Chess city break in Flanders!

If you would like to travel, but feel unequal to learning at least one international language for the purpose, then play chess;) The ideal substitute for English, Spanish etc. at last has been found!
For our family, last weekend was a perfect opportunity to employ the reliable speech of chess without danger of going astray, in...Oostende! 
Probably it would have taken us some time to reach this Flemish city if it wouldn't have been the universal language of chess. Even if Erwin was busy for a couple of hours with his simul, the reason for our city break, it doesn't mean we didn't enjoy every single bit of it! And you can see for yourself the upside of playing chess further on:

Sun and chess on the Bulgarian coast!

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.

Remco Heite Chess Tournament

Opening ceremony:


As I expected, considering my experience from the previous edition, from 2008, the Remco Heite Tournament is a very well organized event, which you can immediately see right from the start.

What makes this tournament special, besides the people involved to make it a great event and their hard work for that, is the attention for making this event different from the others. It's unique not only for the unusual first prize in the Grandmasters group: a horse, or for the fact that it's not counted for elo: which will surely help making the games more interesting for the public. This tournament has it's special flavour because it succeeds in making you feel at home, but also it brings the chess players closer to the general public, thus transforming the game itself into an exciting competition. This is what happened yesterday evening.
After a nice dinner with the sponsors and the organizers, the drawing of lots followed. And...it was not a common one:) A band was performing live a song composed especially for this event, a big screen with movies, pictures was displayed to our delight, speeches, stories, interviews with the GM's, they all completed the picture. It was obvious they worked very hard for that, especially when I was invited as well to come next to Erwin, when he had to draw his number for the tournament. They checked my blog, they new the stories behind the scenes, pictures from our wedding were rolling on the big screen...we were suddenly actors in our own play:)
After I recovered from this surprise, I realized that for the first time the chess players were presented not only as chess players, but also as intellectuals, family persons, students and so on. For the first time an opening ceremony got my attention from the very beginning and kept it until the end.
A professional organized event and yet, a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. The games can be followed live on the official website. 
Unfortunately, the internet connection is very slow and I cannot upload the pictures:( I succeeded with 3 for now!

Right before the drawing of lots:) GM's enjoying a cup of tea.

The live band

GM's Group

You can see 6 bottles in the background: each player had to choose one,
to see the tournament's number. It's a local drink, 30% alcohol...
I am curious about the taste:)

The screen which made me blush:) But also the other players had a similar experience:)

News:)

Today is a special day for this blog: it received the first norm on it's way to Grandmaster!:)
I was checking the "Woerdense Courant", the weekly newspaper from Woerden, trying to improve my Dutch.
And what do I see?! My blog was mentioned as being a:"fantastic blog" in an article written by Henk de Heer, about Erwin's successful tournament in Hoogeveen.
I have many ideas for this blog, some of them a bit difficult to accomplish. But I will do my best, I am planning to go to Utrecht tomorrow for that. And you will see why:) Coming up soon! Thank you for your kind words Henk!

Close-up

1.5 points for l'Ami family!

Yesterday, our dutch teams: HSG 1 and HSG 2, won their matches in the dutch league. I won a difficult game, still needs to be checked with the computer:) and my husband drew. But it is clear we are still very tired after the Olympiad. More information about the competition here!