The Week in Chess

The ACP Cup was a rapid knockout tournament in Riga that took place 13th to 15th September 2013. Time control at the initial phase was 25 mins + 10 seconds a move although there were blitz TBs 3m+2spm and Armageddon at 5mvs4m+3spm.

Alexander Grischuk beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final only after winning a final Armageddon blitz game with white. Before that two exciting rapid games were drawn and they shared wins in the blitz. Ruslan Ponomariov finished in joint 3rd and looked impressive up to beating Nepomniatchi in the 1st semi-final game but then losing the remaining games having previously eliminated Morozevich and Mamedyarov. Peter Svidler too was going fine before running into Grischuk. There was fine live video commentary mixing Russian and English between different sessions. ACP President Emil Sutovsky and Alexei Shirov were key figures in the organisation of the event together with the Latvian Chess Federation and sponsor Rietumu Bank. It seems highly likely the event will be repeated next year. Very impressed with the whole presentation.