World Cities Team Championship

   Today starts the World Cities Team Championship for the Sheikh Zayed Cup in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.It's scheduled to take place from 21-29 December. The championship has a knock-out format,with the overall prize fund of 150,000 $.

   The championship in UAE joins qualifiers from the World Team Championship, Continental Teams and 25 top zonal teams from the Istanbul Oplympiad. Teams will be grupped by rating in 8 groups of 4 teams each who will play a single round robin. The top 2 qualify into the knockout round of 16 followed by exciting Quarterfinal and Semifinal matches and a breathtaking Final show.
   Here are the qualified federations:

1	Olympiad Champion	Armenia
2	World Team Champion	Hungary - 5th (after Armenia, China, Ukraine, Russia)
3	European Champion	Germany
4	American Champion	Brazil
5	Asian Cities Champion	Kazakhstan - 2nd (after China)
6	African Champion	Egypt
7	Host Country	UAE
8	Zone 1.1	Netherlands - 6th
9	Zone 1.2	Slovenia - 25th
10	Zone 1.3	Sweden - 16th
11	Zone 1.4	Romania - 8th
12	Zone 1.5	Serbia - 14th
13	Zone 1.6	Russia
14	Zone 1.7	Latvia - 28th
15	Zone 1.8	Azerbaijan - 10th
16	Zone 1.9	Ukraine
17	Zone 2.1	United States Of America
18	Zone 2.2	Canada
19	Zone 2.3	Cuba - 11th
20	Zone 2.4	Peru - 55th
21	Zone 2.5	Argentina - 22nd
22	Zone 3.1	Iran - 61st
23	Zone 3.2	Bangladesh - 33rd
24	Zone 3.3	Vietnam - 7th
25	Zone 3.4	Uzbekistan - 24th
26	Zone 3.5	China
27	Zone 3.6	Australia - 32nd
28	Zone 3.7	India
29	Zone 4.1	Tunisia - 75th
30	Zone 4.2	Uganda - 90th (after Egypt)
31	Zone 4.3	South Africa - 62nd
32	New Zone 4.4	Nigeria - 96th

Romania's team has also qualified and it will be represented by the team of the city of Timisoara:

1 GM Lupulescu Constantin 2618 ROU 0.0

2 GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian 2628 ROU 0.0

3 GM Marin Mihail 2564 ROU 0.0

4 GM Nevednichy Vladislav 2545 ROU 0.0

5 GM Manolache Marius 2541 ROU 0.0

Here's the list of the registered teams I found on http://chess-results.com/tnr87210.aspx?art=32&lan=11:

1 Paris 2677
2 Hoogeveen 2666
3 Lviv 2659
4 Baku 2626
5 Saratov 2626
6 Novi Sad 2611
7 Ptuj 2594
8 London 2594
9 Timisoara 2589
10 Athens 2558
11 Chicago 2548
12 Astana 2544
13 Lund-Linkoping 2540
14 Riga 2528
15 Tehran 2499
16 Tashkent 2499
17 Cairo 2465
18 Manila 2448
19 Istanbul 2440
20 Dhaka 2437
21 Wu Xi 2391
22 Al Ain 2371
23 Chennai 2321
24 Kampala 2234
25 Canberra 2220

   The 4 categories of teams has been drawn yesterday:

1st Category			2nd Category
Paris (FRA)	2677		Novi Sad (SRB)	2611
Hoogeveen (NED)	2666		London (ENG)	2594
Lviv (UKR)	2659		Ptuj (SLO)	2594
Baku (AZE)	2626		Timisoara (ROM)	2589
Saratov (RUS)	2626		Athens (GRE)	2558
Alain (UAE)	2371		Chicago (USA)	2548

3rd Category			4th Category
Lund Linkoping (SWE)	2540		Istanbul (TUR)	2440
Riga (LTU)	2528		Dhaka (BAN)	2437
Astana (KAZ)	2520		Wu Xi (CHN)	2391
Tehran (IRI)	2499		Chennai (IND)	2321
Tashkent (UZB)	2499		Kampala (UGA)	2234
Cairo (EGY)	2465		Canberra (AUS)	2220

   A total of 150,000$ in cash prizes shall be awarded for the World Cities Championship for Sheikh Zayed Cup as follows:

• 16 eliminated from Round Robin Groups receive $2,500 each
• 8 qualifiers to Round of 16 receive $4,000 each
• 4 Quarterfinalists receive $5,000 each
• Fourth Place receives $10,000
• Third Place receives $12,000
• Second Place receives $15,000
• Champion receives $21,000

   I would like to wish good luck to our team and we'll keep our fingers crossed for them!

End of the World?

   Assuming that the End of the World will come in some 30 hours, I've decided to make a list with things I could do until then:

1. have a good 9 hour sleep- (21 h remained)
2. have my favourite latte machiatto and fancy it with a cigarette-who cares about health-it's the End of the World!! -(20h left)
3. Make my last deadly nice manicure :))) 19 h left
4. Try the limit of my credit card- I won't need it in the next life,right? 17h felt
5. Travel to Chisinau-trying to find the reason why it all had started in the first place-13h felt
6. Get the damn 2500 rating at least on playchess 11h left
7. Drink some bottles of champagne with my very best friend telling our darkest secrets to each other-they'd get burried soon anyways and if not that'll be sooo much "fun" :))) 8h left
8. Go to a club and dance on the bar- I've always imagined how cool could it be, but was too worried about the consequences... 5h left
9. Sober up with some coffee and eat my favourite cheese cake :P 4h left

The rest of the 4 hours will remain "under cover", in case the World will not end ;)

Family is forever

   This article is meant to be a thank you to the persons I love. I'm lucky to have a full, nice family who loves and supports me a lot.

At a family dinner,from left to right, my father,sister grandmother,grandfather and mum

Father, me and my sister on hollidays :D

My father's girls :D

With my amazing aunt- Mariana

With my little sister, some long time ago :)))

At my aunt's wedding

My cousin-Maria and my uncle- Adrian

With my beautiful cousin- Maria

Love you mum!

   Love you all and thank you for being there for me whenether I needed you!

Playing giveaway

   The tournament "Pius Branzeu Memorial" has finished. My result was far from my expectations, I wanted myself to fight for the general prizes, but ended up taking only the 4th women prize...

    Here are the final standings:

1	GM	Nevednichy Vladislav	ROU	2545	2545	Cs Aem Luxten Timisoara	7.0	50.5	39.5	38.00
2	GM	Manolache Marius	ROU	2541	2541	Cs Studentesc Medicina Timisoa	6.5	53.5	42.5	37.25
3	GM	Jianu Vlad-Cristian	ROU	2498	2498	Csm Lugoj	6.5	52.0	41.0	36.25
4	IM	Anton Teodor	ROU	2423	2423	Cs Studentesc Medicina Timisoa	6.5	49.5	39.5	33.00
5	IM	Bogdan Dan	ROU	2379	2379	Sah Club Cugir	6.5	48.5	39.0	34.25
6	IM	Foisor Cristina-Adela	ROU	2383	2383	Cs Aem Luxten Timisoara	6.5	44.5	34.5	32.00
7	IM	Petrisor Adrian-Marian	ROU	2380	2380	Css Nr. 1 Timisoara	6.0	54.0	43.0	34.50
8	I	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	ROU	2039	2039	Sah Club Ramnicu Valcea	6.0	50.0	40.0	31.25
9	IM	Peptan Corina-Isabela	ROU	2447	2447	Csm Bucuresti	6.0	50.0	39.0	32.75
10	IM	Milenkovic Mladen	SRB	2399	0		6.0	48.5	37.5	30.75
11	WFM	Visanescu Daria-Ioana	ROU	2050	2050	Clubul De Sah Deva	6.0	38.5	31.0	20.50
12	WGM	Bulmaga Irina	ROU	2364	2364	Cs Politehnica Iasi	5.5	49.5	38.5	28.25
13	WIM	Foisor Mihaela-Veronica	ROU	2208	2208	Css Nr. 1 Timisoara	5.5	47.5	37.5	26.75

   I'd like to congratulate the winner- Vladislav Nevednichy- he showed a great fighting spirit, managing to win 3 games in a row after losing from his "student" Adrian Petrisor.

Vladislav and his daughter- Alexandra, together in happiness and  sorrow

   There's been a very unpleaseant incident yesterday. I won't mention the names of the persons who were involved, but I would never believe that they were capable of such things if I didn't know for sure. In order for his opponent to take a prize and to share it with him afterwards some player "blundered" in a completely winning position. I didn't believe that his opponent agreed for such a thing- I respected that player and I believed he had a future in chess ahead, now I think he must do some serious thinking and to reconsider his status of a "chess player", because this kind of people are no better than cheaters and there is no place for them in any kind of sports.

   As about the tournament, I can't help being amazed by Deac Bogdan-Daniel, an 11 yo boy who beated me and scored 6 points out of 9, showing a great playing skill!

   I will leave from Timisoara tomorrow, returning to Iasi for some days and then I'll go to Chisinau for hollidays. Coming to Timisoara always leaves nice memories, though this time they were somehow bitter-sweet...

Living on a prayer

   Yesterday has been such an amazing day for me! I won my both games, the first one in one hour and the 2nd one in about one and a half hour! I played really nice both games and I felt such an energy during the games that I thought I could move the pieces only with the power of my thoughts!
   There's a funny thing- I played against Foisor Veronica yesterday afternoon and I play against her mother-Cristina today :))) Here's my yesterday's game:


   Here are also some photos I've found on the official site of the event: http://www.sahclubmedicina.ro/memorialul_pius_branzeu_2012.htm

Adrian Petrisor- Vladislav Nevednichy, Marius Manolache-me -on the 2nd plan :)

Playing against Marius Manolache

Playing against Veronica Foisor

Corina Peptan- Iulia Ionica, me on the 2nd plan :D

   Another funny thing is that I've played about 12 games against Cristina and I had white every time :)))

   Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)