Ringing in the New Year at the Rilton Cup

by Macauley Peterson
1/1/2019 – The traditional Rilton Cup in Stockholm is currently in its 48th edition. The nine-round tournament started on December 27th and runs through January 5th. The New Year is celebrated in Stockholm and New Year's Day is the lone free day. The event routinely attracts a strong field of GMs — at least those not interested in Rapid or Blitz championships, and it even has its own mobile app for iOS and Android! | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund
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Lagarde leads at half-time in Stockholm

French Grandmaster Maxime Lagarde is the pace-setter at the traditional Rilton Cup, with 4½ out of five rounds played. He is joined at the top of the leaderboard by Gopal G.N. whose only draw was against the top-seeded Israeli GM Tamir Nabaty. Nabaty trails by half a point, leading a group of 15 players with 4.0/5. Among them are some well-known veteran names, such as GM Sergey Volkov from Russia, GM Bartlomiej Heberla from Poland and Spanish GM (now living in Sweden) Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez, but also relative newcomers like 15-year old GM Awonder Liang from the USA.

Maxime Lagarde

GM Maxime Lagarde | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

On New Year's Eve, Lagarde converted an advantageous rook endgame against Spain's Miguel Santos Ruiz, which illustrates a useful concept: 

 
Santos Ruiz vs Lagarde, Round 5
Position after 41.Ra6+

At first glance, you might think it makes sense to advance to b3 to support the b-pawn's advance from c2, but this merely loses time. 41...Kb5 is correct, pacifying the white rook after 42.Ra1 b3 43.Ke3 b2 44.Rb1 Ka4 and the king soon arrives on a2.

A 19-year-old Danish IM, Jesper Sondergaard Thybo (already rated 2519), was surprisingly among the players leading the tournament after four rounds. The 22nd seed played a nice attack in Round 2 against the 16-year-old Norwegian FM Tryggestad. The game between them showed a common theme in open tournaments: in the face of a fierce attack it takes a cool head to mount a successful defence — possible in this case but extremely difficult:

 
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1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Qb3 Nb6 6.d4 Bg7 7.e4 Bg4 8.Bb5+ c6 9.Ng5 0-0 10.Be2 Bxe2 11.Nxe2 N8d7 12.Qh3 h6 13.Nf3 Kh7
White has a strong centre and has already positioned his forces against the black King, although an breakthrough is not immediately evident. Better but not winning is often a difficult spot to be in. 14.0-0 c5 15.d5 Nc4 16.Bg5 Nde5?! Exchanging a piece to relieve the pressure is tempting, but this only helps White. The f3-knight had nowhere meaningful to go, but its disappearance, on the other hand, makes way for f2-f4, reinforcing the attack. 16...Nxb2 was possible. 17.Nxe5 Nxe5 18.Rad1 Consequently, White now has 18.f4! available. Nd3 19.Qxd3 hxg5 20.fxg5 would have kept a strong position up a pawn. 18...c4! Black gives his knight a secure base on d3, which, if it could be maintained, might be enough to keep the game balanced. 19.b3 Naturally, White has other ideas. Qc7 20.Kh1
White would like to play f2-f4 without worrying about any queen checks along the g1-a7 diagonal. 20...Rfe8 With this move Black completely loses the thread. Because white plans to open the f-file at any moment, it would have been much more useful to guard the f-file and prevent an incursion on f7. The e7-pawn could have been covered by the a-rook. A plan to activate that rook via the c-file would both been too slow and not directed against meaningful targets. Important was 20...b5! to hold the d3-square at all costs. Together with the queen (and supported by the g7-bishop) Black's knight would have significant claim to key dark squares, which might tie down White's forces to defensive rolls. 21.f4 Nd3? Now he returns ruefully to his original plan, but it's no longer working and the black position soon collapses. 22.bxc4! This simple move makes a big statement. Nb2 23.Rc1 Nxc4 24.f5 fxg6+ is coming with threats of Rf7. Rf8 25.d6! 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Thybo,J2519Tryggestad,A23331–0201848th Rilton Cup 20182

Thybo and Tryggestad

Jesper Sondergaard Thybo and Andreas Garberg Tryggestad | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

Standings after Round 5 (top 20)

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Lagarde Maxime 4,5 13,5
2 Gopal G.N. 4,5 13,0
3 Nabaty Tamir 4,0 15,5
4 Yeoh Li Tian 4,0 15,0
5 Urkedal Frode Olav Olsen 4,0 14,0
6 Volkov Sergey 4,0 14,0
7 Heberla Bartlomiej 4,0 13,5
8 Lalith Babu M R 4,0 13,5
9 Karthikeyan Murali 4,0 13,0
10 Gajewski Grzegorz 4,0 13,0
11 Kobalia Mikhail 4,0 13,0
12 Donchenko Alexander 4,0 12,5
13 Liang Awonder 4,0 12,5
14 Pranav Anand 4,0 12,0
15 Santos Latasa Jaime 4,0 12,0
16 Moroni Luca Jr 4,0 11,0
17 Bellon Lopez Juan Manuel 4,0 10,0
18 Santos Ruiz Miguel 3,5 16,0
19 Valsecchi Alessio 3,5 14,0
20 Thybo Sondergaard Jesper 3,5 14,0

... 161 players

The tournament takes a New Years Day pause before the final round rounds, ending on January 5th. Each round is accompanied by daily live commentary with the legendary GM Ulf Andersson and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni. Replay the 5th round webcast below:

All available games

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.c4 c6 9.Qc2 Na6 10.a3 Bg4 11.Ne5 C42: Petroff Defence: 3 Nxe5 and unusual White 3rd moves Bf5 12.b4
LiveBook: 30 Games 12...c5!       12...Nc7 13.f3 Bg6 14.c5 Bxe5 15.dxe5 Ng5 16.Bb2 d4 17.f4 Nd5 18.fxg5 Ne3 1-0 (42) Anand,V (2767)-Caruana,F (2811) Wijk aan Zee 2018 13.f3 White is slightly better. 13.bxc5 Bxe5 13...Bxe5! 14.dxe5 Threatens to win with cxd5. dxc4 15.Bxe4 Qd4+       Double Attack 16.Qf2 Bxe4 17.Qxd4 cxd4 18.fxe4 c3 19.Rd1N Rfd8 20.Ra2 Nc7 21.Rd3 Ne6 22.Nxc3 dxc3 23.Rxc3 Rd4 24.Rac2 g5
24...Kf8= keeps the balance. 25.Bxg5!±       Nxg5 26.Rg3 h6 Hoping for ...Kf8. 27.h4 Rxe4 28.hxg5 hxg5 28...Rxe5± keeps fighting. 29.gxh6+       Discovered Attack Kh7 29.Rxg5+       Endgame KRR-KRR Kf8 30.Rc7 a5? 30...Re8 was necessary. 31.Rxb7 a6 31.Rf5+- 31.Rxb7 axb4 32.axb4 Re8± 31...axb4 32.axb4 32.Rcxf7+ Kg8± 32...Re8? 32...Kg8 33.Rxb7 33.Rfxf7 b5+- 33...Ra1+ 34.Kf2 Ra2+ 35.Kf3 Rae2 33.Rfxf7+ White is clearly winning. Kg8 34.Rg7+ Kh8 35.Rh7+ Kg8 36.Rcg7+ Kf8 37.Rxb7 Accuracy: White = 90%, Black = 44%. 1–0
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
  • Create an account to access the games cloud.
WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Kobalia,M2620Holm,K24681–02018C4248th Rilton Cup 20185
Donchenko,A2604Eggleston,D23971–02018D3748th Rilton Cup 20185
Gajewski,G2598Thybo,J25191–02018D3848th Rilton Cup 20185
Liang,A2589Keinanen,T24041–02018C1148th Rilton Cup 20185
Volkov,S2583Lalith Babu M R2529½–½2018D3548th Rilton Cup 20185
Gopal G.N.2582Gholami,A24881–02018B1248th Rilton Cup 20185
Kulaots,K2555D`Costa,L2390½–½2018B4248th Rilton Cup 20185
Heberla,B2550Nabaty,T2670½–½2018C4248th Rilton Cup 20185
Hillarp Persson,T2546Schekachikhin,M2368½–½2018A3048th Rilton Cup 20185
Urkedal,F2537Karthikeyan,M2591½–½2018E9048th Rilton Cup 20185
Santos Ruiz,M2523Lagarde,M26160–12018B3148th Rilton Cup 20185
Valsecchi,A2497Zou,C23841–02018A1048th Rilton Cup 20185
Zumsande,M2490Pranav Anand22740–12018C5048th Rilton Cup 20185
Libiszewski,F2481Moroni,L25640–12018C5048th Rilton Cup 20185
Hauge,L2466Santos Latasa,J25842018C1148th Rilton Cup 20185
Haug,J2402Debashis,D2544½–½2018B0148th Rilton Cup 20185
Rohith Krishna S2399Yeoh,L25080–12018A8848th Rilton Cup 20185
Hilverda,A2362Salomon,J24940–12018E9748th Rilton Cup 20185
Mendonca,L2350Bellia,F2458½–½2018D1148th Rilton Cup 20185
Bellon Lopez,J2349Blomqvist,E24971–02018D3748th Rilton Cup 20185

Klaus Besenthal contributed reporting.

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Macauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.

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