European Chess Championship in Reykjavik

The 2015 European Team Chess Championship gets underway today at the Laugardalshöll sporting arena in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik.

The event, which is scheduled to go on until 22 November, brings together 35 European teams – including host nation Iceland – in a team competition, organised into an ‘open section’ and a ‘women’s section’.

This is the largest chess event to take place in Iceland since the famous 1972 clash between the USSR’s Boris Spassky and the American Bobby Fischer, dubbed ‘The Match of the Century’.

The Russian team is the highest-ranked team of the Championship, but has failed to win the competition in the last three years. Iceland has two teams in the Open Section – Iceland A and Iceland Legends – and one in the Women’s Section.

Full details of the event, including the timetable and information on the teams can be found on the ETCC2015 website here.

Spassky and Fischer in 1972. Photo: Kristinn Benediktsson