case of a tie in points put the Bulgarian in 19th place in the final ranking, which is a success for her as she was ranked 36th in the ELO ranking among the registered participants.

For Salimova, the tournament in Reykjavik was a dress rehearsal for her participation in the Challengers Tournament in Toronto, which starts on April 4. The competition, which will feature eight of the best female chess players from around the world, will determine China’s Jiu Wenjun’s opponent in the 2025 world title match.