Politiken Cup R4

Finally, here is rapport number one from Politiken Cup.
I forgot how tough can be to play in Politiken Cup, especially in the beginning. As Lo Skolan near Helsingör in Denmark is not so far away from Eslöv, every time when I play there I am actually living at home and travelling to the playing hall.
So, every day I am changing from local bus to regional bus, and than to the train, just to take ferry from Helsingborg in Sweden to Helsingör in Denmark.
That is not all, because there is also 30-35 minutes walking from station in Helsingör to the playing hall.
It does nothing when I play round like today ( starts at 1 pm ) but to play double round, and especially on Sunday (when transport in not frequent like during the week)  is very demanding.

Biel R2 and start of Politiken Cup

While waiting for Politiken Cup to start it is interesting to see what is going on the very highest level.
In Biel, Switzerland, there is a big super tournament and couple of competitions with a bit smaller significance. 
I am going to publish games from round one and round two.
Norwegian super star Magnus Carlsen is in his usual form, but also Chinese player Wang Hao is on his way to the good result.

Politiken Cup 2012

It is time for years edition of the biggest Scandinavian open tournament, Politiken Cup in Helsingör.
Tournament will be played from 28.July to 5.August in beautiful complex of Lo Skolan very near to Helsingör.
I played in this tournament already twice and my second participation was especially good.
This is the tournament where I achieved my third and final IM norm and by automation became International Master.

The fortress or not ?

White on move

The question from chess reportage from Glasgow was, is this position fortress or not.

As you could probably assume an answer is not that simple.

I will provide some analysis in the chess viewer, but it could be very possible that analysis are not final word.

Before publishing these analysis I will explain position a little bit deeper with a help of some diagrams.

I should remind you that this discussion has a very little to do with the game, because it is mainly theoretical.

In the game it is impossible to foresee everything that I showed in analysis and without that one can trust his intuition.

The first thing would be to try to answer the question directly.

Test of the new game viewer

From now on, I will again try to provide as much as possible games in this format with online viewer.
I think that this way of publishing games can be better accepted by readers.
The very first game is already published game De Verdier - Teterev, and it will be the test game with the new viewer.

Sudden battle for the first place - Part one

Bejtovic - McNab

It is time to write some lines about events on the chessboard.
This time I can be satisfied with overall presentation.
My performance in Glasgow was the best in 2012. 
However, this did not came as surprise for me, as I felt already after Bosnian Team Championship on Jahorina, that my form is going up.
It really did not happened something special in Glasgow. I just avoided making these blunders which followed me during 2012. One more thing was very important, and that is that I won all my games against lower rated opponents which usually is a guaranty of good result.
Chess rapport from Glasgow will be a little different from my previous rapports, when I provide critical positions from all my games.

Great Britain in pictures and words - Part two

Before the last round

This is the second part of my reportage from Great Britain. As I said, it will contain information and pictures from Glasgow´s West End, Partick Thistle Football Club,Edinburgh and chess related photos.
After couple of days we already had routine and while things were pretty good on the chess front we could really enjoy in Glasgow.
We both were very interested in visiting Glasgow´s West End, as it can be described as bohemian part with a lots of cafés, tea rooms and pubs.
Some of the Glasgow´s most significant sights are situated in the West End.
One of these is Glasgow´s University main building. That is not all, as my (and Michael´s) favourite football club from Glasgow is also situated in the West End, Partick Thistle Football Club.

De Verdier´s opinion

In action

Seeing as this is my first article for Jasmin’s blog, maybe I should start by introducing myself to its readers. My name is Michael de Verdier, I am 23 years old and I currently live in Malta where I work in the business process outsourcing industry.

I play for the same Swedish team as the blog’s famous proprietor, Eksjö SK, and have done so since the 2006/2007 season.  Although my ambitions in chess have decreased lately, I consider myself an ambitious amateur.

When me and Jasmin were looking for a tournament to play in July, we started by looking at big events in Spain such as the Benasque Open.  However, seeing as I currently live in the very south of Europe and Jasmin had spent a lot of time in his native Bosnia lately we decided to go for a more northern venue.

Great Britain in pictures and words - Part one

Edinburgh

It is very challenging task to put everything important from this trip in just one rapport and that's why I decided to divide it in a few rapports.
The first one (the one you are reading right now) is a reportage about the trip in Great Britain, including  a big pictorial rapport from London, Glasgow and Edinburgh (and it will be divided in two parts).
The second one will be chess related rapport from round 1-9 and a few thoughts about my presentation there.
The third one will be Michael De Verdier´s  rapport from this trip, including both, the trip and the chess part of it.

Actualities

It is a very relieving feeling to see my rating online again.
Well, not just mine but rating of all Bosnian players.
Still, I am not so proud of it but it is better to have one than to lose precious energy by explaining this issue to all organisers.
However, you can find all details in following link :
Rating for Bosnia and Herzegovina .
I am rated number 16 in the country, but at least I am still the best in the town, followed by Arapovic and than Dumpor.
This is not something which is new to me because I got all information in good time by Bosnian rating administrator.

A new Elo list

This is a time when FIDE published the new Elo list and as they publish rating every two months it seems that it is nothing special about this.
However, for the first time in history FIDE published a list for rapid and blitz tournaments.
It can be said that this a step forward, but there are a lot negative aspects of this introduction.
I will share some thoughts about this and show some statistical informations.
First of all let´s talk about these rating lists for rapid and blitz time controls...