European Individual Chess Championship 2021 kicked off yesterday in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The event was opened shortly before the start of the first round. Prime Minister of Iceland Mrs. Katrín Jakobsdóttir and the ECU Deputy President and Chief Organiser Mr. Gunnar Bjornsson addressed the players and made the 1st inaugural move in the game between GM Jones Gawain C B (ENG, 2684) and IM Baltag Iulian (MDA, 2410).
The 1st round of the event brought interesting games and fights and only 7 games ended in a peaceful manner with a draw. Three favourite Grandmasters suffered huge upsets: GM Banusz Tamas (HUN, 2631) lost against FM Heimisson Hilmir Freyr (ISL, 2309), Wecker Martin (GER, 2195) defeated GM Bosiocic Marin (CRO, 2610) and Kueng Nicolas (SUI, 2005) took a victory over GM Hillarp Persson Tiger (SWE, 2543).
Results, pairings and standings
The top 40 boards of each round can be followed live through the Official Website of the event or through the ECU Website.
The Organisers provided LIVE commentaries on games which can be followed through the youtube channel or through the twitch channel.
The round 2 of the European Individual Chess Championship 2021 starts today from 17:00 CEST and the top pairings are:
| 1 | IM | Suleymanli Aydin | 2536 | 1 | 1 | GM | Jones Gawain C B | 2684 | |
| 2 | GM | Valsecchi Alessio | 2527 | 1 | 1 | GM | Navara David | 2675 | |
| 3 | GM | Bluebaum Matthias | 2674 | 1 | 1 | GM | Van Foreest Lucas | 2544 | |
| 4 | GM | Grandelius Nils | 2666 | 1 | 1 | GM | Basso Pier Luigi | 2541 | |
| 5 | GM | Donchenko Alexander | 2657 | 1 | 1 | GM | Plat Vojtech | 2531 | |
| 6 | GM | Ferreira Jorge Viterbo | 2520 | 1 | 1 | GM | Abasov Nijat | 2656 | |
| 7 | GM | Mamedov Rauf | 2654 | 1 | 1 | IM | Petrov Martin | 2521 | |
| 8 | GM | Sarana Alexey | 2643 | 1 | 1 | GM | Hjartarson Johann | 2519 | |
| 9 | GM | Stefansson Hannes | 2519 | 1 | 1 | GM | Deac Bogdan-Daniel | 2639 | |
| 10 | GM | Martirosyan Haik M. | 2632 | 1 | 1 | GM | Steingrimsson Hedinn | 2519 |
European Individual Chess Championship 2021 is a qualification event for the FIDE World Cup 2023 and the best ranked player aged U20 will be granted a qualification spot for the 2021 FIDE Grand Swiss. The total prize fund of the event is 100,000EUR, with 20.000EUR reserved for the Winner of the event.