Hans Tikkanen is Swedish Champion 2011

Hans Tikkanen is Swedish Champion 2011

This year’s Swedish Championships has been a roller coaster ride, with plenty of exciting and hard fought games being played and an unusual low draw percentage. Jonny Hector took an early lead but then unexpectedly lost to Bengt Lindberg. After eight rounds of play Hector was in the lead with 6.0/8, followed by Lindberg and Hans Tikkanen, half a point behind. Lindberg was set for a GM norm – if he drew his final round game against Tikkanen. This is what happened in round nine, which was a real thriller:

Hector lost against Pontus Carlsson, who had offered him a draw very early in the game. Meanwhile Tikkanen beat Lindberg, which meant that Jonny Hector could bury his hopes of winning the tournament, and Bengt Lindberg his of getting a GM norm. The winner was Hans Tikkanen, who is the 2011 Swedish Champion.

Newly titled grandmaster Hans Tikkanen, who won the Swedish Championship

Final standings (after nine rounds)

Here's an important game Hans Tikkanen played in the penultimate round, annotated for us by Ari Ziegler.

• Click to download the game and analysis in PGN

Eric Vaarala is the winner of this year’s Junior Championship, playing top rated Inna
Agrest, daughter of the well known GM Evgenij Agrest

Berg Emanuel vs Bengt Lindberg in round six (draw in 49 moves)

Tiger Hillarp Persson analyzing with Westerberg Jonathan after their game

Club mates Hans Tikkanen and Nils Grandelius battling it out

Pia Cramling fought hard and was the only player to remain undefeated

Laid back Bengt Lindberg made a miracle escape against Tiger Hillarp Persson and
won in the endgame despite being an exchange down

Lindberg,Be (2391) - Hillarp Persson,T (2547) [B43]
ch-SWE Master Elite Vasteras SWE (7), 22.07.2011
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 b5 6.Bd3 Qb6 7.Nf3 Qc7 8.0-0 Bb7 9.Re1 Be7 10.e5 f5 11.a4 b4 12.Nb1 Nc6 13.Nbd2 Na5 14.Nd4 Nh6 15.N2f3 0-0 16.Bxh6 gxh6 17.Qd2 Kh8 18.Qxh6 Rg8 19.g3 Nc6 20.Nb3 Rg6 21.Qh5 Rag8 22.Rad1 Bf8 23.Be2 Ne7 24.Rd4 Bd5 25.Bd1 a5 26.Nh4 Rh6 27.Qf7 Qd8 28.Rxd5 Nxd5 29.Nxf5 Rhg6 30.Bh5 Rg5 31.Nfd4 Bg7 32.Qf3 Bxe5 33.Re4 Nf6 34.Rh4

34...Nxh5? Tiger (yep, and he isn't into golf!) should have played 34...Bxd4 35.Nxd4 Rf8 36.Qd1 Nxh5 37.Rxh5 Rxh5 38.Qxh5 Qf6 and the knight is lost. Black is a rook for a pawn up and will win quite easily. 35.Rxh5 Rxh5 36.Qxh5 Bxd4 37.Nxd4 Qf6 38.c3 bxc3 39.bxc3 e5 40.Nb3 Rb8 41.Nxa5 d5 42.Nc6 Rf8 43.Qxe5 Qxe5 44.Nxe5 Rc8 45.Kf1 Rxc3. Now Black has a rook for a knight and two pawns and a difficult win at best. 46.Ke2 Kg7 47.Nd3 Kf6 48.Ke3 Ke6 49.h4 Kd6 50.h5 Ra3 51.g4 Rxa4 52.f4 Re4+ 53.Kf3 Re8 54.g5 d4 55.Ne5 Kd5 56.Ng4 Kc4 57.g6 hxg6 58.hxg6.

58...Kc3? The "only" move to lose the game: Black could have played ...d3, ...Rg8, ...Rf8, ...Rd8, ...Ra8, ...Kc5 and other moves to hold the position. 59.f5 d3 60.g7 d2 61.Nf2 Kd4 (61...Kc2 is a better try but also loses) 62.f6 Re6 63.g8Q Rxf6+ 64.Ke2 Rxf2+ 65.Kxf2 1-0.

Photos by Stefan Alenius

There are a lot of video reports, lectures and analysis (in Swedish) on this page

Links Official tournament site All available games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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