The 2012 Södermalm AFC Chess Championship took place last Friday night 23^rd November at the now familiar Liljeholms-lokal.

Brissles with long-term coach Gary Kasparov

The night began with a panic as some of the boys forgot to bring a chess board, however a late scramble and door-knock of the area produced a 50 yr old Russian set with delicately hand-crafted pieces that became a talking point of the night.

After Brissles’ hat-trick of wins in the past three years, a secret Söder chess society formed a year ago led by Jordo, Murf, Tarzan, and Kungen. Their aim was to end the run, and crown a new champion in 2012.

The 16 players were randomly split into 2 groups of 8 and a round-robin proceeded where each player played all in their group.

In group B, 2^nd favourite for the night Tarzan was drawn against Brissles in the 1^st game, and in one of the closest games of the night, Brissles with only 40 seconds left, won when Tarzan’s clock expired. This must have rattled Ivan as he went on to draw the next game against Bull and the last game against Rappa which effectively cost him a spot in the semis.

Group B proved to be the “Group of Death” as Brissles won all 7 games, and 2^nd spot was closely fought out between Max, Cody, Perezmo and Ivan, with Max emerging victorious by half a point (a draw).

Group A was heading for a possible 4-way tie for 1^st spot between Jordo, The O-Train, Bonecrusher and iGuts, however Jordo held his nerve and defeated all-comers except iGuts, and The O-Train had key victories over iGuts and then Bonecrusher in the last round to see them through to the semis. History was also created by Tanka who won his first ever chess game against Bobby Love in the last round game of the night. Dylan and Big Ben also fought valiantly in Group A, but fell short of the semis.

The 1^st Semi-Final saw 1^st placed in Group A, Jordo against 2^nd placed in Group B, Max. This was billed as a battle royale, with Jordo favourite to knock over the 2008 Champion Max in a tight game… however no one really knows what happened here as within a minute the call came that the game was over – Max had won in a blitz and nobody had even begun to watch the game!!

In the other Semi-Final Brissles and The O-Train fought out a long 20 minute battle, with Brissles taking an advantage late in the game and grinding out a victory.

The Final saw a replay of the inaugural 2008 Final between Max and Brissles.

3-time Champ Brissles was favourite and this may have intimidated Max as his main focus was on the clock. After a couple of rushed and unorthodox moves early on by Max, Brissles took charge of the final and won after just a few minutes.

Brissles became Champion for the 4^th year in a row and took home a plethora of prizes – not only the prestigious Söder Chess Grand Master Trophy and the defending Champion’s bottle of Whisky, but unexpectedly further prizes were very generously donated by Mikael Perez. Yes, Perezmo came to the party with a personally engraved bottle of Famous Grouse for the 2012 Champion and also a personalized polo shirt.

After the marked improvement by so many in 2012, there is no doubt that the 2013 Championship will be wide open. Next event on the Söder Social calendar is the Pool Championship next Friday 7^th December. See you there!