Starting Thursday: European Championship in Reyjkavik

Eyeing for a spot in the World Cup

The Icelandic Chess Federation is hosting the 2021 European Championship. The tournament will take place in Reykjavík, although the playing venue will not be the Harpa Conference Centre — where the Reykjavík Open took place in recent years — but the traditional Hotel Natura. During the World Championship match against Boris Spassky in 1972, Bobby Fischer stayed at this very hotel. In 1977, the Candidates match between Spassky and Hort was also played in this venue.

Master Class Vol.13 - Tigran Petrosian

Considered a master of prophylaxis, Petrosian sensed dangers long before they actually became acute on the board. In his prime, Petrosian was almost invincible. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Tigran Petrosian.

The total prize fund for the 2021 European Championship is 100,000 Euros, with 20,000 Euros reserved for first place. The European Championship is also a qualifying tournament for the next World Cup — the 23 top scorers will get a ticket to the prestigious event.

In case of a tie for one of the qualifying spots, the tiebreak criteria detailed in the regulations for the 2023 FIDE World Cup will be enforced:

• Average Rating of Opponents Cut 1 (AROC 1)*
• Buchholz Cut 1**;
• Buchholz;
• Direct encounter between the players in tie;
• Drawing of lots.   

* Average Rating of Opponents, excluding the lowest-rated opponent.
** Buchholz score reduced by the lowest score of the opponents.

The Championship will be an 11-round open Swiss, with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game and an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from the first move. 

The first round will be played on August 26, and there will be no rest days. Rounds 1 to 10 kick off at 15.00 local time (17.00 CEST, 11.00 ET), while the last round will start two hours earlier.

Jones, Sargissian and Navara head the field

Not a single 2700+ rated player has registered to participate. Two years ago, six players with a rating above 2700 made their way to Skopje to play in the 2019 European Championship. The top three seeds back then hailed from Russia, while this year the highest-rated Russian representative will be Alexey Sarana (2643 Elo).

Nevertheless, the tournament features a mix of very strong, experienced players and young stars motivated to enter the next World Championship cycle. Top seeds are Gawain Jones (England, 2684), Gabriel Sargissian (Armenia, 2682) and David Navara (Czech Republic, 2675).

Registered players

The flexible Open Spanish

In this opening Black opts for active piece play and is not afraid to fight for the initiative from an early stage. One of the many good features of this opening is that Black is often the side which controls the pace of the game.

...184 players

Links

• Official site
• All ChessBase reports on the 2019 European Championship