This is a time when I can make some statistical analysis and publish some of my plans for 2013.
For the regular readers of this blog, information in this post are mostly known, but there will be some talk about my future tournaments.
What can be remembered in 2012 in my career?
Before I start with the tournaments month after month, I want to say some general things.
This was the year when I made big changes in my opening repertoire.
I did it completely with white and black pieces.
While my repertoire with White pieces was ready already from the beginning of 2012, openings with Black ( against both, 1.d4 and 1.e4) were ready before the tournament in France, Cappelle la Grande.
Already in January came the very first unpleasant surprise.
All Bosnian players were erased from the Elo list.
In that moment my Elo was 2408.
I was in the middle of my preparation for GM tournament in Marianbad when I was forced to solve administrative problem with FIDE.
Fortunatlly, it went very good so I could concentrate on the tournament.
I have to mention that I reached my top Elo of 2425 in Autumn of 2011 and after that I had successful play for my new club in Sweden, and many very bad memories from Rogaska Slatina.
Already then I took decision to completely change my openings.
During the Autumn traditionally I do not play in the tournaments. It was the training time for me.
In 2011 I spent that time to adopt new openings, and could not spend more time to improve my play (I did that in Autumn 2012).
During the whole year I was very unstable, making very bad mistakes (blunders), sometimes in the very promising positions.
I had a feeling that I can do a much more but I constantly failed to do that.
January...
The very first games in this year were in Swedish league.
I did as expected keeping my slight plus from the previous year.
I played three games in Elitserien (Two in Stockholm, and one in February in Eksjö).
I played two games with black and one with white.
My score was 1,5 out of 3, with average Elo 2400, which made my performance of 2400.
Later in January I played in Marianbad, and I can say that I played very well there.
I finished with only 4 out of 9 (expected score 4,53) and underperformed for a half point.
I played again with one more black pieces!
In this tournament I played one of my best games with black pieces, defeating Russian GM Chernyshov in the very nice positional game!
I missed clear victory against Oparin ( and later lost!), at least half a point in the first round (one more defeat) and I had a winning position at more then one points against Wieczorek (I only drew that game).
I got at least 2 point less than I deserved, so I can considered my play in Marienbad as very good.
I was very optimistic for the rest of the year.
I have to say that there were no luck in my victories in this tournament.
I deserved all my points.
I considered this tournament to be the most strange in my whole career, the biggest difference of expected points by positions, and actual points.
My optimism was not grounded.
There were reasons behind all my blunders.
February-March...
So I went to France, to play in famous open Cappelle la Grande.
In the very first round I got my preparation against Negi (2648) and I won with black pieces.
One could expect that I will finish the tournament in plus, but I was not ready for all the changes in my openings and failed to convert some good positions.
In the last round of this tournament I played in very bad condition due to flu.
I offered a draw in a winning position and for the first time after more than 100 games my Elo dropped under the 2400.
I played 5 times with black and 4 times with white, which was very irritating.
An average Elo of my opponents was 2994 and I made 5 out of 9 which was enough for performance of 2330.
It cost me 6,5 Elo points.
I was unlucky in the last game (offering a draw in winning position) but very lucky in one game earlier, so I can considered that my result was as expected from my positions.
Second part of March...
My plan was to sort out everything before the start of European Individual Championship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
It was only partly my fault (as I trusted people too much) that I failed to fulfil this task.
European Championship is very demanding competition.
I was somehow unlucky in pairings and all my black games were against GMs.
They were very strong, and despite some clear chances and one completely winning position, I managed to lose 6 games!
With white it was the opposite.
I made 4,5 out of 5 which was enough for 4,5 out of 11 and a performance of 2358.
It was a clear plus compared with Cappelle la Grande, but made in 11 rounds that cost another 7,3 Elo points.
I was somehow lucky in one of my games with white, but I clearly lost at least 1,5 deserved point with black.
I can considered that I could get one more point than I actually did.
Note: My k-factor is 10, which means that one point is worth 10 Elo points, and half a point is worth 5 elo points.
April....
I did not liked that my Elo dropped under 2400, but I had to used to it.
It had an influence on my self confidence, together with issue with rating and problem with a club from my hometown.
Eventually I decided to stay loyal to my old club HSK Napredak Sarajevo, and that was a great decision.
I took decision to open this blog too.
An idea of this blog was born during the summer of 2011, and should been materialised shortly after the European Club Cup in Rogaska Slatina in October 2011, but I was not in optimal condition after that tournament (not the chess reasons).
Now, at the end of 2012 I can say that I am positively surprised by number of visitors and success of this blog and that was one of the highlights of 2012.
May...
This is a period of year when I concentrate my focus on tournaments in my home land.
This years edition of Bosna open was somehow less good as previous years, but still very good.
It can be said for my performance there.
This was clearly my weakest tournament in whole year.
I made 4 out of 9 , and average Elo of my opponents was 2384.
My performance was 2350 which can be considered good when I see what happened in my games.
I lost 5,6 points (which indicates that I underperformed by only 0,56 point) and I reached the lowest point in my Elo from the middle of 2010.
I was very lucky in two games, and I got 1,5 points more than my positions deserved.
The turning point
June...
Bosnian league went very good for me, as I performed as expected with three important things.
I lost one game from clearly winning position!
I won against Robert Markus(2628) in my best game in 2012.
I lost one game when I was unable to play (health problems), but I did it for my club (even if I knew it that defeat is unavoidable).
Still I performed slightly under 2400 and I knew it that the worst is behind me.
I started to feel better, and it was obvious in my next tournament.
July...
Micke de Verdier and I played in Glasgow, in Scottish Championship, and it was clearly the best tournament in the year for both of us.
Micke made his second IM norm, and I played for the first place in the last round...and lost.
I played only 8 elo games (one opponent with Scottish rating of 2125 had not elo), and performed around 2440.
It sounds not so good, but with a victory from the first round (which did not counts) it is a result of IM norm (only one in 2012).
I scored 6 out of 9.
I was not lucky at all, and I played again with 5 black and 4 white (as in the whole year).
I felt very good and I took suspicious decision to play in Politiken cup in Denmark.
It is not bad tournament. Not at all.
Only bad thing is that I had to play in Manhem GM tournament three days after the tournament in Denmark.
In Denmark I scored 7 out of 10 and made some minor plus in Elo (+1,4).
My result was as expected considered the positions I got.
August...
Manhem GM is the tournament in which I have the highest average Elo during a year.
I started very well, but then in the middle of the tournament I lost one winning position which took to much energy from me.
I played bad in the rest of the tournament and scored just 3 out of 9.
It is not bad as it sounds, as my expected score was 3,44.
Clearly, I had potential for good plus in Elo.
September...
Only tournament in this month was Skovbo GM, which is actually open tournament with this strange name.
I scored 6 out of 9 and even managed to underperformed for 0,26 points.
One round we played in very uneven and unfair conditions due to mistake of organiser.
It was in the round number 6.
I lost that game.
Already in September I declined all invitations for the tournaments in the rest of the year.
I only played in Swedish league.
This period of year in training period for me, and during September, October and November I trained a lot.
During December I showed one of my weaknesses, which is laziness.
Still I did some job.
In Elitserie I performed excellent.
I scored 3 out of 4 with a victory against Grandelius, which is in my opinion my second best game in the 2012.
My performance in Elitserien is 2611.
My live rating now is 2398, and I am -10 compared from the beginning of the year.
Where I was in May, I can be very satisfied now.
I settled the new openings, and I got very nice victories during the whole year.
I am very satisfied in my clubs in Sweden and Bosnia & Herzegovina, and that is very important.
Plans for 2013
The first tournament will be Prague Open 2013, and after that I will play in Marianbad GM tournament.
I will play for my clubs in Sweden and Bosnia & Herzegovina if nothing goes wrong.
In the first part of year I am going to play in one very strong open tournament (with quite high rating floor for A group).
I already got an invitation and it is not for public for now.
I will publish the details after the Czech tour.
One more tournament is already planned, and it is Bosna Open 2013 in Sarajevo in the beginning of June.
There are a few more tournament which are very interesting and on to do list but I will wait a little before I publish that.
What can I expect from the 2013 ?
It is hard to say.
Maybe it will be very successful year, but there is not such thing as guaranty of success....
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