The Most Famous
CHESS PLAYERS from Iceland
This page contains a list of the greatest Icelander Chess Players. The pantheon dataset contains 461 Chess Players, 1 of which were born in Iceland. This makes Iceland the birth place of the 48th most number of Chess Players behind Canada, and Egypt.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Icelander Chess Players of all time. This list of famous Icelander Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.
1. Friðrik Ólafsson (1935 - 2025)
With an HPI of 65.92, Friðrik Ólafsson is the most famous Icelander Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages on wikipedia.
Friðrik Ólafsson (26 January 1935 – 4 April 2025) was an Icelandic chess grandmaster. He was president of FIDE from 1978 to 1982. He was a six-time Icelandic Chess Champion and a two-time Nordic Chess Champion.
2. Hannes Stefánsson (b. 1972)
With an HPI of 38.85, Hannes Stefánsson is the 2nd most famous Icelander Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Hannes Hlífar Stefánsson (born 18 July 1972) is an Icelandic chess grandmaster. He has won the Icelandic Chess Championship a record thirteen times.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Icelander chess players born between 1935 and 1972. Of these 2, 1 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Icelander chess players include Hannes Stefánsson. The most famous deceased Icelander chess players include Friðrik Ólafsson. As of April 2024, 1 new Icelander chess players have been added to Pantheon including Hannes Stefánsson.
