French trend

     Here's my last game from the Women's National, against the nr.1 favourite- Corina Peptan (2443). I decided to play a completely new opening for me- the French Defence and I quite liked it.
     I wanted to play something duobtless and in the same time something that she wouldn't expect.

What goes around, comes around

     Here I am, again in Iasi. It's been a difficult week, with a lot of hopes and dissapointments. I finished the tournament on the 5th place and with -0,6  Elo points. It's far from what I hoped and I was very angry with me because of all the foolishly missed chances, but what to do now- there are another 10 tournaments waiting for me this year. I've learned a lot from this championship and there are 20 more years of trying ahead ;)
     Like one of my coaches said once- "It's important to save the people". I am here- all in one piece- so I will keep trying.
     I am very eager to go to Astana-'ve got my flight in 3 days. It's going to be a very strong tournament, you can follow it here : http://astana2013.fide.com/en/teams . I am also very curious to visit the city, I've heard it has changed lots in the last decade. I will go home for the few days left until then, can't wait to see my family :)

xoxo from Iasi ;)
   

Seeking for happiness

     When all you can think about is yesterday, it's a sign of weakness. I don't do this, at least I pretend not to. I want to have the power to think and to feel only what I want. It's amazing how one can feel so free and mighty and broken in the same time. Those things were incongruous the last time I checked.
     Winning is all I want and if it means that I should become someone I don't like- I'll do that. I used to judge people who were able to do everything in the name of something they wanted the most. I used to think they were rakish, mean and I disdained them. Well, I've changed my vision now. One should do everything for becoming happy- if you want to be a champion- do whatever it takes!
     I don't want to be the good, cool, friendly girl anymore. I don't care if one would think of me as cold-blooded, spoiled or mad or whatever as long as I would be a real champion. It's the time to pay the price whatever it would be and no matter of it's consequences.
     Who knows if there is life after death, one should be happy here, in this world and from now on- my status is "seeking for happiness", not "making everyone happy".

Choices

     We have to make a whole bunch of choices during our lives. It is difficult to make some of them and the most of the ones we've made we regret, but that's all we are about- it's humane to make mistakes. What would be our lives like if we'd do only the right things? I think that we would wonder "What if?". I know exactly the answer to "what if" now and I don't regret it- knowledge is power.
     One should say no to chocolate if he wants to lose weight, though it's the thing that gives him the biggest pleasure. It's the same in life- one should say "no" to some of his pleasures in order to come closer to his dream.
     The thing that no one will ever be able to take away from me is my dream and that's why I say "No".

The IT Girls

    Who are we? We are the ones who know how to turn a bad day into a good one!

Ioana Gelip

P.S. Excuse our outfits, had one sweater for 2 girls :DD

xoxo from Olanesti ;)

Interview with IM Anastasia Savina

     1.     First of all, let me congratulate you with your recent win of the "G" tournament in Moscow, what are your impressions from the tournament?

   Thanks a lot, Irina! It was already the 7th time I’ve participated in Moscow Open tournament, but the first time I played in the closed women tournament (G). Of course, I’m very happy about the first place, and I have to admit it was a big luck for me as we shared it with Olga Girya and Dinara Saduakassova and I was just slightly better on tie-break.
It was a nice event and I don’t think I can complain about something and even the weather was not as cold as the last year. Probably, you remember! 

2. I know you're both playing and coaching, what would you prefer if you had to choose just one of them?

   I only started coaching last year and I traveled with kids to the World and European Youth championships to Prague and Maribor as one of the coaches for the Russian delegation. That was a really very interesting experience! But still, if I have to choose between playing and coaching, this time I would prefer to play. But it’s quite possible that my opinion can change in a few years.

3. You've been travelling quite a lot, what is the place you loved the most?

   Yes, but I travelled mostly only through Europe. As for some more exotic places, I have some plans about visiting Australia, South America, Caribbean Islands, ect. By now, I love Germany and France very much, but my native city – Moscow is still my favourite one.

4. Does chess involve a specific lifestyle (that's the question I've been struggling with too) ?

    As any other professions connected with sports, seems like, we have a special lifestyle. We travel and play a lot, so we can not attend the studies regulary or do some kind of a usual job (and mostly we can not get regular payments as it depends on the results). But in general, I don't think there is something really unusual about the chess lifestyle, maybe it comes when you become such a professional who works 8-10 hours of chess a day...

5. What is the thing you like the most about chess and the thing you'd like to change?

   I like our chess society very much and I have a lot of real friends here! By the way, that's another reason not to switch to coach's work completely. Hard to say, what I don’t like and even harder to propose something reasonable.

6. What do you see yourself doing in 5 years?

   Hm, good question  Actually I have no idea even about what I’ll be doing in 2 or 3 next months. I can expect that I’ll be still connected to chess somehow, as a player, coach or any other way.

Bloody battles

     There have been played 2 rounds in the Romanian Chess Championship. There've been a lot of surprises in the men's section so far, with a lot of draws on the top boards yesterday.

1	31	NM	Vladescu Florin-George	2225	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	2633	1
2	2	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2612	1	½ - ½	1	CM	Bida Mihai-Eugen	2212	35
3	32	CM	Toma Radu-Cristian	2219	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Nevednichy Vladislav	2542	3
4	4	GM	Murariu Andrei	2533	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Glodeanu Ion	2180	39
5	34	IM	Florescu Codrut-Constantin	2212	1	0 - 1	1	IM	Miron Lucian-Costin	2526	5
6	6	GM	Berescu Alin-Mile	2495	1	½ - ½	1	CM	Secheres Adrian-Simion	2160	43
7	36	CM	Stegariu Vlad-Ionut	2201	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Filip Lucian	2464	7
8	38	CM	Russu Eduard	2198	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Georgescu Tiberiu-Marian	2396	11
9	12	IM	Milu Romeo-Sorin	2392	1	½ - ½	1	I	Martian Dragos-Daniel	2145	45
10	42	FM	Pessi Emil-George	2160	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Petrisor Adrian-Marian	2392	13

     Here you can see a game that has impressed me:


There are 13 players with a 2/2 score and I guess that there will be much less after today's double round. You can follow the live games here: http://www.sahlive.ro/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=440

1	1	GM	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	2633	2		2	FM	Dobre Claudiu-Cristian	2292	22
2	17	FM	Balla Tamas-Kristof	2366	2		2	GM	Murariu Andrei	2533	4
3	5	IM	Miron Lucian-Costin	2526	2		2	FM	Daianu Cristian-Clement	2283	24
4	21	NM	Doros Radu-Marian	2309	2		2	IM	Grecescu Gabriel-Andrei	2391	14
5	15	IM	Grigore Nicolae-Petre	2385	2		2	CM	Russu Eduard	2198	38
6	27	NM	Gilea Lucian	2245	2		2	NM	Stanciu Alexandru-Ovidiu	2383	16
7	29	CM	Horvat Dan-Sebastian	2229	2		1½	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2612	2

As for the women's section, there are only 6 players with a perfect score, me being among them.

1	2	IM	Foisor Cristina-Adela	2389	2		2	WGM	Ionescu Irina	2253	5
2	6	WIM	Dragomirescu Angela	2235	2		2	WGM	Bulmaga Irina	2355	3
3	4	WGM	Cosma Elena-Luminita	2332	2		2	WGM	Sandu Mihaela	2222	7

     We've got to play only 9 rounds, unlike men- who have to play 11, so we don't have any double rounds.
     Here are some photos I took this morning:

The 5 top boards

The playing hall

The nr 1 rating favourite- Mircea Parligras, (2633) with 2/2

Lucian Miron (2526), 2/2

Doros Radu-Marian (2309), 2/2

Bida Mihai-Eugen (2212), a talented junior who made the draw against Constantin Lupulescu yesterday, 1,5/2

Alin Berescu (2495), 1,5/2

Constantin Lupulescu (2612), the nr 2 rating favourite, with 1,5/2

Grigore Nicolae-Petre (2385), 2/2

Murariu Andrei (2533), 2/2

The cups waiting for their winners

xoxo from Olanesti ;)