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!

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 ;)

Good Day

     There it is- a half of the Europeans has already passed.
     It is as I expected, a very difficult, but in the same time a very challenging and interesting tournament. I've played against strong opponents, I learned new things and I've fighted in every game until the very end. I am satisfied with my chess so far- well, it's impossible to be 100% satisfied, but I understand that there's a reason I'm still an IM and not a GM- there is place for improvement.
     We had a free day today and as a "real professional" I went to an excursion through the holly places of Yerevan. I had some very good time and I learned many new things about christianity and about the Armenian history.
     Another thing I can't help mentioning is the Armenian food- it is so tasty that I think I will try to learn how to cook some of their dishes- especially their traditional soup "Spas". I eat it at least once a day :D
     I hope that the second part of the tournament will go at least as well as the first one :)
     The other Romanians keep their chances for qualification, with Constantin Lupulescu and Mircea Parligras having the best score among us- "+2".

46	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2643	ROU	1	1	½	½	½	½	4.0	42	2670	10	2.50	Official results
74	GM	Nevednichy Vladislav	2591	ROU	½	0	1	0	½	1	3.0	158	2308	10	-20.00	Official results
85	GM	Jianu Vlad-Cristian	2574	ROU	1	½	0	1	½	½	3.5	87	2515	10	-2.90	Official results
88	GM	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	2572	ROU	1	0	1	0	1	1	4.0	67	2529	10	-2.20	Official results
166	IM	Bulmaga Irina	2375	ROU	½	1	0	½	½	0	2.5	161	2547	10	12.10	Official results
187	FM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	2322	ROU	0	1	½	0	½	0	2.0	202	2324	15	0.30	Official results
251		Porfireanu Serban	1903	ROU	0	0	0	0	0	1	1.0	255	1337	15	-18.30	Official results

     Here are some photos from the last days:

You can find more photos on the tournament's site: http://eicc2014.am/gallery

With Maria Gevorgyan and Katerina Pavlidou ;)

xoxo from Yerevan! ;)

     

Yerevan

     Here I am , in Yerevan- at the European Individual Chess Championship- the tournament that opens this year's chess season for me.
     I like playing the Men's Europeans, as it is the strongest tournament I play every year and there is absolutely no pressure on me, thought it doesn't mean that I don't put some by myself :D
     I've missed chess, as I haven't played for 2 and a half months and the trip to Yerevan has been a very awaited one. It is my first time in Armenia and I like it- everything has been great so far- the food, the hotel, the receipt. I hope that it will continue this way ;)
     The first round starts tomorrow, at 3 pm local time. Here is the official site, where you can find all the information about the tournament, as well as the live games and photo reports: http://eicc2014.am/  I expect to have a very strong opponent tomorrow, as I am nr.167 out of 259  http://chess-results.com/tnr123081.aspx?lan=11&zeilen=99999
     I hope to play some good games and to show my best chess!
     Romania is represented by 7 players here:

46	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	1207822	ROU	2643
74	GM	Nevednichy Vladislav	1205730	ROU	2591
85	GM	Jianu Vlad-Cristian	1208110	ROU	2574
88	GM	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	1204297	ROU	2572
167	IM	Bulmaga Irina	13903063	ROU	2375
188		Deac Bogdan-Daniel	1226380	ROU	2322
252		Porfireanu Serban	1208632	ROU	1903

     I wish them all the best of luck (including myself :D ) !
     Here are some photos from my today's walk through the center of Yerevan:

Seems like chess is a tradition around here

With Mircea Parligras and Constantin Lupulescu

     Will keep you posted!

xoxo from Yerevan  ;)