IGOR KHENKIN WON THE RILTON CUP
IM NORM FOR EMIL HERMANSSON
The Israeli [actually at the time he switched federation to Russia - OB] grandmaster Igor Khenkin, 29, won the 27th, strongly contested edition of the Rilton Cup in Stockholm. Emil Hermansson, 26, of SK Rockaden, Umeå, played the tournament of his life and earned his first IM norm.
Five years ago Khenkin shared first place in the Rilton Cup with Margeir Pétursson of Iceland, but on that occasion he still represented the Soviet Union. Since then, like many other players from Eastern Europe, he has emigrated to Israel. He also played last year, but then had to be content with a modest placing.
The Rilton Cup is something of a showcase for Swedish chess. It is the only regularly recurring winter open tournament of international class, made possible by the late Dr Tore Rilton and his generous donation.
The Stockholm Chess Federation has no difficulty assembling an impressive field. This year the main group included 13 grandmasters, among them two rated above 2600, and 16 international masters among the 118 players from 14 nations. In a B group, which was also surprisingly strong, another 110 participants were recorded.
Interest was so great that on the morning of the opening day the organizers were forced to turn away people who wanted to play. If the trend continues, they will probably have to consider expanding the playing area.
International masters were also invited this year, a welcome gesture since players with the IM title were thereby able to compete on equal terms with the grandmasters.
The tournament is now firmly established in Mälarhallen at Münchenbryggeriet, an excellent playing venue but with certain drawbacks from the organizers' point of view. On several occasions all sets, clocks, tables, chairs and so on had to be packed away because the hall was used for other purposes in the evenings. In the morning everything then had to be set up again.
This year the organizers also made a change to the schedule. Seven hours of playing time in the invitation were reduced to six, and a system modeled on the Swedish league was introduced, which had a negative effect on the handling of some difficult endgames.
The top seeds were Alexander Chernin of Hungary (2640) and Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia-Herzegovina (2635). They finished fifteenth and fourteenth respectively, which says a great deal about the strength of the competition.
Chernin started in convincing style with four straight wins. In round 5 he was beaten by the solid Russian Mikhail Ulybin, who thereafter played many short draws in order to remain in the absolute leading group. When Chernin was due to make amends in round 6, he ran into Igor Khenkin in irresistible form.
It was Khenkin's sixth straight victory. By then the Israeli grandmaster was of course in sole possession of the lead and had, to a large extent, already “destroyed” the battle for first place. In rounds 7 and 8 he fought two hard but even games against Ivan Sokolov and Johan Hellsten of Limhamns SK respectively, and before the final round he led by a full point. In the end he secured first prize with a quick draw against the Yugoslav Jovan Petronić.
In round 7 Chernin sensationally suffered his third consecutive defeat. The executioner was Teodor Hellborg of Wasa SK, who thereby scored the first grandmaster scalp of his life. After the chaos of mutual time trouble Hellborg had a clearly winning position, but he still sat there thinking for more than half an hour. When he finally made his move, his opponent resigned. Afterwards someone asked Hellborg why he had thought for so long. He replied:
“I wanted to enjoy it properly...”
Ivan Sokolov also started well. His first-round game was a fine piece of grandmaster craftsmanship.
Sokolov scored 4½ points from the first five rounds, but then came unstuck against the untitled Estonian Tarvo Seeman, who had shared first place in the Stockholm International during the summer. When the Bosnian tried to repair the damage in the following round, he ran into an inspired Swedish champion.
Among the foreign players, apart from Khenkin, Vassily Smyslov of Russia was particularly impressive. Smyslov, who would turn 77 in March, finished in twelfth place. He lost in round 4 to the low-rated Norwegian Kjell-Arne Mork and was on a modest 50 percent score, when it emerged that he was suffering badly from toothache.
Tournament director Bo Ländin packed the former world champion into his car and, after emergency treatment, Smyslov was like a new man. This was demonstrated by 4½ points, including wins over such tough opponents as Mats Sjöberg and Axel Ornstein, in the final five rounds.
The other famous veteran, Smyslov's compatriot and fellow grandmaster Mark Taimanov, 71, was not nearly as successful and had to settle for 30th place after a slump in the second half of the tournament.
An interesting acquaintance was the 24-year-old German Michael Bezold. In the final round he defeated fellow IM Johan Hellsten after solid play and thereby secured both second place and his third GM norm. Had the result been reversed, the player from Limhamn, who also had a good tournament although his play was not especially brilliant, would have recorded his first GM norm.
Bezold lost only one game, in round 7 to the ever-ambitious Evgenij Agrest, who after this win became the highest-placed Swede with 6½ points. The same score was achieved by Ralf Åkesson (5th), Lars Degerman (8th), Tom Wedberg (9th) and Stellan Brynell (10th).
Agrest, Åkesson and Wedberg all went through the tournament undefeated. Degerman lost early in the event to Chernin and later also to Åkesson, while Brynell had the dubious pleasure of being beaten by two club-mates, Dan Östergaard and Johan Hellsten.
Brynell's record against Hellsten is, incidentally, a real nightmare, and Stellan had bad premonitions before the game:
“I don't think I've beaten Johan since he was 12...”
As for the other Swedish grandmasters, this year's Rilton Cup became something of an interlude. Jonny Hector finished 25th with 5½ points, while Thomas Ernst had to be satisfied with 37th place on 5 points. Ernst, who in recent years has had problems motivating himself for individual tournaments, did at least play one game with which he was rather pleased.
Emil Hermansson, rated 2275, was seeded number 46. In the first round he defeated Swedish Chess Federation rating officer Ulf Norevall and in the last he lost to Lars Degerman.
Draw with IM Michael Bezold, win against GM Thomas Ernst, win against GM Jonny Hector, draw with GM Evgenij Agrest, draw with IM Jacek Gdański, draw with GM Tom Wedberg, and draw with GM Vassily Smyslov!
In the Rilton Open, first place was shared by Robin Edlund of Eskilstuna SK and Jörgen Dalmau of Solna SS, after the former drew level on the final lap by defeating Jörgen's father Juan.
Before the last round Edlund led by half a point, but could only draw against Demetris Cleanthous, who had recently returned to Sweden after many chessless years abroad. At the beginning of the 1980s Cleanthous played for Karlskrona SV, and in 1984 he finished sixth in one of the strong Class M groups at the Swedish Championship in Linköping.
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