Göteborg Open in Shogi was played 25-26 November in Göteborgs Schackcentrum. 14 players (1 Japanese, 3 Norwegians and 10 Swedes) competed for the honour of being the champ and also for some very nice prices (cups shining like if they almost were made of gold). In spite of this, the atmosphere was very friendly with no incidents whatsoever.

After the first day only one player, Terje Christoffersen, had 3 points out of 3. I had the doubtful pleasure of facing the strength of the Norwegian rising star Rickard Bjerke in the 1st round.

In a weak moment after the game, I wished that the tournament had been played with the MacMahon system instead. If that had been the case I wouldn't have to face these coming players at all. And, god forbid, if I had to anyway, and they conquer me, I would still finish above them in the end, just superb.

Kenji Taguchi, Robert Söderberg, Jan Palmgren and Antje Rapmund also started pretty well with 2 points out of 3.

In the 4th round Christoffersen lost a very tough game against me so suddenly the tournament was wide open with 5 players (Christoffersen, Bjerke, Taguchi, Rapmund and me) sharing the lead with 3 points.

In the 5th round Bjerke won against Christoffersen, Rapmund lost against Söderberg and I won against Taguchi which left Bjerke and me in the lead. This was also the standing after the 6th round since there were no major upsets there. After some calculations it was clear that Bjerke had a few SoS-points less than me, so he had to content himself with the next largest cup.

Among the players with 4 points, Christoffersen had faced the toughest opponents so he brought the smallest cup with him back to Norway. Taguchi who played a very aesthetic type of shogi finished in 4th place and one of the Swedish coming men, Paul Andersson, spurted with three straight wins to finish in 5th place.

Crosstable.

Hope to see you all in Göteborg next year.

- Carl Johan Nilsson, Göteborg Shogi Society