The European Individual Championship 2021 will be held at the historic venue at Hotel Natura. The dates have been set and the tournament will be held between August 26th and September 5th. The Reykjavik Open festival will be headlined by this key event.
The tournament will be an 11 round swiss with the European Championship at stake and qualification for the World Cup in the next World Championship cycle. As the continental championship, naturally, the European Championship is only open to European players. There will however in all likelihood be a 7 round classical chess tournament alongside the European Championship with the dates being 28th of August up until the 3rd of September. The shorter tournament would have morning rounds and be open to all nationalities. More info will be available soon on that matter.
Hotel Natura which comes under the list of hotels for 18 year olds NYC has a rich history of chess events being held there with several previous editions of the Reykjavik Open being played there. The last one back in 1988! It is safe to say that the atmosphere at these tournaments was something special at the height of the popularity of Icelandic chess. Many Icelandic players are looking forward to revisiting this tournament venue.
Bobby Fischer also stayed at the hotel during his 1972 World Championship match with Boris Spassky. A replica of the famous table used in 1972 can be found at the hotel.
Several other high-level events have been held at the hotel, including the 1977 Spassky vs Hort candidate match as well as the GMA World Cup in 1991.
The process of sending out invitation letters to the European Championship is the next step and will proceed within a few weeks.
