Chess and Life Bejtovic Jasmin: Elitserien 2013/2014

It is only four days before start of the new season in Swedish league, Elitserien.
This article will be some sort of a preview, with forecast of four players from four different clubs.
Before their opinion I will write some thoughts and facts about the league.

There are ten clubs in the league, and two of them will be relegated at the end.
The next weekend will be played the first three rounds, and then the clubs will have three single matches during the winter.
In the beginning of March 2014, it will be the final three games in Malmö.
Instead of three single matches, some clubs can organise mini-weekend (and they already did that).
Every club plays with eight players, and they are not sitting according to some predetermined order, but can change their place in team in every match.
There are some restrictions, so that for example player number six on rating list (Swedish, not Elo) can play in domain from fourth to eight table (+-2).
That are the rules for those who are not familiar with Elitserien.
Now something about some clubs (not every).

Limhamn S.K.

It is a nice style to start with the last years winners.
This club from Malmö is one of the strongest in forthcoming season too, but I don´t see them as a real candidate for the title.
Last year they deserved their title when they played the best in the most important matches, but also other results (and administrative issues of Team Viking with Swedish Chess Federation) gave them some advantages.
They have some stable players, and some developing juniors , but odds are still not at their side.
Limhamn S.K. can in the best case for them, fight for the medal.

Team Viking

Over couple of seasons Team Viking was the main favourite for the title, but this season some of their best players changed the club.
It seems that they will play mostly with Swedish players, and the last three or four years showed that in the normal circumstances it is not enough to win the league.
The position of this club is very hard to predict. They can potentially be a title challenger, but also they can finish without medal.

Rockaden Stockholm

This club is always very near to the top, but as I can recall, they did not won the league in the last three seasons.
Their weakness is the last three rounds when they usually lose their title winning form.
However, they are one of the candidates for the gold.

LASK

This is the club from Lund, where I played in period of 2008-2011.
My last season there was title winning season.
On the paper, LASK is favourite number one, but they were that the whole time after 2011.
They usually has the problems in Scania derby against Limhamn, and they seems to me more like a group of individual players, then the team.
If they can overcome these issues, they can win the league.

Eksjö S.K.

Finally, the list of the favourites is closed with my club.
Well, the carefully readers of this blog knows that in the last two seasons we kept our status in highest league by results in the very last round, but this year it will be different.
One of our best players, GM Slavko Cicak left our club, but we exchanged him with GM Pontus Carlsson.
As some extra possibility, we also got two very strong players from Denmark.
GM Alan Stig Rasmusen and IM Nikolaj Mikelsen are our new players.
All this, and the fact that we will have only one single match this season (in January against Örgryte) gives us the real chance to fight for the medal.
Our real weakness is the single matches, but this year we have only one.
Very interesting season is in front of us.

The rest of the clubs will be happy if they can keep their status.
In slightly better situation then the rest is Västerås S.K, and Upsala, Örgryte, Burgsvik and Farsta will play mostly to avoid relegation.

Here are the predictions of four players from Elitserien.