Thursday 27 June 2013

Me at worst

     It's been a tradition to post only my best games on the blog. I have decided that it should change- I also have terrible, very disappointing games.
     My game from the last round (13th) of the last year's World Junior Championship is on the top of "the black list". I had a good tournament- playing against all the favorites and sometimes even leading the tournament. If I would win in the last round against a lower rated opponent, I would have shared the 1-4 place, taking the 3rd one based on the additional criteria.
     I think that I felt too close to this medal. I knew I was a better player than my opponent at that moment and it made me be too optimistic about my position during the game...
     This is the game from which I've learned a lot and I still watch it from time to time in order to remember my mistakes and not to repeat them.

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Synapses

     "Thought generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's subjective conciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arangements of ideas. Thinking  allows beings to make sense of or model the World in different ways, and to represent or interpret it in ways that are significant to them, or which accord with their needs, attachments, objectives, plans, commitments, ends and desires."
     Wikipedia has covered it, huh?
      I've been asking myself why one makes one conclusion and another one makes a different one as a result of the same action. The answer is a very logical one- because each of us has his own way of viewing things.
     Let's take a simple example- a cat trying to catch a little bird. One feels sorry for the bird, another one is attracted by the process of haunting, the third one is amazed by the graceful moves of the cat, the fourth one feels the need to save the bird and so on... One simple action can fetch a scope of different feelings from one  person to another one.
     It is so nice when you share the angle from which you see the World with someone! Do you know the feeling when you see something and it triggers some unusual reaction and the one next to you says he feels the same in the second when you open your mouth in order to tell it? In these moments you feel like you're not alone in the World.

   
     What about the situation when you think about something and it makes you realize things that you didn't want to realize. You damn the moment when you started to think of the matter involved.
     The way each of us thinks is one of the most personal belongings of ours and no matter how much one wants to change someone's way of thinking, you can't influence the synapses of anyone's mind, well, only if you've got some spare Watts in your hands to use.

Sunday 23 June 2013

Elite

     The Dilijan FIDE Women Grand Prix is being fought these days. It gathered some of the strongest female chess players at the moment.
     Humpy Koneru is leading the tournament with 4,5p/6.

GM Humpy Koneru (2597)

     Anna Muzychuk and Nana Dzagnidze are following with 4p/6.

GM Anna Muzychuk (2593)

GM Nana Dzagnidze (2550)

     The Mongolian Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (2316)- the lowest seed- surprises with being on the 4th place, with 3,5p/6.
WGM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (2316)
     The Women's World Champion- Anna Ushenina is only on 50%- 3p/6, not being able to score any wins so far.
GM Anna Ushenina (2499)
     You can see the full ranking list after the 6th round here:

FIDE Women's Grand Prix Dilijan-2013
Rank after round 6
RankSNo.NameRtgFEDWnWeW-WeKRtg+/-RaRp
110GMKoneru Humpy2597IND4.563.640.8610925192712
28GMMuzychuk Anna2593SLO4.063.500.5010525332658
311GMDzagnidze Nana2550GEO4.063.600.4010424732598
42WGMBatchimeg Tuvshintugs2316MGL3.561.621.88152824942551
55GMUshenina Anna2499UKR3.062.960.0410025042504
63GMHarika Dronavalli2492IND3.063.08-0.0810-124812481
71WGMGirya Olga2436RUS3.062.720.2810324702470
86GMKosintseva Tatiana2526RUS2.562.88-0.3810-425402483
99GMStefanova Antoaneta2531BUL2.563.07-0.5710-625232466
1012GMCmilyte Viktorija2511LTU2.563.21-0.7110-724832426
117IMKhotenashvili Bela2531GEO2.062.83-0.8310-825512426
124GMDanielian Elina2475ARM1.562.89-1.3910-1424872294


     You can follow the live games on the official site of the event: http://dilijan2013.fide.com/en/component/content/article/40-static-content/133-live-games
     I wonder how many mistakes can be made even on a supposed very high level. 
     The central match of yesterday's round- Koneru-Muzychuk ended with a unexplainable blunder made by Anna in a drawn endgame:

2
Black to move
     Anna played 40...f6?? here and after 41. b5-a5 42. Ne2 a few more moves were made and Anna had to resign. 40...b5 instead would have been more than enough for a draw: 41.Kd3-Kd5.

     One of my main goals is to get the chance of playing in this kind of events. I think that I could show a decent result even now. It isn't easy at all to get to play there- one should either have a 2500+ rating, or be Women's World Champion, or have their country as an organizer of one of the tournaments from the series.
     I hope that one of these conditions will be full-filled one day- preferably one of the first 2 ones, or maybe both of them?! ;)



Thursday 20 June 2013

Grand Sweden

     Hello my dear readers!
     I've been relaxing the last few days, not even opening my computer. It's been soooo good to go to the beach and not worry about anything but my tan :D
     My session at the University was so exhausting- I needed some refuel and I definitely got it.
     I spent some quality time with my family and my friends in Golden Sands and I enjoyed the unusual role of being just a spectator of the "Golden Sands Grand Europe Open".


With my dear sister- Elena

With my good friend- Diana Baciu

Elena and me

Olga Hincu, Diana Baciu, Irene Sukandar, Elena Bulmaga, Ioana Gelip and me (from left to right)  trying the chilly water

     Nils Grandelius of Sweden won the tournament with a 7,5p/9, 2706 performance and a very nice +17,5 Elo points! If he couldn't take the Bulgarian hot weather with him in Sweden- he definitely compensated it with some nice amount of cash- 6000 euros! How much sun can he buy with it, what do you think?
     Here's my photo report from there:

Nils Grandelius- the winner of the tournament

Dragan Solak-6th place with 6,5p

Vladislav Nevednichy- 3rd place with 7p

Mircea Parligras

Alin Berescu

Dmitrii Svetushkin

Natalia Pogonina-2nd woman prize with 5,5p

Axel Rombaldoni

Tiberiu Georgescu

Nisha Mohota

Bogdan Posedaru

Irina Ionescu

Irene Sukandar

Angela Dragomirescu


Maria Velcheva

Zura Javakhadze


Levente Vajda


Zbynek Hracek- 2nd place with 7p


     The playing hall was really impressive- it was provided by one of the best 5 stars hotel and casino in Golden Sands. The organizers did a very good job and I think that it was one of the strongest and with the highest prizes Open that one could find in June in Europe!
     
     As about me, I really enjoyed my short holliday and I'm going to prepare for my next tournaments in the following week- Turkish League, Universiade, EIWCC... I hope to have a great summer and to show some serious results!

Wish you all an amazing summer! 

Will keep you posted ;)

Thursday 13 June 2013

Tango

     What is better- to be lonely or to fill it up?
     Oh, twenties- such a foolish time! That's what our mothers and elder  friends say. How well do you know the phrase "Oh, I've been through this- it's such a non-sense- you'll get over it."?
     I always think about my future and I don't really see a scenario that I would like. It doesn't really matter, does it?! I'll have time to rethink about all of these in my thirties- actually I'm not even in my twenties yet- 5 months to go.
     I am just curious when have dreaming and just living the moment started not to be enough. What a 19 y.o can possibly want more? "You tell me." you'd say. Well, I can't, because my dreams have started to turn into nightmares and my enjoying the moment has turned into worrying what's next. What is it about? I don't know- maybe it's just life. You know- this thing called life. We never thought that it could be the way it is and maybe we wanted it to be different.


     We all want to tango through our lives with a bright destiny gently touching our waist, don't we? It turns out that not only bright destinies can tango or sometimes a step might not be worth learning. How many steps of a tango have you learned? None? You're a lucky man then.
     I wish I could waltz through my whole life- knowing just 4 steps- birth, success, love and death.

26 Countries

     I've found an interesting application that counts the countries one's been to. I've discovered that I've visited 26 countries so far... Still not that much,but I plan to visit at least one new country per year :D


visited 26 states (11.5%)
Create your own visited map of The World or another interesting project

You can try to guess where was each of these photos taken :D

Nr.1


Nr.2

Nr.3
Nr.4
Nr.5
Nr.6
Nr.7
Nr.8
Nr.9
Nr.10

Good luck :P

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Grin

     My first exam was on the 30th of May and I can say that it's been the most uneventful and in the same time the most uneasy two weeks in my life.
     Studying, studying, exam, studying, following the games of my friends in tournaments all over the World, then again, studying, exams. I have never felt so "not in my bowl" before... To understand why, I'll tell you a short story:
     I had to present my practice in accounting dossier some days ago. I gathered all the documents that I needed, thought of  how I would present all of them and I went to the University. When I entered the professor's office, I saw a man in his 50s, wearing a very crumpled T-shirt. He grinned to me and asked for my ID. I gave him the ID and my dossier. He opened it and gave it a flick-through. He asked some commun questions, after what he said " The invoices should have been hand-written, I can't accept the dossier". I was a bit taken by surprise, as I didn't remember for it to be metioned in the list of the required documents. I looked for it in my purse, then I showed it to the professor- showing him that there was no such mention and I couldn't have known. " Now you know, Irinuca. Goodbye", he told with a satisfied grin. WTF? I felt like he was mocking me. What was my fault? As one can understand, it is quite simple to copy some documents, in order to have them hand-written. What was the professor's problem then? Couldn't he just tell me nicely to come again with the invoices hand-written?
     This kind of people make me sick. They are so frustrated that they get pleasure from mocking others. If such kind of a man can get a professor at one of the best universities in the country, this system really has a problem.
     Well, mainly- this is the reason why I can't wait for these last 4 days of my session to pass faster. I am sick and tired of  all of these.
     I think of  my next tournaments, I imagine myself winning a game and I try not to spend my nerves on frustrated people.
   

Monday 10 June 2013

Golden Sands

     The "Albena Grand Europe Open" came to an end yesterday, with Tigran Petrosian winning the trophy, with an impressing 8p/9 score! Mircea Parligras finished on the 2nd place and Hrant Melkumyan on 3rd. Here are the final standings: http://chess-results.com/tnr103459.aspx?art=1&lan=11&flag=30&wi=821

1
GMPetrosian Tigran L.ARM264908.040.549.57
2
GMParligras Mircea-EmilianROU256507.041.053.55
3
GMMelkumyan HrantARM263507.040.552.55
4
GMNabaty TamirISR257907.036.546.56
5
IMBernadskiy VitaliyUKR247507.036.046.56
6
GMNevednichy VladislavROU258006.544.055.55
7
GMSpasov VasilBUL256506.540.552.55
8
GMMareco SandroARG255706.540.052.55
9
GMVajda LeventeROU261706.540.051.55
10
GMMekhitarian Krikor SevagBRA254406.538.049.05
11
GMLupulescu ConstantinROU265506.535.546.56
12
GMSolak DraganTUR259806.535.044.05

    The "Golden Sands Grand Europe Open" starts today. The list of players is even more impressing than in Albena! You can check it here: http://chess-results.com/tnr103659.aspx?lan=11&zeilen=99999
     My sister- Elena Bulmaga will also play there and I will try to help her to obtain a good result!  
     Here are some photos of  Golden Sands:

   As about me, I have only 4 exams left this week and then I'll be free like a bird! I will be able to finally start focusing on chess again. I miss playing so much!

xoxo from Iasi ;)

Saturday 8 June 2013

Grand Europe Open Albena

     This week has been a very busy one- with a lot of exams and pretty much worrying. I didn't have much time neither for chess nor for posting. I am really happy that I've survived until the weekend! :)))
     So, let's go directly to news ;)
     I've got my ticket for the Turkish League, which will start on the 1st of July. It's going to be my next tournament. Despite all the unstable situation in Istanbul, it seems that chess isn't affected. I haven't played for like 2 weeks and it already feels like an eternity! Can't wait for the 1st July to come quicker!
     The "Grand Europe Open- Albena" is coming to an end. The 8th round will be disputed today. There are 3 players with 6p/7 leading: Vladislav Nevednichy, Hrant Melkumyan and Tigran Petrosian and another 6 players with 5,5p/7 :  Boris Chatalbashev, Krikor Mekhitarian, Levente Vajda, Mircea Parligras, Evgeny Sveshnikov and Vitaliy Bernadskiy.
     You can see the pairings for today's 8th round here:

18GMNevednichy Vladislav258066GMMelkumyan Hrant26353
22GMPetrosian Tigran L.26496GMChatalbashev Boris256013
315GMMekhitarian Krikor Sevag2544GMVajda Levente26174
410GMParligras Mircea-Emilian2565GMSveshnikov Evgeny251217
55GMGrigoryan Avetik26055IMBernadskiy Vitaliy247523
625IMAshwin Jayaram247255GMSolak Dragan25987
733IMJavakhadze Zurab245055GMNabaty Tamir25799
845FMAnurag Mhamal240155GMSpasov Vasil256512
957WGMSukandar Irine Kharisma236455GMMareco Sandro255714
1024IMEnchev Ivajlo247355IMErturan Yakup237455
1139IMMolina Roberto Junio Brito2423GMLupulescu Constantin26551

     My friend (and room-mate in Thailand)- Irene Sukandar is having a very good tournament, with a 2486 performance and a +23 Elo points.
     Another "long not seen" friend- Diana Baciu, who hasn't played for almost a year has a 2457 Performance and a +26 Elo points!
     It is an interesting phenomenon- it's not the first time when I notice a player who hasn't played for a very long time and he makes incredible performances when he starts to play again. I wonder what is it about? Maybe I should take a year break from chess in order to become a 2500+ GM?! :D
     Another player who surprises with his very good recent results is Vladislav Nevednichy, who's leading the tournament with a 2757 Performance and a +14 Elo points.
     "The Wolf" is having not such a good tournament, with only 4,5 points, being the 1st rating favourite. I guess that the European's Individual has been a too tough event that needed a longer recovery.
     Here are some photos I've found on the facebook page of the Bulgarian Federation:




The Trophy waiting for it's winner

     I wish everyone the best of luck and may the strongest win!