Hans Tikkanen is Swedish Champion 2018

by Klaus Besenthal
7/10/2018 – The Swedish championship ended Sunday, in Ronneby, a small town in the south of the country. The night before, Grandmasters Tiger Hillarp Persson had shared the lead with Tikkanen, but after Tiger made a tactical misjudgment against Nils Grandelius, the way was cleared for Tikkanen. The new (and old!) Swedish champions also won their last games with Black - the win against Oskar von Bahr was Tikkanen's sixth win in the nine-round tournament. The final score: Tikkanen 7.0 / 9, Hillarp Persson and Grandelius 6.0 / 9. | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund
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Ronneby round-up

Hans Tikkanen led the tournament in Ronneby from the third round on, when he beat top seed Nils Grandelius. But it was far from a sure bet to the very end.

Tiger Hillarp Persson may have guessed that a draw in the final round against Grandelius would not be enough to win the title. However, his courageous and actually promising looking winning attempt failed, with the tournament on the line.

Grandelius

A win in the last round got Grandelius back to a second place tie | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

 
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1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 dxc4 4.Qa4+ Bd7 5.Qxc4 c5 6.Bg2 Bc6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Nc3 Nbd7 9.a4 Be7 10.d3 0-0 11.Qb3 Rc8 12.a5 Nd5 13.Nd2 Nb8 14.Nxd5 exd5 15.e4 dxe4 16.dxe4 b5 17.axb6 axb6 18.Nc4 b5 19.Ne3 c4 20.Qc2 Nd7 21.Rd1 Ra8 22.Rxa8 Qxa8 23.Nf5 Re8 24.b3 Bf8 25.bxc4 b4
The position looks quite clear after a brief glance, but this impression is deceptive. Black threatens to win the exchange with Ba4, but also Be4 is a threat. Finally, White must watch out for the further advance of the b4-pawn. From Black's point of view the question is whether White can manage to hold his extra pawn and consolidate an advantage in the long term. He must keep an eye on the knight on d7 and watch for threats to his king, especially on weak points at f7 and g7. 26.Bb2 Tiger sacrifices the exchange hoping to attack, but it doesn't work out in the end! 26.Qe2 or 26.Re1 would have kept things under control. 26...Ba4! 27.Qd2 Bxd1! Black is not impressed. 28.Qxd1 Or 28.Qxd7 Qd8! 28...Ne5! blocking the long diagonal of the b2 bishop and controlling the g4-square, White can forget about his attacking plans. 29.f4 This last attempt works out badly as it allows Black to counterattack. 29.Nd6 Re6! was better, but again the black advantage would have been clear. 29...Rd8 30.Qe2 Qa7+ 31.Kh1 Nd3! Threatening mate via Nf2+, etc. 32.h4 Or 32.Nh6+ Kh8! 32...Nxb2 33.Qxb2 g6 Wins a piece shortly. 34.Qf6 Rd1+ 35.Kh2 gxf5 36.Qxf5 This threatens Qg4+ followed by Qxd1 - even in a winning position you have to be on your guard! Qd7 37.Qg5+ Bg7 38.e5 h6 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Hillarp Persson,T2534Grandelius,N26680–12018A13SWE-ch 20189

As it turned out, Hans Tikkanen would have needed only a draw to become Swedish national champion for the fifth time. But his opponent also made a mistake that allowed Tikkanen to score the full point.

von Bahr vs Tikkanen

One more hurdle for Hans | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

 
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Nc5 b6 6.Nb3 e6 7.Nf3 Bd6 8.g3 h6 9.Bg2 Ne7 10.0-0 Nd7 11.Re1 Rc8 12.Nbd2 0-0 13.Nc4 Bb8 14.b3 c5 15.a4 Nc6 16.Ba3 Qf6 17.Ne3 Bh7 18.Qe2 Rfd8 19.d5 Nd4 20.Nxd4 cxd4 21.Bb2 e5 22.Nc4 Nc5 23.Rad1 Qf5
The assessment of the position remains difficult, but it's hard to believe White will have back-rank issues soon given the current position of his heavy pieces! 24.Nxe5 This looks good at first but it doesn't work out well. Both players had already invested a lot of energy into the calculation of specific variations. With 24.Rd2 White could make a good move here which would not have required much calculation. d3 25.cxd3 Nxd3 26.Red1= after this Black would not have made progress. But even this was possible: 24.d6 Qxc2 25.Qxe5 Nxb3 26.Rxd4! 24...Bxe5 25.Qxe5 Qxe5 26.Rxe5 Bxc2 27.Rxd4 Nd3! Perhaps White expected only 27...Nxb3= 28.Re2 Nxb2 29.Rdd2 It looks like White is getting his piece back... Bf5! 30.Be4 30.Rxb2 Rc1+ 31.Bf1 Bh3 would have led straight to mate. 30...Bh3 31.f4 31.Re1 Re8!-+ 31...Rc1+ 32.Kf2 Nd1+ The knight is saved! 33.Kf3 Nc3 34.Rf2 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Von Bahr,O2434Tikkanen,H24950–12018B18SWE-ch 20189

The Caro-Kann Powerbook 2018 is based on over 719 000 games, of which more than 690 000 come from the engine room on playchess.com.

Tikkanen said this in an interview with Jesper Hall right after the last round:

”My victory against Nils Grandelius was of course the key moment. That win in 3rd round established Hans Tikkanen’s super start in Swedish championships. But in the middle of the tournament one round was played much earlier. And that really disturbed me. Much more than I could have thought. I lost my rhythm. And it did not get better when Ronneby hade a noisy festival the whole night after...”

Tikkanen still managed to hold his lead right to the finish. His next big test will come at the Olympiad in Batumi.

”I am really glad that I managed to get one place in the team. I think Sweden will make a good result in the open section. We all played good chess here in Ronneby”, said the new champion.

Results of Round 9

 

Final standings

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All games

 
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Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

Ingemar Falk contributed reporting from Ronneby​

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Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

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