Thursday 30 January 2014

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.

Wednesday 29 January 2014

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!


Sunday 26 January 2014

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.

Wednesday 22 January 2014

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.

Sunday 19 January 2014

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.

Thursday 16 January 2014

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.

Monday 13 January 2014

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). 


Friday 10 January 2014

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.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

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.