The diversity of registered players at the Reykjavik Open is quite amazing. There is close to an equal number of players in each “century” ELO bracket. For example, there are 10 players with 2600+, 14 players 2500-2600 and 16 players with 2400-2500.

By Gunnar Björnsson, organizer of the Reykjavik Open 2012

There will be a record number of players at the Reykjavik Open in 2012. We already have 175 players registered from 33 countries, compared to 166 from 30 countries last year, the prior record. Among these 175 players, there are 27 GMs, 3 WGMs and 19 IMs.

Fabiano Caruana (2736) is expected to the “top predator” at the Reykjavik Open, followed by David Navara (2712), who certainly showed in last year's Icelandic Team Championship that he has a powerful bite at the chess board.

Among other players that will be vying for the lion's share of the points will Kryvoruchko (2666), Cheparinov (2659), Jones (2653), Hess (2625) and of course long time friend of Icelandic chess life Ivan Sokolov (2641). But everybody should watch out for the “bottom feeders,” which this year will be some of the young talent emerging from the Icelandic Chess School and the Reykjavik Chess Academy.

Information about the tournament can be found at www.chess.is. The organizers and the Icelandic Chess Federation like to point out that the tournament offers a great opportunity to visit Iceland, at very attractive prices. After the big crash of 2008, Iceland is actually very cheap. There are great packages available for tournament players from every destination of Icelandair, and they include flight, accommodations and a 25% discount off the entrance fee.

And not to mention the playing venue, concert hall Harpa, which is a 28.000 sqm. building sits on the water, and one which the organizers believe to be the greatest ever playing venue for any chess tournament in the world.

Don't miss Reykjavik Open 2012!