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The Riga Chess federation organized the Latvian Railway Open, one of the strongest rapid chess opens in the World.
The tournament was held on 28-30 March, 2014, at the Latvian Railway Museum in Riga. The tournament was comprised of three groups A, B and C.
The tournament was announced as having "leading Latvian grandmasters as well as very strong foreing grandmasters and chess lovers from around the world", but that hardly did justice to the spectacular field that showed up for the event.
The prize fund was relatively modest, a total of 10,000 euros in prizes and the first place only receiving 1,400 euro, but somehow or another the Riga Chess federation certainly pulled it off!
Using rapid FIDE ratings the tournament saw four 2700s, a few 2600s, and many more grandmasters in the mix. The pre-tournament favorites using the rapid rating system were Malakhov and Shirov, but nothing can ever be counted on when Ivanchuk is thrown in the mix.
The Ukrainian legend started off the event mercilessly. A jaw-dropping 9/9 to cement the lead after day two meant that the last day was simply a battle for second place. Ivanchuk started the last day off "slowly" with draws against Lysyj and Shirov only to return to his rampage with wins against Fedovseev, Al-Modiakhi and Kovalenko. If the tournament had lasted more than fourteen rounds, surely Ivanchuk would have won those games too!
Malakhov took second place while Fridman battled his way into third. The final standings were as follows:
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | FED | Pts. |
| 1 | Ivanchuk Vassily | 2722 | UKR | 13.0 |
| 2 | Malakhov Vladimir | 2777 | RUS | 10.0 |
| 3 | Fridman Daniel | 2649 | GER | 9.5 |
| 4 | Bologan Viktor | 2680 | MDA | 9.0 |
| 5 | Shirov Alexei | 2742 | LAT | 8.5 |
| 6 | Van Wely Loek | 2679 | NED | 8.5 |
| 7 | Fedorov Alexei | 2547 | BLR | 8.5 |
| 8 | Kovalenko Igor | 2653 | LAT | 8.5 |
| 9 | Kovalev Vladislav | 2488 | BLR | 8.5 |
| 10 | Zhigalko Sergei | 2704 | BLR | 8.5 |
| 11 | Navara David | 2648 | CZE | 8.5 |
| 12 | Alekseev Evgeny | 2635 | RUS | 8.5 |
| 13 | Al-Modiahki Mohamad | 2547 | QAT | 8.5 |
| 14 | Azarov Sergei | 2646 | BLR | 8.5 |
| 15 | Shimanov Aleksandr | 2582 | RUS | 8.5 |
| 16 | Aleksandrov Aleksej | 2616 | BLR | 8.5 |
| 17 | Gleizerov Evgeny | 2545 | RUS | 8.5 |
| 18 | Fedoseev Vladimir | 2681 | RUS | 8.5 |
| 19 | Kulaots Kaido | 2505 | EST | 8.0 |
| 20 | Lysyj Igor | 2675 | RUS | 8.0 |
What else did you expect to see in the Latvian Railway Museum?
An interesting contrast...
Vikto Bologan (left) and Sergei Zhigalko were two of the top players of the event
Spectators crowding around Latvian chess legend Evgenij Sveshnikov
Jan Ehlvest lives in the neighboring country of Estonia
The Vassily Ivanchuk Express demolished everything in front of it
Loek Van Wely suffered three losses (Fridman, Ivanchuk, Fedorov) but his 8.5/14 was still a good result
In rapid chess, all kinds of unusual things can happen!
Evgeny Alekseev, once Russian Champion, also finished with 8.5/14
The strongest player from Latvia, Alexei Shirov, only managed to score 1.5/4 in the last stretch
and that knocked him out from the fight for second place. In third: Daniel Fridman (right)
An expression everyone knows all too welll...
More rails! Actually the official page has many pictures of these antique locomotives
Zhu Chen, originally from China but now playing for Qatar,
took a half point off Alexei Shirov in the first round
Click on drop-down menu for all games
LinksThe games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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