Category Archives: chess

Swedish Team Championship 2025-2026

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Playing on a team is one of the greatest joys of being a chess player, and playing badly for a team kills most of that joy. This season my club, Växjö Chess Club, was relegated from the Swedish first division, and I wish I had been able to do more to stop it from happening. It will be part of my “why” when I try to up my game in the coming year; to be able to do better next season.

There were lots of interesting games played in the last three rounds, and I often found myself thinking that a certain position would be a good starting point for explaining some aspect of chess. When analysing the game below, I was reminded of how difficult chess is, and how important it is to have enough time left at critical moments:

Chess is hard. I would not like to have it otherwise.

Swedish Championship. Not so happy game.

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At the end of the tournament my energy was low, and I lost two games where my sense of danger completely abandoned me. This is one of those.

Swedish Championship. Happy game.

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In round five I played Hampus Sörensen, who I considered to be a top candidate to win the championship. I had to win with Black, I felt, so it was back to my old love, the King’s Indian Defence, and this time it delivered.

Swedish Championship 2025

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I have not published anything since the European Go Congress, last year, and the main reason why I have posted nothing about chess, is that I have been unhappy with my game. Sometimes I play badly, but worse – when I play well – I do not have the energy to finish the games. Immediately after the Chess Olympiad, in Budapest, last autumn, I told the team captain of the Swedish national team that I would not play for Sweden in 2025. There is more than one problem with my play that I have to deal with, but the main issue has been that I need to get in better physical form. It is a hard fact. My playing style takes a lot of energy, and it is mentally tiring to loose games due to lack of energy.

I finally feel that I am on the right track, and so it is time to write again.

The Swedish Championship did not go well for me, but I played some decent games, which is more than I have been able to say in a while. I tried to push my opponents to the limit in every game, and in the end I did not play a single draw. I will at least put that on the success account.

I lost two games in the middle of the tournament were I just ran out of energy. I had the initiative for a long time, and when I finally “forced a draw”, it turned out that there were some problems left for me, and I succumbed to them almost instantly.

I will post one of my games later on, but first I recommend you to play through this entertaining game, played between two youngsters in the Master-Elite group: