Carlsen - Predojevic 2,5-1,5

At the end, all finished as it was expected, by a victory of World number one, but the games showed something else.
The encounter was more close that anyone could predict.
Carlsen won the game number three, and in the last game, Carlsen had some initiative in the beginning, but later on saved a draw with activity and advanced d-pawn in the position with a extra pawn for Predojevic.

Carlsen - Predojevic Rapid match

The match between World number one Magnus Carlsen, and Bosnian number one Borki Predojevic started today.

After two games, the result is 1-1.

Borki defended very well in the second game, when he was hard pressed by Magnus.

In the first game it looked that the approximate balance was never broken.

Here is the press release of the match:

The world's top rated player Magnus Carlsen (2864) faces Grandmaster colleague Borki Predojevic (2616) from Bosnia & Herzegovia in a four games' rapid match in Lillehammer this Friday and Saturday.

Background of this match is that the two know each other from some chess events since childhood, and their first game took place in junior tournament in Hafjell close to Lillehammer back in 2002. Borki, who was then already World champion under 14, won this first game between them. Later Magnus got a revenge winning their games 1 1/2 - 1/2 in the Bosna tournament 2006 in Sarajevo.

The present match has been initiated by Steinar Bryn, who is both a chess player and Senior advisor at The Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue in Lillehammer, where he mainly works on peace projects in the Balkan region. The games and the opening show are expected to be followed closely in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

The four games will be played at the Radisson Blu Lillehammer Hotel, and with the rapid time control 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.

The games are transmitted to the internet by this website: http://www.sjakk-live.com/Carlsen.php

It happens that this "battle of Lillehammer" starts on a very historic day for the Balkan region. 28th of June was the date of both the historic battle of Kosovo in 1389 and the shots of Sarajevo in 1914 which started World war 1.

The rapid match in Lillehammer coincides with this year's Norwegian chess championship starting on Saturday 29th. The closing ceremony of the match will be part of the opening ceremony of the Norwegian championship, where also 17 games will be shown on internet.

www.sjakknm2013.no

Schedule of the Lillehammer rapid match:

Friday 15.00 Opening ceremony, drawing of lots

17.00 Game 1

18.30 Game 2

Saturday 1200 Game 3

13.30 Game 4

15.30 Closing ceremony

The first two games:

June combinations

It is a right time for this monthly rubric.
This time I will publish five combinations, of which some are very hard, and some are very easy. The common thing of all combinations is that they are from my own games.
Some of them are from my old games, but some of them are from my recent games from Bosnian tour.

For those who are interesting in professional opening analysis, there are the banner (click on the picture to navigate on the site) on the left side of the blog, with the most professional analysis that I found on the Internet.

Premier league of Bosnia and Herzegovina, The final report

The league is finally over.
There are so many things that happened in the last three days that it can be very hard to put it in a short report as this.
What actually happened on the chess board will be analysed in the next articles, as I will focus on results and social aspects of the competition.
The most important thing is the champion, and this time it is
S.K. Bosna Sarajevo, with very strong team, overtaking the title from Siroki Brijeg, who won the title last year.
Celik Zenica, Zeljeznicar and Drina are relegated.

Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina Part 2/3

Premier league of Bosnia and Herzegovina approach it´s final third part.
The table is more or less divided in three parts.
The clubs which are fighting for the title are Siroki and Bosna.
There are three clubs who are fighting for the third place, which is bronze medal, and place in the European Chess Club Cup.
The rest of the clubs are fighting to avoid relegation.

Golden Sands 2013

This short news is a prove that a hard work is the best way to success.

One strange hair styled friend, won the tournament in Bulgaria, despite huge problems on his way to get there.

When I won my, more or less, the most merited games, against Smeets and Negi, the most people didn´t knew that the analysis for the openings was made together with the guy from the picture.
Now I have to proudly say, that the analysis for his victory in the last round in Bulgaria, was made by Nils and me, last November in his flat in Lund.

Enough about that!
You can enjoy the standings, and Grandelius maybe can pay some voodoo wizard to deliberate a soul of cursed Swed, Viktor Forsberg.

Standing after  round 9

Plac.		Namn	Typ	kön	Nation	Rating	Poäng	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Grandelius Nils			SWE	2544	7.5	38.5	49.0	6
2	GM	Hracek Zbynek			CZE	2625	7.0	40.5	52.5	5
3	GM	Georgiev Vladimir			MKD	2532	7.0	38.0	49.0	5
4	GM	Spasov Vasil			BUL	2565	6.5	38.5	49.0	4
5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet			IND	2600	6.5	38.5	48.0	4
6	GM	Arun Prasad S.			IND	2522	6.5	38.0	49.5	6
7	GM	Rusev Krasimir			BUL	2556	6.5	36.0	45.5	4
8	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann		w	IND	2408	6.5	33.0	42.0	5

Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1/3 part

The first third part of Bosnian league is finished.
My club HSK Napredak Sarajevo is in join lead. Despite some problems with a team before the start of the competition (one of the players has some health problems), we still managed to win two matches and to play one draw 3-3, with a club who is usually high placed.
Already in the first round , derby of the league was played.
SK Siroki Brijeg and Bosna Sarajevo played 3-3.
It means that in the case that both teams wins every match to the end, game points will decide.
For the moment, Siroki Brijeg has slight advantage.
Tomorrow, one of the interesting matches is Siroki Brijeg against Napredak Sarajevo.
Here is the table after 3 rounds:

Rank table

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	ŠK Široki Brijeg, Široki Brijeg	3	2	1	0	5	13.5	0
2	8	ŠK Bosna, Sarajevo	3	2	1	0	5	12.0	0
3	2	HŠK Napredak, Sarajevo	3	2	1	0	5	11.0	0
4	4	ŠK Rudar, Prijedor	3	2	0	1	4	11.0	0
5	6	ŠK Alpong, Sarajevo	3	2	0	1	4	10.0	0
6	5	ŠK Drina, Zvornik	3	1	1	1	3	8.5	0
7	1	ŠK Glasinac, Sokolac	3	0	2	1	2	7.5	0
8	7	ŠK Slavija, Istočno Sarajevo	3	0	1	2	1	7.0	0
9	10	ŠK Čelik, Zenica	3	0	1	2	1	6.0	0
10	9	ŠK Željezničar, Sarajevo	3	0	0	3	0	3.5	0

In the whole competition, there are 21 Grandmasters, which is the guaranty of three places in European  Chess Club Cup.

My play is more or less, satisfactory.

In the first round I did not managed to break the resistance of my opponent, and in the second round I played a quick draw with black pieces.

In today´s round I played with tiny advantage all the game, and at the end I managed to score a full point.

The playing hall is the same as in the Bosna Open.

The biggest difference is that it is 30+ degrees in Sarajevo, and during a play there is not so much fresh air in the playing hall.

Anyway, there are plenty of time for rest and preparation, and time control is normal with additional 30 minutes after move 40, and it is possible to play good chess.

Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tomorrow, Saturday 15th Jun, starts premier league of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The competition is nine days long and will determinate the Champion of the country, the clubs which will qualify for the European club cup, and the clubs who will lose a place in the highest rank of Bosnian chess.
In the continuation of the text I will explain something about rules, which can be obvious for those involved in leagues in former Yugoslavia, but for the huge number of readers in Scandinavia it can be useful.

Bosna 2013

In order to write this article I have to pick up one quotation from the Internet, but the name of author is unknown for me.
When reading about my adventures in Sarajevo, please keep in mind this quotation.
Chess as a game of “perfect information”, meaning that each player has the same information available to him to decide on his strategy.  As a result, chess is arguably free from luck so the result depends solely on the skill of the players.