Improving during the tournament

I am sure that this article will be welcomed by some of my readers that I have a contact with, as I know that they like the openings.
It is also an article about my games form Manhem Chess Week, and their GM tournament, as I promised right after the tournament.
I already published one game from the tournament, and now I am going to write about my two games against GM Tiger Hillarp Persson, and IM Victor Nithander.
The both players played the same variation against me.
I managed to improve on my play, but not with an opening novelty.

Malmöfestivalen 2013

The second part of August is usually a time reserved for the festival in Malmö.
As I moved to Sweden in 2007, I am not sure that I am the most competent person to talk about this festival, but my intention is to give my personal view in three categories.
It will be a music, food and drink.

• Music

Aug            Malmo, Sweden

21     @Malmofestivalen

                Flogging Molly

Unfortunately, I will not be in Sweden on Wednesday, so I will not attend the concert, but you can take your chance and listen to this more Irish then American Celtic punk band.

• Food

Lomito Chilean burger, is my absolute favourite when it is about food during Malmöfestivalen.

• Drink

This category is the huge disappointment.

However, The Bishop´s Arms had their tent very near the central point of the festival, so you can always go for a glass of Guinness.

Brilliant game from Manhem Chess Week 2013

After receiving positive response on my article from Gothenburgs chess tournament, I decided to publish my best game from there as soon as possible.
It is a very rare occasion that I publish two articles in one day, but also the very rare occasion that the game which ended in a draw can be so excited.
My opponent was IM John Paul Wallace from Australia (currently living in London), and he played very good chess in Gothenburg (despite his modest result).
You can find more about him on his website Wallace Chess .

Unsuccessful in Gothenburg

During the last 7 days I played in very strong GM tournament in Swedish city of Gothenburg.
The tournament was organised by Gothenburgs chess club Manhem SS.
It is the traditional event, and the last three years I play every time there, during the mid August.
This time I was the lowest rated player, and I had quite a modest and achievable goal in order to keep my rating.
It was around 3 out of 9. Of course my ambitions were quite different.
What yo say when I failed to achieve this modest goal, as I took only 2,5 points?

Manhem GM 2013, Pictures from drawing of lots

It is pretty late to not sleep when one plays in a GM tournament, but as the first round starts at 16.00 PM the next day (or more correct, today), so there are plenty of time for a good sleep.
The reason why I am posting so late is that I want to publish some photos (taken by Daniel Semcesen), from drawing of lots.
It is a tradition in Manhem GM tournament that the players and organisers meet together the evening before the tournament for dinner and drawing of lots... 
How this event went this year you can see fro the pictorial report.
The good thing about pairings is that I drew number 3, which means that I have one more white pieces.
The bad news is that I will play against highest rated player, already tomorrow (Rozentalis), but one have to play against every player, so there is no place for complains.

Venice - The City on Water

It is time to present some pictures from Venice, the city that I visited last, in my summer Italian tour.
Enjoy....

Politiken Cup 2013

Today finished Politiken Cup 2013.
The winner is Indian Grandmaster Negi P.
In the last round he won against Italian GM Brunello S.

Florence - The World capital of Art

It is time to publish some photos of the second city in my summer Italian tour.
It is Florence, my favourite city in Italy.
Today I will also visit Politiken Cup 2013, and the readers can expect a report from it.

Kramnik is back!

After the huge psychological blow in London candidates tournament, Vladimir Kramnik had a really hard time in the tournaments.
His performance in Alekhine Memorial was modest for his standards, but only a one month later in Tal Memorial in Moscow we could see something that I never seen before in Kramnik´s career.
He finished on the last place.
Dortmund is Kramnik´s tournament, and he won it more times then anyone else. This year he is sharing a lead with Adams and his yesterday´s victory against German GM Fridman Daniel was a masterpiece. Look at the game in chess viewer.

The Eternal City

The preparation with white pieces, a solid or chance-taking repertoire with black?
The huge number of easy combinations, or the lower number relatively harder combinations in my training sessions?
Combine the blitz on ICC with a training, or just go for a long walks?
Try with quick fix of some opening holes, or maybe look at some recent games?
All these questions are again actual, and only I can answered on them.
Also, I am the only person who has to take responsibility for bad decisions, and take a praise for a good decisions.
However, as the new part of the season is approaching it´s beginning, and there were a lot of chess material during the next two months on the blog, it is a good time to finish this summer break with some pictorial report from Italy!
It will be three reports, from three Italian cities which I visited this summer, and then you can expect some reportage from Politiken Cup, tournament which I will visit during the next few days.
After that, it is the time for Manhem GM in Gothenburg.
So, let´s start with The Eternal City, Rome....