The Reykjavík Open is Iceland’s annual chess festival, held in April at the Harpa Conference Centre overlooking Reykjavík harbour. The 2026 edition was the 41st running of the open, with a field of approximately 250 players across 10 rounds of classical Swiss-pairing.
The tournament’s roots trace to the 1972 Spassky-Fischer World Championship match held in the same city — an event that transformed Iceland’s chess culture and made the country, by capita, one of the most chess-dense in the world. The Icelandic Chess Federation continues to run the Reykjavík Open as the country’s flagship event, complemented by a small but active grandmaster training programme and the annual Friðrik Ólafsson memorial.
Recent winners include Andrey Esipenko, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Yu Yangyi, Daniel Dardha, and Vincent Keymer. The tournament typically attracts 10–15 grandmasters rated 2600+ alongside a strong field of Scandinavian and European international masters.
The Reykjavík Open’s character is shaped by the city itself. Players typically stay in central Reykjavík and walk to the Harpa venue; the Icelandic climate (cold but mild for the latitude in April) and the relatively small size of the chess community mean rounds end with players, organisers, and spectators in the same downtown restaurants and cafés.
For the official festival site, final standings, and historical archives, see the right column.