Wednesday 16 December 2009

London Chess Classic Part 2

The tournament finished yesterday and I didn't do as well as I hoped. I only got 3.5 out of 9 and gained 6 rating points. I haven't analysed my games yet but I felt I was playing quite well in the first 6 rounds, and then I lost two games on the row - one of them quite badly. I found the tournament quite intense and very hard work. I don't know if I just run out of energy towards the end... I managed to switch my brain back on for the final game and drew after 5 hours of play. I also learnt a new opening during the tournament - the Dutch Stonewall, although I would normally avoid doing something like that during a tournament as there's too little preparation time as it is. I decided to do that because in this case I thought it saved me preparation time compared to what I would have had to do otherwise. I applied it as white and as black in the last two games and got decent positions out of the opening, but only got half a point from those two games. My opponents used exactly the same set-up against me in both games which certainly made it easier for me to play the second game. The whole tournament was very hard fought by all women and there were no short draws at all which seemed to entertain many spectators. There were also a lot of photographers who were mainly interested in the grandmaster tournament, but managed to take a lot of pictures of the women's tournament as well. Here I am in the fatal 7th game! (Photo by Ray Morris-Hill)


Maria Yurenok

The tournament was won by WIM Arianne Caoili from Australia who got amazing 8 out of 9 points and finished 2 points clear of the rest of the field. I did lose my game to Arianne as she played a variation that no one has played against me before. I vaguely remembered what I was supposed to do and chose to sacrifice a pawn in the opening with a view of getting it back later on. That's a perfectly suitable plan if you know what you're doing, but I managed to go astray on move 9 and never got the pawn back, so in hindsight I should have just taken the pawn back straight away. We did play for the full 5 hours though! Here are the final standings of all players in the women's tournament.


Of course, the main event of the London Chess Classic festival was the grandmaster tournament which was won by GM Carlsen just ahead of GM Kramnik. On a couple of days I managed to finish my own games early enough to be able to watch grandmasters play and listen to their post-games analysis. I think the whole festival was organised very well and seemed to be very successful because of the number of visitors and the large variety of events (blitz, rapidplay, children's tournament, etc). The FIDE Open tournament was won by GM Hammer with 8 points, while England's IM Jovanka Houska got a shared second place with 7 points - a great result for women's chess! You can see results of all London Chess Classic festival events on their website.

After the tournament ended I went out with lots of chess players for a few well-deserved drinks and for a Chinese meal. It was nice getting up this morning and not worrying about having to prepare for another game! And tonight I have a Christmas meal with the team from work. Even though I'm on the sabbatical it would be nice to catch up with everyone. However, I have to get back to chess training from tomorrow as my next tournament is starting on 28th December in Hastings. So much to do but so little time!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are VERY pretty.

Maria Yurenok said...

Well... Thanks! :)

Anonymous said...

Do you play at ICC?

Keep up the good chess (and blog) :)

Maria Yurenok said...

Yes, and on Playchess too. My handle is "Shokoladka" in both. I'm pretty useless in blitz though.

Maria Yurenok said...

And thanks for your good wishes. The blog will continue at least until August.

Shippers said...

Hi Maria!

I admire your courage in taking a sabbatical to improve your chess. I'm just a hobby player but love the game. I use my holidays to study chess but it's an up-hill struggle and my progress is slow.

I wish you every possible success for 2010 as you inspire weaker players to better themselves.

Maria Yurenok said...

Thanks for your kind words and your support Shippers! I found it very hard to find time and energy for chess while doing my demanding job, so I hope my sabbatical would bring results that I'm after.

Anonymous said...

Would you be so kind to play a correspondence game?

Maria Yurenok said...

Sorry, I've never been interested in correspondence chess.

Moderador said...

Maria, go ahead for your goals!!!!!!!

Nobody can stoping you...

Regards from Mexico, and you can consider me the very first fan of your blog.

Maria Yurenok said...

Thanks for your support Moderador!

Ivan Kalajzic said...

Hi Maria.
I was reading about you on your blog because you made me interested about yourself.And I can say,you are very colourful person,good looking women as well,:)
I am also a chess player,32 years old,from Croatia(Zagreb),sometimes quite strong candidate master,mostly 2200+
Way of your return to chess,so sistematic,is just amazing,good luck!
I would like to meet you one day,so,if you gonna go southern,towards Mediteran,try to remember me...zdravstvuj

Anonymous said...

Could you write how your trainging look like?

Best wishes!

Maria Yurenok said...

Hi Ivan,
Thanks for your nice words :) I've never been to Croatia but may go to the European individual women's championship in Rijeka in March.
Do svidanija!

Maria Yurenok said...

I've already written a bit about my training on the blog. But ok, I'll write a bit more. It's nothing ground-breaking though, just the usual stuff.

Anonymous said...

Wow, a chess babe! ;-) I'm in love. I see you and Arianne Bo Caoili doing well in life. RayLopez

Maria Yurenok said...

Thanks Ray :)

Anonymous said...

I was at the London classic and she's actually a bit prettier in real life. Don't know about her chess though.

Anonymous said...

Hi Maria,
First time someone has set up a blog of their chess adventures. That said, see davidsmerdon.com, an Aussie GM, and for general chess things my friend, Sean Marsh, has a site..Marshtowers...he's a chess journo and coach. All the best in your efforts, Kevin, Bingley
p.s you should have added me as a chess friend on facebook !

Maria Yurenok said...

Thanks for your good wishes Kevin. I've seen Marsh Towers blog before, but I haven't seen David Smerdon's website, so thanks for that too. Yes, I'm a bit strict with my facebook additions, but there are other ways to communicate :)

Anonymous said...

best of luck - from new york

Maria Yurenok said...

Thanks a lot! :)

Anonymous said...

Maria

I think you could annihilate me at chess. I find your intelligence and concentration quite inspiring. If you continue to improve I will consider proposing marriage to you as you are also quite hot.

Rob

Maria Yurenok said...

Thanks Rob! Although something is going wrong with my concentration lately as I'm struggling in my current tournament in Hastings. I'll report on it later. I'm not thinking of getting married any time soon though. I think one thing at a time - I should get better at chess first! :)