Riga Open

[Richard Bates]

http://chess-results.com/tnr394126.aspx ... ES&flag=30

Some people just can’t get enough chess.

[Jonathan Rogers]

But the English players are not playing each other at every opportunity.

Whatever happened to tradition?

[John McKenna]

Stats -

Latvia 37 players, India 31, Germany 29, Russia 26... England 9... Israel 4... Wales 2... Iran 1... Uruguay 1 (total: 275 players)

Round 7/9 starts at 15:00 (local time)

Highest ENG player is on -

Bd. 18 28 IM Laurusas Tomas 2501 4½ - 4½ IM Haria Ravi 2430 47

[Tim Spanton]

I played in this tournament seven years ago. It was well-organised, and Riga is an interesting city. The centre has been smartly done up - Disneyfied, almost - with restaurant and bar prices to match, but outside of the centre it was very noticeable how prices fell steeply, especially in the run-down Russian-speaking areas.

https://beauchess.blogspot.com/

[John McKenna]

Thanks to Tim for the travelogue, above, which will be of interest to chessplayers. And, be of delight to the Donald who fully supports the perennial American project of Disneyfying the world and have Vlad the Insaner spitting feathers in Moscow...

Wins for IMs Haria, Sowray (FM, but surely he should/will be an IM) and D'costa in R7 have put them on high boards in R8 -

Bd. 5 47 IM Haria Ravi 2430 5½ - 5½ GM Sulskis Sarunas 2519 24
Bd. 20 91 FM Sowray Peter J 2332 5 - 5 IM Zanan Evgeny 2486 34
Bd. 38 119 Manish Anto Cristiano F 2272 4½ - 4½ IM D`costa Lorin 2396 64
Bd. 46 67 IM Jackson James P 2389 4 - 4 FM Valkama Eero 2256 128
Bd. 66 110 IM Sharma Dinesh K. 2299 3½ - 3½ Player Edmund C 2202 160
Bd. 73 123 FM Afanasiev Vadim 2263 3½ - 3½ Stewart Ashley 2145 180
Bd. 74 182 Miller Dominic 2140 3½ - 3½ FM Pulkkinen Kari 2263 124
Bd. 76 179 FM Efremov Vladislav 2146 3½ - 3½ FM Grieve Harry 2260 126
Bd. 89 197 Mitra Roman C 2109 3 - 3 FM Krustkalns Kristaps 2203 158

Another ENG player, Samuel Gilmore, is also there somewhere in the mix (of tournament sections).

[Leonard Barden]

Ravi Haria is on a 2621 performance with two rounds to go, so he can achieve his second GM norm (for which he was only half a point short at Torquay) with 1.5/2, or even 1/2 depending on his final round pairing. He still, however, has way to go to reach the required 2500 rating.

[NickFaulks]

Interesting sac by Peter Sowray, who is having a good tournament.

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2019-rt ... nan_Evgeny

The useless Chessbomb Stockfish hates 14.f5, but I think it looks very promising.

edit : Black ducked it, shame.

[David Sedgwick]

Interesting sac by Peter Sowray, who is having a good tournament.

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2019-rt ... nan_Evgeny

The useless Chessbomb Stockfish hates 14.f5, but I think it looks very promising.

edit : Black ducked it, shame.

Sadly things then quickly went wrong. Commentator's curse, Nick.