The Division I 1968-69 was the 19th Swedish team championship ( Allsvenskan ) in chess and the only season in which the top flight was played in four parallel seasons.
At the Congress of the Swedish Chess Federation in 1968, a comprehensive change of mode of Allsvenskan was decided. Only club teams were allowed to play for the Allsvenskan, the team strength was reduced from 10 to 8, and Division I was divided into several parallel relays. One club per district should be eligible to play, but since only 23 districts reported a representative, Stockholm was given a second starting place, and the 24 participating clubs were divided into four parallel relays with six teams each. The four season winners determined the Swedish team champions in the knockout system , whereby the final was played with a return game.
Events
In groups II Norra, I Södra and II Södra, the competitions took place on November 10, December 1, 1968, January 19, February 9 and March 9, 1969 and were played decentrally at the clubs involved. In Group I Norra, the first three rounds were played centrally in Umeå on November 2nd and 3rd, 1968 due to the great distances . The semi-finals were played on March 23, 1969, the finals on April 12 and 13 in Nässjö .
I Norra
SK Rockaden Umeå , Fagersvik SK and SK Drott Östersund made first place among themselves. Although Östersund defeated his two direct competitors, but lost two competitions against teams from the second half of the table, so that Umeå was the relay winner by beating Fagersvik.
The Schacksällskapet Manhem had already won the relay before the last round and prevailed by four points. Second place went to Örebro Schacksällskap , which started the season with two defeats.
The decision to win the relay was only made in the last round in the competition between Lunds ASK and Helsingborgs Schacksällskap ; However, this was clear with a 7-1 win for Lund.
The semi-final competitions took place in Stockholm and Gothenburg . While the two North representatives of Wasa SK clearly prevailed 6: 2 against SK Rockaden Umeå, the competition between Lunds ASK and SS Manhem ended 4: 4. Since Lund was victorious on the first four boards with 2½: 1½, they reached the final.
