Short Distance

     Five rounds have passed in no time. It feels like the tournament has just started and it's already finishing... Well, after playing 13 rounds at WJCC, 7 rounds seem nothing :)))
     We have 3 wins and 2 losses so far, each of us scoring 3,5p/5. It is a very important match today, well, in such short distances all the matches are very important...

Bo.	4	CS Politechnica-Antibiotice Iasi	Рейт	-	2	SHSM Nashe Nasledie	Рейт	0 : 0
3.1	GM	Lagno, Kateryna	2534	-	GM	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2495
3.2	GM	Cmilyte, Viktorija	2505	-	GM	Gunina, Valentina	2506
3.3	WGM	Bulmaga, Irina	2401	-	IM	Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina	2410
3.4	WGM	L'ami, Alina	2362	-	WGM	Girya, Olga	2439

     Our team is currently sharing 3rd-4th place, with everything to be decided in the last 2 matches.

     The Monte Carlo team is unstoppable in this event- they won all the matches and they are on clear first. 

     Here are some photos we've taken during the last few days:

xoxo from Rhodes! ;)

Cheating the weather

     The European Club Cup continues in Rhodes!
     We won our first match and unfortunately lost the second one, yesterday... That's the only dark side of the coin, otherwise- we have a great time here!

        The weather is amazing- I feel like cheating the cold, rainy and windy weather from Romania :P I've found out that the city center is quite far from the place we're staying- about a 40 minutes walk. Playing without a reserve player, I guess it would be difficult to find time for visiting it...

     We play against a Bosnian team today, which has an a little bit strange board order, with Sandra Djukic- who is the highest rated player playing on the last board:

Bo.	10	"Rudar" Prijedor	Рейт	-	4	CS Politechnica-Antibiotice Iasi	Рейт	0 : 0
4.1		Nesic, Dragana	1842	-	GM	Lagno, Kateryna	2534
4.2		Plivcevic, Ivana	1881	-	GM	Cmilyte, Viktorija	2505
4.3		Jacimovic, Sara	2000	-	WGM	Bulmaga, Irina	2401
4.4	WIM	Djukic, Sandra	2150	-	WGM	L'ami, Alina	2362

    Follow the live games, as well as the photo reports on the official site of the event: http://euro2013.chessdom.com/ !

Going for some exploring now!

Keep tuned for more photos and news from Rhodes! :)

Rhodes

     Here I am in Rhodes!
     I arrived yesterday, late in the night and I still haven't found any time to explore, but I'm sure I will in the next days. The first thing that I noticed when our plane landed was the huge airport with so,so many people in there! Who'd think that Rhodes is so popular in this time of the year?!
     As about the tournament, the 1st round will start today, at 3 pm local time. There are 11 teams in the Women section and 53(!) in the Men one.
     Here you can find the pairings for the 1st round: http://chess-results.com/tnr110528.aspx?lan=11&art=3&rd=1&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984 We play against the Italian team "Fischer Chieti":

Bo.	9	Fischer Chieti	Рейт	-	4	CS Politechnica-Antibiotice Iasi	Рейт	0 : 0
4.1	IM	Zimina, Olga	2337	-	GM	Lagno, Kateryna	2534
4.2	WIM	Brunello, Marina	2263	-	GM	Cmilyte, Viktorija	2505
4.3		Gueci, Tea	2054	-	WGM	Bulmaga, Irina	2401
4.4		Di Primio, Eugenia	1982	-	WGM	L'ami, Alina	2362

     The hotel where everyone stays (including us) is quite ok, though it's not what I expected... Well, I can't complain, as I am really excited to be here and to play after a 3 weeks break :)

     Here you can follow the live games: http://euro2013.chessdom.com/

Will keep you posted!

xoxo from Rhodes! ;)

European Club Cup

     The two weeks "hibernation" period is over and I'll leave for Rhodes tomorrow, where the European Club Cup will take place.
     I play for the Romanian Club "Politehnica-Antibiotice Iasi", with whom we became Romanian Club Champions earlier this year. We have almost the same team composition as there:

4. CS Politechnica-Antibiotice Iasi (РейтСр:2451 / Доп1: 0 / Доп2: 0) Капитан: Manole Vasile
Bo.		Имя	Рейт.	ФЕД.	код FIDE	Партии
1	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2534	UKR	14109336	0.0
2	GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	2505	LTU	12801259	0.0
3	WGM	Bulmaga Irina	2401	ROU	13903063	0.0
4	WGM	L'ami Alina	2362	ROU	1210246	0.0

     There will be played 7 rounds in Swiss System.

     Here you can find the official site of the event: http://euro2013.chessdom.com/ where you can follow the live games, results and photo reports.

     The tournament will be a very strong one- we are the 4th in the starting ranking list:

1		MNC	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	2576	Jean Michel Rapaire
2		RUS	SHSM Nashe Nasledie	2463	Aleksandr Zlochevskii
3		ARM	Mika Chess Club	2463	Anahit Vardapetyan
4		ROU	CS Politechnica-Antibiotice Iasi	2451	Manole Vasile
5		RUS	Ugra	2436	Pavel Lobach
6		SRB	Chess Club BAS	2349	Gordana Markovic
7		SRB	Jelica PEP	2329	Jovan Todorovic
8		LTU	MRU - Vilniaus Fortas	2171	Vaidas Sakalauskas
9		ITA	Fischer Chieti	2159	Andrea Rebeggiani
10		AUT	ASVOE Pamhagen	2149	Eva Moser
11		BIH	"Rudar" Prijedor	2036	Rade Javoric

     Keep tuned for news from the place of the event!

xoxo from Iasi ;)

Sleepless

     There are nights when one just knows that it's simply impossible to fall asleep, though there's nothing better to be done.
     You call someone and realize that you actually don't want to talk to anyone, you start watching a movie and you catch yourself on the 20th minute not knowing what's the movie about; you think "Ok, time to sleep"- no chance- you just lay in the bed and think about stupid things.
     These nights are really interesting- because there are thoughts in our minds which we usually chase away, but when you're very tired- there's no energy left for doing it, so you just let the thoughts in and you don't rake yourself.

Going back to my uncensored thoughts now :P


xoxo from Chisinau :)




   

Russian Superfinal

Baira Kovanova

     It is very good to be home, though I've already started missing the tournament atmosphere ;)
     This last week was more about familly, relaxing and just having a good time.
     There are several interesting tournaments to follow these days: The Russian Superfinal (men and women), Bilbao and the last but not least- King's Tournament- which is held in Bucharest.
     I enjoy following the Women's Superfinal (I guess it's easy to understand :P ). It's a strong and interesting event and the funny thing is that I played against almost all the players (except Ekaterina Kovalevskaya): Baira Kovanova and Valentina Gunina- the leaders of the tournament,both on 3,5p/4; Natalia Pogonina and Alexandra Kosteniuk on 2,5p; Ekaterina Kovalevskaya on 2p; Daria Charochkina, Alina Kashlinskaya, Alexandra Goryachkina and Anastasia Bodnaruk with 1,5p and Tatiana Kosintseva unexpectedly with just 1p. There are 5 more rounds to be played and anything can happen, I will definitely enjoy following the games, which you can also do with live video and commentary  in Russian on the official site of the event: http://online.russiachess.org/#2013/10/superfinalw2013/round5/Gunina, Valentina:Kosintseva, Tatiana
     Here are some photos from the event, whcih I've found on a popular Russian site:http://chesspro.ru/details/superfinal_4

Alina Kashlinskaya vs Natalia Pogonina

Anastasia Bodnaruk vs Valentina Gunina

     The men's Superfinal is also very interesting to follow, with Vladimir Kramnik, Petr Svidler, Dmitry Andreikin, Sergey Karjakin, Nikita Vitiugov, Ernesto Inarkiev, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexey Goganov, Anton Shomoev and Alexander Motylev( though I can't say that I played against any of them this time :P ).

Sergey Karjakin vs Ernesto Inarkiev

Vladimir Kramnik vs Alexey Goganov

     Wish you all a nice week!

Keep tuned for more news!

xoxo from Chisinau ;)

   
    

Real Power- Sister Power

There are days that are meant to be perfect and this one has been one of those!

     It is so nice to have a person you can count on- one who doesn't break promises and who feels what you feel, who understands what you want to say in the moment when you start mouthing a word!

     One might think that there are many people like this in his life, but really, are they?

With my dear sister-Elena

Rain.Wind.Cold

     Autumn has come very unexpectedly this year- from the more or less sunny Turkey to the very rainy and windy Moldova.
     It is the kind of weather when one doesn't want to do anything but staying under a blanket with a cup of hot tea in one hand and with an interesting book in the other one. Actually- I like this weather and it goes very well with the way I feel now, so I can't complain too much :)
     I enjoyed a very nice cup of tea and some more cups of talking with my sister today :P
     It feels so good to have nothing to worry about.
     I will just enjoy these two weeks of being home
and I will try to recharge my batteries for the upcoming tournaments- European Club Cup (20-27.10.2013) and European Team Championship in November.




xoxo from Chisinau ;)