Pontus Carlsson has represented Sweden in many youth tournaments over the past decade and is friends with Zambia's IM Amon Simutowe. At only 20, he carries tremendous talent and is looking for invitational tournaments to vie for international norms. His FIDE ELO is currently 2400.

Carlsson submitted the following game from the Under-18 World Championships in Spain, a win against strong Hungarian IM Albert Bokros. In his beloved Dragon, he points out all the subtleties in the variations and provides insightful commentary. As in most Dragon Sicilians, the game is exciting and is of theoretical importance.  Carlsson reflects:

"My victory in this game took me up to the second board with a good chance to win a medal before the last round. Unfortunately, I played my worst game in the tournament and lost in 22 moves with white (!) against the Cuban Lázaro Bruzón  (he was an GM already then) This last round loss pushed me down to a 9th place. I was quite satisfied anyway since I was rated as number 76 in the tournament."

Posted by The Chess Drum: 13 May 2003