While I can be satisfied with my play (and finally with the results) my team can be satisfied with a play but not with a results.
We lost two matches and won one.
If we consider that lost against very strong team of LASK was expected and our victory against lower rated (but very unpredictable) team of Rockaden Umeå was also expected, than for the final verdict from Malmö´s part of Elitserien essential was our match against home side, Limhamns S.K.
We lost with minimal possible margin.
Friday, 05. October
Limhamns S.K. - Eksjö S.K. 4,5-3,5
This was crucial match for us. The two teams are probably completely even and we expected that Limhamns S.K. should play with two Grandmasters and two International Masters plus two very gifted juniors and two strong FIDE Masters.
Our team had two Grandmasters, two International Masters, and a few players with IM potential (de Verdier and Vernarsson), while on the seventh and eight board we had experienced FIDE Master Malesevic, and Cristopher Krantz who's form was excellent during the summer.
We opened strongly by winning two games, but we had some suspicious positions.
On the eight board Linus Johansson had big advantage against Cristopher Krantz.
On the seventh board Malesevic lost drawish endgame against Philip Lindgren while de Verdier couldn´t capitalise on his extra pawn against IM Cristian Jepsson.
Other boards were just a draws and the fate of this match was on board number two where GM Jonny Hector tried to crack my resistance.
I didn´t played bad, but couple of inaccurate moves in the time trouble gave him some advantage.
When the second (and last) time trouble came it was very hard to hold the position.
Jonny won, and Limhamns S.K. took their revenge for the last year defeat against us.
Results:
Gdanski - Brynell remi
Hector - Bejtovic 1-0
Cicak - Helgason 1-0
Jepson - de Verdier remi
Vernersson - Schneider remi
Penalver - Ornstein 0-1
Malesevic - Lindgren 0-1
Johansson - Krantz 1-0
(Eksjö S.K. players are highlighted)
Saturday, 06. October
S.K. Rockaden Umeå - Eksjö S.K. 3-5
This match was very hard to us. After defeat in the first round we knew it that it would be hard in round number three, and this was a must win match.
When we played against them last year, they won against us with 6-2, and their minimal defeat against LASK on Friday evening tells for it self.
We have a strategy to play calmly and wait our chances, without taking any risks.
This proved to be good strategy and we won with 5-3.
I played well with white pieces, and won convincingly.
GM Slavko Cicak lost on first table, but Malesevic and de Verdier took their chances, while rest of the games ended in a draw.
Results:
Cicak - Malmstig 0-1
Forsberg - Gdanski remi
Bejtovic - Eriksson J. 1-0
Hammar - Vernersson remi
de Verdier - Engman 1-0
Lindgren - Ornstein remi
Krantz - Mårdell remi
Eriksson S. - Malesevic 0-1
Sunday, 07. October
LASK - Eksjö S.K. 4,5-3,5
This was a match where we had nothing to lose, and it is always nice to play in such conditions.
We surprised them with our team-positions (even if they will never admit that), when we played with GM Jacek Gdanski on fourth table (when he never played under the second table in Eksjö) and with me on the table number one.
Of course their upper boards are professionals and this coudn´t affect them much.
I played as high as possible because my game against one of the LASK players is like a derby, and difference in Elo is not so important (even if chess is not football, we can see that Limhamns S.K. usually had good results against LASK despite that LASK usually had better team. Limhamns S.K. -LASK is Skania derby) so we thought that we can play with our GMs lower and that de Verdier and I can maybe neutralise one of their GMs.
The point was that we expected -1 in our two games, and that our GMs can make +1.
It would be 2-2 on the upper four boards.
Then the fate of the match would be in the hands of four lower boards where we spotted weak points in their team.
Of course that this is highly speculative, but we as considerably weaker team could count on something.
They took us very serious, as they played with better team then in previous rounds.
What happened is that I got Nils Grandelius on the first board, which I know very well as we work on chess together more or less regularly.
His form during a weekend was not optimal but still before the game I would be happy with a draw.
The problem was that he knows very well what I can (or can´t) and it was almost impossible to get something from the opening.
We spend some time for our first couple of moves, just to think which opening to chose.
When I understood that he is after position which is quite unconfrotable for me, I decided to reduce to a draw, but he took decision to complicate a matters and this backfired.
I played very well and won the game.
When Slavko Cicak won his game on the second board against Tiger Hillarp Persson, and Gdanski won against Smith on the fourth board just to compensate de Verdier´s defeat, we took a lead 3-1.
Our lower boards were not as good as we expected and they had a lead 4-3.
Our hope was winning position which had IM Axel Ornstein exactly where we expected to win.
Unfortunately he thought that he can win on two possible ways, and took a wrong way which only draws (the right way wins easily).
We lost one more match with minimal possible margin.
At least we can count that we should be better placed than our concurrent in the case of the same match-points.
Results:
Bejtovic - Grandelius 1-0
Hillarp Persson - Cicak 0-1
de Verdier - Tikkanen 0-1
Smith - Gdanski 0-1
Malesevic - Semcesen 0-1
Hall - Vernersson 1-0
Ornstein - Nilsson remi
Hagen - Krantz 1-0
Summary
As I said, we can not be satisfied with two defeats with 4,5-3,5 and if we took one MP from these two matches we would be completely satisfied.
However our strong game-point criteria and two important match-points against unpredictable club from the North Sweden is not bad at all.
I can considered my play to be very good, as I lost very long game who easily could end in a draw and won very convincingly in the second game.
In the third game I played very good even if my opponent play was not on his usual level.
In the next post I will show some games and details on what happened on the board during a weekend in Malmö.
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