Rodshtein wins Rilton Cup

by André Schulz
1/7/2016 – Jon Ludvig Hammer from Norway and Maxim Rodshtein from Israel were both in good form at the traditionally strong Rilton Cup in Stockholm. Both grandmasters played a number of impressive games and both managed to raise their ratings to 2700+. But fortune smiled a bit brighter on Rodshtein who won the tournament with 8.0/9, half a point ahead of Hammer.

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The first Rilton Cup in Stockholm was played in 1971. It is named after Tore Rilton, a Swedish doctor who was a passionate chessplayer and supported the tournament. He died in 1983 and left part of his fortune to the Rilton foundation which uses the money to organise the Rilton Cup each year. The well-organised tournament usually attracts a number of strong players to come to Stockholm in winter.

This year the Polish GM Michal Krasenkow had the best start into the tournament scoring no less than five points from the first five rounds. In round six Krasenkow had to play with White against the Norwegian GM Jon Ludvig Hammer, who had half a point less than Krasenkow and shared second and third place with GM Maxim Rodshtein from Israel. Hammer beat Krasenkow by crowning a well-played game with a nice tactical blow.

 

Michal Krasenkow

An impressive performance by Hammer, who had every reason to be proud on this game. The Norwegian shared his feelings via twitter:

Jon Ludvig Hammer

 

With this win Hammer took the sole lead but in round seven had to content himself with a draw against the young German GM Alexander Donchenko, allowing Rodshtein to catch up with Hammer. In round eight Rodshtein had to play Donchenko and managed to surprise the  German in the opening. Donchenko failed to find the right answer, soon ended up in a bad position and lost the game.

Maxim Rodshtein during his game Hammer

 

 

Maxim Rodshtein

Hammer had to content himself with a draw against American talent Samuel Sevian and thus Hammer was trailing Rodshtein by half a point before the last round.

In the final round Hammer outplayed Martin Zumsande but this was not enough because in a double-rook-endgame Rodshtein persistently posed problems to his opponent Hans Tikkanen. Eventually time-trouble took its toll and Tikkanen lost.

Hammer-Zumsande

 

With this win Maxim Rodshtein also won the tournament. Via twitter Hammer complained tongue in cheek about becoming second despite playing a fine tournament but at least he managed to jump the 2700+ Elo-barrier. Incidentally, Maxim Rodshtein also jumped this barrier in this tournament.

 

 

The best women player was Monika Socko from Poland. She finished sixth - half a point and nine places ahead of her husband, the Polish GM Bartosz Socko.

German IM Hagen Poetsch

 

Final standings

Rg. Snr   Name Land Elo Pkt.  Wtg1   Wtg2  Rp K rtg+/-
1 2 GM Rodshtein Maxim ISR 2678 8,0 48,0 53,0 2876 10 17,8
2 1 GM Hammer Jon Ludvig NOR 2695 7,5 51,0 55,5 2790 10 10,2
3 17 GM Blomqvist Erik SWE 2493 7,0 45,5 50,5 2695 10 23,0
4 12 GM Hillarp-Persson Tiger SWE 2521 6,5 47,0 51,0 2636 10 14,1
5 8 GM Sevian Samuel USA 2578 6,5 46,0 50,5 2600 10 3,4
6 22 GM Socko Monika POL 2437 6,5 36,0 39,0 2432 10 0,8
7 4 GM Krasenkow Michal POL 2610 6,0 49,0 53,5 2618 10 1,7
  6 GM Donchenko Alexander GER 2588 6,0 49,0 53,5 2622 10 4,7
9 13 GM Tikkanen Hans SWE 2515 6,0 44,5 47,5 2590 10 9,4
10 20 IM Zumsande Martin Dr. GER 2442 6,0 42,5 45,5 2567 10 14,9
11 5 GM Goganov Aleksey RUS 2597 6,0 41,5 44,0 2521 10 -7,6
12 15 IM Poetsch Hagen GER 2509 6,0 40,0 44,0 2452 10 -1,2
13 10 IM Tari Aryan NOR 2556 6,0 40,0 42,0 2429 10 -11,5
14 14 IM Nikita Meskovs LAT 2511 6,0 39,5 40,0 2530 10 3,3
15 7 GM Socko Bartosz POL 2587 5,5 48,0 51,5 2542 10 -4,5
16 3 GM Alekseev Evgeny RUS 2642 5,5 46,0 50,5 2535 10 -11,2
17 19 IM Andersen Mads DEN 2474 5,5 45,0 48,5 2518 10 6,0
18 37 FM Sagit Rauan SWE 2375 5,5 44,5 48,0 2503 10 15,7
19 23 GM Semcesen Daniel SWE 2431 5,5 43,5 47,5 2466 10 5,3
20 30 IM Sjödahl Pontus SWE 2404 5,5 43,5 46,5 2508 10 12,7
21 21 IM Salomon Johan NOR 2438 5,5 42,0 46,0 2491 10 7,4
22 54 FM Sadeh Shahin IRI 2284 5,5 42,0 45,0 2456 20 41,4
23 9 GM Ivanov Sergey RUS 2556 5,5 41,5 44,5 2495 10 -6,0
24 11 GM Cramling Pia SWE 2523 5,5 41,0 44,0 2501 10 -2,1
25 35 FM Martynov Pavel RUS 2380 5,5 40,0 44,0 2427 10 6,3
26 33 FM Nilsen Joachim B NOR 2382 5,5 39,5 43,5 2384 10 1,1
27 42 IM Vuilleumier Alexandre SUI 2342 5,5 39,5 41,0 2337 10 -0,1
28 25 IM Kolosowski Mateusz POL 2423 5,5 39,0 42,0 2408 10 2,1
29 18 GM Miezis Normunds LAT 2493 5,5 36,0 39,5 2388 10 -11,2
30 16 IM Westerberg Jonathan SWE 2497 5,5 36,0 39,0 2418 10 -8,6

... 94 players

 

Chairman Ingemar Falk congratulates the winner

 

Games

 

 

Swedish chess legend Pia Cramling

Co-favorite Evgeny Alexeev finished 16th

Organiser Ingemar Falk

 

Potos: Lars OA Hedlund

Tournament site...

Complete results at Chess-results.com...


André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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