My Journey To The World Championship

My Life Chess Journey

This section is just to give some backstory how I ended up where I am. Feel free to skip this part if you want.

I first discovered chess a decade ago at the age of 8, thanks to a deal with my dad. He promised to buy me the latest FIFA game for my PlayStation if I gave chess a try. What started as a simple bargain quickly turned into a passion, and I began competing in youth tournaments. My first big breakthrough came in the spring of 2017, and over the next two years, I experienced a meteoric rise, gaining nearly 800 Elo points and going from 1187 to 1976.

Then, COVID hit. I stopped studying and playing chess entirely, and my rating suffered a significant blow. By the fall of 2021, I had dropped all the way down to 1756 and even considered giving up on chess altogether. But somehow, there was still some fight left in me. Out of nowhere, I delivered the best chess performance of my life, gaining 250 Elo points in a single month!

After that surge, I found myself plateauing around 2000 for quite a while. In march of 2023 I was lucky enough to attend a chess camp in Norway. It was led by Offerspill and had some of the best coaches in the world available, with some amazing players attending too. I was the worst player in the lower rated group but it was still a life changing experience as it allowed me to connect with some of the best players in the world and learn from all their experience. Even Magnus was there and it gave me a new profound motivation to study.

My first tournament after that was the “easter tournament” in Norrköping, Sweden. I started off incredibly strong with a win in the second round against the reigning swedish champion, GM Johnny Hector. However, the hype was short lived as I lost a winning position against IM Milton Pantzar and then it was downhill from there. Overall, the tournament was a mix of success and failure, something that would mark my incoming inconsistency.

Right after the tournament I took a couple of flights to reach the Spanish island of Menorca. There I was going to play the Menorca Open and the nerves were high. I first went up against the Argentinian GM Tomas Sosa. Just like in my previous tournament I managed to outmaneuver the higher rated opponent, but in this game I managed to blunder a perpetual from a completely won queen-endgame. Either way, a draw wasn’t a bad result, but it went downhill from there too.

While the tournament wasn’t necessarily a success, there was something great that came out of it that I wouldn’t expect. For some unclear reason I was awarded a 100 USD gift card on chessable, who had sponsored the event. For this money I bought a couple of courses, one of which was Srinath’s catalan lifetime repertoire. It was a seemingly weird purchase considering how much of a tactical player I was and how positional the catalan is, but it turned out to be one of the best purchases of my life. Read more about this in my blog on how I reached 2300 using the catalan.

After menorca I didn’t have a tournament for the entire summer because I was on vacation most of the time. My first tournament was therefore three months later and I had studied my courses regularly. Mind you, this was pretty much the first time in my chess career where I enjoyed studying by myself.

It was a 6 player round robin and I managed to win it, taking 4/5 with two draws and three wins. The same month I played an open tournament and managed to draw against a 2400 and 2300, with a couple of nice wins in the catalan. I only lost one game, which was against a 2300 GM.

The following month wasn’t as great, but not too bad. First I had a really bad tournament in Gothenburg, where I won every game as white and lost every game as black, taking 4/8 where half the games were rapid. I then competed in Uppsala were I played considerably better, winning 3/4 and only losing a game against GM Petro Golubka where I blundered in a good position right after he offered a draw.

Throughout this time I didn’t get any unexpectedly good results, but I felt like I was getting better because I had finally found the love for the game. Apart from studying openings, I was playing online games and more importantly, watching live tournaments and guessing the moves which brought me a better understanding of the positional aspect of the game.

I knew there was going to be a breakthrough, and in November it finally came true. Just like how I had earned 250 points in November two years prior, I now earned 150 and reached an elo of 2274. I then played Rilton Cup and reached an interim rating of 2300, giving me an FM-title.

Since then, I’ve once again hit a bit of a plateau, hovering around the 2250-2300 range. However, this hasn’t stopped me from achieving significant milestones. In September, I accomplished what felt like the impossible: I won the Swedish National Blitz Championship in convincing fashion. While it’s true that some of the country’s strongest players didn’t compete, the tournament was still a huge success for me. I managed to deliver an incredible performance, defeating several strong opponents, including renowned Grandmaster Axel Smith, co-author of the famous Woodpecker Method.

This tournament victory was a game-changer for me. Not only was it a personal highlight, but it also earned me a coveted spot at the World Rapid and Blitz Championship, set to take place in New York later this December. Competing in this prestigious event, against some of the best players in the world, feels like a dream come true.

The Challenge: Making It to the Championship

The world rapid & blitz championship will be my next challenge hopefully, but it’s not set in stone yet. Since I’m just another broke 18-year-old I’m struggling with collecting the funds to go. It’s a bit sad because it’s always been a dream of mine to go and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to go if I don’t take this chance.

The Solution

As one of the ways to fund the tournament I’ve decided to sell a chess opening course. Let me introduce you to the 5...b5 Vienna, a unique and dynamic opening that has the power to transform not only your games but your overall chess understanding.

Before I’ll tell you the details about the course I’d like to mention if you don’t want to spend any money, you can still support me by liking this post, as well as the free sample course, to help it reach more people <3

The beauty of the 5...b5 Vienna lies in its uniqueness. While most players prepare for predictable mainlines in popular openings, the Vienna takes your opponents into uncharted territory. It forces them to think on their feet, while you know everything!

When I first discovered the 5...b5 Vienna, it changed the way I approached chess. Its sharp, imbalanced pawn structures pushed me to think more deeply about long-term strategy and positional nuances. These lessons became essential to my success, and this very opening was a key weapon that helped me win the Swedish Blitz Championship. Now, I want to share everything I’ve learned with you.

The exclusive course includes over 130 variations and more than 18,000 words of detailed explanations. I’ve kept the pricing as affordable as possible while offering multiple tiers, so you can choose how much you’d like to contribute to support me on this journey:

• $10 USD: Get the PGNs for all 9 chapters of the course.
• $20 USD: Access the course on Chessable, complete with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
• $30 USD: Along with the Chessable course, receive 2 hours of video content where I break down key ideas and provide in-depth examples from games.
• $100 USD: Receive the PGNs, access to the Chessable course, video content, and a 1.5-hour private coaching session on any chess topic of your choice. I know $70 for that is quite expensive but I have very limited time due to school & preperation for the chess tournament :(

You can get 50% off if you compete in the next tournament of the Zug-Zwang-Championship (ZZC) and play all rounds. The tournament info can be found on my lichess team. Each game of the tournament will be played in the 5...b5 vienna, so get to studying!

The 5...b5 vienna ZZC tournament will be held 17:00 at saturday 23rd november. Make sure to be there on time!

You can check out a free sample of the course on Lichess, and anyone who supports me financially will get a special shoutout in my Lichess team and future blog updates about my journey to the World Championship.

If you’re interested, you can send your payment via my PayPal and include your Lichess or Chessable username in the notes, or feel free to DM me with any questions.

My ultimate goal is to raise $1,000 USD to fund my participation in the tournament. If I don’t reach this target, I’ll try to reinvest the funds into the chess community and my ongoing chess career. Thank you for considering supporting me on this exciting journey!

Lichess Team: https://lichess.org/team/the-zug-zwang-zone

Lichess Study: The 5...b5! Vienna [FREE COURSE]

Paypal: https://paypal.me/chessva?country.x=SE&locale.x=sv_SE