The Great Magnus

     This article is dedicated to one of the greatest chess players of all the times- the nr.1 chess player in the World and the 16th World Chess Champion- Magnus Carlsen.

     I can't stop being amazed by Magnus- the opener of a new era in chess!
     He makes it all look possible- living a full life, enjoying it and being the best.

     Winning the match against Anand, Magnus has not proved anything that needed to be proved. We all respected his chess and admired his simple way of pulling the best out of any situation. I think that his chess clearly shows the primordial "surviving" skill of our averted ancestors. When watching his games, I somehow get the feeling of watching those documentaries about the primary human beings who strived to get to live a new day and who step by step evolved onto being a complex civilization.

     Saying that Magnus inspires is too little- he makes us rethink all we know about chess and, for me, about life approach too.
     I am grateful to have witnessed the phenomenon of Magnus Carlsen.

     Our generation might have a chance afterall, huh?
   

November Blitz

     Another month is ending and it's almost the end of the year...
     I have some 5 free days until the Romanian Rapid, Blitz and Solving Chess Championship which I will surely enjoy, as I've managed to pass my partial exams at University :) Then, London comes :D

     I think that it will be a vey nice tournament- I play in an WGM round-robin. I will be the 1st Elo ranked player, though it will be surely not that easy. I can't wait to wander on the London's streets making lots of photos!
     I've been in London earlier this year, but just for some 11 hours (I had a very bad flight connection while flying to Bangkok) in which I managed to see only the London Eye and the Big Ben...
     What else? My life isn't very full of activities while in Chisinau- it's more about solving not chess related problems and gaining forces for the next tournaments.
     I am going to watch "The Hunger Games-2" today- hope it will be at least not worse than the 1st one :))))

Have a nice week!

xoxo from Chisinau! ;)
   

Happy Dance

     These days since I've got home should have been "Heaven on Earth" and instead I've caught a cold and in the same time I have to study for exams day by day with my cold making a "happy dance" every time I don't understand something. Econometrics can be really tricky when you don't recall anything from the last year's course of Statistics... Well, I hope that I'll get through with it until tomorrow, when I have to submit the paper.
      I still haven't written anything on the Anand-Carlsen match. It is not as spectacular as I expected it to be. Carlsen has a clear edge and a +2 already, I don't see how anything can change- I guess that we'll have a new World Champion in some days.
     That's all for now... I'll return to my battle with my cold and with my one and true love "Econometrics" :))))
     Wish you all a healthy and nice end of week!

xoxo from Chisinau ;)

Back to life

     I am back in Chisinau. I arrived yesterday, at about 4pm and slept until today :))) Yeah, the tournament was really exhausting for me.
     We finished on the 12th place, while being 10th in the starting list. The result is far from being called a success, but if to think that with one more draw (if I would have made a draw) in the last round, we would have taken the 6th place, one could understand how tense was everything until the very last moment.
     I ended the tournament on 50 % (4,5p/9) and some -3 Elo points.
     The best result by far in our team showed Alina l'Ami, who was in a very good form! You can see the statisctics here:

12. Romania (RtgAvg:2358, Captain: Szabo Gergely-Andras-Gyula / TB1: 10 / TB2: 175.5)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg	Rp	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	IM	Bulmaga Irina	2399	ROU	1	0	0	1	½	0	1	1	0	4.5	9	2367	2367	4.5	4.83	-0.33	10	-3.3
2	WGM	L'ami Alina	2361	ROU		½	1	½	1	½	1	1	½	6.0	8	2298	2491	6	4.55	1.45	15	21.8
3	IM	Foisor Cristina-Adela	2347	ROU	1	1	0	½	0		1	1	½	5.0	8	2247	2342	5	4.81	0.19	10	1.9
4	WGM	Cosma Elena-Luminita	2326	ROU	1	½		1	½	1	½		½	5.0	7	2197	2355	5	4.50	0.50	10	5.0
5	WGM	Voicu-Jagodzinsky Carmen	2275	ROU	1		½			0		½		2.0	4	2236	2236	2	2.16	-0.16	15	-2.4

     The tournament was won by the Ukraine's team, followed by the Russian and Polish ones.

Alina l'Ami, 6p/8

Luminita Cosma, 5p/7

Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky, 2p/4

Cristina Foisor, 5p/8

and me with 4,5p/9

     In the men's section, our team showed a great fighting spirit and finished on the 14th place, being 19th on the starting ranking list. Here are the statistics:

14. ROMANIA (RtgAvg:2590, TB1: 10 / TB2: 159.5)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	ID	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg	Rp	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	GM	LUPULESCU Constantin	2630	ROU	0	1	½	½	1	1	0	½	½	0	5.0	9	2634	2677	5	4.44	0.56	10	5.6
2	GM	JIANU Vlad-Cristian	2565	ROU	0	1	½	0	½		½	0	1	½	4.0	8	2567	2567	4	3.93	0.07	10	0.7
3	GM	PARLIGRAS Mircea-Emilian	2576	ROU	0	1	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	5.5	9	2523	2603	5.5	4.97	0.53	10	5.3
4	GM	NEVEDNICHY Vladislav	2590	ROU	0	1	½	1	1	0	½	½	1	1	6.5	9	2514	2680	6.5	5.14	1.36	10	13.6
5	GM	SZABO Gergely-Andras-Gyula	2548	ROU	0					½					0.5	1	2666	0	0.5	0.34	0.16	10	1.6

   
     Their best result in this tournament was the 2-2 with Ukraine! The next round they played against Russia and they were really close to a miracle, with Mircea Parligras and Vladislav Nevednichy pushing for a win. They lost the match eventually, but this didn't get them any lower in our eyes!

Mircea Parligras, 5,5p/9

Vladislav Nevednichy, 6,5p/9

Vlad Jianu, 4p/8

Constantin Lupulescu, 5p/9

and both our Captain and reserve player in the men's team- Gergely Szabo, whom we let to play only 1 game, in which he successfully made a draw vs the Ukraine's -Fedorchuk

     The tournament was won by the Azerbaijan team, followed by the French and Russian ones.
      I will stay home for now and learn for my partial exams at the University and try to pass them :D My next tournament will be the Romanian rapid, blitz and solving Women Championship, which will start at the beginning of December.

xoxo from Chisinau ;)

Sweet 20's

     Half of the tournament has already passed in no time.
     These last few days have been very tense... It's been not easy at all to play on the 1st board and I am pretty satisfied with my 50% (2,5p/5). I think it is worth to mention that since I've turned 20 yo I haven't lost a game :))) though I was really close...
      The last 2 days have been absolutely fantastic and I want to thank for this my amazing friends and teammates who've made me feel really special!
     Tomorrow is a free day and I think that I will visit the Old City and learn for my Management online exam, which I will have to pass in some days :D
     Our team goes neither good nor bad- we won 2 matches, made 2 equals and lost one match.
     I really like this tournament and Warsaw of course! I don't understand why official events are not organized every time in big cities! It feels so much better to be in the center of life!
     More impressions to come tomorrow, as for now- here are some photos from my yesterday's birthday party (which was by far the best one!).

xoxo from Warsaw! ;)

Connections

     Here I am in the rainy Warsaw!
     I arrived last night, not without adventures, as you might have seen on my FB page...

View of the centre of Warsaw

     My flight from Chisinau to Vienna was 2 hours late and , as I had only 50 minutes until the connection flight from Vienna to Warsaw- I lost it... Actually, it was not such a big surprise for me, as every time I fly from Chisinau I have unpleasant delays, so this time- I checked before my trip weather there's another flight from Vienna to Warsaw later same day and there was only one, which I was very lucky to catch 5 minutes before the boarding. You can't imagine how I ran from the plane to the transfer desk :))) I was aware that if I don't catch that flight I will either stay a night in Vienna, which means not playing the 1st round, or I will have another crazy connection...
     All in all, I am happy that I am here safe and sound :D
     It is my first time in Warsaw, well, it's actually the 2nd one, though the first time I've been only at the railway station and at the airport :D I visited Lodz and Legnica and I liked them both. As about my first impressions from Warsaw- it's much more than I expected- I really, really like it- can't wait to explore it!
    We play against Switzerland today. You can find the pairings here: http://chess-results.com/tnr113757.aspx?lan=11&art=2&rd=1&wi=821 and here is the official site of the event, where you can follow the live games and the daily photo reports: http://etcc2013.com/

Will keep you posted!

xoxo from Warsaw! ;)

Poland-ETCC

     The European Team Championship will start in about a week in Warsaw.
     I like so much travelling around the World and playing chess tournaments! Can't wait for the Europeans to start!
     Our team is 10th out of 31 in the starting rating list.

1		Ukraine	2498
2		Russia	2491
3		Georgia	2491
4		Poland	2410
5		Germany	2390
6		Armenia	2386
7		France	2372
8		Hungary	2368
9		Spain	2367
10		Romania	2358

     As I said in so many posts- playing for a team is much more enjoyable for me than playing individual tournaments. It may be occured, but I feel less pressure when playing for a team and I also like this supporting spirit- in an individual championship, no matter if you are friends with someone or not- first of all- you are opponents and no one sincerely wants you to win- maybe that's the biggest difference- the real support and positive thoughts you get from your teammates in a team event.

      Our team has the same composition as in the last championships we had played:

1	IM	Foisor Cristina-Adela	2347	ROU	0.0
2	WGM	Bulmaga Irina	2399	ROU	0.0
3	WGM	L'ami Alina	2361	ROU	0.0
4	WGM	Cosma Elena-Luminita	2326	ROU	0.0
5	WGM	Voicu-Jagodzinsky Carmen	2275	ROU	0.0

Alina L'ami and Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky

Cristina Foisor, Luminita Cosma, Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky and me

Our captain- Gergely Szabo with Carmen and Alina

     Here is the official site of the event: http://etcc2013.com/ where you can follow the live games and the photo reports.

     We will stay in the center of Warsaw and I simply can't wait to explore it! I am really excited about everything :))) I will also celebrate my 20th birthday there! What can be better than that- I always prefer to celebrate it at tournaments than at home, because I have more friends in the "Chess World" than in the real one :P

Will keep you posted! 

xoxo from Chisinau ;)

Humanity

     As it was the birthday of my favourite chess player of all the times- Alexander Alekhine yesterday, I had started to think about fates of different known chess players.
     It is known that Alexander Alekhine, besides the all known fact of being the 4th World Chess Champion and an outstanding chess player had struggled with the addiction to alcohol along his career, having battles against it in the most crucial moments of his life.
     I was thinking- is it something about chess that changes us?
     It seems for me that the best chess players are... different. Maybe it is about the disappointment they deal with, because no one can play without losses; or maybe it's about the difficulties that they face while leaving a life on stand by while going to tournaments and training sessions... The fact is that something changes in every professional chess player sooner or later- I mean... Well, it's normal to face changes during a lifetime- but I talk about the things that chess changes in us- we tend to become selfish and to try to have it all only for ourselves, we tend to put our interests ahead of everyone else's-because a chess player does not make any compromises during a game.
     We are also not that good at finding solutions to deal with losses- some drink, some smoke, others swear, forget about themselves while partying, or some come to not caring; the best of us- they find better ways, like practicing some kind of sport, reading, having long walks, watching movies, listening to music...
     I believe that making chess the centre of Universe in one's life is really dangerous- there should be patient, loving and supporting people around you in order not to lose the humanity...