Upsets in first rounds of the Rilton Cup

by Johannes Fischer
12/29/2016 – The 46th Rilton Cup is played from December 27 to January 5 in Stockholm. This year 21 grandmasters start, ten of them have a rating of 2600+, top seed is Gata Kamsky. But the grandmasters do not have an easy life at the Rilton and the first two rounds brought a couple of upsets.

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Photos: Lars OA Hedlund (Tournament page)

The Rilton Cup is named after its founder, the Swedish doctor and patron Tore Rilton (1904-1983) who initiated the tournament to give Swedish top players the chance to compete against international top players.

A concept that still works. In round one, for instance, US grandmaster Samuel Sevian (Elo 2603) lost an entertaining and complicated game against Swedish IM, chess official and author Ari Ziegler (Elo 2299).

 

Ari Ziegler

Samuel Sevian

Russian GM Sergey Volkov was crushed by the Indian Prince Bajaj who attacked his renowned opponent with remarkable calm.

 

Prince Bajaj

 

Sergey Volkov

In round two the International Master Pablo Cruz Lledo showed against grandmaster Evgeny Postny how effective it can be to put your opponent under pressure.

 

Number one seed Gata Kamsky started with 2.0/2.

As did Krishnan Sasikiran

Standings after round 2

Rg. Snr   Name Land Elo Pkt.  Wtg1   Wtg2   Wtg3 
1 6 GM Sokolov Ivan NED 2632 2,0 1,0 2,0 3,0
  20 GM Hillarp Persson Tiger SWE 2511 2,0 1,0 2,0 3,0
  22 IM Liang Awonder USA 2495 2,0 1,0 2,0 3,0
  62 IM Ziegler Ari SWE 2299 2,0 1,0 2,0 3,0
5 1 GM Kamsky Gata USA 2661 2,0 1,0 1,5 3,0
  2 GM Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2661 2,0 1,0 1,5 3,0
  12 GM Blomqvist Erik SWE 2567 2,0 1,0 1,5 3,0
  17 GM Tikkanen Hans SWE 2531 2,0 1,0 1,5 3,0
  18 GM Swapnil S. Dhopade IND 2526 2,0 1,0 1,5 3,0
  30 IM Hauge Lars Oskar NOR 2431 2,0 1,0 1,5 3,0
  45 FM von Bahr Oskar SWE 2357 2,0 1,0 1,5 3,0
12 13 GM Urkedal Frode NOR 2557 2,0 1,0 1,0 3,0
  34 IM Sarkar Justin Joseph USA 2415 2,0 1,0 1,0 3,0
  35 FM Cruz Lledó Pablo ESP 2415 2,0 1,0 1,0 3,0
15 7 GM Neiksans Arturs LAT 2631 1,5 1,5 2,5 2,5
  11 GM Antipov Mikhail Al. RUS 2580 1,5 1,5 2,5 2,5
  15 GM Ivanov Sergey RUS 2545 1,5 1,5 2,5 2,5
  21 GM Pavlovic Milos SRB 2500 1,5 1,5 2,5 2,5
  60 CM Bajaj Prince IND 2305 1,5 1,5 2,5 2,5
  67   Ruecker Benjamin GER 2275 1,5 1,5 2,5 2,5
  92   Hallman Valo FIN 2098 1,5 1,5 2,5 2,5
22 14 GM Kulaots Kaido EST 2556 1,5 1,5 2,0 2,5
  46 FM Nielsen Rógvi Egilstoft FAI 2351 1,5 1,5 2,0 2,5
24 29 IM Bellia Fabrizio ITA 2433 1,5 1,5 2,0 2,0
  42 FM Mihajlov Sebastian NOR 2384 1,5 1,5 2,0 2,0
  81 FM Risting Eivind Olav NOR 2222 1,5 1,5 2,0 2,0
  94   Gupta Sankalp IND 2093 1,5 1,5 2,0 2,0
28 23 IM Zumsande Martin GER 2485 1,5 1,5 1,5 2,5
  24 IM Westerberg Jonathan SWE 2483 1,5 1,5 1,5 2,5
  25 IM Salomon Johan NOR 2470 1,5 1,5 1,5 2,5
  33 IM Sagit Rauan SWE 2417 1,5 1,5 1,5 2,5
  37 IM Houska Jovanka ENG 2397 1,5 1,5 1,5 2,5
  41 IM Wallace John-Paul AUS 2387 1,5 1,5 1,5 2,5
  49 FM Sarin Nihal IND 2340 1,5 1,5 1,5 2,5
35 16 GM Shyam Sundar M. IND 2532 1,5 1,0 1,5 2,0
36 5 GM Goganov Aleksey RUS 2637 1,5 0,5 1,0 2,0
  32 GM Akesson Ralf SWE 2417 1,5 0,5 1,0 2,0
38 4 GM Bluebaum Matthias GER 2640 1,0 2,0 3,0 2,0

...104 players

Source: chess-results

Tiger Hillarp Persson

Pia Cramling

They want to make life difficult for the established masters and grandmasters:
Awonder Liang (left) and Nihal Sarin

Games of rounds 1 and 2

 

Tournament page...


Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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