Welcome

Dear Chess friend!

It’s our pleasure to finally invite you to participate in the 6th  international chess festival „Riga Technical University Open 2016”,  which will take place on  August  8th  – 14th  in the spacious international exhibition centre “Kipsala”  (8 Kipsalas Street) located  across the bridge from the city center.  This year the tournament has been announced slightly later than usual, but we hope  that you will register as soon as possible and help us to create the festival even bigger and stronger than last year.

The program of the festival will include five tournaments, namely  four ELO tournaments  and a blitz tournament. The tournament A will have  GM, IM, WGM and WIM norms and this year it’s dedicated to Mikhail’s Tal’s 80th birthday. Last year the biggest names of the festival were Alexei Shirov, who won the tournament, Igor Kovalenko and Daniel Fridman. Many other strong GMs participated, including Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko, Hrant Melkumyan, Mateusz Bartel, Daniel Narodity, Bartosz Socko and many others. The main tournament gathered 191 players from 38 countries including 35 GMs and 74 titled players. Overall more than 400 participants took part in the festival.

This year the prize fund of the festival is planned to be 18 600 EUR with the 1st  prize of the tournament A of 2300 EUR. As there are five tournaments organized this year, everyone can participate in a tournament suitable for their strength and time frame. Tournament A will be 7 days long, the same for tournament B (ELO until 2299 and Latvian rating until 2399) which is named according to our new supporter – Baltic Law Offices Open, but Tournaments C (ELO until 2199 and Latvian rating until 2299) – D (ELO until 1799 and Latvian rating until 1899) will be 4 days long (during weekend – Thursday-Sunday), tournament E is a blitz tournament and will be held Sunday evening.  Entries for the ELO tournaments should be sent before 18th of July.

Looking forward to see you in Riga!

English