8th International Chess Festival
Riga Technical University Open

Riga Technical University and Latvian Chess Federation have an honour to announce the 8th international chess festival „Riga Technical University Open 2018”, which will take place on August 6th – 12th in already traditional venue - international exhibition centre “Kipsala” (8 Kipsalas Street) 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, GM Martyn Kravtsiv (UKR) in 2016 and GM Vladimir Onischuk (UKR) last year. Other than winners biggest names of the previous festivals were GMs Ilja Smirin, 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 319 participants from 41 countries including 42 GMs and 176 titled players. Overall the festival gathered a record breaking 655 participants of classical chess tournaments together with 277 players in blitz tournament making the number of participants close to 1000.

This year we have added one more tournament. In 2018 the program of the festival will feature five ELO tournaments and two blitz tournaments. The guaranteed prize fund for the 8th edition of the festival is 20 500 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 6th - 12th, open for all players. The tournament will have GM, IM, WGM and WIM norms and will be included in ACP tour. 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 6th - 12th, 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 9th - 12th, 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 Weekend Amateur open ELO Tournament
Swiss System, 7 rounds, August 9th - 12th, 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 Weekend Amateur ELO Tournament
Swiss System, 7 rounds, August 10th - 12th, open for players with ELO until 1599. Time limit: 30 minutes per game per player + 30 seconds per move starting from the move 1.

Tournament F Open Mid-tournament Blitz Tournament
Open blitz tournament, August 8th, 09:30, Swiss system, 9 rounds. Time limit: 3 minutes per game per player + 2 seconds per move.

Tournament G Open Closing Blitz Tournament
Open blitz tournament, 12.08, 19:30, Swiss system, 11 rounds. Time limit: 3 minutes per game per player + 2 seconds per move.

Early entries for the ELO tournaments and accommodation requests should be sent before 16th 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 rtuopen.lv.

On behalf of the organizers I would like to invite all chess players to participate in the Riga Technical University Open 2018 and all together develop the biggest tournament of classical chess in Northern Europe! Looking forward to see you in Riga!


Tournament director
IO Egons Lavendelis
Contact information:
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


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