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.
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.
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.
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.
Recently, I played some games in which I was forced to think about giving up material to keep the initiative alive or just to stay in the game.
In some of my games I missed my chance by giving up a material.
I shall show some positions in which quality mattered more than quantity, but also some positions when it was good to keep material and stand a ground.
You can try to guess (and answer with yes or no) the right thing to do in every position...
I decided to publish my best game from Västerås.
I played against player who had a very successful season, winning Swedish B Championship and qualifying for the main group in 2014.
During the same week, Tommy Andersson won Swedish Blitz Championship.
In the previous season he won the game in the match against Eksjö S.K. (against GM Jacek Gdanski), so this time it was the time for revenge.
The quality of the game was very high as I think that he didn´t made any obvious mistakes.
The first 3 rounds of the Swedish League was a success for my club, Eksjö SK.
With a refurbished line-up consisting of 3 Grandmasters and 2 International Masters we had a very strong team going into the first 3 games.
In the first round we defeated the solid team Upsala ASS with 7-1.
Only two draws were conceded (from admittedly lost positions).
Today we could see very good game by Carlsen and Anand, but I will wait for my report about WC match until they finish their fourth game.
In the meanwhile, I want to show you one game that I played on my recent tournament, in which the luck changed sides couple of times.
I was in control for the most of the game, when I missed one good resource of my opponent.
After then I was probably lost, but somehow managed to save the game.
As usual, there will be some questions to the readers.
Today I will show you two games from my last tournament, and one of those games is analysed, while the second game is of high complexity so I decided that it can be too much for this blog, so I took only two positions from the game that illustrates the thinking process during the game.
The both games are played against Bosnian FIDE Masters, and in one of the games, while everything went smooth, I can be very satisfied with my decisions. These maybe can be a school examples of the play in given opening, but a play after 1.d4 from the White´s stand point is not my strongest side.
The game I will show today is, in strategical terms, my best game in this year.
My opponent was FIDE master from Bosnia&Herzegovina that already passed his best chess years, but still manage to keep his elo around 2200.
The commentary of this game will not be about concrete variations, except in some cases when there are some beauty in the variations.
I will focus on strategical parts of the game, and try to explain what it means to make a plan for the whole game.
Today, I am going to finish analysis of my games from Gothenburg (it´s a good bit over the imaginary deadline).
The game that I want to show is played against the newest Swedish Grandmaster, Erik Blomqvist.
I already played this guy, twice, and in the very significant games, beating him both times.
The beginning of this game indicated that it could be triple, but once again in this tournament, I was not ready to finish off my opponents.
The way I presented the game in the last period will be the same.
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.
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....
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.
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.
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.
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 .
Today finished Politiken Cup 2013.
The winner is Indian Grandmaster Negi P.
In the last round he won against Italian GM Brunello S.
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.
In this article my intention is to show some positions in which there general rules can be applied on the position, but as we can see the positions are exceptions from the rules.
My intention is not only to teach you something with this text (although those who are interested can draw some conclusions) but to try to be funny.
I have to warn you that this is not the most precise article, so sometimes the solution can
be work out by some other general rule which is more important in given position...
