The Rilton Cup is the oldest international Swiss in Scandinavia and one of the few European chess opens still held in its original format: nine rounds of classical chess between Christmas and New Year, at the same Stockholm hotel that has hosted it since the early 1990s. The 54th edition (counted as 2025/2026 because it crossed the New Year) ran from 27 December 2025 to 5 January 2026 at the Hotel Birger Jarl and was won by Chinese grandmaster Xu Xiangyu.
The Rilton tradition
The cup is named after Tore Rilton, a Swedish doctor and chess patron who endowed the foundation that funds the tournament’s prize structure to this day. The event has run every year since 1971 with the same nine-round Swiss format and a small, fixed prize fund relative to its open-tournament peer set — competitors come for the tradition and the Stockholm midwinter atmosphere as much as the prize money. The IM-norm and GM-norm opportunities are widely used by titled players collecting norms in the second half of the chess year.
The 2025/26 edition
Around 270 players entered the main A-group (FIDE-rated open, no minimum), with the strongest field in several years. Xu Xiangyu won the title with 7.5/9, edging out three players sharing second on 7. The Swedish chess press treated his win as a continuation of the growing Chinese presence on the European open circuit — Xu is the third Chinese player to win the Rilton in five years.
Final standings
| # | Player | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xu Xiangyu | Winner |