Rilton Cup


The Rilton Cup is a chess tournament that takes place annually, between the end of the year and the beginning of the next, in Stockholm, Sweden. The tournament is named after the Swedish doctor and chess player Tore Rilton. Its first edition took place in 1971/1972 with Jan Timman being the winner. It uses a Swiss-system tournament format.

History

In 1971, Tore Rilton sent a donation to the organisers of the Stockholm Open chess tournament, with the instructions to use them to "organise a strong chess tournament". Due to this donation the event was named Rilton Cup and its first edition took place in 1971/1972. This inaugural version of the tournament was won by Jan Timman with 7.5 points; Walter Browne finished 2nd with 7 points and Einar Hatlebakk 3rd with 6.5. After Rilton's death, the Rilton Cup continued to be funded by Dr. Tore Rilton's Memorial Fund.
The Rilton Cup's 50th edition was to be played in 2020/2021, however it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In its place, an invitational knockout tournament, the Rilton Winners' Cup, was held. The tournament took place on chess.com, with 16 participants. The time control for the matches was 15+10, and 5+3 for the tiebreaks. Krishnan Sasikiran won the event by defeating 2—0 the runner-up, Aleksandr Shimanov in the finals. The Rilton Cup's 50th edition was cancelled again in 2021-2022 and was postponed for 2022–2023.
The 50th edition of Rilton Cup took place from 22 December 2022 to 5 January 2023. This edition of the tournament was also the first international tournament eligible for the 2023 FIDE Circuit. Pranesh M won the tournament with 8 points in 9 rounds, scoring his final GM norm, with Kaan Kucusar finishing 2nd and Nikita Meshkovs 3rd, both with 7 points.

Winners

No.YearWinnerPoints
11971/1972Jan Timman
21972/1973Jan Timman
31973/1974István Bilek7
41974/1975Heikki Westerinen
51975/1976Börje Jansson
61976/1977Sergio Mariotti
71977/1978Börje Jansson
81978/1979Harry Schüssler
91979/1980Konstanty Kaiszauri
101980/1981Axel Ornstein
111981/1982Lars-Åke Schneider7
121982/1983Ralf Åkesson7
131983/1984Axel Ornstein7
141984/1985Caspar Carleson
151985/1986Michael Wiedenkeller7
161986/1987Juan Manuel Bellón López
171987/1988Mikhail Gurevich7
181988/1989Ilia Smirin7
191989/1990Tom Wedberg7
201990/1991Alexey Vyzmanavin8
211991/1992Margeir Pétursson
221992/1993Andrei Kharlov
231993/1994Lars Bo Hansen
241994/1995Michał Krasenkow
251995/1996Michał Krasenkow
261996/1997Joel Benjamin7
271997/1998Igor Khenkin
281998/1999Mikhail Ulibin
291999/2000Sergey Ivanov
302000/2001Yuri Yakovich7
312001/2002Evgeny Agrest7
322002/2003Jonas Barkhagen
332003/2004Ralf Åkesson7
342004/2005Sergey Volkov7
352005/2006Eduardas Rozentalis7
362006/2007Robert Fontaine
372007/2008Radosław Wojtaszek
382008/2009Radosław Wojtaszek7
392009/2010Eduardas Rozentalis
402010/2011Sergey Volkov8
412011/2012Aleksandr Shimanov
422012/2013Michał Krasenkow
432013/2014Jon Ludvig Hammer
442014/2015Jon Ludvig Hammer7
452015/2016Maxim Rodshtein8
462016/2017Krishnan Sasikiran
472017/2018Kirill Alekseenko
482018/2019Tamir Nabaty8
492019/2020Elshan Moradiabadi7
-2020/2021Krishnan Sasikiran2-0
502022/2023Pranesh M8
512023/2024Vitaly Sivuk
522024/2025Bassem Amin
532025/2026Xu Xiangyu8