Stockholm Chess Challenge: Adam Tukhaev wins

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 13/03/2017

The Stockholm Chess Challenge came to an end with Ukrainian GM Adam Tukhaev winning this third tournament this year. The field included three Indians and a total of 24 talented young players. We have an illustrated report with beautiful portraits by Lars OA Hedlund.

Stockholm Chess Challenge: Adam Tukhaev wins

Photos by Lars OA Hedlund

The first round of Stockholm Chess Challenge started on 6th March at the Memory Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. The tournament is being organized by Stockholm's Chess Society and Stockholm Chess Federation. The event is sponsored by technology company Data Respons and co-sponsored by Memory Hotel, the host of the tournament.

The time control is the spacious 40 moves in 90 minutes, then the rest of the game 15 minutes, 30 secs. per move from move 1. The prize fund is 30,000 SEK, which roughly translates to Rs. 2,22,000, which is very good for a 24-player tournament.

Readers may recall that Tukhaev had recently won the IIFL Wealth Mumbai Open 2016-17 and also the Chennai Open 2017. The gentle Ukrainian won his third tournament of the year when he took first at the Stockholm Chess Challenge for young stars.

The race was close. Swedish GM Erik Blomqvist (left) and Azeri GM Ulvi Bajarani both tied with Adam at 6.5/9.

Even GM Nikita Maiorov of Belarus scored 6.5/9.

It was one of those rare occasions when all the GMs in the fray made a beeline for the top spot. Blomqvist and Tukhaev were ahead of the other two on Buccholz but were tied with each other. The second tie-break, most number of blacks, was also equal at four each. The third tie-break, most number of victories, favoured...

Adam Tukhaev.

Blomqvist was, therefore, second, and Maiorov and Bajarani were third and fourth. The biggest surprise was...

12-year-old Russian CM Stefan Pogosyan (2215) who took the 5th place and increased his Elo by 130 points!

The prize-winners

India's brightest hope Hemant Sharma started with 2399, a point away from the 2400-mark, but had a bad tournament, losing Elo. He scored 4.0/9.

FM Rakesh Kumar Jena (2315) also scored 4.0/9.

As did Sahil Tickoo (2180), also scoring 4.0/9.

Nicholas Haydamous from the Memory Hotel, co-sponsor of the tournament. It is due to the cooperation of esteemed sponsors that Sweden is hosting such wonderful tournaments regularly.

IA Jonas Sandbom, chief arbiter of the tournament.

Ingemar Falk is the Chairman of the Rilton Committee, which consists of an investment fund that is maintained to sponsor the annual Rilton Cup.

Download and watch all the games from the Stockholm Chess Challenge.

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	RtgI	RtgN	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	Rp	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	2	GM	Tukhaev Adam	UKR	2541	2541	0	6,5	44,0	4	5,0	2581	9	6,5	5,93	0,57	10	5,7
2	1	GM	Blomqvist Erik	SWE	2554	2554	0	6,5	44,0	4	4,0	2589	9	6,5	6,04	0,46	10	4,6
3	3	GM	Maiorov Nikita	BLR	2518	2518	0	6,5	43,0	4	4,0	2586	9	6,5	5,65	0,85	10	8,5
4	5	GM	Bajarani Ulvi	AZE	2466	2466	0	6,5	41,5	5	4,0	2583	9	6,5	5,06	1,44	10	14,4
5	22	CM	Pogosyan Stefan	RUS	2215	2215	0	5,5	40,0	4	4,0	2496	9	5,5	2,23	3,27	40	130,8
6	9	IM	Lindgren Philip	SWE	2421	2421	0	5,0	43,0	5	4,0	2474	9	5	4,36	0,64	10	6,4
7	8	IM	Hambleton Aman	CAN	2441	2441	0	5,0	40,5	5	3,0	2392	9	5	5,59	-0,59	10	-5,9
8	12	IM	Haubro Martin	DEN	2347	2347	0	5,0	39,0	5	4,0	2414	9	5	4,22	0,78	20	15,6
9	13	FM	Mihajlov Sebastian	NOR	2346	2346	0	5,0	36,5	4	4,0	2404	9	5	4,33	0,67	20	13,4
10	15	FM	Kenneskog Theodor	SWE	2323	2323	0	5,0	35,0	5	4,0	2399	9	5	4,12	0,88	20	17,6

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