7th International Chess Festival

Riga Technical University Open

Riga Technical University and Latvian Chess Federation have an honour to announce the 7th “Riga Technical University Open”, which will take place on August 7th - 13th in the already traditional location - spacious International Exhibition Centre “Kipsala” (8 Kipsalas Street, Riga, Latvia), which is located across the bridge from the city center.

The 1st Riga Technical Open was held in August 2011 and won by GM Alberto David (LUX). Since then many top grandmasters have participated and won the festival - GM Jan Markos (SLO) in 2012, GM Bartosz Socko (POL) in 2013, GM Hrant Melkumyan (ARM) in 2014, GM Alexei Shirov (LAT) in 2015 and GM Martyn Kravtsiv (UKR) last year. Other than winners biggest names of the previous festivals were GMs Daniel Fridman, Jaan Ehlvest, Monika Socko, Igor Kovalenko, Richard Rapport, Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli, Robert Hovhannisyan, Rinat Jumabayev, Daniel Naroditsky and many others.

Over the years many players have gained their FIDE title norms in our festival as there are many titled players from various countries participating each year. Last year the main tournament gathered 184 players from 31 countries including 21 GMs and 99 titled players. Overall more than 380 participants took part in the festival.

In 2017 the program of the festival will feature five ELO tournaments and a blitz tournament. The guaranteed prize fund for the 7th edition of the festival is 20 000 EUR. First prize of the tournament A is planned to be 2500 EUR, there will also be special prizes for women, juniors, seniors and rating prizes.

Tournament A Grandmaster Tournament
Swiss System, 9 rounds, August 7th - 13th, open for all players. The tournament will have GM, IM, WGM and WIM norms. Time limit: 90 minutes per game per player + 30 seconds per move starting from the move 1.

Tournament B Amateur ELO Tournament
Swiss System, 9 rounds, August 7th - 13th, Open tournament for players with ELO until 2299 and Latvian rating until 2399. Time limit: 90 minutes per game per player + 30 seconds per move starting from the move 1.

Tournament C Weekend Amateur ELO Tournament
Swiss System, 7 rounds, August 10th - 13th, open for players with ELO until 2199 and Latvian rating 2299. Time limit: 60 minutes per game per player + 30 seconds per move starting from the move 1.

Tournament D Amateur open ELO Tournament
Swiss System, 7 rounds, August 10th - 13th, open for players with ELO until 1899 and Latvian rating 1999. Time limit: 60 minutes per game per player + 30 seconds per move starting from the move 1.

Tournament E Amateur open ELO Tournament
Swiss System, 7 rounds, August 11th - 13th, open for players with ELO until 1599 and Latvian rating 1699. Time limit: 30 minutes per game per player + 30 seconds per move starting from the move 1.

Tournament F Open Blitz Tournament
Open blitz tournament, 13.08, 19:00, Swiss system, 11 rounds.

Early entries for the ELO tournaments and accommodation requests should be sent before 17th of July. Special prices for hotels are available till this date as well. More detailed information about schedule, accommodation and registration can be found in the official homepage of the tournament http://rtuopen.lv/.

On behalf of the organizers I would like to invite all chess players to participate in the Riga Technical University Open and all together develop the biggest tournament of classical chess in Latvia! Hope to see you in Riga!

Tournament director
IO Egons Lavendelis
Contact information:
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