Small introduction is needed to explain wider chess public origin of this competition.
Not so long ago the cosmopolitan chess player Alexei Shirov returned back to his hometown Riga. He was representing Spain in last decade or so. To change a federation is an expensive operation. I completely disagree of FIDE officials reasoning on this matter. There is no any fees in other sports when professional sportsman is relocating to other country. Alexei anyway found a sponsor and he represented in last Olympiad Latvia. Alexei not only is playing for Latvia, but is active organizer of chess events himself. When we are talking about Latvian chess we are talking about Mikhail Tal. He influenced personally many Latvian chess stars, like Alexei Shabalov, Alexei Shirov, Alexander Wojtkievich and others. Unfortunately the name is so big that because of some legal restrictions the festival which should be named after Tal was changed to Petrov memorial and the first festival took place last year. Petrov was also a great name in Latvian chess history beating many famous players including Alexander Alekhin. He won Latvian Championship in 1935 and 1937. He won at Helsinki in 1936, and tied for first with Samuel Reshevsky and Salo Flohr at Kemeri in 1937, ahead of Alexander Alekhine, Paul Keres, Endre Steiner, Saviely Tartakower, Reuben Fine, Gideon Stahlberg and others. This was Petrovs’ finest tournament achievement. Unfortunately he died at young age. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Petrovs was unable to return to his wife and daughter at home in Latvia. He remained in Russia and was arrested on 31 August 1942 under Article 58 for criticising decreased living standards in Latvia after the Soviet annexation of 1940. Petrovs was sentenced to ten years in a corrective labor camp. In 1989 it became known that he had died at Kotlas in 1943 from pneumonia.
The festival was held in Jurmala museum and more than 100 players took part in the main tournament and if next year more players are coming the organizer should find a new venue for the festival. Players as far as Brazil were present and the main star of the event was Vassily Ivanchuk who despite the London Candidates tournament which starts at the end of March came to Jurmala. His hopes for victory had some grounds when he beat me in penultimate round with white pieces and in the last round he needed to be accurate in the very end against Sandipan Chanda from India. Somehow even after some short thinking he blundered terribly in the winning position and spoiled his tournament. It is well known that Ivanchuk had problems to control his nerves in tough situations and only because of this he never became a World Champion. This blunder in the last round may open the wound again or it is the warning which he can heal before the most important tournament of the year. I am sure he is one of the favorites in London and his pure game which I think has to do with psychology against other favorite Magnus Carlsen might play crucial role for him. We will see. Jurmala results are on http://chess-results.com/tnr77638.aspx?art=2&rd=14&lan=1&wi=821
This time I did not have a chance to present some photos here, but there is a link
Jaan Ehlvest