Riga Technical University Open

The Riga Technical University Open (also RTU Open) is an international "open" chess festival annually held in Riga, Latvia in August. It is the largest classical chess tournament in the Baltic states.

Abstract edit

The Riga Technical University Open has been held since 2011, with the exception of the year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequently the 10th jubilee edition followed in summer 2021. The festival is organized by Riga Technical University in cooperation with the Latvian Chess Federation and the Riga Chess Federation. The founder and tournament director is IO (International Organizer) Egons Lavendelis from Latvia, who, as a player, is also an FM. Chief Arbiter of the RTU Festival is IA (International Arbiter) Alberts Cimiņš. Chief Arbiter of Tournament A is IA Andra Cimiņa. The current venue where the festival is held is the Ķīpsala exhibition hall in Riga, the capital of Latvia.

Over the years, the RTU Open has attracted thousands of chess players from over 50 countries, becoming one of the biggest chess festivals in northern Europe and in Europe as a whole. Additional events include GM lectures, excursions, simuls, as well as Bughouse (tandem) and Dice Chess are offered, too.

History edit

The first three international chess festivals (2011–2013) were held in the main building of the Riga Technical University. The first and second festival included two classical chess tournaments (A for masters and B for amateurs) and a last day blitz tournament. The third festival included three classical chess tournaments (A for masters and B-C for amateurs). The fourth international chess festival in 2014 was moved to the International Exhibition Centre Ķīpsala, where larger number of participants applied. The fourth international chess festival included five classical chess tournaments (A for masters and B–E for amateurs) and a first day blitz tournament. The fifth and sixth festival was held in Ķīpsala and included four classical chess tournaments (A for masters and B–D for amateurs) and a last day blitz tournament. Overall, more than 1,200 participants took part in the festivals from the years 2014 to 2016.^[1] The seventh festival in 2017 was held in Ķīpsala and included five classical chess tournaments (A for masters and B–E for amateurs) and a last day blitz tournament. The eighth festival in 2018 was held in Ķīpsala and included five classical chess tournaments (A for masters and B–E for amateurs) and two blitz tournaments. The ninth festival in 2019 was held in Ķīpsala and included six classical chess tournaments (A for masters, Y for young chess players and B–E for amateurs), a rapid chess tournament and two blitz tournaments. In 2020, the tournament did not take place due to a COVID-19 pandemic. The tenth festival in 2021 was held in Ķīpsala and included four classical chess tournaments (A for masters, B&Y for young chess players and amateurs, and C&D–E for amateurs), a rapid chess tournament (G) and two blitz tournaments (F and H). The eleventh festival in 2022 was held in Ķīpsala and included five classical chess tournaments (A for masters, B, C, D for amateurs and Y for young chess players), a rapid chess tournament (F) and two blitz tournaments (E and G). The twelfth festival in 2023 was held in Ķīpsala and included five classical chess tournaments (A for masters, B, C, D for amateurs and Y for young chess players), a rapid chess tournament (F), two blitz tournaments (E and G) and three qualifying tournaments for beginners (Q1, Q2 and Q3).

List of A tournament winners edit

Year	Winner	2nd place	3rd place	Best woman
2011	Alberto David	Jaan Ehlvest	Vladimir Sveshnikov	Katarzyna Toma
2012	Ján Markoš	Alexandr Fier	Daniel Fridman	Judith Fuchs
2013	Bartosz Soćko	Robin van Kampen	Mikhail Antipov	Zuzana Štočková
2014	Hrant Melkumyan	Richárd Rapport	Eduardo Iturrizaga	Maria Manakova
2015	Alexei Shirov	Robert Hovhannisyan	Rinat Jumabayev	Monika Soćko
2016	Martyn Kravtsiv	Hrant Melkumyan	Arturs Neikšāns	Soumya Swaminathan
2017	Vladimir Onischuk	Sergey Pavlov	Tamir Nabaty	Lei Tingjie
2018	Robert Hovhannisyan	Manuel Petrosyan	Alexandr Predke	Nutakki Priyanka
2019	Igor Kovalenko	Šarūnas Šulskis	Arman Mikaelyan	Irina Bulmaga
2021	Alexander Donchenko	S. L. Narayanan	Tomas Laurusas	Margareth Olde
2022	Paulius Pultinevičius	Toms Kantāns	Erik Blomqvist	Laura Rogule
2023	Elham Amar	Erik Blomqvist	Dragoș Cereș	Anastassia Sinitsina