November Thoughts

Dear readers,

My apologies for writing so rarely. I've had a very tough schedule through this second half of the year- a lot of travelling from one tournament to another. It hasn't been very easy, but that's really nothing to complain about. I am very lucky to do what I love.

The last 4 tournaments I played- the Croatian League, Maria Albulet Memorial, the ETCC and Romanian League went quite well. I won the 1st board in Croatia after which Caissa smiled to me again- won the "Maria Albulet Memorial"...

The European Team Chess Championship came afterwards. It was the 2nd time I had the honor to play for Romania's team on the 1st board. It was very interesting and challenging. Somehow, I didn't play many strong tournaments after the EIWCC in Riga and I was a bit "bored of chess" if I can say so. You know this feeling when you play a lot vs lower rated opponents and at some point you feel like you can't take any more games like this- avoiding too "dry" variations, playing strange openings, having to fight in all the games like it's the last one. It can become a bit too stressful. That is why I was very happy when hearing I'd be on the 1st board- it meant I could finally play some "calm chess" and just enjoy it. I guess this is the main reason why I had a quite good tournament, scoring 6/9p. We had a slow start, but as I've noticed at this kind of tournaments- the finish is the most important. A good finish helped us share 4-5th place which was definitely a success for us!

from right to left: Alina l'Ami, Corina Peptan, Ciprian Nanu, Elena-Luminita Cosma, me and Mihaela Sandu

After barely 2 days of rest we had to go to the Romanian League. The opponents were not as strong as at the ETCC, but my chess got worse- too many blunders and misses, I guess I didn't have enough rest... It was a bit frustrating to know that I can play better and still not to be able to show it. Considering this fact, 6,5/8p was a decent result- good enough to help our team- "CS Politehnica Aqua Carpatica Iasi" to become Champion for the 3rd year in the raw!

from left to right: Bella Khotenashvilli, Alina l'Ami, me and Miruna Lehaci

There is one more classical tournament waiting for me this year- a strong ladies round robin in Wroclaw, Poland. It will start on the 29th of November. I hope to have a good rest until then and to  show some quality chess there!

May you have a wonderful end of the week!

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 :) 

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 ;)

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 ;)

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! ;)

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! ;)

Dream Team

     Here I am , again at home- feeling simply great!
     The Romanian Club Championship has ended as we all hoped it would- we've become champions!

Ranking crosstable

Rk.	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	CS POLITEHNICA-ANTIBIOTICE IAŞI	*	2	2½	3½	3	3½	3	3	4	4	17	0	28.5
2	CS STUD. MEDICINA TIMIŞOARA	2	*	½	1½	3	4	3½	4	4	4	13	0	26.5
3	CS AEM LUXTEN TIMIŞOARA	1½	3½	*	4	2	2	1½	4	3	4	12	0	25.5
4	CSM LUGOJ	½	2½	0	*	3	1½	2½	2	3½	4	11	0	19.5
5	CS SÎNANDREI	1	1	2	1	*	3	2	3	3	4	10	0	20.0
6	CLUBUL CENTRAL DE ŞAH BUCUREŞTI	½	0	2	2½	1	*	3	½	3½	4	9	2	17.0
7	CSM BUCUREŞTI	1	½	2½	1½	2	1	*	3½	3½	4	9	0	19.5
8	ACS ŞAH APA NOVA BUCUREŞTI	1	0	0	2	1	3½	½	*	3½	4	7	0	15.5
9	CS UNIVERSITATEA ARAD	0	0	1	½	1	½	½	½	*	3	2	0	7.0
10	CSS TG. MUREŞ	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	*	0	0	1.0

     I scored 8p/9, making two draws and winning some Elo points and the first prize at the 2nd board.

     It was a really nice tournament and I am so happy that I've got such amazing teammates: 

6. CS POLITEHNICA-ANTIBIOTICE IAŞI (RtgAvg:2452 / TB1: 17 / TB2: 0) Captain: MANOLE VASILE
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2542	UKR	2.5	3.0
2	GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	2497	LTU	4.5	6.0
3	WGM	Bulmaga Irina	2410	ROU	8.0	9.0
4	WGM	L'ami Alina	2358	ROU	8.0	9.0
5	WIM	Padurariu Ioana-Smaranda	2205	ROU	5.5	9.0

     

     As about the near future- I will leave for the World Junior Championship the day after tomorrow. It will be held close to Istanbul, though it had to be held in Hatay- at the border with Syria initially. 

Will keep you posted!

xoxo from Chisinau ;)