It starts today

The opening ceremony is in roughly 3 hours away and we will start the tournament and the live broadcast shortly after that. Registration is going well, most of the players showing up and looks like we will have 250+ players from 40+ countries. Let Peter tell you all about it in this news article on…

Tomorrow it is!

It’s safe to say that people are looking forward to the 2014 Reykjavik Open which will open its 50 year anniversary edition tomorrow! Today the organisers and some volunteers were busy setting up the tournament hall in the lovely playing hall of the Harpa playing venue. Players were showing up and this year we have…

Some interesting new players

Today we got some late additions to the tournament.  In an older news piece on the actual 50 year anniversary day of the first Reykjavik Open we told you about a game Mikhail Tal played against a local master when instead of succumbing to a repetition he sacrificed his queen for two pieces! Well guess…

Alexander Ipatov happy with his 2nd visit

World Junior Champion Alexander Ipatov has written an article about his Reykjavik Open 2013. He also played in 2012 so he can make some comparisons. He was very happy with his time here and praises the organisation and gives credit to some of the people working really hard on the tournament, ICF President Gunnar Bjornsson…

Players perspective!

It’s always nice to read what players are thinking about so it’s a pleasure to point you to these two excellent articles on the experience of two different but closely related players. First we offer Gawain Jones’s article. Gawain has now played the Reykjavik Open three times and two seasons in the Icelandic league so…

Lisa Orlova interviews IM Gretarsson

Lisa Orlova was one of many competitors in they 2013 Reykjavik Open. She has a chess channel on YouTube and did some interviews while she was in Reykjavik. Here is her interview with local IM Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson who missed a chance at a GM norm in the last round.

Video clip: Gawain Jones

An interview with England’s 5th grandmaster Gawain Jones, who participated in the London Chess Classic in December and “learnt a lot”, then won the Hastings open and then finished his Reykjavik Open with the same score. [vsw id=”Y7UIpbsQxCA” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]

Baseem joins the leaders

With some games still to be finished the final result of the tournament is clear. Pavel Eljanov and Wesley so finish on top with 8 points after their mutual draw but Amin Baseem managed to catch up with his last round victory. Therefore we have the 3 winners from 3 continents. Eljanov has the best…

Video clip: Bassem Amin

An interview with Egypt’s number one chess player Bassem Amin, who beat the strong Czech grandmaster David Navara in round 9 of the Reykjavik Open. Amin is a doctor and will spend his next year between hospitals and tournament halls! [vsw id=”TTzhYEYUQig” source=”youtube” width=”560″ height=”315″ autoplay=”no”]