I started to play Chess at clublevel in 1997 at the age of 16. I did not play in tournaments outside Eskilstuna, except team matches and Mälardalensmästerskapen 2000, until after 2012.
I started out as a hyper aggresive attacking player but later I developed a more positional style.
I increased much in rating and playing strength when I started to study Everymans "Move by Move" series about individual players. An other factor is that I switched openings towards more practical and managable lines. My favorite openings are the universal Spanish Four Knights and Open Sicilian with white and the Nimzo Indian with black.
Sometimes I give lectures at Eskilstuna SK and show either opening theory or some games from a given old master. I have also been assisting junior trainer.
I study a lot of chess by reading lots of books about openings, biographes, tournament books and World Championship match books. I also like to watch DVDs about either openings or individual players.
I got a Correspondence Chess title, CCE (Correspondence Chess Expert) in 2021 and the higher title CCM (Correspondence Chess Master) in 2023.
My most memorable tournament was in Eskilstuna Chess Championship 2022 where I got 2nd place.
The club created some prices in club events that was played online during Corona.
The toughest top 3 place was in the event was Eskilstuna Chess champonship 2011 where I got 3rd place. I also got 3rd place in Eskilstuna Chess championship 2023.
I got 2nd place in our club championship in online Chess 2022.
I have made tests at different sites and my style and approach to Chess if often called "Natural like Anand". Anand is the only World champion that has became World champion in different formats. He won one of FIDE:s Knockout World championships, he won a Round Robin World champion tournament, he won it in classical World champion match play and has also defended hes title in classical World champion match play untill Magnus Carlsen became World champion.
While my style of play reminds mostly of Anand, I have also some things in common with Karpov, maybee a mix of 60% Anand and 40% Karpov. My opening repertour is also almost like a mix between these two players openings depending on concrete position and both players play Nimzo Indian and Queens Indian with black and Ruy Lopez and Open Sicilian with white, even if they play different concrete systems vs Sicilian.
Young me at chessboard. Photo by Eva Bragesjö.
I sometimes play Correspondence Chess team matches for Team Sweden. Note that all team matches are rated, including friendly matches. I completed 20 games before I lost my first game for Team Sweden.
I played for Team Sweden in match vs Finland at Lichess in rapid Chess when Team Sweden won.
As playing Team Captain I played for Team Sweden in the Lichess based 8 nations blitz event Battle of Baltic sea where Team Sweden won almost every time.
This entire section was written as a blogg during Corona pandemic, I made a few minor updates since then. When Corona pandemic was over the Swedish divisons closed down and online events are over for Eskilstuna, out last only club event online was Eskilstuna SK club championship in online Chess 2022 where I got 2nd place. We still play for Sodermanland SF in many different team matches instead. Battle of Baltic seas still plays on and I sometimes play for other teams as well. I have become a much better player thanks to all online events, at some point there was only matches almost everyday of the week and I sometime played two matches same day. When Corona pandemic was over the Swedish Chess fedaration created there own online event at Chess.com, as site I refuse to play at becouse bad layuout, commercials and large problems with cheating and sandbagging.
I play bullet games, blitz games, rapid games and Correspondence Chess games online at Lichess where I am a Patron. The site if completly free and has cheating detectors. Link to my profile. I originally created an acount there in order to play for my club in online team matches.
The online team matches was started by private initatives during 2020 Corona crisis that made it impossible to play team matches or even normal club play. The success spinned off so many clubs created there own online events as well at Lichess.
I have both won and plays draws vs titled players multiple times in these online team events. I have also become Eskilstuna SK:s best scorer or shared best scorer mutiple times in several different team events in both blitz and rapid time controls. I also use the free tactical training and plays none team games as well.
I also played for Team Sweden in a large Arena event match vs Finland in rapid Chess where it was a top 10% scorer of the entire event that Sweden won. It used 20 leaders.
I also played for Team Sweden in "The Battle of the Baltic Sea" divisions, gigiantic blitz Arena events with 9 countrys teams and 20 leaders. I became playing Team Captain from round 2 and forward. Later Russia was banned from event and number of leaders later deceased to 6 as interest dropped as well, Swedish Chess Federation stopped writing about it no matter how many mails I send.
Swedish championship in blitz 2021 was played at Lichess as well. But they picked a stupid date, they choose the same day as our team played in "Lichess liga", where out team was the best Swedish team, and I was woried of how it would effect the team as several players like me played in Swedish championship in blitz instead. I had a bad event, I manage to lose 4 games I had a winning advantage in as well as blunder a way a draw to a lose and also managed to blunder away an additional win to a draw that I almost lost in.
Later on the Swedish Chess federation created "Svenska Schackligan" at Chess.com. I refuse to play in the events as long as it is a Chess.com. The event is an individual event and not a team event. The event has price money. Chess.com has lots of "sandbagging" problemes etc etc and pairing program always go by rating, not points actually scored in the event. I would take forever to create an account there as well and to play up rating to get decent pairing. Most Swedish players plays at Lichess. Its as stupid as when Norways Chess Federation wanted a match vs Sweden and they hade created there own Chess platform and wanted it played there when the site did not even works on smartphones so Norway won big since most Swedish players refused to create an account to play 4(!) blitz games and to play up matching rating to got right pairing.
I tried a few Correspondence Chess games at Lichess as well. It has other rules than International Correspondence Chess Federation. Opening books are allowed but not Chess engines. No tablebases claims are allowed. One can also not play up time one always has for example 3 days for every move. Start Elo is set to 1500 so it takes ages to get decent Elo and is irrateting, it should at least by Rapid elo as start elo.
Its much faster time and thus more fun but not serious Chess since opening books are allowed but can use computer evaluations in it and engines are not allowed or tablebase claims. Thus i prefere ICCF, where I have a CCE title that Lichess refuses to add to before my handle.
Eskilstuna SK has arranged some club events at Lichess. We started events there becouse of the 2020 Corona crisis. I have for example got 3rd place at "Eskilstunamästerskapet i Blixt Arena 2020" (city championship in blitz Chess and historys very first Eskilstuna Championship in online Chess) and 3rd place at "KM i snabb Schack 2020" (club championship in rapid Chess).
I also got 2nd place in KM i Blixt 2021 (Eskilstuna SK club championship in blitz 2021) . It was played the same play as Sweden vs Greece in Football/Soccer so small event.
I got 2nd place in "Eskilstuna SK club championship in online Chess 2022" .
I have played in for Eskilstuna SK in several online events like for example both "Swedish Chess Team Battle" and "Swedish Rapid Chess" at Lichess. "Swedish Chess Team Battle" was the first national club teams event and was quickly followed by "Swedish Rapid Chess" that was started by some other plays since they wanted more real Chess. Both events where started by private initiatives and federation had nothing to do with them.
I have been Eskilstuna SK:s best scorer and both won or played draws vs titled players mutiple times in these events and also some other events that evolved from these events and replaced them. Click here to see to events I played in. It does not show Swiss events for some reason.
I have met players I in normal cases never get to chance to play against like both IM:s and GM:s. I one rapid game I even met GM Amin Bassem, an elite GM from Egypt who has 2700 in FIDE elo. I have never been so outplayed my entire life. I also met several strong players that plays or played in Swedish Elite group at Swedish championships including former Swedish champions like GM Ralf Åkesson, IM Dan Cramling , IM Michael Wiedenkeller and IM Axel Ornstein. IM Axel Ornstein is the record holder in winning Swedish Championships.
I also have also had the honor of meeting Swedish Correspondence Chess GM Ingvar Carlsson in lots of games were I currently has a slight plus score but that can change anytime.
Several of the events uses divisions but they are completly unrelated thus teams can be in completly different divisons in each event.
The first times the events was played 2 teams went up and down every week but after a while it turned into complete seasons with a scoring system based on the teams position in the event. Between the seasons there was originally also 2 teams up and down 2 times.
To play for a team one had to be a member or be a secondary member of a club in the event. Later on many clubs in elite divisions sort of cheated by systematically adding strong foreign players like GM:s and IM:s who had never played for them before and totally lacked connection to the club. To compete Eskilstuna in turn added some local district players as secondary members but they was normal club players whose club was to small to play in the divisions but and was often not high rated, often rated bellow most of our clubs players.
One gets new opponents untill a short time of the events game time is left. However the points to the team are only counted if the games are completed before the events closing time. I often took more points than the team got since oppponents would not give up or take a draw in a dead draw position untill the time was completed. However rating is counted never the less but the game are is not counted as a game played in the event, it is counted like an independent game.
The original "Swedish Chess Team Battle" was a 3 minutes blitz online event with several divisions that was played none stop for 1,5 hours. In the original "Swedish Chess Team Battle" one could also enter "Berserker mode" directly when the game starts. At the cost of half of the clocks time the team gets more points for both win and draw.
The original "Swedish Chess Team Battle" was played without any increment and the sportsmanship level was terrible low. I lost several games on time more than 2 Queens ahead and mating play or Rook up and mate in 3. Other players has mention that they lost on time in drawn pure Rook vs Rook endgames. The time used was 3 minutes total time are actually not even rated blitz according to FIDE definition. FIDE definition is more than 3 minutes per player but less than 10 minutes per player. If increment is used the total game time per player must still be more than 3 minutes and less than 10 minutes after 60 moves.
This means that according to FIDE definition 3 minutes without increment and 2 minutes start time + 1 bonus second per move are the same time. This combined with "Berserker mode" and low sportsmanship level gave the event the nickname "Humiliation Chess" at social media.
"Swedish Rapid Chess" is about the same "Swedish Chess Team Battle" but is more serios Chess where time used the first times the event was played was 8 minutes start time + 2 seconds per move thus more sportsmanship and better Chess and no "Berserker mode". 8 minutes start time + 2 seconds per move is also within FIDEs definition of rapid play since it is 10 minutes per player if increment is added 60 times. In season 2 they change time control to 10 start time + 2 bonus seconds per move and nobody knows why. Eskilstunas team got 2nd place in the elite division the first time the event was played.
Eskilstuna SK was the only team that has played in elite division of Swedish Rapid Chess every time from the start and the 5 first seasons, including when there was pre season mode and qualifying rounds and teams went up and down every week before the season started. We almost got eliminated during one of the pre seasons qualifying rounds but the site detected that one of the players in one team had cheated so that team got degraded instead. We also almost got degraded in 4th season before the seasons final event started but we managed to get a very good score since we managed to mobilize more players than usual. I became the teams best scorer in the final event.
But the invitable happend and we was degraded after seasons 5. One reasons was the high number of "best scorer in the event" that makes in impossible for small clubs like Eskilstuna to compete fair and it finally took is toll. And one other reason are no bonus points for winning mutiple games in a row that in theory can compensate for fewer strong players.
We has the chance to stay in the final round. When the round before was completed it looked like we had nothing to play for. But it turned out that one player from one of the better and largest teams had cheated, the site detected this. So we had the chance but I am not shure every player understood that since many of our better players did not show up and we got last place in the final event. In Seasons 5 the event was played under Swedish Chess Federations flag. We will try to return to elite divison again, hopefully the lower divisons can make more players willing to play.
Eskilstuna was promotion back into elite division dispite not winning the 2nd division since the admin changed the number of teams in each division. There are however 10 leaders thus hard for us to compete. Its even worse since interest from out clubs players has dropped. A new play off mode was also added for the best teams after 4 rounds with semi finals and a final.
In session 10 they made the admin changed "Swedish Rapid Chess" so that this seasson every team played in the same massive division to celebrate 10 season anniversary. The event was called "SRCB Jubileumsturnering" and after 5 weeks season it will lead playoffs or qualifications for some teams. The teams place after the seasons determents the teams division the next season. They events total times was also increased to 2,5 hours. I became shared best scorer first time, winning over a FM and drawing an IM.
Eskilstuna quelified to play off to reach elite division. I became Eskilstunas best scorer and 5th best scorer of all teams but it was still not enugh so we got into division 2 instead the season after. The event was 3 hours event thus way to much for most players. The very same day and time Sweded play in Europan Championship in football/soccer so many enter the event late and some not att all.
Eskilstuna played in division 2 in the new season that started after "Jubileumsturnering". I became our team 2nd best scorer and played draws vs a FM and an untitled player who played has played in "Mästarelit" in Swedish Championships whos has FIDE Elo to get a FM title but newer applied and bought the title. I won over a extremly high rated player in the next event who was highest rated in the event. I also won over a FM in third round and I got several wins and draw vs many high rated players. I won vs some players on pure luck in a 4th round. Eskilstuna managed to promote back to elite divsion without need of qulifications after 2nd places in every rounds in the seasons.
Win gives 2 points to the team and draw 1 point. One mets new opponents after every game with about the same score as one self, but one can get the same opponents more than once in the same event, including with the same side. In the the first season of "Swedish Chess Team Battle" and "Swedish Rapid Chess" each team can have as many players as one likes but only the 8 highest scoring players points are the teams total points. In season 2 they changed it to 10 highest scoring players in "Swedish Chess Team Battle" and 12(!) best scorers in "Swedish Rapid Chess".
Draw rules and points are a bit different. To play a draw 10 moves or shorter gives no point to the team. If a player has several draws in row only the first one will give points to the team unless the game was at least 30 moves. The draw rate is only reset by a win, not a draw or a lose. I personaly think the draw rules are silly since normal Chess events has no such rules.
The scoring system is designed for quick wins, particullary in events with bonus points. Sometimes a player can become a teams best scorer dispite losing many games thus giving away way more points that they took.
Team member do not play against each other. In the first season of "Swedish Chess Team Battle" and "Swedish Rapid Chess" one also got bonus points for winning several games in a row. However in "Swedish Rapid Chess" the bonus was removed in session 2.
The reason why bonus was removed was some clubs foreing GM:s and IM:s got bonus points after bonus points and there was only a few teams that had this type of players. Our team used only local players. However in combination with adding the scores towards 12 player to rule out the effect of bonus point after bonus point makes it virtual impossible for smaller clubs that only used local players like Eskilstuna SK to compete since we usually never gets more than 8 players including the lower rated. While we did not have any GM:s or IM:s who got bonus points, I am 2 other top players often got relative high bonus points, not the level as some GM:s or IM:s but slightly higher than the other none titled players in the other clubs.
We was a top team in Swedish Rapid Chess elite division with the original rules but with the new rules we became a bottom team fighting from getting degraded from elite division and the invitalbe finally happed after 5 seasons. For a while we was even considering to leaving the division play completly in protest if we got degraded. Later the numbers of players total points changed into 10 players, still higher than the original who used to be 8 players.
The original "Swedish Chess Team Battle" was later evolved into "Blixt-Liga". The time control used and "Berserker mode" on or off and bonus points rules changed every week. We started in lowever division and also played in highest. Every week 2 teams went up and down.
Later "Blixt-Liga" was closed down and a new admin took over and created "Allsvenskan Lagmatch" who was later renamed into "Lagblixt Lagmatch". We played in the elite division the first time it was played. I won over several titled playes but we got degraded never the less and promoted the week after that. The time used was 3 minutes start time + 2 bonus seconds extra per move = real blitz according to FIDE definition. The event both allowed "Berserk mode" and used bonus points for winning several games in a row. 2 teams went up and down every week. Later time control changed into 3 minutes start time + 1 seconds bonus per move.
I played for Eskilstuna SK in "Swedish Summer Open 2020 Lagmatch". The rules was similar to Swedish Rapid Chess. Our team got 3rd place despite that we only had 6 players when 10 best players per teams scores counted like most teams had like the two above us and most teams bellow us. I got shared best score in my team with no loses but my team mate got ranked above becouse he won more games and played a game more. He also lost a game. I also won over a titled player.
I also played for Eskilstuna SK in "Mogens Hygge Lagmatch". The time control was 3 minutes start time + 2 bonus seconds extra per move = real blitz according to FIDE definition. The rules was also that one had played at least 10 rated games before. I did not play very good but still no dissaster but I had many piece blunders. I did however win over a FM in a game that did not count since time for the event had runt out. "Berserker mode" was possible to use. It used 6 players as the team total score.
I could not play for Eskilstuna SK in "Mälardalsmästerskapet Lagblixt 2020" becouse on family matters. But I played in "Mälardalsmästerskapet Lagblixt 2021" where I was Eskilstunas shared 2nd best scorer. It was similar to Swedish Chess Team Battle but only 4 best scorers count since many clubs in the district are small and the time used 3 minutes start time + 2 bonus seconds extra per move = real blitz according to FIDE definition. "Berserker mode" has also been turned off since we do not think it belongs to Chess. Our club got 2nd place. I also played for Eskilstuna in "Mälardalsmästerskapet Lagblixt 2022" and our team won the event and I became Eskilstunas best scorer.
After a long down time "Swedish Chess Team Battle" was reborn as simply "Swedish Chess" season 3 with the original events divisions and teams start placement was like when the last season was closed down by the admin. They did not even add qulifications rounds like last time like nothing changed to the teams during the summer. Thus teams are stuck in the same division for a 5 week season before a new season starts. We maneged to advance into a higher divisons in a very close and tought division.
This time the event is officially played under the Swedish Chess Federations flags. It also came with new rules. The time controls changed into 3 minutes start time + 1 bonus second per move = real blitz according to FIDE definition. Swedish Chess Federation pretends that the rules are identical in an promotion article in the magazine "Tidskrift för Schack". The numbers of best scorers that are the teams total points are different in different divisions, the higher division the more players results count. This is silly becouse if a team wins a season and goes up a division they will probebly be short of players so they will likely get down a division the next season.
After a long down time "Swedish Chess Team Battle" was reborn after a long downtime. The numbers of teams in each division has increased and the lowest division was removed. We play in the middle division.
Rules are changed as well. Timecontrol is 3 minutes + 2 bonus seconds per move = both real blitz according to Fide and also Swedish championship standard. However it uses 10 best scorers points as the teams score and its way to high for smaller clubs to compete fair, partcullary for Eskilstuna since out clubmembers interest to play online has dropped a lot.
Later a new admin took over and the timecontrol changed everytime week. Sometimes the event was real blitz according to FIDE definition and sometimes not since timecontrol was not more than 3 minutes per player and game. Increment addes total times by 60 moves. The event was however never more than 10 minutes or more in total this thus it was never rapid but rather bullet.
Playoff rules and play up division and play down division rules also changed.
The event uses 10 best scorers points as the teams score and its way to high for smaller clubs to compete fair, partcullary for Eskilstuna since out clubmembers interest to play online has dropped a lot. It also looks like most clubs has this problem, the event appears to have lost attraction in every clubs in entire Sweden, even the larger clubs has fewer players than usual but at any rate they always gets at least 10 players.
An other factor that has accured are that more and more teams break the official rules by not only using members or secondary members in Swedish national federations clublists of members as team members in the matches. Most teams do so since inetrest to play in online team matches has dropped incredible much for every team in every division, including in rapid divisions as well when I think about it.
Our team, Eskilstuna, is one of the few who plays by the book rules and only uses Swedish national federations clublists registered members or secondary members and thus others can not join our online team. Many teams are short of players, including those who breaks the rules. Even with unregistrered players the teams are short of players and number of leaders has been set way to high to match it and the dropping interest.
For example two of the top teams in blitz elite division, Luleå and Rockaden Umeå was using an incredible number of unregistrerated players, they used more players who played in the Final than they had registrered players in Swedish Chess Federation register, including secondary members. In order to play the rules said that they must be registered as members or seconday members for that club and it does not mean the online team it means the real existing club. Both teams used lots strong foreign high rated GMs and other players without registering them in Swedish Federations playing register and also added former members without registration them in Swedish Federations playing register as club member or as secondary members.
I have talked to a friend from Västerås and he said that the Federation told them connection was enought and did not have to registered as members or secondary members. This means that Federation tells difference rules to different teams. Therefore I do not recognize any of the winners of any events as real winners, I call them cheaters and I call Swedish Chess Fedration corrupt. We even registered members who did no payed membership for the seasons to get players and we spend time on registration of other clubs members in our dictrict as secondary memebers to allow them to play in the events. If they had registered the players I would not have called it cheat since it cost money to register players I would call it buy the win instead. Luleå and Rockaden Umeå has many that works for Swedish Chessfederation and many players from these club are members of board at Swedish Chess federation and theire team leaders are also members in the rules board.
Maybee the Chess federation are corrupt and tolerates them cheating for that is what it is and that why they won the final or got high place, pure cheat and nothing else. These clubs are however only the tip of the iceberg or all cheating clubs. Many teams even used more players in the final event than they has registred players in total so cheating is a bit to obius without even having to look at the names. I belive that at least 1/3 of all clubs used one or more unregistreted players, but I am no expert or have looked at actually numbers. Linköping also used lots a strong foreign GM:s adn other players but I think they at least registrated them in Swedish Federations register but still they more or less bought a victory in the final (anniversary season) since thiere regular players scored much lower than theire "soldier of fortune" players.
Rules on both tournamnets cleary said must be registrered members at Swedish Chess federation maybee Swedish Chess federation changed the rules to help them cheat so so member of team list instead of member of club list that was orignaly rules. We have a Finnish player in out team but he payed us so we registrated him. Many dont want to pay membership fees to play in online teams thus interests drops while some teams seems to use different rules.
Many clubs has such troubles in getting players that those few teams that gets 10 players gets an unfair advantage that if was football/soccer they would by playing a final match with something illegal like 3 extra forwards at once combined with also using 2 goal keepers at once or if it was Icehockey the cheating teams would get eternal 6-3 powerplay as well as having two extra goalkeepers at once.
When the online divisions and team online club events started most of out clubs players created acounts at Lichess and joined our team (Eskilstuna SK) and sometimes also Sodermanlands SF team.
In the beggining everyone played. However after some weeks many dropped of completly or rarely played at all. And the dropped out rate has increased even more for every months. Maybee it became to many matches with both Eskilstuna and Sodermanland?
Other plays in the some of the events, but not every event, and drops of after only playing in the event for half time time or sometimes even less and plays none team games instead. Others joines the events very late and only plays about 1/4 of the events time.
Some of our clubs players still has active accounts and plays in normal chess games at the site but not in team events or in our online club events anymore. Some players even plays online blitz games the very same time as we are playing online blitz team matches but they refuse to join the team.
The online games divisions was perhaps more hyped and exiting when it was a new concept, now most in our club are hoping that Corona crisis will be over so we can actually play real over the board chess and see human opponents.
After pandemic was Swedish Lichess blitz and rapid divisions was closed down do to lack of interest. An other reason was the "Svenska Schackligan" at Chess.com are promoted with price money but I only heard negative things about the site in everything from adversisment, unworking cheat detection, sandbagging problems, bad pairing system and difficult to navigate the site. 3 players was cought sandbagging to win price money in lower class and federation are closing it down but everyone now at least one of the names, a former federation chairman was name is even mention about this scandal in normal newspapers including in Norway, and that two others was FIDE arbiters.
In my first team match events I was ended up in the middle of of the team. I saw that the team needed better scoring leaders to be able to compete.
I went through lots of daily tactics training to get used to the online interface. Then I started to play competly different openings going for more aggressive lines or lines where it is possible to find the right move more quickly. I bought several opening databases from Modern Chess for this purpose.
It realy payed of and I often become one of the teams top leaders and one of the events best scoring players in both blitz and rapid. Sometimes I become the teams best scorer in several events, including in Swedish Rapid elite division.
In online events, particullary on shorter times controls, "Anti Chess openings" are extremly common, the lower total time the more common it is.
"Anti Chess openings" are openings that are either are totally objective dubious or else better for opponent. However the lines themself can often be very sharp and tricky and if the opponent does not know theory but the lines can sometimes lose by force is opponent knows theory or else leads to a better endgame for the opponnet etc etc. There are also other kinds of "Anti Chess openings" where white kills the game into a drawish endgame without imbalances or ambitions.
I have tried a sort of "Anti Chess opening" myself. I have played the white side of Carlsen endgame variation vs Caro Kann 1 e4 c6 2 Nf3 d5 3 d3!? with good results.
Is not 100% anti Chess since the pawn structure is imbalances in terms of space and commited pawns and weak squares and white has also the more active King and black c6 pawns is a weakness when whites a pawn advances and whites position is more easy to handle in practical play.
As of general terms sportsmanship level is terrible low in online Chess games at every site that exist, I have played at many different sites during the years and is the same everywhere. This includes delaying lost Correspondence Chess games for years at ICCF where computers are legal to use. Or delaying dead draw Correspondence Chess games for years since the the delaying player is higher rated or a titled players vs an untitled player. This behavior can also accours even if the opponnet has the better part of the draw.
Sportsmanship is particullary low in blitz or bullet games without increment like winning on time in losing material positions or winning on time in postions where there oppontents has a forced mate in a few moves or winning on time in dead draw endgames. The general rule are that the lower time control is the lower are the sportsmanship. Some playes plays on untill they get mated in clearly lost positions to prevent opponnets from playing more games and get more points in the event.
"Berserk mode" that are avaleble in som events are in my eyes a way of insulting opponents, saying "you are a so bad player that I win with half the time". However I have won and drawn games I would have lost if opponents that are better than me has had more time and not blundered or not had time enough to avoid repetiton of moves. Many players that are "Berserked" plays worse Chess becouse they become stressed up by the insult.
In games played without increment and low time from the start once can lose easy drawn rook endgames if one has less time than opponent if the opponent has the better part of the draw since they can milk out time. This is one of the reasons why "Swedish Chess Team Battle" was called "Humilation Chess" at social media.
For my own part I am maybee not the most sportsman player either but I try to be as much sportsman as possible. For example I never uses "Berserk mode". If I blunder a piece I usually gives up at once unless I have attacking chanses or something concrete in return. I have sometimes choosed to win on time in both equal or lost positions vs a "berserking" players since I think they insulted me. But most of the time I take a perpetual if given the chance if the position is equal and if the realy outrate me with at least 250 elo points. I have also won some game on time where my opponent made a blunder move and checked at a square I could take the piece and I missed that I could take the Queen for free and lost my own Queen instead. I also won some easy drawn position on time since if I get pissed of if opponent plays real "Anti Chess openings".
In our clubs internal online events or other events we creates our self we always turn berserk off since we dont think it bellongs to Chess and we also always uses increment.
In tournament games that was played close to the events closing time many players waits untill clock had passed to not give the opponents team points for win or draw like waiting and refusing draw offers in dead draw positions untill the events game time ended. It has happening to me several times so I often took more points in the events than points out the team got and I was listed lower as the events best total scorer becouse of this. This is also possible in arena tournaments and not only in team play. Rating is still counted never the less. Sometimes close the browser when time in event is low to avoid this scenario.
In one rapid game team event I played a game vs a titled player and instead of resigning he waited 3 minuts in a lone King vs soon 2 Queens and 1 Bishop position against me before leaving the board so I had to claim a win to get the point for both me and my team and to get the rating points. Similar things has often happend in blitz games too and as far as I can tell it is not uncommon.
I use tactical training a lot since the positions are based on games played by other players at the site so it based an real club players games so one can met similar thematical positions in real games. It is good for practice and free so one can no task to much for it.
However the site always assumes that the players played the right moves in the game and that creates a system fault. Originally there was at least 50 positions where I got "wrong move" then I entered mate in one when the right move was the win a piece instead. However they seems to have managed to filtered out these bugs today.
I have also got "wrong move" when I found a forced mate in 2 or 3 or 4 becouse in at least 30 times in each category when the game continuation won a piece instead or won a piece before the mate. The system has a build in logical error that only one move order can be right. In at least 500 position one can choose between up to 3 move orders that lead the same win by force and one is right and others are wrong.
In many positions the Knight can choose to the fork the same pieces at (including with check) without being taken at 2 different squares where only one square is given as right. And sometimes one can win the Rook but the right move was to win a light piece. In many position one could also choose between grabbing the exchange or getting a very strong attack.
Some time the position are from the opening fase. In some cases I recogizes the position as a theoretical position and when I enter the move that theory think is "right" I got "wrong" since in that game the player choosed a move that theory consider dubious by correct play.
Sometimes once one is supposed to enter 6 moves right in a row when the 6 move is irrelevent to the combination and when it is a matter of taste between 4 equaly strong moves that wins and one is given as right.
In some cases the "right move" is not even tactical or a positional move but a waiting move where the other player made a heavy blunder. Sometimes 2 rooks can be move to the same square in order to be forced exchanged and only one is given as right.
When I entered the move I sometimes get wrong move and when showning the right move it was the very same move I entered and got wrong on and sometimes lost up to 30 points beocouse of this. This has happed at least 10 times.
Also the elo score is also illogical. If one does not enter the "best" move (or "best full sequens of moves") one can lose up to 30 points. If one get several such postitions in a row one could easy lose more than 100 points, I lost 200 points one day once becouse of this and it takes long time to rebuild the points since "right move" genreally gives much lower points that a wrong "move error" loses points, sometimes a position can give +1 points for "right move" and -30 for "wrong move"
When finding a difficult combination one can get as little as 1 points for that in a few case while some realy simple one can give one 12 points. In general one loses more for a "wrong move" or "wrong complete sequens" that one gets for a "right move" or "right complete sequens".
I also think that the text should be "Find the move played in the game" instead of "Find the best move". But to summerize it the function is the best free tactical training function avaleble and it only needs minor adjustments to be 100% optimal. I use the function almost everyday and I warmly recommend it to everyone as part of Chess training.
Later Lichess added a new training mode called Puzzlestorm but I have not used it yet.
The district created at team at Lichess called Sodermanlands SF.
The purpose was to allow the smaller clubs in the distric to be able to play match play together at the international team competions divisions called "Quarantäne-Liga" and I promissed to reinforce the team to help them. "Quarantäne-Liga" is the worlds oldest and largest online Chess team event with several divisions and sub groups. We started in one of the lower divisions where 5 players best players score is the team score and 3 teams go up and down every time. In order to play one must have played at least 10 rated games before.
We got 2nd place the first time we played so we advanced to a better division and a week later we won the new division and advanced again an later also advanced yet again. The higher division the more best players are the teams total score.
Unlike other divisions, the event plays twice a week, where 3 team goes up and 3 teams goes down up every time. The time control is different in different events. The time controls goes in cykles. The first time we played the time control was 3 minutes start time + 2 bonus seconds per move and 2nd time the time controls was 5 minutes total time and after that 3 minutes total time. And then it starts over. The first two time controls are real rated blitz according to FIDE definition. But in the 3rd time control ,3 minutes without any increment, is not real rated blitz according to FIDE definition and this time control is well known for unsportmanship behavior.
Thus the time control is sometimes real rated blitz according to FIDE definition and sometimes not. "Berserker mode" has been possible to use every time and well as that one also got bonus points for winning several games in a row.
One of the times Eskilstuna SK:s team matches and Sodermanlands SF:s team matches are playing the same day with a very short time in between. It takes it tolls of ones strength since its hard to stay focused in two long events of none stop Chess and even more when time control suddenly is shorter in Sodermanlands SF team match like it was some of the times.
I have been Sodermanlands SF best scorer a few times in "Quarantäne-Liga" but that was before our team was reinforced by several realy strong blitz and bullet specialists. I have also played for Sodermanlands SF in "Quarantäne Friends", an event that does not use divisions and we got 3rd place the 3st times, then the event was removed. I have been Sodermanlands SF shared best scorer in in "Quarantäne Friends".
"Quarantäne-Liga" was much later renamed ito "Lichess Liga" and I played under both names. When this text was written Sodermanlands SF was the best Swedish team in "Lichess Liga". The 2 top divisions are called "Bundesliga" and our team managed to advanced to division 1. The event currently has 19 divisions where div 3-19 has 3 sub groups with each.
I also played for Sodermanland in "2021 Saturday Masters Lagmatch", a huge event that plays once a week with more than 30 teams and 10 best scorers results are the teams resultat.
The district create a online district championship, "DM i Blixt", since Corona crisis ruled out Trettondagsblixten. I got 6th place, 21 players total, where some players actually belonged to other districts.
The district also created a tournament to celebrate my 40th birthday called "Brage Open Arena" where I got 2nd place .
Sodermanland SF played also played in a 12 h blitz (3+0 = bullet) marathon event with price money but not even the team captain knew about it the event first, it was applied by other team members. I did not play since I was a bit tired after playing Battle of Baltic sea event while some players jumped into the maraton event after Battle of Baltic sea was completed. Sodermanland SF got 4th place and reach final where I instend to play in since there are no other Chess event that day.
Sodermanland also played in an other special blitz event but I missed it since there was no information about the event untill the very same day and only online message and I was never online that the since I played StarCraft 2 COOP missions instead.
Sodermanland got 7th place in a other gigantical independent 3+0 event with 97 teams and almost 1000 player in total.
I played for Sodermanland in hiegest division in the 1 min bullet divison called "Colegas Bullet League 1". I dont realy like bullet but it was more fun than I remembered and to help my team I bought and read a bullet book from GM Nakamura, the worlds best bullet player. I also played for Sodermanland in the gigantic "Endicraft's Saturday Bullet" with 195 teams where we got 5th place.
By our iniative we created the event "Distriktskampen 2022", a 11 districs team event. It was played over three days with different time control every of the days, we copyed Lichess Liga concept. Sodermanland won the enitre event and I became one of our teams leaders everyoen of the days. We got a trophy to display after this. Out intention with the event was a propagnade display to show that the distriks does not need Swedish Chess Federations involments our managment.
I also played for Sodermanands SF in "Endicraft's Wednesday Bullet" where our team got 2nd place.
By private initiatives a team match event called "Battle of Baltic sea" was created. The event has 9 teams from the 9 nations with coast at Baltic Sea. It was played every second saturday. I was selected as Swedish Team Captain.
The time control was 3+2 and berserk mode was off. The first 9 times it used 20 leaders. Later reduced to 6 leaders as interest dropped. Schack.se stoped writting about it after about 3 rounds but I sill email them after very round. The Swedish team won the first 11 editions before an other team, Finland, won. In 13 edition adn 14th Sweden won again but 3rd place in 15 since I could not play mytself do to our club arranged an Distric Championship at our club and many othe high scoring players did also played there. The event evolved from an elite event into a clubplayer event since most stronger players in each team stopped play in the event. I have become the teams best scorer
I think that the current medal score is Sweden 34-9-4, Finland 10-17-16, Lithuania 2-9-17 Denmark 5-11-7, Latvia 0-4-4, Germany 1-1-3.
We played club championship in blitz 2020 and rapid 2020 at Lichess as Swiss events since in Arena mode one could met the same opponnets many infinate times, including with the same sides. This happend to me in the very first Eskilstuna Championship in online Chess (2020) where I got 3rd place .
When we played the "Swiss event" mode was new and untested so there was several bugs in the "Swiss event" for several players like not be able to see the board untill 2 minutes had passed or not getting opponnets until some time has passed. And in some games the opponents Queen or other pieces was not displayed for one of the players.
In club championship in blitz 2020 I got the same total points as 3rd player but officially got 4th place after tiebreak points do to a pairing program bug. I was ranked 3rd on the result list and I had 2 tie break points better than he who got 3rd place yet I got a "Bye" round and he won vs a regular player. I think he or some of the players bellow us should have got the "Bye" round. Shure I got a free point but without opponent I got tie break points from one less player.
Then I was paired against he who ended up last while he met a player in the middle. I won but also lost even more tie break points since the other player got no "Bye" round and met a better opponent last round. So I got one player less tie break points than him and also met the lowest scoring player as well thus 4th place with the same score points as 3rd instead of 3rd place.
By the way I did also play a draw vs the winner of the event who won all other games in the event, including vs 2nd.
We also played club championship in rapid Chess 2020 at Lichess as well, also as a Swiss event. There was some bugs there as like invincible pieces for some players and players who did not appear untill long time after that the start time hade passed so I should actually have been a lose.
I got 3rd place, same points as 2nd . But I got lower tie break points, partly since one of my opponents left the event since he had bad luck and lost two won positions in time trouble. I played a draw vs both the winner and the 2nd place player as well as 4th place player.
The 4th place player and I also got the same points but he had much lower tie break points. He could not see my Rooks or hes own Knights so we took a quick draw in an fairly equal position.
Eskilstuna played both city blitz championship and city rapid championship on at Lichess. Both where Swiss events. I dont understand why we must play Swiss events since there are usually lots of bugs, including in both events.
Both events where almost not realy legitimate Eskilstuna events since in both events more than half of the field consisted of players that dont live in Eskilstuna or plays for Eskilstuna in normal cases, only at Lichess in some events but plays for other clubs in other events. And almost no single Eskilstuna SK player played in the events, most stronger players did not play or played in one but not in both. The rapid events used a very odd time control as well, the time control was more like blitz than like rapid.
Two players board was never displayed in one game each in the rapid event and a top players board was not displayed in blitz event so the players lost a game each on time without making a single move. In rapid championship one player also got way to low tie break points, he was at the top of the field but yet he got a mysterius bye rond and it gave him lower tiebreak points so he ended up 3rd while he should have been at least 2nd if not even 1st. A similar thing happend to me earlier so is cleary exist a pairing program bug at Lichess Swiss events.
I played decent in blitz, 4th place but the 3rd best real Eskilstuna player, but I played very bad in rapid where I did not even manage to win in completly winning positions in 3 games and manage to lose 2 of them. One opponent I lost to was extremly lucky, engines gives that I was 5 pawns better with material advantage being one single pawn. He should have lost vs one of the lower rated players as well and he had a completly lost postion vs a middle players as well and he also got a free win vs a top player as well since hes opponent did not get any board. Yet he got 2nd place, a sign of a joke event. In a game that was drawed I was 4 pawns better if I had seen the move. And in one games I made a time trouble blunder a clean the exchange up, if it had been normal rapid time this would not had happend but I could easy have happened in blitz and the used odd time control was like blitz and not rapid.
I saw yet an other bug. I got a "bye" round and the ongoing games showed the previus rounds games as the remaining games. I restarted the browser, otherwise I would perhaps not have go a board either.
A Spanish speaking team called "Amigos Ajedrecistas Anzoàtegui" asked me to help them i highest division in "LIGA IBERA", the Spanish/Portugise online elite division. I became the teams second best score in my first match. I also played for them in 1st WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP and played for them in TORRES DE LOULÉ 1D. I have become this teams best scorer.
One of my Correspondence Chess games was in an article in the Swedish magazine Tidskrift för Schack, number 2019:4.
One of my Correspondence Chess games was in an article in the Swedish magazine Tidskrift för Schack, number 2021:1.
As both player and Team Captain of Eskilstuna SK 2, I have lead the team to victory in the entire Södermanlandsserien (local districs division) many times. Several seasons after that Södermanlandsserien was created the district bought a trophy where our team got the first 2 markings since we won the division the season when the trophy was bought and the season afterwards. The season afterwards Katrineholm won it and after that and our team won it again.
Södermanlandsserien has historic had teams from Eskilstuna, Kungsör, Strängnäs, Nyköping, Katrineholm and Snabba Löparen as competitive teams. However, some teams did not play in different seasons, some dropped off and some others entered or returned. Södermanlandsseriens time control has changed during the years. Originally it was 30 moves in 1,5 hours and 30 minutes extra time after that. However in the 2016/2017 season the divisions time controls became swithed towards rapid games instead where all teams played at the same place, once at autumn and once at spring. However the timecontrol has not been identical even within standardtime and rapid game seasons. For example in the 2018/2019 seasons all games where play the same day meaning even shorter rapid games.
Eskilstuna is the only team that has played in all seasons and has also won the division the most times, and is also the only team that has won the division in all time controls. I have been Team Captain all seasons. I was also the last Captain of Eskilstuna SK 2 when the team played in Allsvenskan division 3 and not in Södermanlandsserien.
Katrineholms team in Södermanlandsserien is almost identical to its team in Allsvenskan while Eskilstuna uses a completly different team to allow more players to play in team matches. This has made Katrineholms team the highest rated team for the most of the few seasons they have played in. The highest rated rated team does not neccesary win the division anyway, Eskilstuna has won the division both when Katrineholm or Strängnäs or Kungsör used higher rated teams.
Some teams in Södermanlandsserien has not got a team in Allsvenskan.
Team photo after Eskilstunas win in 2022.
I like to play team matches. I have played in Superettan (Elite division 1) in 2008/2009 where I scored 4 of 8. I have also played a few games in division 1 both before and after Superettan was created. I got a few wins and some draws vs much heiger rated but my score was not that good in regular division 1. But on the other hand I was low rated and almost almost met 400 points hieger rated and my peek had not come yet. We played in division 2 for several year before we won finnaly won the division in the 2019/2020 seasons so we are back in division 1. My best scores was in the 2016/2017 season I scored 5 of 7 with no loses. In both 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 I scored 5 of 6 with no loses.
I have played for Eskilstuna SK in Svenska Cupen team tournament on several occasions and one of the times I was Eskilstunas best scorer while other times it has not got good at all. In these tournaments I have both won and played draws vs titled players.
Young me at chessboard. Photo by Eva Bragesjö.
My best result in standardtime games are a 2nd place in Eskilstuna Chess Championship 2022. It was a special event do to Corona restrictions. We started late and combined a 3 round rapid Chess event and a 4 round standardtime event into the same tournament and there was very few players present. I also got 2nd place in Eskilstuna SK clubchampionship in rapid Chess in 2022.
I got 2nd place in "Södermanlands Öppna DM 2022".
I have won and got many 2nd and 3rd places in local smaller tournaments in Eskilstuna with shorter time contols like in for example major events like Eskilstuna Championship in rapid chess 2017 and Eskilstuna SK Club Championship in rapid chess 2017 where I reached 2nd place in both. I have also got many top 3 places in christmas events. I have also got 3rd place in the combined blitz and rapid tournament Blixtsnabben in both 2017 and 2018 and 2nd place in 2019. I also reached 2nd place in Eskilstuna Chess Championship in blitz 2019. I do however value my 3rd place in the round-robin event Eskilstuna Chess Championship 2011 in regular timecontrol heigher.
In minor events I have for example reached 2nd place in Sommarblixten 2017 and 1st place in Sommarblixt 2022. However most minor events where I won or reached top 3 are nameless events. One nameless event I value high are a blitz tournament where I won by scoring 11/11 although two of the best players where missing but most of the strongest players was present. I also won some other nameles events. I have also won or reached top 3 in several nameless events, including when there was many strong players present.
I have also become the districs 3rd best player 3 times in "Södermanlands Öppna DM" (Södermanlands Open District Championship). I have also won rating prizes a few times in Trettondagsblixten like in 2020.
I have played in Chess tournaments and team matches in many different cities during the years. In tournaments played outside Eskilstuna I reached 2nd place overall, 1st in my class, in official pre Swedish Championship tournament "Sanktionerade" in Linköping and 2nd place in my class in the real Swedish Championship, both in 2015. In both cases I did not lose a single game.
I got 2nd place in my class in Swedish Chess Championship when the event took place in my hometown Eskilstuna in 2019.
I have also reached 2nd place in Kungsörs christmas blitz when I was invited there in 2014. I have also won 2nd rating pize in my rating group in Hasselbacken Open 2017. I also scored 10 of 10 when I won Vårby Open 2018.
I got 2nd place, same points as the winner but 2nd after tiebreak, in both of the 3+2 blitz events Tuna Open 1 and Tuna Open 2 in 2022.
I got 3rd place in Weekend 2 at Swedish championship in 2022.
I have played in several online tournaments created by club or district. My best scores are 3rd place at "Eskilstunamästerskapet i Blixt Arena 2020" ,3rd place at online event "KM i snabb Schack 2020" (club championship in rapid Chess) and 2nd place in online event Brage Open .
I have also played online Team matches for both club and districs and sometimes become the teams best scorer in both.
I also got 2nd place in KM i Blixt 2021 (Eskilstuna SK club championship in blitz 2021) . It was played the same play as Sweden vs Greece in Football/Soccer so small event.
In 2016 I started to play Correspondence Chess at ICCF. It started as an instant success. I won my first mini match with 2-0 and after that I mainly plays in thematical tournaments. Thematical tournaments are excellet tournaments to try out variations and lines one normally never gets the chance to play. One also gets the chance to test ones repertour.
My best results in any opening is Najdorf. In my very first corr tournament ever I reached 2nd place by scoring +5 =2 -1. I won a later Najdorf 6 Be3 tournament by scoring +6 =2 -0. I know these lines and types of positions good with both sides and got opening advantages in several games becouse of that.
I have also got good scores in Petroff tournaments. I got 3rd place in my 1st and I won my 2nd and I reached 2nd place in my 3rd.
However these standard events has become tougher and tougher since in 2018 ICCF made it more stimulating by adding that the winner reaches the final even in these smaller standard events thus attracting more stronger and more serious players. I have reached final tournaments in a few of these events in different thematical openings.
For a complete list of my results in individual tournaments and in team matches for Team Sweden click here.
Official photo from Swedish Chess championship 2015. Photo by Lars OA Hedlund.
In 2014 I invented an opening for black that I call the Bragi Indian Defence that leed to transposing warfare. The lines goes 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 Nc6!?. If white plays 3 d4 my idea is to play e6 transposing to Bogo Indian or Nimzo Indian Nf3 (and can lead to Nimzo Indian Qc2 Nc6). If white prevents Bb4 with a3 I transpose to Tango lines with d6 and gets an improved version of KID. If white does not play 3 d4 and plays 3 g3 or 3 e3 instead I transpose to Reversed Dragon or Reversed Sicilian by playing 3 .. e5.
In over the board play I play a combo that I call Multi Indian.
After 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 white has a choice. After 3 Nc3 I play Bb4, the Nimzo Indian Defence. If white plays 3 Nf3 instead I play b6, the Queens Indian Defence. If white plays 3 g3 instead I play Bb4+, the Bogo Indian Defence. The reason for this is that Nd2 Bogo Indian is weaker when pawn to g3 is already played instead of a Knight at f3. Queens Indian allows several transposing options vs 1 Nf3. Vs 1 c4 I prefere b6, leading to a sort of hybrid beetween Nimzo Indian, Queens Indian and Dutch defence.
Official photo from Hasselbacken Open 2018. Photo by Lars OA Hedlund.