Yesterday the only double round of the tournament was played at Harpa and we saw the first serious upsets. The biggest surprise on the top boards in the morning round was Daniel Bisby’s (2321) win against Sergei Movsesian (2665)! Several GMs were also held to draws, notably Melkumyan by Rosner, Granda by Antal, or Naroditsky…
A combined video report from rounds 2&3 from Vijay Kumar, enjoy!
After a very brief and informal opening party on Monday evening, things got serious yesterday as the 30th edition of the Reykjavik Open got underway at the magnificent Harpa concert hall. This year’s edition is a very special one, as it is held in celebration of the 80th anniversary of the legendary Icelandic grandmaster and…
Vijay Kumar has produced a video of the first round were you can for instance experience the weather from yesterday! Also some of the speeches from the opening ceremony where Kirsan was on hand among others!
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.
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
