3059 Performance For Ivanchuk at Latvian Railway Open
Vassily Ivanchuk reigned supreme at the Latvian Railway Open, a strong rapid tournament held over the weekend in Latvia, Riga. The 45-year-old Ukrainian started with 9.0/9 (!) and won the tournament with 13.0/14 (two draws and twelve wins), three points more than runner-up Vladimir Malakhov of Russia. Ivanchuk scored a performance of, hold your seats: 3059.
Photos © Matīss Sīlis
The Latvian Railway Open took place Friday 28 - Monday 30 March, 2014 at the Latvian Railway History Museum in Riga, Latvia. The museum, which will celebrate its 20-year anniversary this August, contains more than a thousand items, documents and photographs related to railway communications and signalling equipment, tools and instruments, uniforms and badges. It is located in the center of the Latvian capital.
The tournament was held over three groups A, B and C. Tournament A was a 14-round Swiss with the following time control: 15 minutes for each player plus 6 seconds increment per move. There were some big names playing: Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov (who co-organized the event), Sergei Zhigalko, Vladimir Malakhov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Viktor Bologan, Loek van Wely, Igor Lysyj, Daniel Fridman and David Navara.
Ivanchuk was in top shape, and started like a whirlwind that killed everyone and everything that got in his way! He won his first nine games, beating Vladimir Sveshnikov (the son of),Miezis, Gleizerov, Malakhov (the top seed), Navara, Fridman, Van Wely, Alekseev and Zhigalko.
Only then did he drop half a point, and then another one, drawing with Lysyj and Shirov. Three more wins, against Fedoseev, Al-Modiahki and Kovalenko, resulted in an incredible result and performance rating: 13.0 out of 14 / TPR 3059!
Let's look at a few games. In round 2 Ivanchuk faced Miezis, who played the Budapest Gambit. It was a very intense fight which was finally decided in an opposite-colored bishop ending:
Malakhov was outplayed nicely from a Hedgehog. Black created a nice outpost on d3, got a 'octopus' there but the star move was 30...Nc1! and just leaving it there for a while!
Against Navara, Ivanchuk played an interesting gambit line. At some point the Czech number on gave up all his material for a perpetual, but the white king could escape:
Here's another one, where he grabs the initiative right from the opening and never lets to - as Black:
Let's finish with one of Shirov's games - fire on board! Well, especially in this one. Shirov + Dragon = the sharpest chess you can get!
The total prize fund was 11,150 Euros with 1400 Euros going to Ivanchuk.
Latvian Railway Open 2014 | Final Standings (Top 40)
| Rk. | SNo | Title | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | 3 | GM | Ivanchuk,Vassily | UKR | 2722 | 13 | 101,5 | 118,5 | 3059 |
| 2 | 1 | GM | Malakhov,Vladimir | RUS | 2777 | 10 | 100,5 | 120,5 | 2776 |
| 3 | 10 | GM | Fridman,Daniel | GER | 2649 | 9,5 | 97,5 | 116,5 | 2713 |
| 4 | 6 | GM | Bologan,Viktor | MDA | 2680 | 9 | 82,5 | 96,5 | 2499 |
| 5 | 2 | GM | Shirov,Alexei | LAT | 2742 | 8,5 | 100,5 | 120,5 | 2649 |
| 6 | 7 | GM | Van Wely,Loek | NED | 2679 | 8,5 | 99 | 118 | 2646 |
| 7 | 22 | GM | Fedorov,Alexei | BLR | 2547 | 8,5 | 97 | 112 | 2651 |
| 8 | 9 | GM | Kovalenko,Igor | LAT | 2653 | 8,5 | 96 | 115 | 2590 |
| 9 | 30 | GM | Kovalev,Vladislav | BLR | 2488 | 8,5 | 95,5 | 106,5 | 2637 |
| 10 | 4 | GM | Zhigalko,Sergei | BLR | 2704 | 8,5 | 94,5 | 113 | 2623 |
| 11 | 11 | GM | Navara,David | CZE | 2648 | 8,5 | 94 | 113,5 | 2590 |
| 12 | 13 | GM | Alekseev,Evgeny | RUS | 2635 | 8,5 | 93,5 | 113 | 2601 |
| 13 | 21 | GM | Al-Modiahki,Mohamad | QAT | 2547 | 8,5 | 90 | 108 | 2562 |
| 14 | 12 | GM | Azarov,Sergei | BLR | 2646 | 8,5 | 90 | 105 | 2519 |
| 15 | 16 | GM | Shimanov,Aleksandr | RUS | 2582 | 8,5 | 88,5 | 104 | 2550 |
| 16 | 14 | GM | Aleksandrov,Aleksej | BLR | 2616 | 8,5 | 88,5 | 103 | 2532 |
| 17 | 23 | GM | Gleizerov,Evgeny | RUS | 2545 | 8,5 | 87,5 | 102,5 | 2546 |
| 18 | 5 | GM | Fedoseev,Vladimir | RUS | 2681 | 8,5 | 84 | 101,5 | 2495 |
| 19 | 28 | GM | Kulaots,Kaido | EST | 2505 | 8 | 96 | 110,5 | 2630 |
| 20 | 8 | GM | Lysyj,Igor | RUS | 2675 | 8 | 95 | 114 | 2582 |
| 21 | 24 | GM | Oparin,Grigoriy | RUS | 2545 | 8 | 94,5 | 109,5 | 2585 |
| 22 | 39 | IM | Berzinsh,Roland | LAT | 2375 | 8 | 86,5 | 100,5 | 2504 |
| 23 | 18 | GM | Shariyazdanov,Andrey | RUS | 2570 | 8 | 85 | 99,5 | 2486 |
| 24 | 37 | IM | Sakalauskas,Vaidas | LTU | 2427 | 8 | 84,5 | 97,5 | 2470 |
| 25 | 25 | GM | Miezis,Normunds | LAT | 2544 | 7,5 | 95 | 113 | 2563 |
| 26 | 19 | GM | Sulskis,Sarunas | LTU | 2562 | 7,5 | 92,5 | 108 | 2544 |
| 27 | 38 | FM | Ladva,Ottomar | EST | 2385 | 7,5 | 92 | 108 | 2600 |
| 28 | 20 | GM | Sveshnikov,Evgeny | LAT | 2554 | 7,5 | 87 | 101,5 | 2456 |
| 29 | 35 | GM | Zhu,Chen | QAT | 2438 | 7,5 | 85,5 | 99,5 | 2508 |
| 30 | 32 | GM | Starostits,Ilmars | LAT | 2469 | 7,5 | 84 | 98 | 2442 |
| 31 | 17 | GM | Sumets,Andrey | UKR | 2577 | 7,5 | 79 | 92,5 | 2365 |
| 32 | 27 | GM | Ulibin,Mikhail | RUS | 2515 | 7 | 94 | 108 | 2505 |
| 33 | 34 | FM | Kantans,Toms | LAT | 2442 | 7 | 92,5 | 107,5 | 2481 |
| 34 | 36 | IM | Sveshnikov,Vladimir | LAT | 2433 | 7 | 89,5 | 107,5 | 2471 |
| 35 | 29 | IM | Krivonosov,Oleg | LAT | 2490 | 7 | 89,5 | 101 | 2459 |
| 36 | 15 | GM | Ehlvest,Jaan | USA | 2612 | 7 | 89 | 102,5 | 2421 |
| 37 | 47 | NM | Mustaps,Matiss | LAT | 2258 | 7 | 76,5 | 87,5 | 2378 |
| 38 | 46 | NM | Tokranovs,Dmitrijs | LAT | 2267 | 7 | 72,5 | 83,5 | 2276 |
| 39 | 42 | GM | Petkevich,Jusefs | LAT | 2328 | 7 | 71,5 | 84,5 | 2245 |
| 40 | 31 | FM | Meskovs,Nikita | LAT | 2484 | 6,5 | 90,5 | 103 | 2454 |
(Full final standings here)
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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