On Friday 14th of December the Iceland Club Cup Final will take place in Reykjavik. Besides the Cup Final, several other activities have also been organised as part of what can only be described as a celebration of chess! The chess "festival" features a simultaneous display given by "Giljagaur" and "Stúfur", two of Iceland's 13 "Santas", and an international tournament between women's teams from Iceland, Norway and the current European champions France, broadcast live on ICC (18:00 GMT). The main event, the Cup Final itself, will also be broadcast live in ICC, starting at 20:30 (GMT).
The Iceland Club Cup is currently in its first year, organised by Gardabaer Chess Club. It is a knock-out competition that several teams were invited to take part in, including most of the strongest chess clubs in Iceland, the youth national squad and the women's national team. In the final the two strongest chess clubs, "Hellir" and "Taflfélag Reykjavíkur" will be fighting for the honour to become the first holders of the cup. Both these clubs represented Iceland in the European Club Cup in Crete this year and showed great strength, which is interesting as both of them come from Reykjavik, a small city of less than 130.000 people.
Briefly the rules of the Icelandic Club Cup are as follows: teams of six play two rounds of rapid chess (25 min. per player). In the unlikely event of a tie, blitz games and eventually "sudden death" will decide the match.
For more information on Gardabaer Chess Club use the link on the left.
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