The Golden Sands tournament, held between 4th - 12th of June on Bulgarian seacoast, finished yeasterday, having as a sole winner the Chinese GM: Lu Shanglei, (born in '95)! The 7.5 points which the winner squeezed out of 9 games are even more impressive if we think about the rather tough starting list of the event: I could count more than 45 GM's and plenty of IM's, all fighting for the 6000 Euro first prize! I forgot since an Open tournament was as rough as this one but I guess it's fully justified by the generous prize fund which the organizers put at stake: more than 50000 Euro! 224 players attended the tournament, trying to get a prize or/and as much sun as the Bulgarian seaside resort had to offer:)
As for our family, it could have been better, it could have been worse. But we did enjoy the whole experience! While we are now waiting for our bus to come and bring us back to Romania, I decided to choose some pictures for you, to make a general impression on the tournament we just had.
