The XIII Rilton Cup Was Special in Many Ways

— A reigning world champion came, saw and conquered.

— Thirty-five players with Elo ratings were joined at the starting line by three juniors without Elo ratings. None of the juniors scored below 50 percent and all will receive their first Elo ratings on the July list.

— Perhaps this was the last time the tournament was played at Schackhuset.

— This is the last time there will be uncertainty over whether there will be a Rilton Cup or not. The tournament's generous donor over the years, Dr Tore Rilton, died in September 1983. In his will he left a substantial sum of money to chess. The Rilton Cup will receive its designated share, which guarantees the continuation of the tournament.

Two players went through the tournament undefeated and quite deservedly shared first place: Axel Ornstein, who thereby moved up to second place in the Rilton Cup marathon table, i.e. the race for the Silver Bowl, and junior world champion Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria. The titleholder Ralf Åkesson and the two top-seeded Olympiad players Tom Wedberg and Harry Schüssler, as well as the women's world top-ten player Pia Cramling, could not keep up with the two leaders. They finished a full point behind them. Tom Wedberg otherwise seemed to have things under control after four rounds. At that point he was the only player without a dropped point. But then came three straight defeats!

The greatest sensations of the tournament were otherwise the three unrated players. That Ferdinand Hellers might have good chances of a respectable placing was not entirely unexpected. But this good! And that Johan Ingbrandt and Paul Lichtenstein would also finish in the upper half was not expected. Ingbrandt and Hellers also showed in the blitz that their success was no one-off occurrence.

Bengt Lindberg usually does well in the Rilton Cup. So he did this time as well. He faced very strong opposition and could in fact have earned an IM norm if he had drawn with Georgiev in the final round. Instead he became nervous and lost.

In addition to the 38-player strong A group, 92 determined players competed in the B group. The 130 players came from nine nations. The best-known player in the B group was one of the pioneers of the wild opening known as the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, Josef Diemer. This chess original's play, built entirely on tactical complications, brought him 5 points after 7 rounds. Then it came to a stop.