Faith Vampires

     There are very few calm moments in this life.
     When you think that everything's good and you are finally satisfied by how things go something happens in order to remind you that your life depends too much on things you can't control.
     I don't know how about you, but I like making plans, knowing what I have to do, what I am expected to do and work after that to make it happen. I am a very responsible person and when I am engaged in making something I do my best to complete the task. I don't understand why some people enjoy ruining my plans and my hard work. Why some don't want to make compromises?
     I am a student at a normal University. I chose to study on distance, in order to have enough time for the thing I love the most- chess. The attendance at courses is not compulsory, so I just have to pass partial and final exams and to make projects. But somehow, the last year of the degree is special- they think that a student is so desperate to finally finish his studies that it would be normal to change the "not compulsory attendance" to courses. The professor said- "But it's not compulsory, you'll just repeat the year if you don't come. Maybe you'll be able to find time for this next year." Why don't they respect their own rules? I would never engage in something I knew I couldn't complete.
     What to do now? There's nothing to be done but accept their new rules and make sacrifices that I would never make if I knew everything from the beginning.
     And how am I supposed to believe there are no vampires with so many people enjoying their power over others and getting satisfaction from sucking your nerves, blood and from draining you of all your energy, dreams and faith?

xoxo from Iasi :)

Game Over

     I am home!!!
     Yes, after a long, long period of playing and traveling, I have finally got to a place where I can have a rest and I can think what is there to do next.
      With the University starting next week and some other projects I am onto I hope to keep myself busy. It is really strange to get used to the calm "day by day-no game" life after 3 months where my main thought was "what should I play tomorrow?" or what to choose between a 10 hours bus ride and some 14 hours by train.

      My next tournament will be not sooner than the end of October, so until then- more posts on my blog and less stuff to worry about :)







xoxo from Iasi ;)

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 ;)

A little faith

     Another rainy day has come with some inspiration for a new post.
     Unlike one must think, it's not another sad text, it is an optimistic one today :)

     As you might have seen, I played an Open in Iasi, in the city where I live the most part of the time. It was a very nice tournament, one which I hope will become traditional.

     The tournament started very well for me, with 3/3p, beating a 2530 GM in the 3rd round and with a totally winning position in the 4th game, with me having black against a strong GM. Unfortunately I lost that game, I guess I felt the victory to close and it made me play some unexplainable moves... All in all, the tournament went pretty good for me, I won some Elo points and I had some very nice time.You can find the final standings here: http://chess-results.com/tnr123153.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9&wi=821
     Iasi has changed a lot in the last few years. It has become a very beautiful city, with lots of nice places. It felt very good to be "the host" and to show my friends my favorite places.

 
     As about what's next, I will play the Romanian Rapid Club Cup in the upcoming weekend. Until then, I am quite caught up with all kind of projects I have to make at University.
      I will not play any tournaments until July, when I'm going to participate at the European Individual Women Championship, in Plovdiv.
      As about June, it is going to be a month full of exams for me, but I am quite optimistic about them ;)
      I don't know if it's about the summer coming closer and closer, or about something else, but I have started to
look to the future with more confidence and the things have started to get better. All I could complain about some weeks ago is not such a big deal now.
     I guess that "good always wins", just have a little faith.

 xoxo from Iasi ;)

Lemons & chocolate cookies

     How do you make a very bad day to become better?
     I have tried all the ideas I had. None of them raised my mood- even the chocolate cookies didn't help...
     I guess that there are days that simply can't become better, only worse. It seems that in this kind of days everything and everyone conspire to make one feel awful. What to do? Life gives us lemons from time to time- the best one can do with them is to make a tea with lemon and continue eating chocolate cookies, hoping that tomorrow will be a better day.
     Well, I'm done with complaining, let's focus on some other things.
     My session at University has ended successfully- I've taken all the exams with high marks and I'm pretty satisfied with it. I can focus now on chess again. :)
     It is so freezing in Iasi these days- it's impossible even to take a proper walk- so maybe it's good to get lemons and to drink teas...

These being said, going to make another tea- have to do something with all these lemons, right? Maybe I can make a lemonade as well?!

10

     How to start better the day than with a big coffee and an omelette? Well, I have smth in mind, but better to keep it for another post ;)
     My last days can be characterized easily by: learning, eating, studying, coffee break, learning, sleeping and so on... There might be some more coffee breaks, but you've got the idea.
     I've never been so motivated to study and get good marks since I'm in University. My only goal used to be just to pass the exams, not putting to much effort into this. But guess what happened now- I got two "10"s (the maximum grade) at the first two exams, the "Business English" and "Communication and Negotiation in Business" (thing that never happened since I'm in University, I had 9.72 or 9.50 before) and I got very motivated to continue this way :D I guess that good results and successes stimulate one to want to achieve even more.
     I have the "Management" exam tomorrow, it is not as easy as I first imagined it to be, but I still have some time for revising. The exams keep getting more and more difficult, with the "Finances" and "Econometrics" ones to come. The last exam will be at "Organisational Behaviour", which is intend to be quite easy.
     I haven't played chess for more than one month- a thing that happens to me rarely, but I feel good this way. I will have plenty of time for chess after my session ends. It doesn't mean that I don't follow Wijk though :P It is nice to watch Aronian smashing more or less everyone!
     These being said, guess what- back to studying! :D

xoxo from Iasi ;)

The Sport's Gala

     It was a very nice day yesterday!
     The day started not so great, with me having a terrible headache and not being able to get out of the bed, but it turned out that the day would get better and better with every hour that passed by. I took one of the numerous "wonder pills" that exist nowadays on the market and I felt better quite soon.
      I found out then that I took the highest possible mark- 10.00- at the 1st exam at Uni- the "Business English" one! You can't imagine how quick I forgot about the headache! :D
     I was called then and asked to take part at the Iasi Sport's Gala, at which I got the prize for "the best chess player of the city" and which was broadcasted on TV, I even had to give a short speech. The event was really cool, I met a lot of interesting people and old friends and I enjoyed myself there. Here's a photo from the event:

     The evening ended with a cocktail and some small chat in the beautiful building of the National Theatre.

     Well, these being said, have to get back to studying, as I have 4 more exams to pass in the following 10 days.

Will keep you updated!

xoxo from Iasi! ;)

Be a child!

     There's been not so much going on lately, but somehow there's still been a lot.
     I had my first exam during the first semester's session at univeristy yesterday- at English- the easiest one- the one meant to raise the moral, which it certainly did ;) There are five more exams to go. I feel confident about them, well, maybe not so confident about Econometrics, but still- expecting them with a lot of hope.          The session will finish on the 2nd of February, with a couple of weeks left until the Individual Europeans, which will be held in Yerevan and which will open the chess season for me.
     I have been a child today and I have really enjoyed it. It's a nice feeling- being taken care of and who can make it better than your own parents? Even though we can feel it less and less with the years that pass by and turn us into grown ups, parents never give up on being parents for their "already no so childish children". It may be annoying and generally, it is annoying, but from time to time it's just nice to enjoy it.
     As I read in a very interesting course- "Transactional Analysis", which is an Erice Berne's theory, every person has 3 models of behaving: the child's one (which is about emotions and feelings), the adult's one (which is about pragmatic thinking, logic and rationalising) and the parent's one (which is about morality).They normally succeed one after another multiple times a day in every human's being personality and they trigger certain behaviours.
     Well, today, I've been mostly on the "child mode", feeling lots of emotions and not censoring myself on expressing them. I felt like shouting at an asshole- which I successfully did, I felt like being helpless and I received a loving hug, I felt happy and gratefull and I don't hesitate a minute showing it here!
     Don't waste all your energy on trying to be an adult 24/7! It is very interesting and relieving to be a child!


xoxo from Iasi ;)

All I want for December

     The last month of the calendar has started with... the Rapid, Blitz and Solving Women National Championship, which took place in Iasi. I took all the collection of medals: a gold, a silver and a bronze ( 1st at solving, 2nd at rapid and 3rd at blitz).
     It was a really nice weekend, which I spent playing chess and hanging out with friends in the meantime.

Roxana Anton, Ioana Gelip, Raluca Sgircea and me (from right to left)

With a good friend- Roxana Anton

At the solving championship

With Raluca Sgircea :)

The diet died in that weekend for an undefined time :P

With Raluca Sgircea and Roxana Anton

Almost happy ;)

     I will leave for London tomorrow and the tournament will start the day after tomorrow, with me playing vs Veronica Foisor- another friend :) It is funny how no matter in which corner of the World you go- a friend is always to be found there :P

     You can find the details of the tournament as well as the news about it on the official site of the event: http://www.londonchessclassic.com/womens_invitational_2013.htm It will be a double round-robin, which means that all play against all with both colours. Here is the list of players:

1. IM Irina Bulmaga- 2396

2. IM Dagne Ciuksyte- 2345

3. WIM Judith Fuchs- 2337

4. WIM Veronica Foisor- 2216

5. WFM Sarah Hegarty- 2127

6. WGM Kruttika Nadig- 2127

     I hope to enjoy the tournament and London!

     Meanwhile, I will have to pass another partial exam for my University, tomorrow, from the airport :D So, I guess- back to studying!

Keep tuned for news and impressions from London! :)

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 ;)

Grin

     My first exam was on the 30th of May and I can say that it's been the most uneventful and in the same time the most uneasy two weeks in my life.
     Studying, studying, exam, studying, following the games of my friends in tournaments all over the World, then again, studying, exams. I have never felt so "not in my bowl" before... To understand why, I'll tell you a short story:
     I had to present my practice in accounting dossier some days ago. I gathered all the documents that I needed, thought of  how I would present all of them and I went to the University. When I entered the professor's office, I saw a man in his 50s, wearing a very crumpled T-shirt. He grinned to me and asked for my ID. I gave him the ID and my dossier. He opened it and gave it a flick-through. He asked some commun questions, after what he said " The invoices should have been hand-written, I can't accept the dossier". I was a bit taken by surprise, as I didn't remember for it to be metioned in the list of the required documents. I looked for it in my purse, then I showed it to the professor- showing him that there was no such mention and I couldn't have known. " Now you know, Irinuca. Goodbye", he told with a satisfied grin. WTF? I felt like he was mocking me. What was my fault? As one can understand, it is quite simple to copy some documents, in order to have them hand-written. What was the professor's problem then? Couldn't he just tell me nicely to come again with the invoices hand-written?
     This kind of people make me sick. They are so frustrated that they get pleasure from mocking others. If such kind of a man can get a professor at one of the best universities in the country, this system really has a problem.
     Well, mainly- this is the reason why I can't wait for these last 4 days of my session to pass faster. I am sick and tired of  all of these.
     I think of  my next tournaments, I imagine myself winning a game and I try not to spend my nerves on frustrated people.
   

First session

     My first session at the University will start in few days. I've got 6 exams and I'm very nervous about them. Being busy with all kind of chess activity, I didn't have that much time to learn during the 1st semester, so I guess the next 3 weeks could be easily described by "24/7 learning". My first exam is on the 27th of January, and the last one- on the 11th of February, right before the Romanian Individual Championship ( it starts on the 15th of February).

     I hope I'll do fine and I'll be able to go calmly to the Romanian Championship :)

Keep your fingers crossed for me ;)