Monthly Archives: July 2023

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.

On my way to the European Go Congress

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Tomorrow evening I will travel to Markkleeberg, a suburb of Leipzig, to participate in the Open European Championship (and play as much go as possible in twelve days). Usually I am unable to participate in go tournaments like this one, since they tend to collide with important chess events, so I have been looking forward to this for a long time. Last year I had planned to play in Vatra Dornei, in Romania, but it collided with the Chess Olympiad in Chennai, and I had to cancel.

We will be a small contingent from Malmö, with four players and one supporter. I will try to write and post games about every second day. My goal is – as usual – threefold: I want to play some good games, and preferably in a more solid style than i use to, and I would like to play some interesting and adventurous moves. Also, it would be nice to get above 2200 in rating, but it is only a side-goal, since good games will most certainly get me there.

I will take on new (chess) students in August. I charge 90EUR for 1½ hours online coaching, and if you want to give it a try I offer the first half an hour for free. I just discovered that the contact-button in WordPress does not work, and I will try to get it fixed shortly. In the mean time you can contact me through Messenger, or WhatsApp. I will keep a look out for new messages.

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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.