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.





In the beginning it looked as we will win with huge score, as we were better on almost all boards (exception was Linus Johansson who was better against Per Vernersson).
I was slightly better straight from the opening.
Later on, their chances improved dramatically, when they took a lead 3:2  with 3 games to go.
It was Michael de Verdier who had completely winning position (+9 according to computer), Pontus Carlsson with winning advantage on his board, and I had drawish rook endgame.
With normal results, it would still be 4,5:3,5 for us.

Somehow at the same time, Michael blundered badly and lost, Pontus missed everything and drew, while I lost on time in a position when according to tablebase I have 10 moves which can secure a draw.
I played one of them, but my time run out.

For those who are interested, this is the position.
My time run out when I played Rc1-Rc4.
My idea was to put the rook on a4, and just move it on a-file.
It is basic draw.

After the game, my opponent and some spectators thought that Black can not drew this position, and even the people from my team were suspicious.
When I checked this in the tablebase I saw that I have 10 drawing moves, and that is not all!
White can be on move too, and it´s still a draw!
Here is the link of tablebase Endgame tablebase and you can check for yourself.
I took this very hard, as somehow I felt that it´s unfair to lose the game in such style, but it is only my fault that I forgot about the time.


We could only accept the defeat, and I want to congratulate Limhamn S.K. on their victory.

The very next game we played against one of the main title candidates, LASK from Lund.
That this match means them more than any other match in the last couple of years, we could see with the fact that they played with clearly better team compared even with their team in Scania derby against Limhamn, and gold winning team in 2011...
However, we predicted exactly their team positions, and we tried to improve our odds, even if they were favourites anyhow....
To be fair it was very easy to predict, as one of their players allways plays with white pieces, on highest possible board (the rules are that you can move players two positions up and down), which did not leave much space to combine for their team captain.
Even if we originaly wanted to play with one of our GMs on that board, we decided to change it and we put very solid player there.
It was a good strategy as our lower rated player (compared to their player) got a draw with black.

Our strategy was successful on some other boards too.
On the first board we got very sharp position that could go either way, while on the fifth board we could get a full point with some luck.

They did +2 on the last three boards, as the difference in quality proved to be too big.

I played very bad on the third board, and I got inferior position early in the game.
I fought back later on, and even got the drawish endgame.
In one move I could even force a draw.
However I missed that possibility, and after horrible blunder in the last move, I was forced to resign.
Their chairman Calle Erlandsson, their team captain and president Daniel Semcesen and their four Grandmasters were good hosts and they showed a good style before, during and after the match.
I congratulate them on the victory.

However, playing venue was not the best possible as it was very little fresh air.
At the same time a match from some lower division was played in the same small local, and there were at least thirty spectators there together with thirty two players from four clubs.
I don´t know the reason why they putted so many people in such a small local, but I have the feeling that the majority of them (the spectators) has nothing to do with chess.

Here are the results from this weekend:

Matchresultat rond 5 Elitserien Allsvenskan 2013/14

				Limhamns SK		2458		-				Eksjö SK		2458		5½ - 2½
Bord 1:		GM		Jonny Hector		2582		-		GM		Pontus Carlsson		2597		½ - ½
Bord 2:		IM		Björn Ahlander		2521		-		GM		Jacek Gdanski		2574		0 - 1
Bord 3:		GM		Stellan Brynell		2549		-		GM		Allan Stig Rasmussen		2572		½ - ½
Bord 4:		IM		Christian Jepson		2471		-		IM		Jasmin Bejtovic		2459		1 - 0
Bord 5:				Stefan Schneider		2423		-				Michael De Verdier		2398		1 - 0
Bord 6:		FM		Linus Johansson		2425		-				Per Vernersson		2409		1 - 0
Bord 7:		FM		Philip Lindgren		2413		-		FM		Nedeljko Malesevic		2336		1 - 0
Bord 8:				Osmani Peñalver		2287		-		IM		Axel Ornstein		2324		½ - ½

*Highlighted Eksjö players was White

Matchresultat rond 6 Elitserien Allsvenskan 2013/14 Lunds ASK 2567 - Eksjö SK 2458 6 - 2 Bord 1: GM Hans Tikkanen 2631 - GM Pontus Carlsson 2597 1 - 0 Bord 2: GM Nils Grandelius 2642 - GM Jacek Gdanski 2574 ½ - ½ Bord 3: GM Sune Berg Hansen 2636 - IM Jasmin Bejtovic 2459 1 - 0 Bord 4: IM Axel Smith 2544 - Per Vernersson 2409 ½ - ½ Bord 5: IM Daniel Semcesen 2535 - GM Allan Stig Rasmussen 2572 ½ - ½ Bord 6: GM Tiger Hillarp Persson 2620 - FM Nedeljko Malesevic 2336 1 - 0 Bord 7: IM Jesper Hall 2547 - IM Axel Ornstein 2324 1 - 0 Bord 8: FM Sebastian Nilsson 2381 - Michael De Verdier 2398 ½ - ½

*Highlighted Eksjö players was White

...and here comes the table, but notice that some clubs still has to play sixth round.

Elitserien Allsvenskan 2013/14

			TABELL		SP		+		=		-		PP		MP
	1		Lunds ASK		6		5		1		0		32.5		11
	2		Eksjö SK		6		4		0		2		27.5		8
	3		SK Team Viking		5		4		0		1		27.0		8
	4		SK Rockaden, Sthlm		5		4		0		1		27.0		8
	5		Västerås SK		6		2		2		2		24.5		6
	6		Limhamns SK		5		2		2		1		22.0		6
	7		Farsta SK		5		2		0		3		19.5		4
	8		Burgsvik Alva SK		6		1		1		4		18.5		3
	9		Upsala ASS		5		0		0		5		10.0		0
	10		Örgryte SK		5		0		0		5		7.5		0

As you can notice, after the sixth round is completed, we can even finish on fifth place (Team Viking  and Rockaden plays against each other, and they will go over us, and if Limhamn wins with at least 5,5-2,5 against Örgryte, even them will go over us).

However, Limhamn, LASK, Rockaden and Team Viking has to play at least 2 matches against each other (Stockholms clubs even three), while Eksjö has only one top match against Rockaden (and two tricky matches against Västerås and Farsta).

It means that everything is possible in Malmö, 7th-9th March 2014.