As much as 10 titled players, including a GM arrived to Glücksberg to participate in the 1977 Nordic Cup, compared to merely four a year before. As usual, no clear favourite was in sight with West Germany and Iceland sharing top seed position (2353). Top rated player was GM Sigurjónsson of Iceland, who incidently was top seed in 1975 too, when he scored miserable 1½/5.

As the games commenced Iceland took early lead ruthlessly steamrolling Finland 4½-1½ just to level on points with Sweden after day two. As the leading duo won their round three encounters 4½-1½ each they retained shared lead at 12 points, clear two points ahead of West Germany. The fourth round saw decisive clash on the top. Iceland's top Sigurjónsson beat Ornstein (3/3 so far) only to see his teammates at their wit's end as Sweden took impressive 4½-1½ victory. A quick 3-all draw with West Germany sealed Swedens third Nordic Cup win. Iceland lost 4-2 to Denmark to finish third at 15½, level with the Danes.

As there were no doubts who the best team was, Sweden took individual prizes at women's and men's top boards, handed to Polish ex-patriate Jolanta Szota-Dahlin (4½p) and IM Ornstein (4p). As nobody managed to score a perfect 5/5 two best individual results were by Mrs. Dahlin and Otto Borik (GER) at board no. 3. GM Sigurjónsson showed a decent display this time scoring 4/5 (Elo performance 2666). On the other hand, seemingly firm Finnish team were in disastrous shape: IM Rantanen scored barely ½/5 as well as high rated Kaj Kivipelto (2370).