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Who Won Basel, Hastings And The Rilton Cup?

Who Won Basel, Hastings And The Rilton Cup?

PeterDoggers
| 5 | Chess Event Coverage

Three strong open tournaments have come to an end: the Basel Chess Festival, the Hastings Chess Congress and the Rilton Cup.

Here's a final report on all three.

Basel

Let's start with the shortest tournament of the three, and the one that wasn't covered here yet. The Basel Chess Festival was held January 1-5 at the Hilton Hotel in Basel. It followed the Zurich Open as Switzerland's second strong 7-rounder around the holidays.

As the top seed, GM Arkadij Naiditsch won in Zurich with 6.5/7. In Basel, he scored a point less and tied for first place with IM Alexander Donchenko (the winner in Groningen!), GM Eduardo Iturrizaga, IM Matthias Dann and GM Milos Pavlovic.

As it turned out, Naiditsch had the best tiebreak of all and so he won two opens back to back! The German GM had dropped below 2700 in the January rating list, but is now back to 2703 in the live list.

Back-to-back winner Arkadij Naiditsch. | Photo Uwe Zinke.

He started with 4.0/4, but so did Dutch talent IM Jorden van Foreest, who managed to draw his game with Naiditsch in round five. Well, "managed"? He was completely winning, but somehow he let his opponent escape:


That must have been extremely disappointing. Van Foreest lost his last two games. In round six, he went down in rather spectacular fashion:

Dutch talent IM Jorden van Foreest. | Photo Uwe Zinke.

The final round saw the following top pairings:

Dann IM (5) - Naiditsch,Arkadij GM (5)
Svane IM (4½) - Iturrizaga GM (5)
Rapport GM (4½) - Pavlovic,Milos GM (4½)
Van Foreest IM (4½) - Donchenko IM (4½)
Toth IM (4½) - Pelletier GM (4)

Both Dann and Svane played good games, and managed to hold their GM opponents to a draw. Both Donchenko and Pavlovic caught the three on 5.5 points, and Naiditsch had the best tiebreak.

Richard Rapport lost 5 rating points in Zurich and another 8.1 in Basel. He's still a very creative player, as the following game shows, but in this case his opening setup backfired:

Chess legend GM Vlastimil Hort scored a very decent 5.0/7, like last year. Another comparison with 2013-2014: back then GM Radek Wojtaszek was the top seed in Zurich and Basel, and like Naiditsch he won both events.

2015 Basel Chess Festival | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk. Name Title TWZ Fed Pts TB1 TB2
1 Naiditsch,Arkadij GM 2731 GER 5.5 25.0 32.0
2 Donchenko,Alexander IM 2523 GER 5.5 23.5 30.0
3 Iturrizaga, Eduardo GM 2654 VEN 5.5 22.5 30.0
4 Dann,Matthias IM 2457 GER 5.5 21.5 28.5
5 Pavlovic,Milos GM 2472 SRB 5.5 18.0 24.5
6 Svane,Rasmus IM 2507 GER 5.0 22.0 27.5
7 Bok,Benjamin GM 2572 NED 5.0 21.5 29.5
8 Pelletier,Yannick GM 2588 SUI 5.0 20.5 29.0
9 Graf,Felix IM 2472 GER 5.0 20.0 26.5
10 Hort,Vlastimil GM 2432 GER 5.0 19.5 25.5
11 Van Foreest,Jorden IM 2467 NED 4.5 23.5 32.0
12 Rapport,Richard GM 2716 HUN 4.5 22.5 34.0
13 Toth,Bela IM 2346 ITA 4.5 20.0 29.0
14 Dourerassou,Jonathan IM 2469 FRA 4.5 19.0 29.0
15 Fedorovsky,Michael IM 2443 GER 4.5 19.0 28.0
16 Loetscher,Roland IM 2447 SUI 4.5 19.0 27.0
17 Delchev,Aleksandee GM 2627 BUL 4.5 19.0 26.0
18 Guttulsrud,Odd Martin CM 2180 NOR 4.5 17.0 27.5
19 Djingarova,Emilia WGM 2235 BUL 4.0 19.5 30.0
20 Lerch,Patrice IM 2383 FRA 4.0 19.0 31.0

(Full final standings here.)

Rilton Cup

After six rounds, four players were tied for first place at the Rilton Cup: GM Michal Krasenkow, GM Nils Grandelius, GM Michael Roiz and GM Tiger Hillarp Persson.

It was the latter who grabbed sole lead in round seven, beating Krasenkow in a Petrosian King's Indian with an early h3.

Move 35 was a nice moment. White offered Black to take en passant, and Black replied by doing the same, while sacrificing a pawn:

Tiger Hillarp Persson. | Photo Lars OA Hedlund.


GM Jon Ludvig Hammer won a nice game against Swedish GM Hans Tikkanen:

Afterward, Hammer went online to play through the moves of Krasenkow-Hillarp Persson and tweeted: “Rilton has best game prizes. I was feeling optimistic about my chances (...) until I saw Tiger's game. Class!”

Well, next it was Hammer to show class! Last year's winner won his second Rilton Cup in a row as he edged out on tiebreak...Hillarp Persson! Karma for that nice tweet?

The Norwegian won another Scandinavian derby against Nils Grandelius in round eight in what was a rather nice game as well. Hammer snatched a pawn on c5 which seemed risky to do. Later on he was happy to give back a3 when more important matters were happening on the board:

Hammer, who also won last year (when this photo was taken!)Photo Lars OA Hedlund.

2014-15 Rilton Cup | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk. SNo Title Name Fed Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 Rp Rtg+/-
1 2 GM Hammer Jon Ludvig NOR 2640 7 47 51 2710 8.3
2 13 GM Hillarp Persson Tiger SWE 2544 7 45 49 2678 16.1
3 6 GM Roiz Michael ISR 2592 6.5 46.5 50.5 2648 7.6
4 8 GM Turov Maxim RUS 2591 6.5 44.5 48 2629 5.2
5 1 GM Smirin Ilia ISR 2644 6.5 42.5 46 2625 0
6 4 GM Goganov Aleksey RUS 2615 6.5 40.5 44 2542 -5.3
7 14 GM Blomqvist Erik SWE 2525 6.5 38.5 42 2518 1.1
8-9 5 GM Krasenkow Michal POL 2614 6 47 51 2607 0
8-9 11 GM Ivanov Sergey RUS 2559 6 47 51 2599 5.5
10 9 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2581 6 46.5 50 2588 2.4
11 16 IM Urkedal Frode NOR 2517 6 45,5 48.5 2577 8.2
12 3 GM Romanov Evgeny RUS 2638 6 45 49.5 2607 -2.6
13 17 IM Tari Aryan NOR 2485 6 43.5 47.5 2571 10.6
14 12 GM Tikkanen Hans SWE 2551 6 41,5 43.5 2498 -4.5
15 18 IM Smith Axel SWE 2479 6 40 42 2512 4.8
16 15 GM Cramling Pia SWE 2518 6 39.5 42.5 2478 -3.9
17 22 IM Hagen Andreas Skytte DEN 2430 6 39.5 41.5 2479 6.5
18 10 GM Mikhalevski Victor ISR 2571 5.5 41.5 44.5 2476 -9
19 7 GM Shimanov Aleksandr RUS 2591 5.5 38.5 42.5 2439 -15.4
20 35 FM Lokander Martin SWE 2365 5 48 51.5 2510 33

(Full final standings here.)

Hastings

The Hastings Chess Congress concluded one day later, on January 6. As reported, Chinese GM Zhao Jun had started with 6.0/6. Only one player was trailing by a point: GM Mark Hebden.

It was Hebden to whom Zhao dropped his first half-point, while top seed GM Maxim Rodshtein lost to another English GM: Keith Arkell, the European 50+ champion. Rodshtein blundered a pawn but the ending was perhaps objectively a draw:

GM Keith Arkell. | Photo Brendan O'Gorman.

GM Alexander Fier defeated GM Deep Sengupta in a game with a funny theme. As Stewart Reuben noted on the official website, you don't see a rook moving to a2 on move 10 so often — the same square where the same rook got incarcerated later on!

GM Alexander Fier. | Photo Brendan O'Gorman.

OK, so Zhao was halted by Hebden, but the next round he duly continued winning. He totally crushed GM Jahongir Vakhidov in a 3...Qd6 Scandinavian with a remarkable knight maneuver in the opening and then a nice combination:

Zhao Jun, in fantastic shape in Hastings. | Photo Lara Barnes.

The next day Fier also beat Hebden, and so the Brazilian GM was the only player on 6.5 points, a full point behind Zhao. The two drew their game in the final round, and so Zhao won the tournament with an undefeated 8.0/9.

2014-15 Hastings Chess Congress | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk. Name Score Fed Rtg TPR W-We BH
1 GM Zhao, Jun 8.0 CHN 2585 2852 +2.56 54.0
2 GM Mista, Aleksander 7.0 POL 2614 2619 +0.22 51.0
3 GM Fier, Alexandr 7.0 BRA 2592 2660 +0.82 52.5
4 IM Kjartansson, Gudmundur 7.0 ISL 2451 2583 +1.65 50.0
5 GM Rodshtein, Maxim 6.5 ISR 2676 2546 -1.05 48.5
6 GM Lagarde, Maxime 6.5 FRA 2576 2606 +0.49 52.0
7 GM Hawkins, Jonathan 6.5 ENG 2552 2549 +0.16 50.0
8 GM Vakhidov, Jahongir 6.5 UZB 2502 2564 +0.86 51.0
9 GM Arkell, Keith C 6.5 ENG 2489 2608 +1.55 55.5
10 GM Edouard, Romain 6.0 FRA 2659 2622 -0.34 58.0
11 GM Bogner, Sebastian 6.0 SUI 2586 2500 -0.80 47.5
12 GM Sengupta, Deep 6.0 IND 2566 2517 -0.37 52.0
13 GM Flear, Glenn C 6.0 ENG 2460 2494 +0.51 48.0
14 IM Gledura, Benjamin 6.0 HUN 2450 2580 +1.70 53.0
15 FM Longson, Alexander 6.0 ENG 2339 2251 -0.79 41.0
16 IM Bellin, Robert 6.0 ENG 2338 2352 +0.24 44.5
17 Kheit, Wahbi 6.0 ISR 2223 2333 +1.42 42.5
18 Anderson, John 6.0 ENG 2180 2437 +2.45 43.5
19 GM Hebden, Mark L 5.5 ENG 2523 2478 -0.31 53.5
20 GM Gormally, Daniel W 5.5 ENG 2499 2366 -1.13 47.5

(Full final standings here.)



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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