Axel Smith isn´t dissatisfied with his result, although he had hoped
his new strategy would bring him some more points...

What happened in your game against Nils?

He had a slightly more pleasant position in the middle game with a clear strategic plan in the minority attack b4-b5. I know Nils thinks this picture is unfair, but as I saw it he didn´t play for this strategic break but only played to get some tactical tricks, mostly based on knight forks. I avoided all of them and got an ending where I wanted to press for a win. It was a little bit too optimistic, and then I blundered into mate in three.
I beat Nils a lot of times when he was young but the last years I have lost every time. In two of the last three games we had quite equal positions where I just blundered in time trouble. To avoid the time trouble I tried to play fast, but apparantely a bit too fast...

Are you satisfied with the tournament?

In the last fifteen years I have been breaking my morning eggs against my head – my grandfather told me to do this. A few weeks ago I stopped doing it, and thought that I had found the key to success. It was not that easy...
Actually, I am not that dissatisfied. Strategically I think seven of my games were ok, but of course you want to win more than one.

Before the start I was afraid that I shouldn´t be able to concentrate, but I managed. It was a very nice tournament to play with many friendly players. And it was a nice closing party yesterday – many thanks to Marie for the delicious food!

What are your chess plans for the rest of the spring?

If there is one thing I hate more than losing, it´s to lose in the last round of a tournament. Until you play next time you can´t stop thinking about the loss. Therefore, I want to play as soon as possible, but unfortunately I have nothing planned the next weeks. I´ll play Copenhagen Chess Challenge in the end of May, and Fynmesterskapet in the beginning of June.

What do you think about the Sofia rules?
It was my idea to use them here, and even if I played the most number of draws I really like it! Especially in this tournament, where we had five players from the home club, I guess it´s important. I think all tournaments that want to have spectators should use this rule.

Is there something you would like to learn?

Maybe how to win against Nils. But no, that´s not anything I want to learn – I just want to win against him – never mind how I do it. Otherwise, Norwegian would be nice to learn!