Monthly Archives: March 2014

European Team Championship of Go

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Sweden vs. Finland, that classical ice hockey match, was lately played on a quite different turf; the go board. I get the feeling that Sweden won the match, but I have not been able to corroborate it. The go media still seems obscure to me. However, yesterday evening I followed this exciting go game between two of the strongest Nordic players Antti Törmänen and Fredrik Blomback (part of the above mentioned match). So, there we are again. I’m trying to make sense of a go game played between two players much stronger than myself. Feel free to either laugh or enjoy:

So, Fredrik Blomback won. I have earlier recommended Antti Törmänen’s excellent homepage “Go of Ten” and now he has posted a very interesting thesis, “Building a Human Master”, dealing with “how expertice is developed” in chess and go. Ought to be interesting stuff.

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Regressing further on the last topic.

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So, continuing where I left off last: After four hours we were leading 3-2 with hopes of getting 1½ out of the last games. Thorbjörn Bromann had a splendid season on board 6 and as it turned out he got to seal our opponents’ fate:

This result meant that we only needed a draw on the last board, where Nikolaj Palm was a pawn up in a rook endgame and only had to ask for it. With this draw we became the champions (and Nikolaij our top scorer which is what the next entry will be about).

”It was a team effort”

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Seldom has this phrase felt more comfortable in my mind than when I reflect on how my Danish Team, Brönshöj Skakförening, won the Danish Elite Division (Xtra-con ligaen) last weekend. In the end it came down to a half point difference between us and the runner up, but it was not clear who would win until the last moment.

Before the last round we were half a point behind Skanderborg, the team we were to play and who beat us in a similar situation last year. We had to score 4½-3½ and we did. So how come we won? Due to a detail here and a detail there? Luck? Because of outstanding personal performances? Well, partly yes on all three counts, but most of all because we could rely on one another. In my case that meant that I did not play for a win with Black against Mads Andersen like a complete idiot (like I did last year), but rather kept the game going, trying to figure how the other games went. After an early draw on board 5, we were the first team to get a whole point:

A little later I accepted a repetition of moves seeing that my team seemed to be doing well all over the line. After four hours we were leading 3-2 with hopes of getting 1½ out of the last games. To be continued…

Brilliancy Prize, Guernsey 2013.

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With the book taking up most of my energy lately, my page has been collecting digital dust. But, that will change from now on. First out: a brilliancy prize, since – during the last four years (or so) – I have been asked to judge the brilliancy prize at the Guernsey Chess Festival. In 2013 the prize was won by Jude Lenier and then, last year, it was won by Jude Lenier once more. I believe I did not have much of a choice and hereby present you with the evidence:

A real party game.