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?


I will not write about details about other participants and fight for the first place, as you can find it on every possible chess site in Sweden.
The first place was shared by Tiger Hillarp Persson and Rozentalis Eduardas.
Tiger impressed with his artistic play, while Rozentalis showed what his experience and technical aspect of play means.

All the details can be seen on Manhems web site: SS Manhem .

I shared the room with Daniel Semcesen - The Vulture, who failed to achieve his goal (to cross 2500 in Elo), but who played very well, and the mentioned 2500 border is only the matter of time.

We had a very nice time, and the young Swedish talent Jonathan Westerberg spent his time with us too.
I will publish some quotations by them, but I will spare you the details:

Daniel Semcesen - The Vulture (during the dinner before the tournament) " I like my peace of meat...."

Daniel Semcesen - The Vulture (during his analysis with Erik Blomqvist) " I will take your rook now, I told you I am the vulture"

Jonathan Westerberg " What is my favourite system? Probably System Bolaget"  ( The self explanatory system Systembolaget )

Back to the discussion about chess.
It is not that everything was so bad there.
I started well against Rozentalis, when he was pushed hard but survived in the long endgame.

In the second round against Tiger Hillarp Persson I played one system which I marked as "reconstruction needed", and Tiger showed what is wrong with it.
He played quite well, and won the game, despite that I got my chances in the time trouble.

As it was on the day of double round I decided to play careful against Norwegian player Torsten Bae.
I got some advantage but game ended in a draw.
Later on, I regret it that I did not pushed for a win.

The very next game I played against home player, Viktor Nithander.
I guessed that he will play the same variation as Tiger, and this time I was prepared quite well.
I got some pressure with black pieces, and I was near to put him in real trouble.
However, my lack of ability to win the game of chess (I already have infamous record of 12 games without victory) showed it´s dark side again. Draw.

The next game I played against Emanuel Berg, and somewhere in the middlegame he had winning continuation, but according to him, I fought extremely good in the time trouble and took a draw.
Both of us played some only moves on the path....
This game was partially excellent played by me.

After 5 rounds I had 2 points, and it looked that I would have no problems to improve my Elo.
However, in the next round I played very pail, and unrecognisable game against Smith, and lost without the real fight.
Probably the worst game of the whole tournament.
I have to mention that this round was also morning round (I lost all of my three morning rounds in Gothenburg and that is very strange).

The next game I played against John Paul Wallace.
I was black, and game ended in a draw. This game is probably one of the best games in the whole tournament, despite the fact that it ended with a draw.
I will analyse this game very deep, and publish the game on the blog.
One of the best games of my career.
Why?
You will see.

After that game I played against Erik Blomqvist, the newest Swedish Grandmaster.
I have a pretty good score against him, and I played for a win.
I got substantial advantage in the opening, and I went for his king.
On a way I sacrificed some material, and could not find more than unclear endgame.
My mistake came in the time trouble.
Chess is sometimes very unfair.

In the last round (again the morning round) I played against Semcesen The Vulture,
I can say that I lost this game before it started.
I made one strategic mistake and could not recover from it (mostly disappointed by the events in the game against Blomqvist).

The strange thing is that I made 0,5/4 in the last 4 games, and that I made 0/3 on the morning rounds.

I did not took my chances when I got it, and I lost some games very stupidly.
According the computer engines, I had winning advantage at some point, in four games, and the big advantage in one game.
To take 2/5 out of these games is criminal.

Anyway, the majority of my games there were quite good and interesting, and I will analyse it on the blog in the next days.
I think it will be very interesting and useful for the readers.

Here comes some of the pictures:


The artist and the winner - GM Tiger Hillarp Persson.

The Vulture - Soon to be GM Daniel Semcesen

The crazy owner of this blog - IM Bejtovic Jasmin