Get ready to play like Mikhail Tal and go BERZERK (yes, seriously – you’ll get extra points if you do) because Latvian Night, our Baltic-themed night of crazy chess, is nearly upon us.
So here’s a quick reminder of what you need to know.
If you want to play you MUST email Aldo. He needs to know how many chess sets and clocks to bring.
Top prize is this bottle of voddy:
The event is a blitz tourny which means you have to be there on time to enter – no turning up late this time people.
Against their better judgement, all players will have to play the four rather dicey Latvian chess openings we’ve chosen – so if you’re taking part it might be a good idea to have a look at them first.
They are the Latvian Gambit, the Baltic Defence in the QGD, the Tal Variation of the Caro-Kann and the Shirov Gambit in the Philidor.
Meanwhile, you may have seen that Arnold Hunt has sent round a pic of the prizes – all donated to the club by Riga Chess Club founder Ivo Gubanovs.
But a cool £150 bonus will be up for grabs to anyone who gets the maximum 17 points!
So here’s a recap of the rules:
Tournament rules
Whoever gets to play White gets to select what opening is played. Black has to follow along.
This will be an 8-round Swiss.
It will be a relaxed blitz time control of 5m + 3s. So people have that little bit more time to adjust to the position.
Players will also be given the option of going “berzerk” like Latvian legend Mikhail Tal. A player or both players have to declare it before the game to the tournament controller.
Anyone “going berzerk” will be given half the time with their increment eliminated so they will start at 2 minutes and 30 seconds. If they win they get double points. A draw still cares the same point value.
And since we’re honouring a couple of the most courageous players to ever play the game, we will like to offer a full one point bonus to the total of every player that selects to play all four openings at least once when playing on the White side.
The prize for the overall winner will be a bottle of Latvian vodka. But £150 is available as a bonus if anyone gets all 17 points available.
