Two at the top after the first double round day

Grandmasters Hans Niemann and Lukasz Jurmala are the only two players remaining with a full house after three rounds at the 2022 Reykjavik Open. Hans opened the day by winning an absolutely wild game against the birthday girl, Irene Sundakar. Sundakar was winning close to the end but timetrouble was the enemy. 31.Rb1 to defend…

The Kvika Reykjavik Open has started!

Finally, finally, we have a proper Reykjavik Open! For the first time since 2019 before the pandemic, we have a proper open edition of the Reykjavik Open! It seems like the chess players are equally happy as the organizers as the nice turnout of 245 players is more or less business as usual as it…

Dates for Reykjavik Open 2022

The Reykjavik Open will return to its normal setting in the Harpa music and conference center in 2022. The dates have been set from the 6th of April until the 12th of April. We will play 9 rounds in 7 days! The tournament will again be an open tournament after having “doubled” as the European…

Anton Demchenko is the 2021 European Champion

Russian Grandmastesr Anton Demchenko today became the European Chess Champion, finishing the 11 rounds with 8,5 points. He secured the win with a draw against Bogdan-Daniel Deac in the last round. Meanwhile, one of his competitors, Vincent Keymer, caught up by winning against Daniele Vocaturo. Demchenko however had better tiebreaks having played near the top…

Demchenko takes the lead!

Anton Demchenko took advantage of a draw on the first board in the game between Keymer and Mamedov to take the outright lead with only two rounds remaining at the Reykjavik Open / European Chess Championship. Rauf Mamedov repeated his rare 7…h6!? in the King’s Indian against Keymer. Maybe this is the new “meta” to…

Keymer joins the leaders with resilient win

Young German star Vincent Keymer has joined the leading pack after a fantastically resilient win against Czech top GM David Navara. In a way, Keymer had to win the game twice after missing a relatively straightforward win in time trouble. Keymer’s win was for sure the most exciting game of the round. After a great…