Merry Christmas!

     I would like to wish all my friends and readers a wonderful Christmas! Let today's magic make you a little bit kinder and a little bit happier!
     I have always associated Christmas with a big family dinner and lots of snow outside. Unfortunately, it's not what it will be about this year. As my beloved sister is playing in Al-Ain now and there's absolutely no clue of snow outside, I guess that this year Christmas will not be really Christmas for me.
     I haven't written in a while, as I am home and I felt I needed some peace.
     There are no tournaments in the near future for me, I'll be inactive until the middle of February, or maybe even until March, not sure yet. I'm taking some time for myself until then :)
     Anyways, I wish you all have a nice day with your friends and family!




P.S. Good luck sis'! I really miss you! Hope you'll have a nice 30 ºC degrees Christmas in Emirates :D

In the spirit of 30 ºC :D

xoxo from Chisinau!

Astana-Timisoara 2,5-1,5

   It's been an unfortunate day for our men's team, playing at the World Cities Championship. They lost the match against Astana with a 2,5-1,5 score, with Constantin Lupulescu making a draw against Kazhgaleyev Murtas (2596), Mircea Parligras winning against Jumabayev Rinat (2567) and Mihail Marin and Vladislav Nevednichy losing their games to Kotsur Pavel (2550) and respectively Ismagambetov Anuar (2463).
   Here are some photos from the opening ceremony I've found on the official site of the event http://worldcitieschess.com/photos/ :

Sergiu Grunberg, the captain of the Timisoara team

   Here's the group they're playing in :

Group 4
Baku (AZE) Astana (KAZ) Timisoara (ROM) Istanbul (TUR)

   It's a pity they lost today, but still, nothing is lost, they play against Istanbul tomorrow and I hope they'll manage to recover :) Maybe it was the big temperature difference, it's +25C in Al Ain, compared to the -10C in Romania. Whatever the reason was, I'm sure that it will get better tomorrow :)
   Here's Mircea's game:


   I wish good luck to our team and maybe they could send us some Arabian sun to us through their games! :)