Introduction

Originally I had played online Chess at many different sites, but still not particullary much. Most of my online games was on a free guest acount at Chessbase. My spare time was mostly "StarCraft II" play, watching DVD:s and my Chess training was reading Chess books. This changed in 2020. Both during pandemic and after pandemic online Chess play has taken a lot more of my time. It became my primary Chess training. I read less Chess books as direct effect. I discovered that online play is the best training method that exists since one can see exactly where one went wrong and one also learns openings better in practical play.

How I became a Online Chess soldier

During Corona pandemic 2020 all Chess was played online, particullary at Lichess. Link to my profile. Swedish national divisions was created, first in blitz and than later a separate in rapid. Even Eskilstuna SKs club events was played online. I continued to play lots of online Chess even after that pandemic was over. 99% of my online games are team matches. I mainly play for Sodermanlands SF but I also plays for some more teams like BBS Sverige. I also play in Eskilstuna SK internal events. I had an accident during pandemic and broke my hip but I only missade one event. This was not an excuse to not play so I played the other events at bed using my smartphone untill I recoverered. I have also played matches as passenger in cars and in Finland boats and in Gotland boats.

During pandemic I become a much better player thanks to online events almost every day, blitz for Eskilstuna SK one day, rapid for Eskilstuna SK one day, blitz for Sodermanland SF 2 days and Battle of Baltic sea 1 day every 2nd week. I became more ambitious in my play and bought several opening bases from ModernChess. Later after pandemic I created an acount at Chessable as well where I also bought a few opening bases. I also played in other special one time events like a gigantic Sweden vs Finland match and I also in Swedish championship in online blitz as well. I also played in Eskilstuna SK internal events that we played when divisions was on pause. I also played in ModernChess special Arena event as well. When Sodermanland SF played bullet divisions for a while it became yet an other online Chess day.

National events during pandemic

The different Swedish national divisions was sanktioned by Swedish Chess Federation and rules clearly said players most be registred as members or secondary member of the real club. Interest was higher in the beggining. Many teams got short of players after a while and many teams, like several seasons winners, used incredible many unregistered players thus cheated since it costs money to register players and the corrupt Swedish Chess Federation allowed it. Some clubs registered a lot of extra players that joined the team club for them in the online events and other clubs cheated and did not registered any new players who joined them and some clubs did not even register old members. Some clubs even left the online events since they could not afford to register players so some clubs online teams played in events with no such rules like "Quarantäne Liga". Eskilstuna SK also had a few none Eskilstuna SK club players, but we registrered them as members before they could join and that costs most money so they had to pay membership fee. We even registered a player from Finland and secondary registered a couple of players from the district who wanted to play for us since their clubs was the small to play in oline divisions alone and secondary member registration is free so they did not even have to pay us. Eskilstuna SK played in elite division in both blitz and rapid a couple of times. I became Eskilstuna SK best scorer a couple of times in both blitz and rapid events. When pandemic was over the divisions was closed down.

Eskilstuna SK also played in other matches vs other Swedish clubs that was played when divisions had seasons break.

Swedish Chess Federation also arranged Swedish Championship in online blitz and one other event in Bullet but I only played in the Blitz event.

Sodermanlands SF took an initiative and arranged "Distrikskampen" where Swedish Lichess distric teams competed vs each other and Sodermanlands SF won the combined 3 event serie.

National event after pandemic

After pandemic Swedish Chess Federation started an new online event at Chess.com, an other major site. The event is a Rapid Chess event called Svenska Schackligan. Svenska Schackligan is created together with e-sport site Fragbite and has price money. I created a test account att Chess.com after some editons to try out Svenska Schackligan. Link to my profile. The site has advertisements but one can pay to remove it and to unlock extra training modes and several practise bots. I have bought Diamond subscription. The site some common known problems with "sandbagging".

Online play modes att different sites

After that I created Chess.com account I only play Team matches and Eskilstuna club championships at Lichess and I only stand alone games att Chess.com. Chess.com has also Team matches but I lack time to try it out, besides I rather play for our distric team than a unkowns team. I also experimentet with new opening lines at Chess.com.

Based on my games at both Lichess and Chess.com I estimate that the Chess.com Elo in Blitz is 350 Elo lower than at Lichess with corresponding playing strength, unclear becouse of sandbagging, deflation or something else. I estimate that Rapid Elo is about 150 Elo lower than corresponding Elo playing strength at Lichess.

Online and sportsmanship

I like to add that sportsmanship level is low in online Chess at every site that exists and gets lower and lower as time control decreases, in none increment games I have lost games on time several Queens ahead or Rook up and mate in 2. Some players even lost on time in pure Rook vs Rook endgames.

Many players delays games, including dead draws, untill events time is completed to give team less point and player less total score. It has happend to me lots of times. Rating is still counted never the less. My opinion are that "Berserk Mode" that exists in some events are to insult opponents saying you are so bad I will win using half the time so I rarely used but I dont mind that the they berserk me since I like more time and I have been pissed out on the insult and won on time in in lost positions.

In one Rapid event in Swedish divisions an overrated infamous CM only had only hes King left and I had 2 pawns and a Bishop left he thought for 3 minutes and left the board so I had to claim the win manually 4 minutes later. In Correspondence Chess many high rated delays dead draws for as year, in one event one IM used over 100 days on a draw offer in a dead position.

International matches during pandemic

During pandemic open official International matches was played. In Correspondence Chess this has been common for years, long before pandemic. Sweden played two matches vs Finland, with two different rating levels, and Finland won the lower rated and Sweden won the higher rated.

By private initiative a 9 nation team event was created with one team for each nation with coast at Baltic Sea. The event was even sanktioned by Swedish Chess Federation the first three times and was a gigantic event but after pandemic it lives its own life and is a minor event these days. I became selected as Swedish Team Captain. After Russia invaded Ukraine the Russian team was removed.

I can also mention an event that I did not play in. Norway challenged Sweden to an online Chess match. But it was at a new site Norway has developed themself and the site did not even work on mobile phones and it was a fixed numbers of games (3 or 4) where one has to play additional games before to get correct rating so most stronger Swedish players did not play there at all and Norway won.

Regional events during pandemic

Eskilstuna SK arranged Mälardalensmästerskap in team blitz and we won one the times where I became teams best scorer.

Results: 2020, 2021, 2022.

Sodermanlands SF also arranged districts championships in online blitz in 2021 and in 2022.

On my 40th birthday Sodermanlands SF also arranged the online blitz event Brage Open.

Club events played online

Eskilstuna SK also had individual events. Historys first Eskilstuna online event was created during pandemic and was called "Eskilstunamästerskapet i Blixt Arena 2020". During pandemic we arranged club championships and city championships in Blitz and Rapid but never in any other time control like bullet or standard time. Bellow if is last of top three scorers in Eskilstuna SK club online events. I can also add that in some other Eskilstuna SK events I played very bad. Note that some events was played after pandemic, we played online blitz championship at winter.

Bugs in Swiss events

I got 4th place in one Eskilstuna SK event after pairing program bug when I got a mysterious "bye round" despite 3rd place and better pairing points, I had met almost everyone in the toplist. By getting pairing points from one less player I got lower pairing points in total than he who got 3rd place since he did not get any "bye round" thus I 4th place with same score as he who got 3rd. The same pairing program bug also happended in an other event where an other player who was 1st or 2nd at results list with better pairing points got a mysteriois "bye round" so he ended up 3rd becouse of same scenario with pairing points from one less player. There was other bugs in the several Swiss events appart from strange pairings, the Swiss mode was new and untested back then. For example some, but not all, pieces was invicible for one of the players or board never displayed for one if the players untill after minutes past. I did not suffer from these experiences but it happened to one of my opponents so we took a gentlemen early draw when he could not see some pieces. However in one event I lost first game without moving a piece since the website said event starts in 25 minutes so I browsed at other sites while waiting but the event started only 1 minutes after the site said 25 minutes I had not that window opened so lost on time but got 2nd place in that event anyway. Neither of these bugs ever happend in Area events.

Online events sample