Swedish Championship in Ronneby

Over a century of Swedish Champions

The Swedish Championships have a history going back to 1917. At this time, the championships were still held in match form and the first national champion was Gustav Nyholm, who had defeated Otto Loewenborg and Karl Berndtsson. Until 1938, there were national tournaments but they had no official status as championship tournaments. Only since 1939 has the championship been played as a tournament. Frequently, but not always, the names of the best Swedish players are among the winners of the championships: Gideon Stahlberg (first championship 1931), Gosta Stoltz or Erik Lundin. Ulf Andersson won the title only once, in 1969.

The 2018 Swedish Individual Championship takes place from June 30th to July 8th. Ten players take part in the round-robin, including most of the top Swedish players, like Nils Grandelius, Tiger Hillarp Persson and Pia Cramling. The Average rating is 2495. That also happens to be the rating of the leader through three rounds, Hans Tikkanen, who also won the last championship in 2017.

The host of the tournament is the Hotel Ronneby Brunn in the far south of the country, close to the Baltic Sea.

The Championship tournament is traditionally embedded in a large chess festival, alongside other tournaments for various rating groups.

Fighting against the Caro-Kann with the Advance Variation

The Caro-Kann Defence is one of the most solid replies for Black after 1.e4. Bologan's choice of the Advance Variation for White is because of the complex strategical play in which White has a long-term space advantage.

Tikkanen scored 2½ points in the first three rounds, among them an important win against Nils Grandelius, the top seed. Tikkanen put up a tough defence in an unpleasant position which emerged from the Caro-Kann Advance variation and later won the endgame.

Play through the moves on the live diagram

White played 19.Bd7 and is considerably better. But after exchanging on c3 with 19...Bxc3 20.Bxc3 Rc7, Grandelius could have kept strong pressure with 21.gxf6 gxf6 22.Ba4.

Instead, 21.Bc1 allowed Tikkanen to eliminate the bone on d7 with an exchange sacrifice 21...Rxd7 and hang on for a few moves until Grandelius gave him a further opening to equalise:

25...g5! 26.Qe5 g4! got Black back into the game with gusto.

Pia Cramling, the only woman in the field, has had a difficult start. Together with Erik Blomqvist, she still graces the bottom of the table with ½ a point. Against Jonny Hector, Cramling missed a win:

With 21...e3 Black could win here. On 22.Re1 there would follow 22...Bg2. Instead Black played 21...Bd5 and had nothing.

Standings after three rounds

Rk.		Name	Rtg.	Nt.	Pts.	n	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	TB	Perf.
1	GM	Tikkanen,H GM Tikkanen,H 2495 1 GM Smith,A 2491 ½ 2 GM Westerberg,J 2517 1 3 GM Grandelius,N 2668 1 Ø 2559 2.5/3	2495		2.5	3					1	½		1			3.75	2832
2	GM	Hillarp Persson,T GM Hillarp Persson,T 2534 1 IM Seo,J 2347 ½ 2 GM Hector,J 2499 ½ 3 GM Cramling,P 2452 1 Ø 2433 2/3	2534		2.0	3			½	½						1	2.50	2558
3	IM	Seo,J IM Seo,J 2347 1 GM Hillarp Persson,T 2534 ½ 2 GM Blomqvist,E 2505 1 3 IM Von Bahr,O 2434 ½ Ø 2491 2/3	2347		2.0	3		½					½		1		2.00	2616
4	GM	Hector,J GM Hector,J 2499 1 GM Cramling,P 2452 1 2 GM Hillarp Persson,T 2534 ½ 3 GM Blomqvist,E 2505 ½ Ø 2497 2/3	2499		2.0	3		½							½	1	1.75	2622
5	GM	Grandelius,N GM Grandelius,N 2668 1 GM Blomqvist,E 2505 1 2 IM Von Bahr,O 2434 1 3 GM Tikkanen,H 2495 0 Ø 2478 2/3	2668		2.0	3	0						1		1		1.50	2603
6	GM	Smith,A GM Smith,A 2491 1 GM Tikkanen,H 2495 ½ 2 GM Cramling,P 2452 ½ 3 GM Westerberg,J 2517 ½ Ø 2488 1.5/3	2491		1.5	3	½							½		½	2.00	2488
7	IM	Von Bahr,O IM Von Bahr,O 2434 1 GM Westerberg,J 2517 ½ 2 GM Grandelius,N 2668 0 3 IM Seo,J 2347 ½ Ø 2511 1/3	2434		1.0	3			½		0			½			1.50	2386
8	GM	Westerberg,J GM Westerberg,J 2517 1 IM Von Bahr,O 2434 ½ 2 GM Tikkanen,H 2495 0 3 GM Smith,A 2491 ½ Ø 2473 1/3	2517		1.0	3	0					½	½				1.25	2348
9	GM	Blomqvist,E GM Blomqvist,E 2505 1 GM Grandelius,N 2668 0 2 IM Seo,J 2347 0 3 GM Hector,J 2499 ½ Ø 2505 0.5/3	2505		0.5	3			0	½	0						1.00	2232
10	GM	Cramling,P GM Cramling,P 2452 1 GM Hector,J 2499 0 2 GM Smith,A 2491 ½ 3 GM Hillarp Persson,T 2534 0 Ø 2508 0.5/3	2452		0.5	3		0		0		½					0.75	2235
TBs: Sonneborn-Berger

Live games and commentary of Round 4

 

Live:

New ...

New Game

Edit Game

Setup Position

Open...

PGN

FEN

Share...

Share Board (.png)

Share Board (configure)

Share playable board

Share game as GIF

Notation (PGN)

QR Code

Layout...

Use splitters

Swipe notation/lists

Layout Settings

Flip Board

Settings

0:00:00

0:00:00

Waiting for game...

Move	N	Result	Elo	Players

Replay and check the LiveBook here

Please, wait...

• Start an analysis engine:
• Try maximizing the board:
• Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
• Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
• Drag the split bars between window panes.
• Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
• Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
• Create an account to access the games cloud.

St	White	EloW	Black	EloB	Res	Rnd	id

	Brezis,A	2242	Medovoy,Y	2129		5.5	1517405
	Uritsky,Y	2301	Tashkinova,S	2088		5.1	1517400
	Menahem,A	2170	Meirovich,I	2233		5.2	1517401
	Orian,N	2184	Vagman,R	2437		5.3	1517402
	Milikow,E	2390	Pevzner,M	2167		5.4	1517403
	Zakin,I	2254	Vardi,D	2049		5.1	1517375
	Gurevich,N	2048	Sason,N	2075		5.1	1517366
	Kirsch,Y	1957	Sternfeld,T	1943		5.1	1517389
	Shemer,O	1706	Tsairof,O	-		5.1	1517356
	Shefer,U	2265	Afek,I	2057		5.2	1517391
	Shilon Rahav,E	2189	Weber,Y	2159		5.2	1517378
	Mankovich,Y	1643	Salman,J	1701		5.2	1517357
	Azoulay,Y	2148	Levy,O	1812		5.3	1517392
	Sapir,O	1746	Hanein,A	2027		5.3	1517380
	Bloom,Y	1478	Brodsky,I	-		5.3	1517358
	Golan,O	2028	Birka,E	2139		5.4	1517393
	Gavriel,A	1840	Dayan,Y	1765		5.4	1517382
	Belkovsky,G	2067	Zakin,L	1819		5.2	1517367
	Brenner,E	1696	Triger,E	1978		5.3	1517368
	Jakobs,Y	1850	Cohen,D	1722		5.4	1517369
	Abrahamyan,T	2310	Lee,A	2386		3.2	1279479

Retrieving games ...

Load selected games

Clear

Select games

• Chat
• Guess

Chat And Info

Click here to login with your free ChessBase Account and type chat below.

Move List

ChessBase Account Premium annual subscription

At the airport, in the hotel or at home on your couch: with the new ChessBase you always have access to the whole ChessBase world: the new ChessBase video library, tactics server, opening training App, the live database with eight million games, Let’s Check and web access to playchess.com

Commentary in Swedish

All games

Translation from German and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson

Links

• Official site
• Stories on the Swedish Championship