From: DANERUD MARTIN TELIA COM> Date: 24 feb 2003 Subject: Results from Trollhattan Open 2003 Dear shogi friends, This weekend, Trollhattan Open was played for the second time. The tournament attracted 15 players, and I daresay that was good in the Swedish winter weather, which has turned snow into ice after partly melting and freezing again. So, as expected, the host city had the majority (nine) of the participants, a good evidence of the fine organisational efforts done by Robert Soderberg in this relatively small city. Three of the guests came from Goteborg, one from Stockholm, one from Norrkoping, and one from Oslo, Norway. Results (number, name, nationality, grade, ELO rating, round 1 to 6 opponents number and results, points, SOS, SDOS, Progressive): 1. Martin Danerud S 2d 1545 8+ 4+ 2+ 5+ 3+ 6+ 6 22 22 21 2. Jonas Ahlqvist S 5k 1272 10+ 9+ 1- 7+ 5+ 8+ 5 21 15 17 3. T. Christoffersen N 1d 1678 7+ 6- 12+ 4+ 1- 9+ 4 22 13 14 4. Rikard Skotnicki S 12k 739 13+ 1- 11+ 3- 6+ 5+ 4 21 11 13 5. Robert Soderberg S 2k 1442 12+ 11+ 6+ 1- 2- 4- 3 24 9 15 6. Jan Rabe S 6k 1183 15+ 3+ 5- 9+ 4- 1- 3 21 8 14 7. Daniel Wredenberg S 15k 625 3- 10+ 13+ 2- 12+ 11- 3 20 8 11 8. Bo Flood S 15k 603 1- 15+ 9- 13+ 10+ 2- 3 20 6 10 9. Henrik Hellberg S 385 F+ 2- 8+ 6- 14+ 3- 3 17 5 12 10.Björn Tjallgren S 400 2- 7- 14+ 11+ 8- F+ 3 16 5 8 11.Mikael Karlsson S 400 14+ 5- 4- 10- F+ 7+ 3 15 5 9 12.Daniel Ivarsson S 15k 459 5- 14+ 3- 15+ 7- 13+ 3 15 5 9 13.David Andersson S 400 4- F+ 7- 8- 15+ 12- 2 14 1 7 14.Johan Wikstrom S 664 11- 12- 10- F+ 9- 15+ 2 13 1 4 15.Johan Ivarsson S 400 6- 8- F+ 12- 13- 14- 1 13 0 4 Please observe that position 11 is shared between number 11 and 12 above. When reading the grades and ratings above, you may guess that the level of the games was not so good. That is wrong. Despite the low figures, almost all games were of good quality. A lot of games were very tough, and this list of players contains a lot of raw shogi talent. I want to show this by picking three players, who performed very well in this tournament. Jonas Ahlqvist: a relative beginner in shogi, but he already performs at almost dan level. I predicted before the tournament that he would win one of the three trophies. He scored five points and was number two. Before, he has a gold medal in the first Swedish Team Shogi Championship, as a member of Goteborg 1. Rikard Skotnicki: has been active for some years now, but all the time on a low level. He won against Jan Rabe after an illegal move, and in the last round he showed our host no mercy in the final attack. That gave him the rating prize for best player between 11-kyu and 15-kyu. Before, he has a bronze medal in the first Swedish Team Shogi Championship, as a member of Goteborg 2. Henrik Hellberg: a relative beginner in shogi from Norrkoping. He has shown a lot of ambition, but previously his opening and middle games have shown to be too soft. Now, however, Hellberg excelled with bogin attacks, and also in the games he lost he showed good shape and good attacking style. One thing that these players have in common is that they have been very active in the tsume problem contest in our quarterly magazine, SHOGI PA SVENSKA. This clearly helped them a lot in this tournament. Terje Christoffersen is a nice person and an often seen guest in the Swedish shogi tournaments. Ask him, if he thinks that the Swedish players are underrated or not! In his last five tournaments in Sweden he has lost around 100 ELO points, and still I daresay that he has played well. Terje has a good knowledge of openings and he has a solid style. He got confused against Jan Rabe, as he failed to discover an illegal pawn drop on the last rank. He won the third prize trophy in this tournament. Jan Rabe won the rating prize as the best (and only) player between 6- kyu and 10-kyu. Finally, sincerely yours, the most generous donor of ELO points to underrated Swedish players during the last five years, succeeded to get a perfect score in this tournament. My choice of openings in this tournament seems to fit my style of playing well. Somehow, I also had the necessary inspiration and energy to fight and win the close battles. Sincerely yours, Martin Danerud President of the Swedish Shogi Federation