Vitaly Sivuk wins the 51st edition of the Rilton Cup

by Klaus Besenthal
1/9/2024 – The 51st edition of the Rilton Cup came to an end in Stockholm on Friday. The winner of the nine-round event was the Ukrainian GM Vitaly Sivuk, who now plays for Sweden, with a score of 7½/9. Israeli IMs Yahli Sokolovsky and Yair Parkhov (both with 7/9) finished second and third, respectively. | Photos: Lars OA Hedlund
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A Swedish tradition

The list of participants in the Rilton Cup included names such as Anand, Bronstein and Mamedov, but in none of these cases was it the ‘original’ chess star who had made it to Sweden to participate in the event.

Oleg Romanishin, on the other hand, is ‘the real deal’: the living legend actually took part in the tournament and achieved a very respectable result with a score of 5/9.

Oleg Romanishin, who turns 73 next Wednesday, belonged to the chess elite 30 years ago

Romanishin is Ukrainian, as is the tournament winner Vitaly Sivuk, although he has been playing for Sweden since 2022. Sivuk made the decisive move towards winning the tournament in round 8 when he clearly defeated then co-leader IM Edvin Trost, a 16-year-old rising star from Sweden.

Trost, Edvin24340–1Sivuk, Vitaly2490
51st Rilton Cup 2023-24
Stockholm04.01.2024[Besenthal,Klaus-Guenther]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.Re1 Nd7 8.b3 c5 9.Bb2 f6 10.Nh4 g6
This game, which started as a Ruy Lopez, now looks almost like a Sicilian Rossolimo. 11.f4? And here White probably thought he had something - perhaps due to the black king's standing in the centre? Solid was 11.Nc3 11...exf4 Now it is clear: the f6-pawn is triple-guarded and Black also controls e5. Black can also simply castle short without any danger. White makes no progress, but has given up a pawn and his pieces are badly coordinated. 12.Nc3?! 12.Nf3 was perhaps not lost yet. 12...Ne5! 13.Nd5 Bg4 14.Qc1 g5
The players are still in the opening phase, but Black is already winning. 15.Bxe5 fxe5 16.Qb2
16...Bd6 Or 16...gxh4 17.Qxe5 Kd7-+ 17.Nf5 Rf8 18.b4 cxb4 19.Kh1 Qd7 20.d4 0-0-0 21.c4 Bxf5 22.exf5 exd4 23.Qxd4 Kb8
The rest of the game now plays itself out for Black. The safety of the king plays an increasingly important role, and in the end the extra pawns make themselves felt. 24.f6 c6 25.Nb6 Qf5 26.Rad1 f3 27.c5 Bc7 28.Qf2 g4 29.Rxd8+ Rxd8 30.gxf3 Qxf6 31.Re3 Ka7 32.Nc4 Rd1+ 33.Kg2 Qg5 34.Re4 gxf3+ 35.Kxf3 Qf5+ 36.Ke3 Qxc5+ 37.Ke2 Qxf2+ 38.Kxf2 b5 39.Ne3 Rd2+ 40.Kf3 Rxh2 41.Rxb4 Rxa2 0–1

By this point both contenders had probably realised that 11.f4 was not a good move

Final standings

Rg. Snr Name Land EloI Pkt.
1 Sivuk, Vitaly 7,5
2 Sokolovsky, Yahli 7
3 Parkhov, Yair 7
4 Trost, Edvin 6,5
5 Prraneeth, Vuppala 6,5
6 Raja, Rithvik R 6,5
7 Malek, Jan 6,5
8 Chasin, Nico 6,5
9 Subelj, Jan 6,5
10 Kulaots, Kaido 6
11 Blomqvist, Erik 6
12 Socko, Bartosz 6
13 Utsab, Chatterjee 6
14 Jarmula, Lukasz 6
15 Srihari, L 6
16 Bailet, Pierre 6
17 Gorshtein, Ido 6
18 Rozentalis, Eduardas 6
19 Bronstein, Or 6
20 Dhulipalla, Bala Chandra Prasad 6
21 Aradhya, Garg 6
22 Shohat, Yotam 6
23 Nyysti, Sampsa 5,5
24 Moksh, Amit Doshi 5,5
25 Socko, Monika 5,5
26 Oratovsky, Michael 5,5
27 Hillarp Persson, Tiger 5,5
28 Aoshima, Mirai 5,5
29 Rakesh, Kumar Jena 5,5
30 Costa, Leonardo 5,5

...134 players

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Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.
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