The northest North

     Here it is- the northest North- Tromsø.
     Once I got out of the airport the unusual air just hit me, I have never thought that I could actually  feel such a difference in matter of breathing. How to explain... Breathing is not a necessity, it is a great pleasure here. I feel that right now- my lungs are absolutely in love with Tromsø :)))
     We arrived yesterday, in the evening, if to admit that "evenings" exist here too... The arctic nights in summer- you know what it means? It means 21 hours of daylight per day :)) Quite cool, huh?! Though one might find it difficult to sleep in such conditions- I slept like a baby- my best sleep since like... ever :)

    I am very happy to be here and as everyone else in Tromsø, can't wait for the Olympiad to start!    Our women's team is the 6th in the starting ranking list: 

Team-Starting rank

No.		Team	Team	RtgAvg
1		CHN	China	2549
2		RUS	Russia	2520
3		UKR	Ukraine	2510
4		GEO	Georgia	2499
5		IND	India	2421
6		ROU	Romania	2407
7		USA	United States of America	2405
8		POL	Poland	2402
9		FRA	France	2390
10		ARM	Armenia	2383

and we have a very nice team:

Bo.		Name	Rtg
1	IM	PEPTAN Corina-Isabela	2422
2	WGM	L'AMI Alina	2446
3	IM	FOISOR Cristina-Adela	2404
4	IM	BULMAGA Irina	2354
5	WGM	COSMA Elena-Luminita	2327

     The men's team is the 32 nd in the starting ranking list, but one must not fool himself- they were 8th at the last Olympiad :)

Bo.		Name	Rtg
1	GM	LUPULESCU Constantin	2625
2	GM	VAJDA Levente	2561
3	GM	JIANU Vlad-Cristian	2579
4	GM	PARLIGRAS Mircea-Emilian	2574
5	GM	NEVEDNICHY Vladislav	2554

			Follow our results on : http://chess-results.com/tnr140381.aspx?lan=1&art=0&flag=30&wi=821 and keep updated with the latest news from the Olympiad on the official site of the event: https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014
xoxo from Tromso ;)

Gigantic Suitcase

     A great period will start for me soon, one which I can't wait to begin!
     I haven't played chess so much lately, my last tournament was somewhere in the middle of May... I was caught with lots of exams at University (don't mean to gloat- but I passed all of them and now-I'm officially in my last year of Uni  :D ).
     A difficult task is now to be solved- how to pack a suitcase for 2 months? :))) I will go to the EIWCC in Plovdiv on the 4th of July, then a little vacation in Greece, after that- Olympiad and Turkish League, and I will be back home in September :D  The difficult part about it is that the Olympiad will be held in Norway, Tromsø, where it's more an early spring than a real summer in August.
     I've really missed traveling non-stop and playing strong tournaments... I have missed my chess friends, I have missed the tournament atmosphere! I guess you can feel my enthusiasm about the forthcoming months :)
     All in all, I am very optimistic about everything and I am really thankful for the opportunity of having such an amazing life as a chess player!


xoxo from Chisinau ;)