Event Venue – Harpan by the Reykjavik Harbor
The Reykjavik open 2017 will be held for the 32nd time from April 19th till April 27th, 2017 In Harpa, the 28.000 sq. m. Concert- and conference centre. The 2017 tournament is expected to be very strong.
The 2016 tournament included for example Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Dimitry Andreikin and Richard Rapport. Abhijeet Gupta and Tania Sadchev from India however stole the show. Gupta as the tournament winner and Tania earning her second GM-norm and winning the main women’s price.
In the 2016 edition 235 players from 31 countries participated, including 24 Grandmasters, 13 of which had an ELO-rating of 2600 or higher.
The total prize-fund in the 2017 edition will be €15.000, including many special prizes for various age- and rating categories, in addition to the traditional top women’s prize.
The 2016 edition was voted the 3rd best open tournament in the world by ACP. Only the prestigious Gibraltar- and Dubai tournaments scored higher.
Spring tournament
The 2017 edition is set to take place a month later than previous tournaments, which were played in March. The new April schedule (April 19th till April 27th) is aimed at giving the players an even better Iceland experience, with warmer temperatures and the island bursting into spring colour, allowing our guests to soak up the bright spring light and hopefully having that bit of extra energy to spend on the 64 squares.
Much More than a Chess Tournament
As in earlier years, several chess-related events will take place at the same time as the tournament, including the now famous Reykjavík Open Chess Pub Quiz and the Golden Circle sightseeing tour that includes stops at Geysir and Bobby Fischer’s final resting place in the southern part of Iceland. Iceland is one of the most attractive places in the world to visit and play in chess tournaments. The full 2017 side-event calendar will be posted shortly.
Join the legends and be part of chess history
The City of Reykjavík has sponsored the tournament since its inception in 1964, when Mikhail Tal won it with a record 12½ points out of 13. The tournament was initially held every two years, but has since 2008 taken place every year. It was closed in its early years, but has been an open event since the 1980s. Throughout its history the Reykjavik Open has featured many of the strongest chess players in the world at the time, including Mikhail Tal, Nona Gaprindashvili, David Bronstein, Vasili Smyslov, Bent Larsen, Friðrik Ólafsson, Mark Taimanov, Lev Polugaevsky, Jan Timman, Victor Korchnoi, Samuel Reshevsky, Anthony Miles, Nigel Short, Hikaru Nakamura, Judit Polgar, Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Wei Yi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Pavel Eljanov and Hou Yifan.
The Reykjavík Open has enjoyed such an enviable reputation that more than 200 chess masters registered interest in participating last year and we expect be a similar number of GMs in the 2017 tournament. As in previous years, the goal of organizers to is invite many of the youngest and most promising chess players in the world, as well as the strong women players. 2017 promises to be as big and diverse as previous editions!
