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.

Anand-Carlsen 2-4

Eventually we got some decisive games in the last two games, and it seems that everything goes as the most people foreseen.
Magnus Carlsen will be the next (16th) World Champion in chess.
He won the games number five and number six, and now has a +2 lead in this match.
I still can not see how Anand can win the single game with this strategy, not to say to win another two games without losing the single one.
This match is for now, the one way road.

de Verdier´s thoughts: Anand-Carlsen 2:2

For the report about games four and five, I´ll give the word to occasional guest blogger here, Mr. Michael de Verdier:
He wrote about the games, but also some general thoughts about this match.

Not so minor details

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.

Anand-Carlsen 1-1

I don´t know what is general opinion about the start of this match, but I am hugely disappointed.
I did not expect from Anand or Carlsen part to go for everything in the very beginning or to play for a public, but a bit more volume in the games could be expected.
The first two games were more boring then the games in Gelfand-Anand match.

Anand-Carlsen

This text will be my modest contribution to the biggest chess event in 2013.
All possible predictions are available on every corner of chess world and this site will not be an exception.

Welcome to Belfast

During my stay in Cork and Dublin, Michael de Verdier and I took decision to visit the capital of Norther Ireland, Belfast.
Usually when I visit some city, you can notice that on this blog, as I like to make an pictorial reportage.
This particular city left very deep impression on me, so I need to write something about it.
I shall try to do that in a way that you can not already find on the Internet.

Unexpected solutions

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.

Dark square strategy

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.

This is how it´s supposed to be...

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.

Third time luck - Edinburgh

It is not strange that I will start the picture reports with my favourite city in Europe, the Capital of Scotland, Edinburgh.
This was my third visit in last fifteen months...and every time I experienced something new and unexpected.
The all photos in this report are taken by me, and I edited them to take the maximum from them.
For those who are interested in these photos (in full size), or for publishing somewhere, they can contact me on my facebook profile: Jasmin Bejtovic .


The home of Heart of Midlothian Football Club...

Easter road, the home of Hibernian Football Club
*Edinburgh´s derby is the oldest football derby in World

The view from Edinburgh´s Castle

This is what I call the advantageous position

The view to the North
* You can see Waverley station, Northern bridge and many other sights

Georgie Road Edinburgh

Scottish National Gallery
*the same as the majority of Edinburgh's museums and galleries, it is free of admission

The Grassmarket

...and again

Portabello, Edinburgh

The seaside, Portabello Edinburgh

One of the many pubs in Edinburgh´s New Town
*The only thing which is new in New town is the name, as it is build in 18th century

The new period

The period of the last three weeks was very intense in my life.
There were a lot of football and travels, but not so much chess.
As this blog is not exclusively about chess I will write about these travels too, but the concept of blog would be ruined if I would write from every city that I visited in the last three weeks, as in that case there would not be articles about chess.
However, in front of me is a chess period, the time when I will do a lot of training and also I will play in some tournaments.
I did not forgot the games that I will show here, from my recent tournaments, even if there is more then two months old.

Solution for October combinations

If you select the option on the menu just under the header on this blog Monthly combinations, you can see only the articles with the exercises and solutions for the exercises.
Solving the combinations are one of the most important parts of chess training.
On this blog, during the time, I collected about 130 combinations which have high instructional value.
They are free to use for all the readers, and the experienced eye can spot the most important parts of the combinations, for their own training, or for the training of the others.
Here are the solutions for the month of October.

October combinations

As very soon I will travel again (this time in the opposite direction from the last trip), and as my texts about travels has to go through some phases (idea, planing, conceptual, physical) I decided to at least publish something in the regular rubric on this blog.
As it is a tradition on Chess & Life, I will publish the combinations in the order of the level of complexity, from easier to harder exercises.
The first three combinations is somehow easier and the latest two, are harder.
The latest two are from my own games.

Auld Reekie

The loyal readers of this blog, could witnessed the longest pause between two articles from the time when I opened this blog.

There is a very strong reason behind the pause.

I spent some time in Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, with the common guest writer on this blog, Mr. de Verdier.

In the last period that was almost only chess reports on the blog, and what can you expect in the following period will be some reports from the travels.

Michael de Verdier will (most probably) write an article about Cork and Dublin, while I will write two articles.

One about Belfast, and my impressions about this divided city.

The second article will be from my favourite city, Edinburgh, with some special remarks about football in Scottish Capital.

Of course, I did not forgot about my most recent tournaments, so after some travels related

articles you can expect some games from my last tournament.