About Fianchetto Kings´s Indian Defence

During Cannes Winter Open 2013

Many of faithful readers of my blog are disappointed by recent level of (in)activity on the blog.

Unfortunately, there were not so much chess lately for my part.

However, I wrote an article during June (I know, I know.....) about Fianchetto variation of Kings Indian Defence for Chess teacher site.

You can read article here.

For those who are interested in opening theory it contains some interesting ideas from my own games in one specific variation of Fianchetto variation.

Some of these games are not published anywhere, and has a big influence on theory of some of the variations mentioned in the article.

Here comes the list of the reference games in the article.

• Tkachiev, V. (2637) - Bejtovic, J. (2407), Cannes winter open
• Hawkins, J. (2499) -Bejtovic, J. (2385), 119th CH-SCO 2012
• Rasmussen, A. (2510) - Bejtovic, J. (2382), Politiken Cup 2010, 
• Drozdovskij, Y. (2608) - Bejtovic, J. (2404), 5th Xtra Con Open 2010
• Drasko,Milan (2474) – Bejtovic,Jasmin (2413) Neum BiH-chT1 

Down Memory Lane

The next competition for me is around corner, and in the meanwhile I decided to publish some photos that I took this year during my travels (not all are chess related).
I am currently in Mostar, so I´ll use the opportunity to publish some photos of this city (these photos were not taken by me, but I do not know the authors).

Madrid

Toledo

Mostar

Solution for April combinations

After you have plenty of time to solve these combinations, I decided to publish the solution.
Many of you were wondering if this site is on it´s way to be closed or not updated. I can assure you that it will not happen. Sometimes, I have more inspiration to write and sometimes I do not have inspiration. Also, sometimes the priorities are different, so the frequency of writing is always different, but blog will definitely go on. Chess is one of my passions, I will always play chess and I always has something to write about it and I like to share my opinions.
These lines are just for those who had some speculations in the last period. I have to thank the readers for patient and visits, as blog reached the record of monthly visitors already today  (there are six more days in April) and for comparison, in March and April Chess & Life had more visits then in whole 2012.

April combinations

It took really long time for me to finally write an article on the blog.
What can I do, some other priorities in other parts of my life, and one really pleasant travel to Madrid and Toledo (expect pictorial reports) deprived om writing.
In any case, everyone prefers quality over quantity, right?
Right?
All right, so due to really busy schedule in March, I could not publish monthly combinations during last month, but as a compensation, this months article will be extended.
As always, try to solve these combinations (and studies) by your own, and you are always welcome to write your answers in the comments.
Besides that, I really need to thank the readers for visiting this blog, as the last month visits  set the new record in monthly visitors (nearly 9000).
It seems that this month it will be even more readers.

FIDE World Candidates Tournament

There are ten rounds behind us, and four rounds in front of us in FIDE World Candidates tournament.
It seems that we will see one more match between Anand and Carlsen. Ten rounds is quite a serious material to draw some conclusions, compare this tournament with the last year edition in London, and to compare the performances of the players.
It is also possible to make some predictions about further development and trends in chess.

Do not underestimate defencive resources!

Today, I will try to write about interesting chess subject, but in a way that I want to include some recent tournaments that I played (not only my games!).
After an intense playing period I entered a training phase, and I can conclude that my results somehow went down, in 2014. It is quite strange to say that, as I played really good in Cannes but Elo does not lie!
A slight disappointment in Stockholm in Rilton Cup, and very strange results in Elitserien tells for it self. Chess is very hard sport and it is very hard to maintain high level without some drops in performance. I had very successful last year ( by my top achievements in 2013, it is by far the most successful year in my life) and I think that part of the reason for that lays in my decision, at the end of 2012, to get rid of "the takers", the people who just takes a lot of energy in endless circle of complainants, incompetence, and Schadenfreud as the Germans say.

FIDE World Candidates Tournament 2014

As the readers could notice in the last period there was not so much activity on the blog.
There were objective reasons for that, as I had very tight schedule, with a lot of competitions and other chess activities.
I can promise that it will be much more frequent articles in the coming period, as I am opening the training phase (which usually comes during Autumn for me, but this year I decided to do a bit different) and it will be almost two months before my next tournament (which will also be a quite little event of five rounds). I would not forgot to show some things from Cannes and Malmö, not only from my games, and it will be also some other thoughts about various subjects. For the start of the new period I want to share some thoughts about FIDE World Candidates Tournament 2014.

Elitserien - Fiasco at the end

Swedish team championship, for 2013/2014 is over, and the new champion is Rockaden Stockholm.
The second place took Team Viking.
For Eksjö S.K. things did not went as we expected, and after three narrow defeats, with minimal possible margin 4,5-3,5 we finished on seventh place.
It does not look good, but the general performance and feeling during the season was much better then the table shows.
In this article I am going to describe what happened in the last three rounds, but also some thought about result of Eksjö S.K.

Swedish league final - preview

During the next three days it will be played the final of Swedish team championship - Elitserien for 2013/2014.
The final will be played in Malmö, and there will be five teams that will fight for the medals.
In this article I am going to present the chances of top five clubs. The club that I am playing for, Eksjö S.K. is on the fifth place for the moment, but the hopes that we will reach the medal are still alive.
Many clubs from the top will meet each others in the final three rounds and the position on the table can be different from round to round.

Cannes 2014 - Promising story without final touch

Cannes winter open eventually finished, so the readers of this blog can finally get a chance to read about the tournament.
In all three groups played about 400 players which makes this tournament one of the biggest in this part of the year. Somehow in the same period, there are also tournaments in Cappelle la Grande and in Reykjavik, and they get a much more attention in chess media.
However, the reason that the players are separated in three groups, which means that there are no weak players in A group, makes this tournament my favourite open, not only during this period, but in the whole calendar.
There are a lot more reasons of course, and the playing hall is one of the most important!
Because of very busy schedule, I could not write from the tournament, but this article will not be the only one about Cannes winter open.

February Combinations - Solutions

It is time to show the solutions for the combinations.
I thought that the first one was hard, but some of the readers solved it without any problems.

1...Rxd4

White is winning now with

2. Qxd4, Ne2
3. Bf4!!

The third move was very hard for me.
White has alternative in 2. Bxf4 but after 2...Rxf4 Black has enough compensation for knight on h2 (three pawns and some positional pluses).

February combinations

For this month I prepared some combinations which have unexpected solutions, but are not so hard to solve.
Some of them are from my games, and others are from my database on combinations.
The first one is the combination that I failed to solve.
Black is on move, and the question is:
How do you evaluate a chances after 1...Rxd4 ?
Is White better?
Is Black better, or maybe the position is equal after some Ne2-Ng3 perpetual?
Calculate, and you will see.
This combination has very clear solution that does not leave a place for speculations.

Static against Dynamic

The game that I want to present for my readers today, was played in Rilton Cup in Stockholm, in the very last round.
The game was not particularly good, because of my bad play, but there was one very instructive point in the game.
My opponent went for the position in which he had clear strategical plus.
His knight was dominant to my bishop, and the pawn structure in the centre secured this.
However, the things in chess are rarely one-sided.
Black is somehow better developed, his knight on f4 is strong and there is some pressure along f-file.
What actually happened is very interesting.
I did not understand that the position on the diagram is critical, and I played natural move, very quick.
There were some candidates in this position, and you can think on your own and try to figure out what should be played.

XXVIII Festival of Games - Cannes

My next tournament will be very strong open tournament in Cannes, on French Riviera.
I played in the same tournament last year, and my impressions were very positive. It was not so hard to take a decision to take part in this tournament again.
For this year organisers decided to extend the tournament for two days, so this time we will play with only one double round (instead for last year´s three double rounds).
The starting list for this year is much stronger in comparison with the last year, even if tournament was very strong in 2013.
The tournament is part of the Cannes festival of the games, and besides the A group (Only the players with Elo higher then 2100) it will be competition in group B and C.
Even if you are not a chess player, you can surly find some game in which you can enjoy.
If you are good at darts, board games, strategy games, card games, video games....anything, you can come to Cannes and enjoy.

Elitserien - Report

Before I write extended report on everything what happened this weekend in Swedish Elitserien, you can read this report, with one position from one of my games.
Our expectations in Scania were to win at least something, but we didn´t manage that, and we lost both matches.
Saturday´s match against current champions, Limhamn from Malmö, was the strangest match that I ever played
Hospitality and general good impression were never in doubt when it is about Limhamn S.K. and our hosts did everything in order that we can feel comfortable.
Thumb up for them.
On the chess boards things was a bit different as expected.

Show must go on - Elitserien Preview

It is time to move on in Swedish Elitserien, and this weekend there are the big tests in front of Eksjö S.K.
Other clubs will play one round, and some of then already did that, while Eksjö will play mini-sammandrag in southern Swedish province, Scania.
Our opponents will be, current Swedish champion, Limhamn S.K. from Malmö, and one of the biggest favourites for the first place, LASK from Lund.
LASK will also play two matches this weekend, as they will travel to Gothenburg on Saturday, to play away match against Örgryte S.K.
Limhamn and Örgryte will close this circle, but on 22nd of February.

January combinations - Solutions

Usually this rubric draws the most comments.
This time one of the regular readers answered on all five combinations, even if in one example he proposed the solution which was not my choice during the game.
You can see his answers if you follows the link January combinations .
I will complete his thoughts and analysis by my comments and the names of the players from the games.
Enjoy the solutions!

Lucky or not?

A post analysis and evaluations in chess can sometimes  be very strange. World of chess is influenced by computers in such degree that sometimes we can not see the forest for the trees.
Last weekend I played the game in Swedish league, and I won quite convincingly, but not without mistakes.
As I wrote in the report from that match, our opponents had their chances and with some luck they could get a bit better result.
Even when I wrote about my game I was modest enough to write that I was somehow lucky.
After deeper analysis of that game I have to change my first impression and now I consider it quite straight forward wins for me.
However, I will share my analysis with the readers so they can decide on their own.

January combinations

It is time for an article about combinations.
In the next period I will write some articles about different subjects such as strategy, opening preparation, attack and so on.
I shall explain my thoughts on examples from my own games, as I believe I do that the best.
In this rubric, about combinations, usually I do a mix between random combinations that I found interesting in different books or magazines, and the combinations from my own games.
This time I will show only the combinations from my own games.
Some of them are pretty old.

Elitserien Round 4 - Switch on the top

Well, the title of this article can look somehow dramatic, but actually nothing special happened.
As I predicted, Team Viking, Eksjö SK and Rockaden Stockholm won their matches in fourth round of Swedish Elitserien, but Rockaden Stockholm won with 6,5-1,5 while we (Eksjö SK) won with "only" 6-2 and thanks to their game-points Rockaden Stockholm overtook the lead in the league.
LASK won their match in Scania derby against Limhamn Malmö, and they stay in the touch with two clubs on the top.
Team Viking won their match to continue their medal (title) hopes alive. It was interesting in the relegation battle too.

Preview - Elitserien Round 4

Saturday, 18th January is the time when Swedish Elitserien will be continued. Those who are regular readers of this blog, already know that Eksjö S.K. is the leader, and that Rockaden Stockholm is in share first place.
This time it is time for single round, the type of rounds when usually Eksjö don´t perform so good.
There are objective reasons behind that, as many of first team players lives aboard, and it is not easy for them to travel to Eksjö just to play one game.
However, in given conditions I see our club as a favourites against Örgryte from Gothenburg.
In sport, favourites does not win every time (otherwise we could predict everything), so it will be interesting to see the match between the leader and the club from opposite end of the table.

Michael de Verdier: Chess & Life in Ireland

After spending 8 months in Ireland working for Apple it's time to write a little something about Chess & Life in this country.
 I am located in Cork, the second largest city located in the south-west. Nicknamed Rebel City (dating back to the late 1400s and the Wars of the Roses) the city has a feel of independence and pride. At the same time people are very friendly and tolerant to the mass-invation of foreigners coming over to work for companies like Apple, Google, Blizzard, Amazon among others.
Football and rugby are popular sports here, but there are also the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) sports including hurling (a mix between lacrosse and rugby), gaelic football (rugby) and handball (squash) and rounders (baseball/cricket). 

Resources in defense and attack

It is amazing how chess can be deep sometimes.
I analysed one of my games from Rilton Cup in Stockholm, and when I did computer check of my analysis I was amazed by number of resourced that Black had into his position.
I did not played especially well in Stockholm and if I have to choose my best game from Stockholm it would be this victory in round 6.
I was White and my choice was The Botvinnik setup.
I have pretty big experience with this opening system, with both pieces, White and Black.
Also, I played against The Botvinnik system as White and Black.
For those who are interested in details about this opening I can recommend my articles The Botvinnik System and Bejtovic-Kotronias .
In the first mentioned article I wrote about my experience in The Botvinnik Setup, but during 2013 I played even more games in it, so you should take with a dose of reserve.

Test of new ChessViewer

As we entered new year, I want to introduce some new things on this blog.
One of the things will be the new chess viewer (this time from the Chessbase) and this what you will have a chance to test is only pilot version.
In the next days it will be possible to download games in pgn format and I hope that everything will look somehow smoother.
I shall make some changes on blog´s design too, and one of them are already online.
It will provide better possibilities to publish a pictures in higher resolution.
I hope that you will enjoy it.
Now, I shall publish the game annotated by ex World Champion Vladimir Kramnik.



If you click on the link "Download PGN" you can get the text that you can save in Notepad for example, with extension .pgn.
Then you can open it in your Chessbase or any other software which works with pgn files.
By clicking on Facebook icon, above the commentary, you can share the game on your Facebook profile.

Rilton Cup - Moderate result in Stockholm

As I wrote in my previous articles, it past six years from the last time when I played Rilton Cup in Stockholm.
It was a pleasant experience to come back to Stockholm and play again in Sweden´s biggest open tournament.
Many things changed in the past six years when in comes to Rilton Cup, and one of these things is a playing hall.
From a nice playing hall in the building situated direct on the banks of one of Stockhom´s channels, the venue moved in Hotel Clarion in Södermalm (one of the islands on which lays the capital of Sweden).
In this article I will write about general things about the tournament, and the game analysis will be published in next article.