Tal Memorial Rapid won by Vladimir Onischuk

All photos from official site

In the opening speech, Alexei Shirov (above) gave a moving tribute to his hero, Mikhail Tal, whom the event was organized around. Even though there already is a well known Tal Memorial event organized in Russia, it made perfect sense that one should be made in his native Latvia. It was organized as a three-tier rapid event, divided in ratings groups, with a prizefund of 7100 Euros. The time control was 12 minutes plus a five-second increment per move.

Without question, the player who hailed from the greatest distance was Eric Hansen from Canada. He placed 12th with 7.5/11. The Canadian player has been evolving constantly, and an interesting detail came after subjecting his games to computer analysis (in this author's effort to locate tactical shots found or missed): at least two games saw no blunders by either player, but ended in crushing wins. This evidenced he had slowly squeezed his opponents to their asphyxiation.

Mind you, this is not to say Hansen was the only representative from the new world. Alexander Shabalov, four-time US Champion was there, also to honor his great compatriot, having hismelf been born in Riga, Latvia. He came in 13th with 7.5/11.

The best of the Americans was Jaan Ehlvest, who finished in 10th place with 7.5/11

Two strong Dutch players were also present: Benjamin Bok, who had a fantastic event and came in 4th place with 8.5/11, ...

... and Loek Van Wely

Another ex-pat from Lativa was Daniel Fridman, born in Latvia but now living in and playing for Germany, He cam in 8th place with 8.0/11

Kartunnen - Fridman

Czech Grandmaster Viktor Laznicka scored 6.5/11

Latvian GM Igor Kovalenko is a well-known specialist in rapid time controls, with notable results at the World Rapid Championship. He came in 7th place with 8.0/11.

Perhaps the biggest surprise came from 67-year-old Evgeny Sveshnikov, who player superbly and came in 6th place with 8.0/11. See below some of his handiwork.

Sveshnikov - Meskovs

IM Maxim Notkin finished with 6.5/11

A familiar sight in any well-packed event

Many came with their families, who were wll provided for

Ukrainian GM Natalia Zhukova

An encore of the champion, Vladimir Onischuk, receiving his prize from Alexei Shirov. Onischuk finished in sole first with 9.0/11. His rapid rating (2702) is considerably higher than his standard rating, and this result confirms his special talent at faster time controls.

Final standings after 11 rounds

Click for complete standings

Links

• Official tournament site
• All games in PGN

You can use ChessBase 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.