Looking back at Deltalift Open

It is time for me to look back at this weekends venture; Deltalift Open. This year the tournament was staged in a truly magnificent hall (at Hotel Tylösand) of a kind that you seldom encounter at weekend tournaments. I wish I could say that I played well there, but I did not. It was only my second tournament this year and I had the feeling that I was not the only GM that was a bit out of practice. In the end the tournament was deservedly won by Emanuel Berg, who – although he put himself in a few less-than-enviable-positions – managed to navigate the obstacles better than anyone else. Some of his games are covered at Lars Grahn’s excellent blog (for you who speak Swedish) and I will not comment on them here. In Emanuel’s shadow the second place was shared between GM Stellan Brynell, the promising junior Linus Johansson and GM Ralf Åkesson. In my view Stellan played the games of the highest quality during the tournament. His sixth round game against the Norwegian IM Petter Haugli is a nice example of how to play with the bishop pair against a knight and bishop…

Board options

If you subscribe you can find another game on the theme of “bishop pair in the ending” under “coaching”.