Photos

Our first post quarantine tournament "Victory Pub Blitz" was a memorable event. We would like to thank GM N. Miezis for the chess lecture and Riga Chess Federation President A. Cimins for being the tournament's referee. Special thanks go to our co-sponsor "Lielvardes Alus" and its representative J. Kliesmets from Royal Unibrew for being supportive and helpful as always.  
Our next tournament should be even more special since the "Riga Chess Club" will be three years of age:) 

The eventful evening started off with a lecture on psychological preparation in chess by GM Nikita Meshkov. On the same night we also witnessed him getting the official FIDE Certificate of GM title 3 years after he was awarded the title.  Long live bureaucracy 🙂 
This time we had 19 players and half a dozen onlookers, some of who played on spare boards. We would like to thank all our female players for not missing our event whilst special thanks go to WFM Renate Vidruska who brought along her two sons.  Another pleasant surprise for us was the picture of Michael Tall finding home in our club. It's painted by the new member of RCC Svikis Guntars. And at last but not in the least our gratitude and appreciation for "Lielvardes beer" for supporting the tournament. 
Best wishes from RCC & play soon, Ivo. 

Huge thanks to local beer company "Lielvardes Alus" for supporting "Horeca-6" tournament. Due to hectic month of December, this time it was a smaller event, but competitive and friendly as always.  We still can't figure out whether Lielvardes Classic larger or Lielvardes  cherry beer improved our game 🙂 
Thanks is also extended to GM N. Miezis for giving a lecture on practical chess games.
From next year "Horeca blitz" is opening up to all players with FIDE rating up to 2'300. 
Please register in time for our next competition in January, 2020  since number of boards are limited.  Happy New year from RCC & see you all next year ! 

Many thanks to Royal Spanish brandy "Fundador" for supporting our fifth "Horeca" chess tournament. Representative Mr Toms Romanovskis guide us through art of fine drinking and specifics of good brandies.
This time we had 14 players and deliberately invited strong MC Mr Lev Fainveits who unsurprisingly earned the first place. The full results can be seen on chess-results.com page. We thank all visitors and participants who made the evening special.
Lastly but not least importantly we ask our members & friends to remember following : 
a) you can still get free FIDE number but will have to pay for it from 2020, 
b) our next unofficial training tournament will be on 26th November, 18.30, 
c) next official FIDE rated Horeca will be on 11th December, 18.30 preceded by GM. N. Miezis lecture at 17.00
Play soon & chessfully yours, Ivo. 

Dice chess is gaining in popularity and this time we had nearly 30 participants. Tournament was organized by IM Sveshnikov junior whilst arbitrating was in safe hands of member LCF & International arbiter Mr. Cimins.  The tournament details can be seen on chess-results web page. We would like to thank everyone & especially the first time players for having a go at this version of chess. See you all soon, Ivo. 

We're glad to note that "Horeca-4" had 16 participants and few guests to make the event more fun. An hour prior to competition GM Normunds Miezis gave an interesting & practical lecture on open lines. Folks seemed to like it so much that we are happy to invite Normunds back to give another lecture. Our next tournament "HORECA-5" will take place on 12th November, Tuesday at 18.30 but Normunds lecture will begin at 17.00 on same day.
Pls visit chess-results.com site to see your performance and read upcoming Memo from RCC Manager, chessfully yours, Ivo

After long summer break we had hospitality chess league "Horeca-3" on 28th August.
Although quarter of participants were on holidays or otherwise busy, we still had 11 participants to compete and enjoy the game.
Our congratulations to winners of tournament: Professor A. Masharskis, real estate appraisal guru Ms I. Lazdina and tallanted painter Mr A. Agadzadjans ! The sponsors and organizers are happy with the event, whilst Club Manager Ivo is still over the moon for the generous gift from our painter Artur.   Impressionism style masterpiece called "In the Wind" will be proudly displayed artwork at Ivo's apartment.
And finally, to honor Riga Chess Club unofficial second year anniversary, special club member badges were presented & awarded to some of our club members.  Huge thanks to all participant and guests of the event, chessfully yours, Ivo

The day started with Master Class by GM Meskov on the subject of "Profylactic moves". 
Most memorable moments were Carlsen's King dance and Mile's Night on "perfect" square of a1 !

Out of 14 participants the first place was duly won by our young talent Agnese Ter-Avestisjana. 
Second place went to Professor of Economics Dr. Aleksandrs Masharskis and third to Director of Latvian Investment & Development Agency - Mr. Andris Ozols.  
To our big suprise, Mr. Arturs Agadzanjans who is professional painter, showed us that he can create beauty not only on canvas but also on chess board. Fourth place for him and big congrats from Riga Chess Club !

Horeca Chess league is created for those in Hospitality & Tourism industry. Folks from other walks of life are also welcome as long us they aren't titled players. 
Tournaments will be monthly and run by FIDE rules. Each player will have his own rating reflected on chess-results.com

We would like to thank GM Nikita Meshkov for opening the HORECA league. Huge thanks to local brewery "Madonas Alus" and his representative Mr. J. Kliemests for supporting the event.  

Truly memorable evening with more than 40 guests, 26 of them took part in the tournament. Riga Chess Fed. President A. Cimins kindly agreed to be arbiter of tournament and Rapid Time Control (8 min + 4 sec) was used.  Presents, well wishes, jubilee cake & champagne made the tournament a delight for us and our hero of the night. Tournament was won by IM R. Berzinsh, second & third places went to GM J. Sveshnikov & MK L. Laimins.  

Unusual yet fun event where even novices could beat any titled player. Our tournament was no exception, the highest place for GM's was 4th (A. Neiksans) & 10th (E. Sveshnikov). The official winner were : 1st - IM V. Samolins,  2nd - NM I. Smorodinskis and 3rd - MK I. Kolesnikovs.  Women's prize was won by WFM L. Krumina.   

A truly great event with more than 40 guests from five nations.

Guest of Honour was GM A. Shirov joined by other promineces  such as Sveshnikov Jr & Sr and ex-president of Russian Olympic Committee & member of International Olympic Committee - Mr. Alexander Zhukov. 

Due to size of the club we were limited to 14 boards, many locals gave up their right to play in tournament to our guests from Estonia, Spain, Georgia & Russia. Full list of names & ranking can be seen on Chess-Results site under title "1 Year Riga Chess Club Anniversary Handicup Blitz"

This was our first evening devoted to one of the most popular chess openings. Mr Bernard ensured that our club had the necessary French aura (flags, wine, cheese & etc) for the event. Everyone played the "French Defence" and the winner was IM V. Sveshnikov.  Vladimir kindly presented to our club 2 of his books, which he co-wrote together with his father. These are books for Blitz players and we're happy to have them in our library. 

"Jagermeister Cup" turned out to be small but very sincere and enjoyable event. Amongst unexpected guests were Eglish IM Craig Harley and Latvian WGM Dane Rezniece-Ozola. In future we promise to advertise such events much earlier. There is little clip from event in Video section of our site. 

Thanks to Royal Unibrew's beer brand "Lielvardes Alus" we had wonderful event with participants to grace any tournament.  GM N. Miezis, GM J. Sveshnikov, his son IM V Sveshnikov, LV Federation President A. Ozolins, Vice President A. Ozols, FIDE Masters L. Krumina, E. Lavendelis and many others well known in local & international chess communities. We hope to hold such tournaments in regular manner. 

Linda came along with her son for moment of glory and rest. She needed well deserved break from her strenuous playing schedule. Warm welcome and big cake was waiting for her at the club. Congratulations from club and best wishes for future tournaments. 

Sasha, as club members call him, came to Riga as young man and good Candidate Master of chess. Before making his academic career he was seriously considering chess as profession. The studies in Economics prevailed but love for chess remained.

Nellija didnt know that in one week's time she will claim 3 place in Latvian Women's Championship. We do hope that blitz matches in our club did help her to get much needed practice. Well done Nellija !

Besides being Latvian Canoe Champ 52 times, world class athlete, father of three and Riga Duma Member - Jefim loves sport in all it's forms. New training facilities and numerous playing grounds in city of Riga is among his accomplishments too.   

Normunds has represented National Chess team for 20 years and mostly as first board player. We can only guess number of tournaments he has won or been among medalists. Normunds is friendly and full of good advice which comes out of his vast, life long, professional career.