R4 Impressions

GM Yuriy Kuzubov

     Four rounds are already behind in the EICC in Minsk. Only one player is on 100%- GM Yuriy
Kuzubov of Ukraine, with many players following with 3,5p/4. There were some very interesting games yesterday. I will show some fragments of the games which have impressed me the most.

     Russian GM- Maxim Matlakov showed a really impressive level of preparation vs Pavel Ponkratov. I have the feeling that it was a very well placed opening trap. My engine is going nuts in the following position, giving a big advantage for black. After I play it's first line- it says it's already equality, to finally give an advantage for white after some good minutes of thinking:

Black to move

     The last move was 11.h4. Black answered with 11...gxh4 12. Qg4- Be5 13. Ne4- all first line moves, after which white has a big advantage. What can I say? This is the risk of playing sidelines nowadays- you never know where a novelty is hidden, one that will simply end the life of your sideline. The game continued a few moves, but the fight was basically over already here.
   
     Another really surprising game was the one won by the Greek GM- Mastrovasilis Dimitrios vs GM Andrei Volokitin- a well known Ukrainian GM who is known to have a deep knowledge in all kind of Sicilians along with a very sharp style of playing. It seems that he either forgot or was unaware of a nice opening trick:

White to move

     At the first glance- it seems that white is in trouble, his knight on "c3" being pinned and the bishop on "b5" seemingly unstable as well. The move that followed solves all white's issues and even puts black in some serious trouble. 7.Rb1! - there are already a few games played in this position with white having an almost 100% score. This "mysterious" move is meant to protect the bishop on "b5" after an eventual capture on "c3". A really aesthetic move! 7...a6 8. Bxd7- Bxd7 9. 0-0 - Nxc3 10. bxc3- e6 11. d5!

Black to move

     White has a decisive attack, which the Greek GM successfully converted into a full point a few moves later.

     I guess it is enough with illustrating opening disasters... My point is that even at the top boards of the ECC, which implies top GMs such things are possible. Remembering some of my recent upsets from the EIWCC, I feel it's not only "women who make these kind of mistakes".

     As about the Romanian players, GM Constantin Lupulescu played a book-like game until the very last moves where, being in time trouble he missed some nice tactics which would win the game immediately, giving away the whole advantage some moves later and having to settle with a draw...

White to move

          White could play  57. Nc6! here, the point is that after 57... bxc6 58. dxc6- black's bishop can not go away because of 59. Rxh7 followed by 60.c7 +-

          Instead, white played 57. Ke2- fxe4 53. Qxe4? (it was important to give an inttermediate check- 54.Rg1+! first, only after that capturing on "e4" with a winning position) 53...Rg7!. Objectively, black is still worse, but being in time trouble, white's king already feels endangered and it's not that easy to understand how is the position after 54. Nxb7, which is engine's first choice.

          White played 54. Kd2? instead- giving away the whole advantage. A draw was agreed because after 54... Qg5+, followed by 55...Qxh5 black is already not worse.

           A big miss for our player who could have made it to +3 if winning this game.

      If we can say he was unlucky, the Romanian IM Mihnea Costachi definitely had Caissa on his side, with his opponent- GM Daniele Vocaturo- blundering a whole exchange in a better position.

Black to play

IM Mihnea Costachi

      The opening stage did not go that well for white, thus black has a pawn up on "c7". After an eventual 22...Re7, protecting it, black is still better, white would have some compensation for the pawn, but it would have to be proved if that was enough. Instead, black played 22...c5, blundering  23. Nb6 which left him an exchange down. Our player played precisely to convert his material advantage into a full point.

     GM Bogdan Deac  won in nice style vs his lower rated opponent, climbing to a solid +2 as well. GM Mircea Parligras has had a slow start, drawing all his games.

     IM Vladimir Hamitevici of Moldova won a nice game with black vs the Russian GM Boris Savchenko. It was a very intstructive game played in the Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann Defence:

Black to move

     In this double-edged position, it seems to me that black is faster in his attack 12...f6! 13. exf6- Ng6 14. c4- Nxf6 15. Rc1- g4, with a dangerous attack with which white was unable to cope.

     GM Dmitry Svetushkin blundered in a totally winning position, having to settle for a draw and remaining on +1.

     Concluding, R IV of the EICC in Minsk was a very interesting one to follow, with many things to learn. 

     I wish all our players the best of luck for the 5th round and to give their best before tomorrow's free day!

EICC in Minsk

     The European Individual Chess Championship is in progress these days in Minsk.

GM Constantin Lupulescu

     At some point, I considered participating myself, but my schedule will be very tight this summer and I thought such a serious tournament would take too much energy and preparation. Otherwise, this has been my favorite tournament to play for some years in a row, as it is the strongest Open in Europe and a player like me never gets to play vs such strong opponents in every round.
     Romania is represented by GM Constantin Lupulescu (2/2p), GM Bogdan Deac (1,5/2p) , GM Mircea Parligras (1p/2) and IM Mihnea Costachi (1p/2).
     The toughest battles are still ahead....
   
     I liked yesterday's game of GM Lupulescu vs IM Moskalenko, as it was a perfect demonstration of  how the pair of bishops dominates the board! You can see it yourself in the diagrams below:

Black to move

     Black decided to take 18...Bxc3, giving  white the advantage of having the pair of bishops. While I can understand that something went wrong for black in the opening stage and the positions is already unpleasant, I believe that this move is definitely not the way to continue the fight.
   

White to move

      White is clearly better and goes on in creating another weakness in black's position 33.h5, followed by 34. h6. While it's not engine's first choice, for the human understanding it looks like the most logical way to make the advantage decisive.

GM Dmitry Svetushkin

     GM Dimtry Svetushkin of Moldova also played a high quality game to make a draw with black vs the N.3 favorite of the tournament- GM Dmitry Jakovenko. It was a Spanish, Anti-Marshall System, where black solved all his opening problems and I think was even somewhat better in the final position, where the draw was agreed. You can judge yourself:

White to move

     Black has just played 11... Nd8!- following his idea which began with his 10th move - Qd7, to play "c5" and then to prepare slowly "d5", taking control in the center. He illustrated it perfectly in the game:

Black to move

     This is the position where the draw was agreed. Black has achieved all of his goals, taking control in the center, getting some space advantage and placing all of his pieces harmoniously. I guess that the endgame after the queen exchange should be more pleasant for black to play.

Here are the pairings for today's round: R3 

   
     I wish all the Romanian and Moldavian players participating good luck in today's 3rd Round and I hope to see some interesting fights!

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 ;)

Evolve and Adapt!

     I am in an a bit melancholic mood lately and with "lately" I mean the last 2 days, since the World Junior Chess Championship has started in Pune, India.
     This Championship was my most awaited tournament of the year in 2011,'12 and '13 and many hopes and dreams were linked to it. I guess that I can be called a "veteran" of this Championship, as I participated 4 times there, the first one being in 2005, when I was only 11 yo. I am a bit old for it now, but I am following it's games with great interest, as I know the competitiveness, the pressure and the great tension which rule there.
     Well, I guess it's enough about me, time never stays and one has to evolve and adapt in order to keep the pace with the running away time :D
      Romania is represented by Ioana Gelip in the Girls section and Bogdan Deac in the Open one. You can follow their results and games on the official site of the event: http://www.worldjuniorchess2014.com/ The games start every day at 2.30 pm local time (12 pm Romanian time).
     Thirteen rounds is a very, very long way to go and I wish our players best of luck, lots of inspiration and steel nerves!

Bogdan Deac

Ioana Gelip

     Keep your fingers crossed for them!

     P.S. A great encounter awaits for us on the first board of the Open section today, as Bogdan is facing the nr.1 favorite- Fedoseev Vladimir, rated 2661!


    xoxo from Chisinau ;)

Closing Ceremony

     The tournament is over and the most of us already got home.
     My finish wasn't very successful, as I lost the last 2 rounds... Well, the most important thing- getting over 2400 has been achieved anyways, but still- it left me with a bitter taste.
     The new European Champion is Alexander Moiseenko of Ukraine, with 8p/11. He lost against Ian Nepomniachtchi in the last round, but it made no difference. Nine other players got the same number of points, but they were worse on coeffcient:

1		GM	MOISEENKO Alexander	UKR	2698	8.0	2643	71.5	72.0	6	2714	10	13.4
2		GM	ALEKSEEV Evgeny	RUS	2700	8.0	2639	72.0	76.0	5	2800	10	13.9
3		GM	ROMANOV Evgeny	RUS	2640	8.0	2637	73.0	78.5	6	2789	10	21.8
4		GM	BELIAVSKY Alexander G	SLO	2628	8.0	2629	68.5	73.5	5	2783	10	22.5
5		GM	LUPULESCU Constantin	ROU	2634	8.0	2624	69.5	74.5	5	2778	10	21.0
6		GM	VALLEJO PONS Francisco	ESP	2695	8.0	2613	68.0	73.5	5	2776	10	11.0
7		GM	MOVSESIAN Sergei	ARM	2693	8.0	2606	66.0	71.0	5	2769	10	10.3
8		GM	NEPOMNIACHTCHI Ian	RUS	2710	8.0	2596	65.0	70.0	5	2763	10	6.8
9		GM	DREEV Aleksey	RUS	2654	8.0	2594	68.0	73.0	5	2754	10	13.9
10		GM	MELKUMYAN Hrant	ARM	2622	8.0	2551	64.5	69.0	6	2709	10	12.5

     Constantin Lupulescu had a very good performance- sharing the 1st place, but being a bit unlucky and taking the 5th place. It is the best result which he has achieved so far and I wish him a lot of luck in the World Cup, which will take place in Norway, in August.

     Here are some photos from the closing ceremony:

While listening to the anthem of Ukraine- Alexander had some tears in his eyes

Taking photos during the closing ceremony

Katerina Pavlidou, Anna Iwanow and me (from right to left)

A very interesting dancing performance by some local artists

The trophees waiting for their winners

Katerina and Anna

Alexander Moiseenko, Evgeny Alekseev and Evgeny Romanov-getting their medals and checks

Anna Iwanow receiving a Performance prize 

Bogdan Deac- getting the 4th prize in the Performance category

      Here you can find the final results of all the Romanians:

21	GM	NISIPEANU Liviu-Dieter	2679	ROU	0	1	1	½	½	½	½	0	1	½	1	6.5	83	2574	10	-14.40
54	GM	LUPULESCU Constantin	2634	ROU	½	1	1	½	1	1	½	1	½	½	½	8.0	5	2778	10	21.00
102	GM	PARLIGRAS Mircea-Emilian	2570	ROU	½	1	0	1	1	½	½	½	0	0	1	6.0	110	2531	10	-4.60
112	GM	JIANU Vlad-Cristian	2555	ROU	1	½	0	1	½	½	0	1	½	½	½	6.0	98	2588	10	5.30
142	IM	ARDELEAN George-Catalin	2510	ROU	1	0	1	½	0	½	1	0	1	0	½	5.5	154	2465	10	-5.40
175	IM	ANTON Teodor	2441	ROU	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	1	½	5.5	160	2418	10	-3.10
199	WGM	BULMAGA Irina	2393	ROU	0	1	0	1	½	1	0	½	1	0	0	5.0	174	2432	15	10.05
201	IM	MANEA Alexandru	2389	ROU	½	0	1	½	½	0	½	0	½	1	0	4.5	203	2394	10	0.10
211	IM	PETRISOR Adrian-Marian	2378	ROU	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	½	0	4.5	212	2337	10	-3.90
219	FM	POSEDARU Bogdan	2339	ROU	½	0	0	0	½	0	1	0	1	0	1	4.0	249	2143	15	-42.00
220		STANCIU Alexandru-Ovidiu	2335	ROU	1	0	0	0	½	1	½	1	0	0	1	5.0	185	2385	15	10.80
259		DEAC Bogdan-Daniel	2183	ROU	0	0	½	½	1	½	1	1	0	0	½	5.0	186	2403	15	43.35

     I enjoyed the tournament a lot and I wish I would have the possibility to play only these kind of strong tournaments. I think that this is the best way to get a stronger player and this is the thing I want the most- to become a really strong GM!

xoxo from Romania ;)

Lucky Poland

     There are only 3 more rounds to go.

Some analyzing after the game with Robert Ruck

     I am on 50 % so far, gaining some 9 Elo points. It's quite good. I made a draw with Duda Jan-Krysztof (2506) yesterday, with white. I didn't get anything from the opening, forgetting my variations, so I started to play for a draw. He got into time-trouble and I had a nice chance- to sacrifice the queen and to get an almost winning position, but somehow- I didn't want to risk and settled for a draw. You can see the game here:


     The leadership of the tournament is kept by Moiseenko Alexander, with 7p/8, followed by Constantin Lupulescu- on sole second with 6,5p. They will play against each other today- "The Wolf" having white. It is funny that the only time a Romanian became European Champion- Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu, in 2005- the championship was also held in Poland. Maybe Poland is lucky for Romanians?
     Here are the pairings of all the Romanians:

9	1	54		GM	LUPULESCU Constantin	2634	6½		7	GM	MOISEENKO Alexander	2698		13
9	35	53		GM	L'AMI Erwin	2634	5		5	GM	PARLIGRAS Mircea-Emilian	2570		102
9	42	6		GM	AKOPIAN Vladimir	2705	4½		4½	GM	JIANU Vlad-Cristian	2555		112
9	64	109		GM	ESEN Baris	2557	4½		4½		DEAC Bogdan-Daniel	2183		259
9	66	21		GM	NISIPEANU Liviu-Dieter	2679	4		4	GM	AJRAPETJAN Yuriy	2498		148
9	76	128		GM	MAIOROV Nikita	2535	4		4	WGM	BULMAGA Irina	2393		199
9	78	133		GM	SEBENIK Matej	2527	4		4		STANCIU Alexandru-Ovidiu	2335		220
9	81	137		GM	BUKAVSHIN Ivan	2520	4		4	IM	PETRISOR Adrian-Marian	2378		211
9	83	258			MARJANOVIC Dejan	2186	4		4	IM	ARDELEAN George-Catalin	2510		142
9	109	243			SVANA Peter	2255	3		3	IM	ANTON Teodor	2441		175
9	112	260			HUBER Martin Christian	2176	3		3	IM	MANEA Alexandru	2389		201
9	130	277			TOMCZAK Mikolaj	2002	2½		2	FM	POSEDARU Bogdan	2339		219

     I have black against Maiorov Nikita (2535) today. I really hope to have a good game!
     It is interesting to notice the fantastic result of the 12 y.o. Romanian- Deac Bogdan-Daniel, who's got 4,5p/8 and a 2461 performance! I think he's the most promising Romanian junior. I see him at 2600 in some some 5 years.
     These being said, I'll go for the final 30 minutes of preparation. :)

xoxo from Legnica ;)