An hour away!

The opening ceremony starts in about 20-30 minutes and the 1st round will kick off in about an hour! The weather in Iceland right now is pretty windy so some players have had trouble arriving because of delayed flights so there will be some byes in the first round.

FIDE president Kirsan ready for opening ceremony!

For the first time in a very long time Iceland will be visited by the reigning FIDE president. President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will visit Iceland and honor the Reykjavik Open with his presence. We also have a feeling that FIDE will do something to honor the legendary GM Fridrik Olafsson for whom the tournament is dedicated.…

Reykjavik Open 2015 starts tomorrow!

We are one day away from the 2015 Reykjavik Open! The 3oth edition of the tournament will take place between March 10th and 18th. This years tournament is to honor the recent 80th birthday of local chess hero and Iceland’s first Grandmaster, Fridrik Olafsson. It looks like we will break another record this year as…

Magnus Carlsen to visit the Reykjavik Open!

World Champion Magnus Carlsen will be guest of honor at this year Reykjavik Open. Magnus will be visiting Iceland between the 13th and 16th of March. What Magnus will be up to during his stay can’t be disclosed for now but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him visit Bobby Fischer’s grave or visit during…

History of the Reykjavik Open

Following the 50 year anniversary of the Reykjavik Open last year GM Helgi Olafsson took on the massive assignment of documenting the history of this prestigious tournament. Before the start of this years open the first volume of two will be published in Iceland. Although the book is in Icelandic, we know that many book…

Solar eclipse on the 20th of March

If you need another reason to visit Iceland and the Reykjavik Open, look no forther than the solar eclipse which is scheduled to happen on the 20th of March, just after the tournament. This solar eclipse is supposed to be the greatest one in 60 years. The moon is set to cover about 99% of…

GAMMA is new sponsor of Reykjavik Open

Today a new sponsorship contract was signed with the investment firm GAMMA which will be the main sponsor of the Reykjavik Open for the next four years. The signature on the contract was very fittingly done on the national chess day in Iceland and of course it’s no coincidence that today is also the 80th…

The 2014 Pub Quiz

The special events have become more and more important with each year as we keep trying to improve the Reykjavik Open and the overall experience for our guests. The Golden Circle has been a mainstay now for many years and this year we had several events that we have had before like the blitz tournament,…