Sam Sevian: “Great atmosphere and the strong line-up of GM’s makes Rilton Cup an easy choice for me”
USA’s chess prodigy Sam Sevian, born 2000, returns to Rilton Cup. Last year he fought in the top in Rilton Cup and ended his Tour of Sweden with a match against Sweden’s top GM Nils Grandelius, broadcasted at Expressen TV (https://www.facebook.com/chessduel)
This time he will focus solely on the tournament. Here´s an interview with GM Sam Sevian.
Your first rilton Cup last year made a big impression in Sweden. How does it feel to come back?
“I think I played far better in the Hasselbacken than in Rilton this year, I could say it probably was my best tournament of the year. Painful slip up in the eight round spoiled the otherwise great tournament. It’s going to be my third visit to Sweden in the course of one year, great atmosphere, hospitality and the strong line-up of GM’s makes it an easy choice for me. And in general I enjoy Stockholm a lot.”
In short words, what has changed since then? Your chess, and your personal life.
“Not many changes in personal life. I played a lot of interesting tournaments this year with mixed results, i am trying to find better balance in my game.”
What is your biggest achievement this year?
“There were two tournaments this year where I came very close to win, it is Lake Sevan tournament in Armenia and already mentioned Hasselbacken. In both tournaments I made inexplicable blunders in the eight round in absolutely won positions that cost me tournament victory, funny thing I blundered against two different Indian GM’s :-). In October I won a fairly strong Open, Susan Polgar’s SPICE Cup.”
USA won in Baku, and you are among upcoming superstars i USA. Does all this have big impact in US Media?
“It’s actually very unfortunate and troubling that there hasn’t been much of media coverage here in US on this Historic win. The US Team did a tremendous job and we are very proud of our players and their achievement. It must be recognized and general public needs to be made aware of it.”
To win Rilton Cup, is that a reachable goal?
“I think it is, just need to keep my head cool!”