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.