Goddesschess: 2010-11 Rilton Cup

Friday, December 31, 2010

2010-11 Rilton Cup

The Rilton Cup has, over the years, hosted an exciting mix of top-level and up-and-coming players of both sexes. Not so many chess femmes this year, though, and I don't know why, but it is troubling to see. Has the prize structure that was so attractive to female players in prior years been reduced, due to economic strain?

In any event, GM Pia Cramling of Sweden is participating in the Rilton Cup, and I am happy to see her in competition. She is very selective these days in what invitations she accepts and the tournaments in which she plays.

I have been a fan of Cramling ever since I first read about her career in 1999, when I was taking my first baby-steps on the World Wide Web, as it was called back then :) I really did not know a thing about the 'world of chess' before then (other than the bare basics of how to move the pieces), but while I was searching for information on female chessplayers, after having quickly surmised the near absence of any female names on lists of players in event after event that was making "chess news" at the time, certain names began to crop up - rarely - in my research, but they were there - female chessplayers of note. I made a trip to my local library branch and found a book about female chessplayers. Already, at that time, it was "old," from 1987! But it was the only book I could find about female chessplayers. Need I say more?

It was that book - by John Graham, Women in Chess, Players of the Modern Age, that led me to explore further. John Graham, to whom I will always be indebted, introduced me into an entirely new realm of experience (with some familiar echoes to my own experiences as a femme embarked on a career in an entirely different endeavor). It was clear from what Graham wrote and how he wrote it that he had great admiration for the players he profiled.

Pia Cramling and Susan Polgar earned their respective GM titles within a month or two of each other, and they did it the "traditional" way, by meeting norm requirements, playing a certain number of games, and achieving a certain ELO rating. [Even today, with the advent of computer-assisted game analysis and many more opportunities to play in competitive events that would allow for earning GM norms, earning a GM title is not an easy thing to do, despite headlines given to 14 and 15 year olds who have earned the title]. Both players (at and after the time the book was written, circa 1987) went on to have fine careers, with Polgar ultimately winning a Women's World Chess Champion title, which she held from 1996-1999. Polgar retired from competitive chess play in - I think 2006 (I have a recollection that her last competition was a NYC Mayor's Cup in 2006 but I could be wrong about that), and went on to other things (SPICE at Texas Tech, Susan Polgar Foundation, chess promotion, spokeswoman, etc.) I do not know nearly as much about Pia Cramling's career, except that after a break of some years, she resumed competitive play, and has participated in the Women's World Chess Championship "cycle" (such as it was/is), as well as mixed-sex tournaments and women-only tournaments, with some success. Both women married and have pre-teen children. Neither woman's "competitive fire" has gone out, that's for sure!

Selected excerpts from John Graham's Women in Chess, Players of the Modern Age (at Goddesschess, of course!)

If you would like to explore the question of women's "ability" to play chess further -- check out our selection of informative articles from past and present at Goddesschess' Gender and Chess: The Ever-Changing, Never-Ending Question...

Now - to the 2010-11 Rilton Cup!

December 27, 2010 - January 5, 2011

Rank after Round 5

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	GER	2685		4,5	14,5	0,0
	GM	Grandelius Nils	SWE	2525	Lunds ASK	4,5	14,5	0,0
3	GM	Volkov Sergey	RUS	2594		4,5	14,0	0,0
	GM	Shimanov Aleksandr	RUS	2516	Sollentuna SK	4,5	14,0	0,0
5	GM	Berczes David	HUN	2526	SK Team Viking	4,0	12,0	0,0
6	GM	Macieja Bartlomiej	POL	2636		4,0	12,0	0,0
7	IM	Furhoff Johan	SWE	2365	Södra SASS	4,0	11,0	0,0
8	IM	Smith Axel	SWE	2448	Lunds ASK	3,5	12,5	0,0
9	GM	Gleizerov Evgeny	RUS	2572		3,5	11,5	0,0
10	GM	Ulibin Mikhail	RUS	2552		3,5	9,5	0,0
		Lindberg Bo	SWE	2404	Sollentuna SK	3,5	9,5	0,0
12	GM	Karlsson Lars	SWE	2466	SK Rockaden	3,5	9,0	0,0
13	GM	Cramling Pia	SWE	2526	Sollentuna SK	3,5	8,5	0,0
14	GM	Tikkanen Hans	SWE	2550	Lunds ASK	3,0	12,0	0,0
15	GM	Sokolov Ivan	NED	2642		3,0	11,0	0,0
	GM	Hillarp Persson Tiger	SWE	2528	Lunds ASK	3,0	11,0	0,0
17	IM	Semcesen Daniel	SWE	2449	SK Team Viking	3,0	10,5	0,0
18	FM	Urkedal Frode	NOR	2438		3,0	10,5	0,0
		Jacobsen Bo	DEN	2317		3,0	10,5	0,0
20	GM	Berg Emanuel	SWE	2627	Burgsviks SK	3,0	10,0	0,0
21	GM	Ivanov Sergey	RUS	2536	Sollentuna SK	3,0	9,0	0,0
	GM	Bellon Juan	ESP	2394	Sollentuna SK	3,0	9,0	0,0
23	GM	Brynell Stellan	SWE	2492	Limhamns SK	3,0	8,5	0,0
24	GM	Åkesson Ralf	SWE	2434	Västerås SK	3,0	8,5	0,0
25		Arman Deniz	TUR	2297		3,0	8,5	0,0
26		Astrup Kim	NOR	2274		3,0	7,5	0,0
27	FM	Lögdahl Harald	SWE	2257	Eskilstuna SK	3,0	7,0	0,0
28		Winge Stefan	SWE	2290	Södra SASS	3,0	6,0	0,0
29	FM	Straeter Timo	GER	2325		2,5	9,5	0,0
30	IM	Leer-Salvesen Bjarte	NOR	2360		2,5	9,0	0,0
	FM	Getz Nicolai	NOR	2317		2,5	9,0	0,0
32	FM	Luukkonen Tommi	FIN	2309		2,5	9,0	0,0
33	IM	Blomqvist Erik	SWE	2449	SK Rockaden	2,5	8,5	0,0
34	IM	Holmsten Aleksei	FIN	2381		2,5	8,5	0,0
35	IM	Souleidis Georgios	GRE	2411		2,5	8,5	0,0
36	IM	Groetz Harald	AUT	2314		2,5	8,5	0,0
37		Kopasov Alexander	RUS	2198		2,5	7,5	0,0
38		Sipila Vilka	FIN	2262		2,5	7,0	0,0
39		Ask Josef	SWE	2205	Västerviks ASK	2,5	6,5	0,0
40	FM	Thompson Ian D	ENG	2264		2,5	6,0	0,0
	WIM	Czarnota Dorota	POL	2229		2,5	6,0	0,0
42		Cederstam Barsk Carl	SWE	2020	Kristallens SK	2,5	5,0	0,0
43		Azizi Haroon	SWE	2140	Solna SS	2,0	7,0	0,0
44	WFM	Frisk Ellinor	SWE	2126	Lunds ASK	2,0	6,5	0,0
45		Wenzel Birger	GER	2060	Wasa SK	2,0	6,0	0,0
46		Holving Rasmus	SWE	2211	Kungstornet	2,0	6,0	0,0
47		Eriksson Jörgen	SWE	2202	SK Rockaden Umeå	2,0	6,0	0,0
		Lindgren Philip	SWE	2091	Limhamns SK	2,0	6,0	0,0
49		Hobber Anders	NOR	2196		2,0	6,0	0,0
50		Johansson Linus	SWE	1966	Limhamns SK	2,0	5,5	0,0
51		Kudzma Laimonas	LTU	2232		2,0	5,0	0,0
52		Egilstoft Nielsen Rógvi	FAI	2116		2,0	5,0	0,0
53	FM	Sagit Rauan	SWE	2406	Sollentuna SK	2,0	4,5	0,0
54		Forsberg Viktor	SWE	2255	SK Rockaden Umeå	2,0	4,5	0,0
55		Bazeev German	RUS	2334		2,0	4,0	0,0
56		Östling Håkan	SWE	2206	Rödeby SK	1,5	6,5	0,0
57		Hedström Johan	SWE	2043	Bollmora SK	1,5	5,5	0,0
58		Markevich Ilya	RUS	2175		1,5	5,5	0,0
59		Jansson Anders Owen	SWE	2171	Sollentuna SK	1,5	4,5	0,0
60		Olander Aleksi	FIN	1990		1,5	4,0	0,0
61		Pettersson Anders	SWE	2127	SS Gambit	1,5	3,5	0,0
62		Bouaraba Max	GER	2219		1,5	3,0	0,0
63		Wiander Michael	SWE	2158	Stockholms SS	1,5	2,5	0,0
64		Lokander Martin	SWE	1982	SK Rockaden	1,0	5,0	0,0
65	FM	Byklum Björnar	NOR	2263		1,0	4,0	0,0
66		Wihlborn Bengt	SWE	1895	Växjö SK	1,0	3,5	0,0
67		Ölund Joar	SWE	2035	SK Rockaden	1,0	2,0	0,0
		Thiborg Jesper	SWE	2020		1,0	2,0	0,0
69		Bryntze Stefan	SWE	2135	SK Rockaden	1,0	1,0	0,0
70		Palmblad Jan Peter	SWE	2142	Kungstornet	0,0	0,0	0,0