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Over 400 players from 49 nations have registered for the tournament. After the host country Iceland with 90 participants, Germany has the largest contingent with 40 players, although almost all of them are amateurs. The best German in the field is FM Benedict Dauner, who is ranked 51st in the seeding list with a rating of 2366. Dr Ferdinand Unzicker, the bearer of a very famous name, is playing in the tournament. He continues the chess tradition of his father Wolfgang Unzicker.
The tournament has a very good line-up, especially in terms of numbers. The absolute top stars are staying away this year. Romanian grandmaster Bogdan-Daniel Deac tops the seeding list with 2690 Elo, followed by veteran Vasyl Ivanchuk. The French have a strong trio in Jules Moussard, Matthieu Cornette and Sebastian Maze. The top English player is Daniel Fernandez.
The Petroff (or Russian) Defence which is characterised by the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 has been popular at the highest levels for many years and enjoys the reputation of being an extremely solid defence.
Hannes Greatarsson and Hedinn Steingrimsson are the best Icelandic grandmasters on the list of participants. Not far away is former World Championship contender Johann Hjartarsson.
There are some other interesting names among the participants, such as the young English player Royal Shreyas or the young Pole Jakub Seemann. A number of well-known players have also registered for the tournament. The list is headed by Chinese player Zhu Jiner. The participation of the Bulgarian Nurgyul Salimova is noteworthy. She will be playing in the Candidates Tournament from 3 April and is stopping here on her way to Canada to warm up.
Other well-known players in the field include Gunay Mammadzada, Teodora Injac, Irina Bulmaga, Leya Garifullina and, of course, Tania Sachdev.
The tournament will be played at the extravagant Harpa event centre. Nine rounds Swiss will be played from 15 to 21 March.
The supporting programme includes a trip to the Gulfoss waterfall and, of course, the grave of Bobby Fischer, a place of pilgrimage for all chess players. At the Bobby Fischer Centre you can learn about the 1972 World Championship match and his exile in Iceland in later years.
Starting list
| No. | Name | FideID | Country | Elo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Bogdan-Daniel Deac | ROU | 2690 | ||
| 2 | GM | Vasyl Ivanchuk | UKR | 2625 | ||
| 3 | GM | Xiangyu Xu | CHN | 2623 | ||
| 4 | GM | Jules Moussard | FRA | 2621 | ||
| 5 | GM | Matthieu Cornette | FRA | 2575 | ||
| 6 | GM | Paulius Pultinevicius | LTU | 2575 | ||
| 7 | GM | Vahap Sanal | TUR | 2558 | ||
| 8 | GM | Platon Galperin | SWE | 2555 | ||
| 9 | GM | Emre Can | TUR | 2551 | ||
| 10 | GM | Sebastien Maze | FRA | 2551 | ||
| 11 | GM | B. Adhiban | IND | 2541 | ||
| 12 | GM | Daniel Howard Fernandez | ENG | 2532 | ||
| 13 | IM | Jan Klimkowski | POL | 2532 | ||
| 14 | GM | Mert Yilmazyerli | TUR | 2526 | ||
| 15 | GM | Marcin Krzyzanowski | POL | 2524 | ||
| 16 | GM | Cem Kaan Gokerkan | TUR | 2523 | ||
| 17 | GM | Alisher Suleymenov | KAZ | 2506 | ||
| 18 | GM | Vuppala Prraneeth | IND | 2506 | ||
| 19 | IM | Bojan Maksimovic | BIH | 2497 | ||
| 20 | GM | Praveen Balakrishnan | USA | 2490 | ||
| 21 | IM | Jagadeesh Siddharth | SGP | 2490 | ||
| 22 | GM | Hannes Stefansson | ISL | 2481 | ||
| 23 | GM | Hedinn Steingrimsson | ISL | 2477 | ||
| 24 | GM | Jiner Zhu | CHN | 2467 | ||
| 25 | GM | Gudmundur Kjartansson | ISL | 2465 | ||
| 26 | GM | Vignir Vatnar Stefansson | ISL | 2464 | ||
| 27 | GM | Johann Hjartarson | ISL | 2460 | ||
| 28 | IM | Shreyas Royal | ENG | 2457 | ||
| 29 | IM | Jakub Seemann | POL | 2451 | ||
| 30 | IM | Matthew J Wadsworth | ENG | 2450 |
... more than 400 players
