The Rilton Cup is a

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

that takes place annually, between the end of the year and the beginning of the next, in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The tournament is named after the Swedish doctor and chess player Tore Rilton. Its first edition took place in 1971/1972 with

Jan Timman Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...

being the winner. It uses a

Swiss-system tournament A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other ...

format.

History

In 1971, Tore Rilton sent a donation to the organisers of the Stockholm Open chess tournament, with the instructions to use them to "organise a strong chess tournament". Due to this donation the event was named Rilton Cup and its first edition took place in 1971/1972. This inaugural version of the tournament was won by Jan Timman with 7.5 points;

Walter Browne Walter Shawn Browne (10 January 1949 – 24 June 2015) was an Australian-born American chess and poker player. Awarded the title Grandmaster (GM) by FIDE in 1970, he won the U.S. Chess Championship six times. Early years Browne was born to ...

finished 2nd with 7 points and Einar Hatlebakk 3rd with 6.5. After Rilton's death, the Rilton Cup continued to be funded by Dr. Tore Rilton's Memorial Fund. The Rilton Cup's 50th edition was to be played in 2020/2021, however it was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In its place, an invitational

knockout tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, the Rilton Winners' Cup, was held. The tournament took place on

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, with 16 participants. The time control for the matches was 15+10, and 5+3 for the tiebreaks.

Krishnan Sasikiran Krishnan Sasikiran (Tamil: கிருஷ்ணன் சசிகிரண்; born 7 January 1981) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He was one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the World Chess Championship 2013. Chess career Born in Madra ...

won the event by defeating 2—0 the runner-up,

Aleksandr Shimanov Aleksandr Shimanov (born 8 May 1992) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM) by FIDE in 2009. Chess career Aleksandr Shimanov became an International Master in 2007. Two years later, he received his grandmaster t ...

in the finals. The Rilton Cup's 50th edition was cancelled again in 2021-2022 and was postponed for 2022–2023. The 50th edition of Rilton Cup took place from 22 December 2022 to 5 January 2023. This edition of the tournament was also the first international tournament eligible for the

2023 FIDE Circuit The 2023 FIDE Circuit was a system comprising the top Chess tournament, chess tournaments in 2023, which serves as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2024. Players receive points based on their performance and the strength of the ...

. Pranesh M won the tournament with 8 points in 9 rounds, scoring his final

GM norm A norm in chess is a high level of performance in a chess tournament. The level of performance is typically measured in tournament performance rating above a certain threshold (for instance, 2600 for GM norm), and there is a requirement on the leve ...

, with Kaan Kucusar finishing 2nd and

Nikita Meshkovs Nikita Evgenievich Meshkovs (, ; born 30 June 1994) is a Latvian chess grandmaster (2017). He won the Latvian Chess Championship in 2018. Biography Meshkovs started playing chess at the age of four. At the age of six, he became a student at th ...

3rd, both with 7 points.

Winners

Notes

References

{{Chess tournaments Invitational chess tournaments Chess in Sweden Sports competitions in Stockholm 1971 establishments in Sweden 1970s establishments in Stockholm