Rilton Cup - Moderate result in Stockholm

As I wrote in my previous articles, it past six years from the last time when I played Rilton Cup in Stockholm.
It was a pleasant experience to come back to Stockholm and play again in Sweden´s biggest open tournament.
Many things changed in the past six years when in comes to Rilton Cup, and one of these things is a playing hall.
From a nice playing hall in the building situated direct on the banks of one of Stockhom´s channels, the venue moved in Hotel Clarion in Södermalm (one of the islands on which lays the capital of Sweden).
In this article I will write about general things about the tournament, and the game analysis will be published in next article.


From the beginning of the tournament one could see that the two players performs much better then the rest of the field.
Norwegian GM Jon Ludvig Hammer and Swedish GM Nils Gargamel Marley Grandelius dominated the rest of the players.
Hammer showed the better nerves and more stable play and won the first price deservedly, while Marley, despite winning all his games with the white pieces, lost in the next last round (he had the winning position at more then one points) against Russian GM Volkov Sergey who overtook the second place.
The final standings (up to the 26th place):

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo			Name	Gr	FED	Rtg	RtgI	RtgN	Pts.	TB1	TB2	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	5		GM	Hammer Jon Ludvig		NOR	2612	2612	0	7.5	49.0	54.0	2795	10	19.9
2	4		GM	Volkov Sergey		RUS	2623	2623	0	7.0	45.5	49.5	2686	10	6.9
3	7		GM	Grandelius Nils		SWE	2576	2576	2642	6.5	51.5	56.0	2718	10	18.0
4	3		GM	Krasenkow Michal		POL	2633	2633	0	6.5	48.5	53.0	2662	10	4.5
5	2		GM	Smirin Ilya		ISR	2642	2642	0	6.5	47.5	51.5	2662	10	2.3
6	1		GM	Socko Bartosz		POL	2657	2657	2695	6.5	47.0	51.5	2651	10	0.5
7	6		GM	Goganov Aleksey		RUS	2581	2581	0	6.5	46.5	50.0	2645	10	8.7
8	9		GM	Hillarp-Persson Tiger		SWE	2551	2551	2624	6.5	43.5	47.5	2608	10	7.6
9	8		GM	Piorun Kacper		POL	2560	2560	0	6.0	49.0	53.0	2632	10	9.5
10	11		GM	Lintchevski Daniil		RUS	2541	2541	0	6.0	46.5	51.0	2602	10	8.2
11	14		IM	Urkedal Frode		NOR	2492	2492	2468	6.0	40.0	44.0	2493	10	0.8
12	15		IM	Semcesen Daniel		SWE	2488	2488	2547	5.5	42.0	45.5	2477	10	0.6
13	24		IM	Smirnov Artem		RUS	2418	2418	0	5.5	42.0	44.5	2510	10	12.3
14	20		GM	Socko Monika		POL	2440	2440	2494	5.5	41.0	44.5	2486	10	6.2
15	22		GM	Yagupov Igor		RUS	2427	2427	0	5.5	41.0	44.0	2432	10	2.1
16	26		IM	Tsyhanchuk Stanislav		BLR	2398	2398	0	5.5	41.0	43.5	2484	10	10.9
17	23		IM	Sjödahl Pontus		SWE	2420	2420	2478	5.5	40.5	43.0	2463	10	5.8
18	10		GM	Tikkanen Hans		SWE	2548	2548	2632	5.5	39.0	42.5	2418	10	-12.2
19	16		IM	Hansen Torbjørn Ringdal		NOR	2473	2473	0	5.5	38.5	42.0	2451	10	-1.7
20	38		FM	Luukkonen Tommi	1	FIN	2285	2285	2310	5.5	38.5	41.0	2463	15	31.0
21	13		GM	Blomqvist Erik		SWE	2519	2519	2582	5.5	36.5	40.0	2398	10	-12.8
22	36		FM	von Bahr Oskar	1	SWE	2298	2298	2356	5.5	35.0	38.5	2390	15	15.9
23	12		GM	Cramling Pia		SWE	2525	2525	2501	5.0	39.5	42.0	2356	10	-16.1
24	30		IM	Furhoff Johan		SWE	2318	2318	2330	5.0	39.0	42.0	2335	10	3.9
25	40		FM	Henriksson Johan	1	SWE	2266	2266	2279	5.0	31.5	33.0	2219	15	-9.4
26	25		IM	Bejtovic Jasmin		BIH	2402	2402	2448	4.5	41.5	44.0	2360	10	-4.6

My play was somehow at the same level as in Milan, couple of weeks before Rilton Cup, with the small digression what this time that little extra did not worked in my favour, so if I put my performance in numbers it was somehow mirrored from Milan (The role of the mirror point is my actual rating).

As the tournament was played in two calendar years, it puzzled me how to count it, as the first tournament in 2014 or as the last tournament in 2013 ?!

During the tournament we had a free day, and the whole atmosphere which surrounds Rilton Cup was very relaxing.

Rilton Cup is an exception from the other Swedish tournaments, organised much better, with very nice playing hall, separate room for the post-game analysis, and the room with a commentary for the spectators in which the chess legend GM Ulf Andersson dominated.

I have to mention Södermalm, the area in Stockholm with lot´s of restaurants, cafés and pubs, and when it comes to food, it delivered highly over my expectations so I can honestly say that in my opinion this area of Stockholm has the best choice of restaurants in Sweden.

Me and Gargamel spent a lot of time with famous Swedish actor, Christopher Kenneth Krantz.

As always, there were a lot of funny moments, good games and blunders.

If I have to summarise the whole experience from the tournament from the perspective of my play and the overall enjoyment, Rilton Cup 2013/2014 is the positive experience

 - THE STRENGTH.

Photo: Rilton Cup official site www.rilton.se

Do not be fooled by this funny costume.

It is not a bunny, it´s a vulture. 

Just make a couple of inaccurate moves and you will die slowly and become his dinner.