Category Archives: chess

European Go Congress, first rounds.

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Malmö go-club rarely see more than a handful of players on Wednesday evenings, so it is quite something that five of us are attending the European Go Congress:

Four of us have played in the tournament (so far), and our score is 5/8 after round 2.

Yesterday I won a hard fought game against a Japanese gentleman:

Today I was against a kid who played very fast, and well, in the beginning, but eventually I gained the upper hand. Then things got very complicated:

At the end of the game, I do not remember quite how, but I lost the ko, and cut off some of his stones at the bottom right instead. At the very end of the game, my opponent did not connect a ko, but played a dame-point instead, possibly because he was used to the chinese rule-set, and this allowed me to win the game with the smallest possible margin, 0,5 points.

European Go Congress, arrival

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We were three guys who took the night train from Copenhagen, through Hamburg, to Leipzig, and after some confusion about local transportation, we managed to get ourselves to the destination, Markkleeberg, just south of Leipzig. It is a far more beautiful and interesting place than the wikipedia article gave me reason to believe.

The first round of the open was played today, and Sweden had a reasonably good day: Fredrik Blomback won on board three, and much, much further down the list Victor Damberg, I, Marc Stoehr, and Roger Adamsson scored victories.

I tried to watch some of the others games. One of my compatriots got involved in a life-or-death fight after only a few moves, and I had to stop watching it, not to get drawn in too much. My opponent played solid and sensible, and my early try to complicate matters looked more like a tantrum than a well thought out strategy, but the eventually he backed off from complications one time too many, and I managed tomein with komi. I will post the game later.

Carlsbad Structure in the World Championship 2023

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Knowing the ideas and themes of basic structures, like the Carlsbad (the Hedgehog/Maroczy, the Stonewall, Isolated and Hanging pawn structures, etc.), makes it much easier to make the right decision in a sharp situation. I was a bit puzzled about some decisions during the 12:th game of the last World Ch. Match, between Ding Liren and Nepomniachtchi.

The last part of the game have probably been more seriously commented elsewhere. I wanted to focus on the Carlsbad part.

2:nd place in the Swedish Championship

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It took me half the tournament to come to my senses, but when I finally did, I played decently, and I also had a bit of luck. In the final round I misplayed a position that was slightly favorable for me, and then – in mutual time trouble – my opponent and I both missed an important detail on move 29 that could have decided the game in his favour:

With this win I ended up on second place after Vitalii Sivuk, who played significantly better than the rest of us.