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Perfect Score for Melkumyan at Riga Open

Perfect Score for Melkumyan at Riga Open

PeterDoggers
| 5 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia is the only player left with a perfect score at the Riga Open, a strong tournament in the Latvian capital that started right after the Tromsø Olympiad.

Top seed and local hero GM Alexei Shirov started with a loss but then won four games in a row. The tournament is by far the strongest and biggest classical chess festival in the Baltic region.

Officially called “Riga Technical University Open,” the tournament takes place August 15-24 in the Exhibition Centre Kipsala. It is located in Kipsala, an island on the left bank of the Daugava river, connected to Riga city center and Pārdaugava by the Shroud Bridge.

For the fourth edition, the total prize fund has been increased to 25,000 EUR with a 3,000 EUR first prize in the main tournament. And there was another good reason to choose Riga among the many cities hosting a chess tournament this summer: in 2014 it is the Cultural Capital of Europe, and so there are many cultural activities as well.

Inside the  Exhibition Centre Kipsala.

We know about the shocking loss for Alexei Shirov in round one, and Sam Shankland's early withdrawal (already covered here), but what else happened in Riga? Well, Shirov is back on track after winning four games in a row, and only one player started with five wins: GM Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia.

The 25-year-old grandmaster is having a great season thus far: in February he won the Casino Graz International, in June he finished first at the Teplice Open, and in July he won the open in Benasque as well! In Riga, his strongest opponent was Arturs Neiksans, in round four. The game was decided in a knight ending:


Hrant Melkumyan.

One of Chess.com's weekly columnists (or rather: very-instructive-chess-article-authors), Daniel Naroditsky, had a good start: he beat three lower-rated players and then drew with GMs Richard Rapport and Jan Werle. Especially in the last game he was under pressure, but never quite lost:

Daniel Naroditsky.


Richard Rapport is often good for some creative opening play. In the third round the Hungarian GM chose 1.f4 (and went for a Stonewall setup) and another example is his round five game against GM Vitali Golod, where he went for 1.b3. A nice win!


Richard Rapport.


Four more rounds will be played, from Thursday till Sunday. The rounds start at 16:00 local time (GMT + 3). You can follow it live here.

Riga Open 2014 | Round 5 Standings

Rk. SNo Title Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3
1 3 GM Melkumyan Hrant ARM 2655 5 9,5 15,5 3226
2 2 GM Rapport Richard HUN 2704 4,5 10,5 17,5 2834
3 4 GM Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo VEN 2653 4,5 10 17 2833
4 5 GM Kovalenko Igor LAT 2650 4,5 10 16,5 2816
5 14 GM Naroditsky Daniel USA 2587 4 11 17,5 2689
6 52 IM Argandona Riveiro Inigo ESP 2423 4 10 17 2686
7 10 GM Savchenko Boris RUS 2596 4 9,5 16 2619
8 28 GM Molner Mackenzie USA 2509 4 9,5 16 2612
9 37 GM Boruchovsky Avital ISR 2483 4 9 15,5 2572
10 18 GM Yemelin Vasily RUS 2573 4 9 15 2607
11 23 GM Oparin Grigoriy RUS 2546 4 9 15 2565
12 56 FM Khatoev Eduard RUS 2417 4 9 14,5 2623
13 34 IM Kantans Toms LAT 2496 4 9 14 2528
14 15 GM Banusz Tamas HUN 2585 4 8,5 14,5 2609
15 33 GM Gavrilov Alexei RUS 2505 4 8,5 14,5 2558
16 9 GM Goganov Aleksey RUS 2604 4 8,5 14 2637
17 27 GM Werle Jan NED 2511 4 8 14 2564
18 24 GM Kveinys Aloyzas LTU 2527 4 8 13 2572
19 35 GM Popilski Gil ISR 2494 4 8 13 2490
20 1 GM Shirov Alexei LAT 2709 4 7,5 12,5 2582
21 22 GM Fedorov Alexei BLR 2562 4 7,5 12,5 2560
22 17 GM Golod Vitali ISR 2574 3,5 10 16,5 2570
23 38 IM Swayams Mishra IND 2479 3,5 9,5 16,5 2555
24 20 GM Neiksans Arturs LAT 2572 3,5 9 16 2558
25 41 IM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. IND 2467 3,5 9 15,5 2559
26 21 GM Kulaots Kaido EST 2567 3,5 9 15,5 2551
27 47 FM Meskovs Nikita LAT 2441 3,5 9 15,5 2484
28 53 IM Valsecchi Alessio ITA 2421 3,5 9 15 2587
29 13 GM Bok Benjamin NED 2587 3,5 9 15 2533
30 16 GM Rausis Igors CZE 2578 3,5 9 15 2513

Photos by Katrina Skinke and Matiss Silis courtesy of the Riga Open.

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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