Leonid Kubbel´s study

This is the initial position of Leonid Kubbel´s study from 1925.
He was very popular studies composer, born in Leningrad in 1892, and for those who enjoy to solve chess studies, his name is not unknown.
However, when I tried to solve this study together with some guy who loves islands, we experienced unexpected problems.
It is the reason why I want to go through this study with readers, step by step.
I do not need to repeat how big effect on one´s development in chess has solving of chess studies.

Faith will move mountains

I am back on the analysis of my games from my recent tournaments.
This game is still from Gothenburg and after this and my next article, I shall move to my games from Neum.
In between it is possible that I shall publish some other articles, especially about my travels as it seems that I have some unresolved things in Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The title of this article has something to do with the surname of my opponent, but in Swedish.
Let´s see the what am I talking about.

Twin brothers

Before I continue with the analysis of my games, I will publish one study, which left very deep impression on me, and one guy from Republic of Ireland.
White is on move, and his task is to win this position, that at the first look seems insane, as always in the studies.
For those who want to solve it by themselves, it is better not to look at the rest of the text, as it contain spoilers.
Please keep in mind the title of this article, and I will tell you that I did not referred it to the passed pawns on a2 and b2....

English symmetrical, Fischer setup

This is the position from English symmetrical opening, when chosen setup for Black was the favorite setup of legendary player, Robert James Fischer.
I reached this position in Manhem´s chess week in Gothenburg, in the third round against Norwegian International Master, Thorsten Bae.
Bae did not played the critical lines, and he tried to avoid possible opening preparation.
However, his choice was very good as you can see in the comment of the game.
The real problems for Black in this variation starts with Bologan´s recommendation.

Adventure in Winawer variation

I promised to analyse some of my games from the last two tournaments and I am going to keep my promise.
The very first game on the list was the game against Eduardas Rozentalis, in Gothenburg.
It was very intensive game, with a rich strategical battle.
He defended with Winawer variation in French defence, and I got an extra pawn, not without some compensation for Black.
This was quite successful moment for me.
In the second part of the game, he tried to defend with active counterplay and succeeded in obtaining a draw, but as analysis shows it was far from perfect play from both players.

Solutions for September combinations

My very intensive period eventually finished...and I can spend more time writing articles on this blog.
It will last almost to the end of this month, when I have very interesting non-chess projects on the edge of our continent.
It will involve many characters that you already had a chance to know better if you are the regular reader of this blog, and I am sure that some of the most passionate readers will enjoy the new adventures of them.
However, for today I have the solutions of combinations from my last article.
Let´s start...

Sptember Combinations - Tactics from Neum

For Sptember´s monthly combinations rubric I chose to show you some combinations from my recent tournaments
(before I start to publish the games from it).
Due to very tight schedule during August (I played in the two tournaments, Manhem GM chess week, and Bosnian first A division) I could not publish the combinations for that month, but I will compensate with double tactics article in September.
This time I will publish four positions, in which you have to find the best continuation.
In some position more then one move is good enough to achieve the goal, but the task is to find the best.

1 A LIGA ŠSFBiH - Little more about results

In this article I will write a little more about results in Neum, as I promised in my last article.
I did not want to mix the article about my tour, with this article, but right from the next article I will start with the analysis of my games from Neum, and also from Gothenburg.
As The first division of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the second rank) was the team competition, I will also write about some details in our fight for the gold medal.

Trip to Balkan, and the first divition of Bosnia and Herzegovina

After some time of inactivity on this blog, I am back with my usual reports.

This time, it is the second part of my Balkan tour.

I have a few days after Manhem GM tournament in Gothenburg, which I spent in Scania, with some visits to Malmö and Malmöfestivalen.

On 21st August I moved to the south, with intention to take part in Bosnian first A division (which is actually the second rank of Bosnian team chess, and is something like Swedish Superetan).

The rules allow the players to play in both leagues, the highest Premier league and in the lower leagues, which is suitable for professionals.

My first destination was Split.

The biggest city on Croatian part of Adriatic coast (during the 90-ties Split overtake the position of Croatian second largest city in front of Rijeka and after capital city Zagreb).

Split at night

The very first thing that I noticed (and probably everyone on the same plane from Copenhagen) was a drastic difference in temperature in Split (34 C ) compared with for example, Malmö during the festival, where I needed a jacket.

The second destination was of course my home city of Mostar, the Capital of Herzegovina.

It is just a two hours by car from Split.

After two extremely hot days in Mostar (this time Split was not comparable, the temperature in Mostar was over 40 C) I went for Neum, which is actually the only town in Bosnia and Herzegovina which lays on Adriatic sea.

Neum

Besides that many of Bosnian chess leagues were played here, European Club Cup was also played in Neum in 2000.

At that time I was not rated player, but I performed 2485 out of six games, and never got a chance to play the last game for IM norm as my team captain was not happy with that possibility.

This time, 13 years later I am already IM, and Neum was the place when I defended the colours of Chess Club Gorazde on the first board.

I will not go into the details of this competition in this article, as I want to write about the championship in the next articles (I also want to continue with analysis of my games from Gothenburg and Neum).

I played on the first board, and average Elo of my opponents was about 2350.

I made 3 pluses out of 8 games, and my performance was about 2500 which is actually the performance which I showed in the many tournaments in 2013 (I have to take care about some black outs in other tournaments).

My club was a leader during the whole competition, but we lost our match in the last round (when I lost a game against GM Kurajica Bojan) against Bihac, and that´s why this silver medal and my good performance has a bitter taste.

I can not be satisfied when I had perf. 2600+ during the biggest part of the league, and SK Gorazde was sole leader most of the times. Even in the final standings we have 3 game points more then the winner SK Bihac.

The view from my room in Neum

However, the team mates from Gorazde were all very nice guys and we did not have any pressure to win this competition. The main goal was top 3, and we achieved that.

After the tournament, I went for Mostar again, where I enjoy very much and I write these lines in this beautiful city.

It was a nice break and the time which I use to party, and visit a family and friends from chess life, and other parts of my life too...

Old Bridge in Mostar

I will stay couple of days here, and the next destination will be Dubrovnik, which is one and the half hour drive from Mostar, on seventh September and from that town I will flight to Copenhagen again.

Dubrovnik´s Old town from the air