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 ;)

Poland-ETCC

     The European Team Championship will start in about a week in Warsaw.
     I like so much travelling around the World and playing chess tournaments! Can't wait for the Europeans to start!
     Our team is 10th out of 31 in the starting rating list.

1		Ukraine	2498
2		Russia	2491
3		Georgia	2491
4		Poland	2410
5		Germany	2390
6		Armenia	2386
7		France	2372
8		Hungary	2368
9		Spain	2367
10		Romania	2358

     As I said in so many posts- playing for a team is much more enjoyable for me than playing individual tournaments. It may be occured, but I feel less pressure when playing for a team and I also like this supporting spirit- in an individual championship, no matter if you are friends with someone or not- first of all- you are opponents and no one sincerely wants you to win- maybe that's the biggest difference- the real support and positive thoughts you get from your teammates in a team event.

      Our team has the same composition as in the last championships we had played:

1	IM	Foisor Cristina-Adela	2347	ROU	0.0
2	WGM	Bulmaga Irina	2399	ROU	0.0
3	WGM	L'ami Alina	2361	ROU	0.0
4	WGM	Cosma Elena-Luminita	2326	ROU	0.0
5	WGM	Voicu-Jagodzinsky Carmen	2275	ROU	0.0

Alina L'ami and Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky

Cristina Foisor, Luminita Cosma, Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky and me

Our captain- Gergely Szabo with Carmen and Alina

     Here is the official site of the event: http://etcc2013.com/ where you can follow the live games and the photo reports.

     We will stay in the center of Warsaw and I simply can't wait to explore it! I am really excited about everything :))) I will also celebrate my 20th birthday there! What can be better than that- I always prefer to celebrate it at tournaments than at home, because I have more friends in the "Chess World" than in the real one :P

Will keep you posted! 

xoxo from Chisinau ;)

A Knight or a Queen?

     The tournament has finished for me.
     I made a draw today. It's such a pity I didn't even get a chance to play- she found each and every only moves. I guess I should have played some other variation... Well, but after all, who could have known? I am happy with my result- 5p out of 8, with 3 wins, 1 loss and 4 draws. It's the first tournament in the last half year when I raise my Elo. I've made another IM norm here- I already have 4 of them, but I still haven't got 2400 Elo in order to receive the title.
     Here you can see my today's game:

     I had a very nice game yesterday, against Nana Dzagnidze. I think that it's one of the best games I have ever played! Here it is:

    As about our today's match with the USA- the girls are still playing and their positions looked nice the last time I've checked. I hope we'll win the match :)

My lucky ritual in this tournament- listening to my Ipod before the games

     Back to watch the games!

xoxo from Astana ;)

Round 6 in Astana

     The match has begun! I am sorry that I couldn't start the live chat earlier, as the internet went down in the whole hotel, due to the weather problems.
     Here are some photos I took at the beginning of the round:

Let's take a coffee!

Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky, Gergely Szabo and Alina l'Ami

Sweets and beverages in the relaxation room

Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky

Alina l'Ami

Luminita Cosma

Romania vs China

The playing hall

Tan Zhangyi- Luminita Cosma- draw

Shen Yang- Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky-draw

Zhukova Natalia vs Benmesbah Natacha

The Women's World Chess Champion- Anna Ushenina

Bela Khotenashvili vs Alexandra Kosteniuk

Salome Melia vs Olga Girya

Russia vs Georgia

Luminita Cosma vs Tan Zhongyi

Natacha Benmesbah of France

Shen Yang vs Carmen Voicu-Jagodzinsky

 Kaya Emel vs Davletbayeva Madina

Kubra Ozturk vs Dauletova Gulmira

Gulishkan Nakhbayeva- 1st board of  the Kazakhstan's team

Alina l'Ami vs Guo Qi ( the World Girls U20 Champion)

Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine

Katerina Lahno vs Nino Maisuradze

Alisa Galliamova vs Lela Javakishvili

Valentina Gunina vs Nana Dzagnidze

India vs USA

Russia vs Georgia

Our charming official photographer- Anastasiya Karlovich

Here's the hall where one can watch the live games

... on this screen

      I went to the "Hanshatyr" comercial center afterwards- it's about 20 minutes to walk from our hotel. I passed through the "Alley of restaurants":

"Tre Kronor"- a Swedish restaurant

A Korean restaurant

Not sure, but I think it's a Turkish restaurant

And there's my destination...

Want to have a seat? :))

 It's got a very interesting arhitecture! You can judge by yourself:

     I had to walk by myself through the snowstorm- it wasn't either pleasant  or very warming- but what one doesn't do in order to satisfy his curiosity! All the efforts were more than worth it- I have never seen such a mall in my life!

A special carrousel that takes one to the very top of the mall

It seemed a bit scary to go there by myself, so I preferred to be a simple spectator

There was some kind of a little car that was spinning around the mall- I had a really nice ride!

     Two games have already finished- Carmen and Luminita made draws. Alina and Cristina are still playing. Let's watch the games and hope for better!

xoxo from Astana