Golden Sands

   An amazing,full of nice and not so nice memories part of my life has finished- I graduated highschool,took some good marks at my Bacalaureat (final exams) and said good-bye to my classmates...




   A summer full of chess is awaiting for me now. It has started with my playing at the Romanian Rapid Club Cup,which took part in Bucharest,from 2nd to 3rd June,with my team- Politehnica Iasi. I had a good result- 6.5 points out of 7, 1st place on the 2nd board and 2nd place with the team.I was thrilled to see how nice is Bucharest in this time of year.The old center is unbeliavably beautiful,with a lot of cafes along the streets and  a bunch of old,renovated buildings.

At the Romanian Rapid Club Cup,playing against Maria Vasilescu

The team of Politehnica Iasi,with Alina l'Ami on the 1st board and Ioana Gelip on the 3rd Board

   I am writting from Golden Sands now,an amazing seaside resort in Bulgaria. I am playing in the 1st Grand Europe Open here. It's a huge tournament,with a lot of prizes and many strong players fighting for them. There have been played 4 rounds so far and I've got a neither good nor bad 50%. I beated the lower rated opponents and lost against the higher seeds- Yilmaz Mustafa (IM,2536,TUR) and Fier Alexandr (GM,2596,BRA). Golden Sands is a big resort and there are a lot of things to do here. There's a very nice cafe on a miniature Eiffel Tower. I was very impressed to see the high quality of services and the affordable prices here. They are much better if to compare them with the Romanian ones. You can see a lot of Russians,Romanians and Germans around here. Golden Sands is one of the most popular resorts of Bulgaria.

 

With my good friend and room-mate,Iva Videnova,winner of the Bulgarian Women Chess Championship in 2012 (the mini-Eiffel Tower on the background)

   Now speaking about my "full of chess" summer,I will play in Barbera Open,Barcelona from 3rd to 12th July,then it comes the Turkish League,in Konya,from 15th to 22nd July,then the World Junior Championship,in Athens,from 1st to 16th August,the Olympiad in Istanbul,from 27th August till 10th of September and finally the Romanian Team Championship,from 22nd till 30th of September... It's going to be a really tough summer but in the same time a very interesting and challenging one. I dream big,I want to break the 2400 line,in order to get the IM title. Big dreams involve a big amount of work that I hope to be able to do. It's difficult to mentain a balance between such a "full" chess life and the normal life. I admire Judit Polgar for being able to have both a brilliant chess career and a happy family. She's always been my idol and with every day that passes by I understand how difficult it must have been for her to become the World's strongest female player ever.
   There is much to be done,there are a lot of dreams and hopes but I try not to forget that there's only one life and once the game is over the queen and the pawn go in the same box.