Redhead in Groningen

     Half of the tournament has already passed. Yeah, that's how I'll start this post, no mention of any celebration- still too early for that.

     I have 2,5p/4 with 3 draws and a win- 3 draws!!! I normally make them in 3-4 tournaments :))) Have never ever been such a solid player before! :D Don't think that I didn't try to win- I played 100 moves in the 1st game and 135 in the 2nd one ('ve discovered that the Queen+Knight vs Queen endgame is a dead draw, but not before tormenting my opponent and myself for 50 moves).
     Well, now- getting to the interesting part...
     I had a fantastic experience the other evening! The tournament director invited us to a special event- an evening dedicated to the French composer- Eric Satie. There was live piano music, there was fantastic singing and a mute movie that impressed me a lot and made me regret that I am such a rare bird in the artistic entourage.
     And here comes the Christmas part...
     It is my first Christmas away from home and I don't really feel its spirit. I've always associated it with home, with too much tasty food, lots of presents and too many family members :D
     We had a different celebration of Christmas this year- with chess players, blitz, jokes, fun, going out and fun again :) Can't tell which one I liked more- both have their own charm :P

     All these being said, have a nice Christmas and if you don't- never mind- it's just a day in the calendar!

Ioana Gelip and Vlad Stegariu

With Alex Stegariu

xoxo from the redhead in Groningen

A taste of NL

     There've been no posts lately and, judging by the increasing number of views- everyone was curious about what was going on.
     Well, the beginning of December was too intense- I had many problems to solve and I simply had no mood and no physical or psychological strength to distract on anything else. The conclusion I've drawn out of all this stuff is never to put anyone's interest above yours. People leave, but the sacrifices you've made for them stay with you.
     All in all, I am happy that everything's behind and I have no concerns but how to have a good time until next year ;)
     My friends and I are in Groningen now, playing a tournament here. The city has proved to be very nice so far. We had a really nice walk through the center yesterday! Our hotel is quite far from everything and there's an about 4 km walk to the center. We were lucky to ask the direction we should go a guy in a car and he dropped us in the center :D People in this city seem to be very friendly and I have the feeling that we'll have a very good time here.
     As about the tournament itself- it is organized nicely and the only thing left is to play some good chess :) You can find the results and the pairings here: http://www.schaakstadgroningen.nl/festival/14/A/
     Here are some photos:

With Ioana Gelip

With Ioana Gelip and Alex Stegariu

xoxo from Groningen ;)

King's Tournament

     A very eventful day is behind!
     The first round of the match has proven to be very interesting, though a bit unlucky for the Romanian team, but I'll get to this part a bit later.
     The organization has really impressed me- a very nice playing hall, a big screen with the live games, commentator's room (you can follow the live commentary on playchess) with press-conferences with the players, great snacks, tea,coffee (tasted and approved by me :D ). I envy a little bit the players.
     I tried to do a new thing, I made some notes with my thoughts about the games, which I wrote while kibitzing them. Here they are:

     Game nr. 1: Lu Shanglei- Lupulescu Constantin

     Opening: Vey solid preparation by both players. It looks like both players have analysed everything until the very drawish rook endgame.


      Game nr. 2: Nevednichy Vladislav- Wei Yi

      Opening: Black looks confident in a Rossolimo with 4...bc. The players had the same varioation in the yesterday's blitz game. It looks to me that black has solved his opening problems. Wei Yi used to play Najdorf and Dragon before, I guess that 2...Nc6 is special preparation for today's game.

      Middlegame: The opening battle is clearly won by the young Wei Yi, black has a 50 minutes time advantage, as well as a better position. It looks like the knight on "e5"is very unstable and it is more of a target than a well-placed piece. Black's got the pair of bishops and unless white will be able to take control of the vital black squares "e5" and "c5", the threat of a potential dynamic center along with the pair of bishops might become difficult to fight against.

     Game nr. 3:  Wang Yue- Jianu Vlad

     Opening: Black has got an interesting position after the opening. His main idea is to apply pressure on the white's advanced center pawns, speculating ideas with "b5" and "e6", exploiting the position of his knight on "a5" and the bishop on "g7". Looks like an interesting battle is ahead.

     Middlegame: I think that this position was not specifically prepared for today by any of the players. Black took a very debatable decision with his 12th move "bxc4", defining the pawn structure. The main continuations were "e6", "e5" and "Bh6". I think that this decision has limited greatly his chances of creating counter play  and the knight on "a5" has become a miss-placed piece. It looks like will have to solve some serious problems in this game.

     Game nr. 4: Parligras Mircea- Ni Hua

     Opening: It looks like white applies a bit of pressure. More time and a better piece coordination might be some of the premises of a slight advantage.

     Endgame: A very pleasant endgame for white has arisen. Mircea has got a big time advantage as well, though it might be not that significant on this stage of the game. It looks like black will have to solve some problems in his way of seeking equalization.

      Here are the final results:

Bo.	1	China	Rtg	-	2	Romania	Rtg	3 : 1
1.1	GM	Lu, Shanglei	2566	-	GM	Lupulescu, Constantin	2643	½ - ½
1.2	GM	Wei, Yi	2649	-	GM	Nevednichy, Vladislav	2563	1 - 0
1.3	GM	Wang, Yue	2711	-	GM	Jianu, Vlad-Cristian	2588	1 - 0
1.4	GM	Ni, Hua	2677	-	GM	Parligras, Mircea-Emilian	2594	½ - ½

     Here you can see some photos I took:

     Will keep you posted!


xoxo from Medias ;)

Chinese Wall vs Romanian Stake

     I am very happy to announce that an exquisite event will take place in Romania very soon, starting on the 22nd of November!
     The traditional "King's Tournament" came with a new format- a 4 games match between the best Romanian and Chinese players. The last ones happen to be the reigning Olympic Champions! The match will be foregone by a blitz tournament, where in addition to the 8 GMs our most promising juniors- IM Deac Bogdan (2385) and FM Costachi Mihnea (2382) will compete .
     It is going to be a very interesting match to follow and I am happy that I will be able to do it live! The Chinese team is no doubt very strong and a bit younger, with the reigning World Junior Champion in the team composition- GM Lu Shanglei (2566).

GM Lu Shanglei

     The other 3 players are in the composition of the Olympic Golden Team- Wang Yue (2711), Ni Hua (2677) and Wei Yi (2649).

GM Ni Hua

GM Wang Yue

GM Wei Yi

     The "Romanian Stake" will be represented by: GM Constantin Lupulescu (2643) who constanly qualifies for World Cup and shows fantastic results at the European Championships, GM Mircea Parligras (2594), GM Vlad Jianu (2588) and GM Vladislav Nevednichy (2563).

GM Constantin Lupulescu

GM Mircea Parligras

GM Vlad Jianu

GM Vladislav Nevednichy

     The event will take place in Medias- a very rustic Romanian city, as you can see bellow:

     I will be more than happy to deliver impressions as well as reports from the place of the event and let the best team win!



xoxo from the board of the "Romanian Stake" team ;)

Drama Queen

     The Romanian Women League is over.
     We lost the match yesterday and with it- the title has slipped... For different reasons, I played a

terrible game- one of the worst I've played lately and though I tried to put a fight, my position wasn't in a "phoenix mood".
     These kind of games keep happening to me from time to time and some deeper investigations need to be done in order to understand the reason. When I look at the game now, I feel like someone else played yesterday :( It is not the first time when the final standing depends on the result of my game at these championships and call it bad luck or just coincidence, but the outcome is the same every time.
     All in all, congratulations to the wining team- "CS Studentesc Medicina Timisoara"! Here are the final standings:

Rk.	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	CS STUD.MEDICINA TIMISOARA	*	3	0	2½	3½	3	4	3½	12	2	19.5
2	CSM BUCURESTI	1	*	2½	3	2½	3	3	4	12	0	19.0
3	CS POLITEHNICA-ANTIBIOTICE IASI	4	1½	*	2	4	3	4	4	11	0	22.5
4	CS SINANDREI-CSS NR.1 TIMISOARA	1½	1	2	*	1½	3	4	3½	7	0	16.5
5	ACS APA NOVA BUCURESTI	½	1½	0	2½	*	2	2	3	6	0	11.5
6	CLUBUL CENTRAL DE SAH BUCURESTI	1	1	1	1	2	*	3	3½	5	0	12.5
7	CSM LUGOJ	0	1	0	0	2	1	*	3½	3	0	7.5
8	CS UNIVERSITATEA ARAD	½	0	0	½	0	½	½	*	0	0	2.0

If not to speak only about this tournament, I had an idea- to make video posts from time to time- I see a lot of bloggers doing that, so here's my first try! Don't judge to harsh- I guess it's a new field for me. I am waiting for feedback and if you have some ideas with what could be the next video post about- feel free to tell me!

xoxo from Calimanesti ;)

The Tradition

   

Many interesting things are happening at the Romanian League.

     I have managed to convince my pieces that it's better to stay with me than to desert and I've won the last 4 games, scoring 4p/5. Our team has got the "4-0 virus" and we've won all the matches since the last post. There are two more rounds to go and I hope that we'll keep the lead!
     The main drama is happening in the men section, where the "favorite teams" are slashing each other with no mercy. You can check the results here: http://chess-results.com/tnr150050.aspx?lan=1
     As you might know, it was my birthday yesterday- I've turned 21 yo... I don't feel any different but I'm really happy that I spent it here, among friends and in such a nice chess atmosphere. I have a tradition- I win every game I play on my birthday (no matter of the strength of the opponent) since I'm a little kid. Yesterday was no exception and it made my day even better! Maybe I have to play against Carlsen next year, who knows, maybe "the tradition" will frighten even him :D

     "The Match" is keeping everyone under pressure- the first thing I do after I finish my games is to check the result. Honestly, I didn't expect the match to be so interesting and Anand's win was definitely a surprise to me! I am not cheering for any of the sides, I just enjoy this beautiful chess battle!
     After all, it's a beautiful life the life of a chess professional!

Wish you all a nice evening!


xoxo from Calimanesti ;)

Deserting Pieces

     And here I am at the Romanian League in Calimanesti.
     The first round out of seven was played yesterday and it was a pretty dramatic one for our team- Politehnica-Antibiotice Iasi. We made an equal match, but all the games were really crazy... I lost a piece on the 17th move and there was no fight at all. I think it's the first time in many years I make such blunders... The other games looked much better for us, but somehow things got out of control, like Kasparov said- "People are not machines, they have emotions and that's why chess is a sport- not a science."
     There are six more matches ahead of us and I just hope not to be so lavish with my pieces and to be able to play some decent chess. Here is the compositions of our team:

Bo.		Name	RtgI		FED
1	IM	Javakhishvili Lela	2486		GEO
2	IM	Bulmaga Irina	2393		ROU
3	IM	L'ami Alina	2393		ROU
4	WCM	Gelip Ioana	2169		ROU

     You can follow the results here: http://chess-results.com/tnr150089.aspx?lan=1&art=8&wi=821 and some of the games on : http://sahlive.ro/
     As about everything else- the weather is really nice- some degrees above 15- a very enjoyable autumn. Anyways, it's difficult to focus on other things when my pieces desert from the board...
     I will keep you posted, hopefully with better news!


xoxo from Calimanesti :) 

Faith Vampires

     There are very few calm moments in this life.
     When you think that everything's good and you are finally satisfied by how things go something happens in order to remind you that your life depends too much on things you can't control.
     I don't know how about you, but I like making plans, knowing what I have to do, what I am expected to do and work after that to make it happen. I am a very responsible person and when I am engaged in making something I do my best to complete the task. I don't understand why some people enjoy ruining my plans and my hard work. Why some don't want to make compromises?
     I am a student at a normal University. I chose to study on distance, in order to have enough time for the thing I love the most- chess. The attendance at courses is not compulsory, so I just have to pass partial and final exams and to make projects. But somehow, the last year of the degree is special- they think that a student is so desperate to finally finish his studies that it would be normal to change the "not compulsory attendance" to courses. The professor said- "But it's not compulsory, you'll just repeat the year if you don't come. Maybe you'll be able to find time for this next year." Why don't they respect their own rules? I would never engage in something I knew I couldn't complete.
     What to do now? There's nothing to be done but accept their new rules and make sacrifices that I would never make if I knew everything from the beginning.
     And how am I supposed to believe there are no vampires with so many people enjoying their power over others and getting satisfaction from sucking your nerves, blood and from draining you of all your energy, dreams and faith?

xoxo from Iasi :)

Et voila!

     A great tournament and a great experience has come to an end.
     I can't say without some sadness that I'll have to leave Cap d'Agde soon and leave this great place behind, though, not without some fantastic memories!
     I have had a really good tournament, scoring 6,5p/9, taking the 1st place in the women section and sharing the 6th in the main one. +15 Elo points are always welcome :D
     There is always place for better and I hope that I'll be able to win such a strong Open some day!
     I would also like to congratulate the winner of the tournament- Matthieu Cornette, who showed me no mercy in the 8th round and went on winning the tournament!
     Here you can find the final standings: http://echecs.asso.fr/ResultatNew.aspx?URL=Tournois/Id/31712/31712&Action=Cl

1	g	CORNETTE Matthieu	2548 F					7	55½	2634
2	g	MAIOROV Nikita	2583 F					7	53½	2583
3	g	BAUER Christian	2637 F					7	53	2618
4	g	DAVID Alberto	2569 F					7	51	2652
5	g	KOVCHAN Alexander	2592 F					7	47½	2491
6	g	BANIKAS Hristos	2638 F					6½	55½	2610
7	g	LALIC Bogdan	2450 F					6½	53	2598
8	m	VELTEN Paul	2436 F					6½	53	2571
9	g	PELLETIER Yannick	2574 F					6½	53	2543
10	g	NEVEDNICHY Vladislav	2568 F					6½	53	2512
11	g	PALAC Mladen	2561 F					6½	51½	2535
12	m	BULMAGA Irina	2377 F					6½	49½	2503
13	g	PETROV Marijan	2495 F					6½	48½	2491
14	f	BUSCARA Sevan	2357 F					6½	47	2433
15	m	MILLIET Sophie	2379 F					6½	46½	2478
16	m	MOUSSARD Jules	2417 F					6½	44½	2387
17	f	FAVAREL Antoine	2372 F					6½	44	2420

    
     I am very thankful to all those who've made this event possible and I will definitely return next year!
     Here's a glance at the amazing last few days I've had here:

 

 

    
     Et voila, au revoir Cap d'Agde!


xoxo from France ;)