Restless Optimism

Dear readers,

The busiest time of the year is starting for me these days. Many important tournaments are ahead, many interesting trips.

The first stop is at the Batumi Chess Olympiad (24 Sept - 5 Oct). As a team event, one where I represent my country, there is definitely some pressure on me, especially as I will be playing board 1 for Romania. Nothing's as motivating as a good challenge though and I can't wait for some big battles! (Check up my FB pages for updates during the tournament).

It is interesting to notice how years pass and I expect my eagerness to play chess to moderate somehow, but no, it doesn't matter that it's my 6th Olympiad already, I am still very much looking forward to it! Let's see what plans Batumi has on us...

Memory from the Baku Chess Olympiad in 2016, with Luminita Cosma, Cristina Foisor, me,

Ciprian Nanu and Corina Peptan. 

Next to follow is a quite unique tournament in Norway, Harstad (yeah, far North I head from the sunny Batumi). There will be 7 games, 3 rapids and 4 classical ones. I might even give some simul on one of the days, maybe even blindfold. I expect this trip to be very interesting. Anyhow, the Tromso Olympiad (2014) has left only good memories for me so I am quite optimistic about my return to Norway. 10-16 October is reserved for it.

Me, giving a blindfold simul

After no longer than 3 days of rest I will be heading to Isle of Man. It's been my dream to play there for quite some time and I am really excited about finally being able to make it happen! Being one of the strongest chess opens ever, names like Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian and Wesley So are on the starting list and I can't be any happier about the chance to play in the same tournament with them and maybe even meet them at the chess board! (My optimism is restless lately...)

Yeah, this is how my end of September and whole October looks like.


It is probably too little to say that I am very grateful for the chance life has given me- to do what I love the most and to call it work!



Wish you all a nice end of week and remember, it is never too late for a dream to come true!

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 ;)

Squirrels attacking

     Half of the tournament has already passed in no time...

     We had a double round yesterday, in which I scored just 1p, losing the morning round. I am on 50 % now- a modest result which I hope to improve in the second part of the tournament.

      Here you can follow the results: http://www.londonchessclassic.com/womens_invitational_2013.htm

Rank	Name	Flags	Score	Fed.	M/F	Rating	TPR	W-We	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	IM Ciuksyte, Dagne		4.0	ENG	F	2345	2481	+0.83	1	½	1	1	½
2	IM Bulmaga, Irina		2.5	ROU	F	2396	2230	-1.05	0	½	1	0	1
3	WIM Foisor, Mihaela-Veronica		2.5	ROU	F	2216	2344	+0.67	1	1	0		½
4	WGM Nadig, Kruttika		2.5	IND	F	2127	2284	+1.00	0	½	½	1	½
5	WIM Fuchs, Judith		2.0	GER	F	2337	2249	-0.45	1	½	½		0
6	WFM Hegarty, Sarah N		0.5	ENG	F	2127	1918	-1.00	0	0	0	0	½

     Unfortunately, there's no life broadcast of the games, but it's possible to download them in ".pgn" format from the home page of the tournament.

     There's a lot of interesting stuff going on at the London Chess Classic Festival. 

     A rapid super tournament starts today, where stars like Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Vishy Anand, Boris Gelfand, Fabiano Caruana, Judit Polgar, Nigel Short and others will play. The interesting thing about it is that the first 2 players leading the Open tournament after 4 rounds have qualified to this star tourn as well; they are Andrei Istratescu and Emil Sutovsky.

Wednesday 11th December
Round 1
14:00	Group A	Luke McShane	-	Vishy Anand	Andrei Istratescu	-	Michael Adams
	Group B	Vladimir Kramnik	-	Peter Svidler	Jonathan Rowson	-	Matthew Sadler
15:30	Group C	Boris Gelfand	-	Judit Polgar	Gawain Jones	-	Hikaru Nakamura
	Group D	Nigel Short	-	David Howell	Fabiano Caruana	-	Emil Sutovsky
Round 2
18:00	Group A	Vishy Anand	-	Michael Adams	Luke McShane	-	Andrei Istratescu
	Group B	Peter Svidler	-	Matthew Sadler	Vladimir Kramnik	-	Jonathan Rowson
19:30	Group C	Judit Polgar	-	Hikaru Nakamura	Boris Gelfand	-	Gawain Jones
	Group D	David Howell	-	Emil Sutovsky	Nigel Short	-	Fabiano Caruana

Andrei Istratescu, qualified to the Top 16 tournament thanks to scoring 4p/4 in the Open section

Rank	Name	Flags	Score	Fed.	M/F	Rating	TPR	W-We	1	2	3	4
1	GM Istratescu, Andrei		4.0	FRA	M	2670	3123	+0.69	1	1	1	1
2	GM Sutovsky, Emil		4.0	ISR	M	2657	3101	+0.64	1	1	1	1
3	GM Grachev, Boris		3.5	RUS	M	2669	2666	-0.01	1	1	½	1
4	GM Iordachescu, Viorel		3.5	MDA	M	2614	2681	+0.24	1	1	½	1
5	GM Hammer, Jon Ludvig		3.5	NOR	M	2612	2665	+0.18	1	1	1	½
6	GM Brunello, Sabino		3.5	ITA	M	2603	2651	+0.17	1	1	½	1
7	IM Bok, Benjamin		3.5	NED	M	2540	2614	+0.27	1	1	1	½
8	IM Semcesen, Daniel		3.5	SWE	M	2488	2578	+0.34	1	1	½	1
9	IM Cox, John J		3.5	ENG	M	2382	2968	+1.03	1	1	1	=
10	IM Slavin, Alexey		3.5	RUS	M	2363	2650	+1.35	1	1	1	½

     I wish Andrei success and let's hope for some amazing chess! You can follow the games and the live stream here: http://www.londonchessclassic.com/index.htm

    As about me, I am having some quality time in London and yesterday I finally managed to play a good game. You can see it here:

    Here are some photos taken from the last couple of days:

Squirrels attacking people :)))

The mighty pelicans

The beautiful "Hyde Park"

     Keep tuned for updates!

xoxo from London! ;)

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?
   

Naiditsch-Adams

Arkadij Naiditsch

     Yet another interesting tournament is taking place in Baden-Baden these days, the "Grenke Chess Classic", with Anand Viswanathan, Caruana Fabiano, Michael Adams, Daniel Fridman, Arkadij Naiditsch and Georg Meier. It is a double round-robin, with 2 rounds played so far.
     The most interesting game of the yesterday's round was the one between Arkadij Naiditsch and Michael Adams. It had started as a classical strategic battle with the isolated "d" pawn for black and converted into a fine tactical game then. You can see it here:

     It was a very interesting 7 hours battle and I hope we'll see more games like this one!
     You can find more information on the official site of the tournament: http://www.grenkechessclassic.de/

Anand-Caruana

     Here's an interesting game from the yesterday's 3rd round in Wijk aan Zee. I hope you'll enjoy the analysis I've done :)

Anand-Caruana