Skew needle

     It is going to be a very nice day for me!
     I don't play today, so it's like a 2nd free day for me. I will go to the round to take some photos of the girls and to have a coffee from the relaxing room ;)
     There will be a live chat during the round here ( it will start in 3 hours-at 3pm local time). Feel free to comment! I will also be there at the beginning.
     I plan on going to an interesting mall- it looks like a skew needle. It is quite far from here- but who doesn't enjoy a walk at -20? :))) (maybe I should take a cab after all).
     It is so good to relax a bit- I think that I will come with a lot of new energy after these days!
     I've spent my last evening watching 2 episodes from "The Master and Margarita"- a Russian serial made after the so well-known novel. It's quite interesting!
     We play against China today:

2	ROMANIA		-	5	CHINA
1	IM	Foisor Cristina Adela	2401	:	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2505
2	WGM	Cosma Elena Luminita	2336	:	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	2471
3	WGM	Lami Alina	2353	:	WGM	Guo Qi	2435
4	WGM	Voicu-Jagodzinsky Carmen	2281	:	IM	Shen Yang	2415

     It will be an interesting and in the same time difficult match. The last time the Romanian women's team played against the China's one-it was a 2-2, in the last round of the Olympiad in 2008, in Dresden. I was still playing for Moldova that time, but I remember following that match with a great interest.
 

All in all, I wish good luck to the girls and I will keep my fingers crossed!

Free day in Astana

     It's been a nice day. The excursion was quite short, but I really enjoyed it. Here are some photos:

We visited a museum that was the residence of the President of Kazakhstan before

The Russian girls- Olga Girya, Alisa Galiamova and Valentina Gunina

This chess set was a present from Anatoly Karpov to the President of Kazakhstan

Alina l'Ami with Gulishkan Nakhbayeva and Davletbayeva Madina

Luminita Cosma,me, Alina l'Ami and Gergely Szabo 

The biggest mosque in Astana

This is how our hotel looks like

     It's time to get back to relaxing now ;)

xoxo from Astana

Let myself down

     Again 2-2. We wanted more but is seems like it wasn't our day. Carmen and Alina won, but Luminita and I lost. What a pity! It was looking like a 3-1 at least :( These things happen and mostly in the worst possibly timing...
     It is a free day on the 8th March- already today in Astana. We'll go on an excursion at 2pm.
     I am very sorry for myself and for the ones following us today- it just happened :( I wouldn't probably risk if I would have less time- I feel like it's all my fault that we didn't win today, but I hope that I will do better in the next matches.
     Here are some photos from the today's round and from tonight:

Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky "Let's calculate the right angle!"

Benmesbah Natacha, from France

What a move!

Taking revenge on the billiard table- Gergely Szabo

Me trying to make a shot

Alina l'Ami

It's -20 in Astana!

Gergely Szabo

     We've got to play against China tomorrow- not easy at all!

     Hope that the excursion will charge us with some extra energy and luck!

xoxo from Astana

2-2, 2-2, 2-2

     Another 2 difficult days have passed. We made 2 equal matches, against India yesterday and Kazakhstan today. Though our opponents were lower ranked than us- every game was fought very hard.
     I scored my first win yesterday, against Nisha Mohota, with black, in a 5 hours game where she was the last to make a mistake.
     It's been a better day for me today, as I've played a nice game from the beginning to the very end. It's the first game in a long time that I'm happy about.
     Tomorrow is the 5th- last round before the free day, when we're going to have an excursion through Astana- I can't wait to see the city! We are going to play against Turkey- who has almost made a sensation today- the score was 2-1 for Ukraine and the only girl from the Turkish team who was still playing was completely winning, but Inna Gaponenko managed to save the game and the match.
     Here's my today's game:

     And here you can see some photos from the last 2 days:

Romania vs India

Cristina Foisor

Alina l'Ami

Luminita Cosma

Gergely Szabo, Cristina Foisor, Luminita Cosma and Alina l'Ami

My lucky ritual, listening to my favourite songs before the game, as electronic devices of any kind are not allowed in the playing hall- Gergely has to take my ipod to his room day by day-but what doesn't one do for luck!

Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky

What faces one can't make during a game! This is from the "still acceptable" ones, or maybe not :)))

     Keep your fingers crossed for us!

P.S. A big pictorial report is to follow after the free day!

2nd round

     We  had a good day yesterday- making an equal match against the favourite nr.1- Ukraine. All the games ended in a draw.
     I can't say that I was very satisfied with my game, as I didn't play precisely in the opening and my opponent never gave me even a "hint" for advantage. I went for an equal endgame which I thought was a bit better for me, but making an imprecise move, had to make a draw myself.
     Here's the interview I gave after the 1st round (the original is in Russian):

   

     Here's the English version:




Here are some photos from the yesterday's round:

Cristina Foisor made a draw against Katerina Lahno on the 1st board

Alina l'Ami and Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky

The team captain-Gergely Szabo and me

Luminita Cosma was the last to finish the game, holding a draw against Natalia Zhukova

Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky and me

R 2: Ukraine-Romania

Natalia Zhukova vs Luminita Cosma

     We play against India today- it won't be an easy match. I hope we'll do well!