Reykjavik Open with an interesting field

by André Schulz
3/15/2024 – This year's Reykjavik Open kicks off in Reykjavik on Friday. With over 400 players, the field is particularly strong. Along with Daniel-Bogdan Deac, veteran Vasyl Ivanchuk is one of the Elo favourites. There are also a number of strong female pros in the field. | Photos: Organiser Reykjavik Open

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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 Reliable Petroff

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 Bogdan-Daniel Deac 2690
2 Vasyl Ivanchuk 2625
3 Xiangyu Xu 2623
4 Jules Moussard 2621
5 Matthieu Cornette 2575
6 Paulius Pultinevicius 2575
7 Vahap Sanal 2558
8 Platon Galperin 2555
9 Emre Can 2551
10 Sebastien Maze 2551
11 B. Adhiban 2541
12 Daniel Howard Fernandez 2532
13 Jan Klimkowski 2532
14 Mert Yilmazyerli 2526
15 Marcin Krzyzanowski 2524
16 Cem Kaan Gokerkan 2523
17 Alisher Suleymenov 2506
18 Vuppala Prraneeth 2506
19 Bojan Maksimovic 2497
20 Praveen Balakrishnan 2490
21 Jagadeesh Siddharth 2490
22 Hannes Stefansson 2481
23 Hedinn Steingrimsson 2477
24 Jiner Zhu 2467
25 Gudmundur Kjartansson 2465
26 Vignir Vatnar Stefansson 2464
27 Johann Hjartarson 2460
28 Shreyas Royal 2457
29 Jakub Seemann 2451
30 Matthew J Wadsworth 2450

... more than 400 players

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.