tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89790963917997823222024-03-14T05:19:56.616+00:00Maria's Chess AdventuresI spent some extra time on chess in the past few years, so I could get into the English women's team to play in the Olympiad. I've managed to achieve it this year (2012) and had lots of fun in the process! This blog is now closed, I hope you enjoyed it.Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-69592872160139053002012-10-21T21:48:00.002+01:002012-10-21T21:50:16.050+01:00Life Since... February
Hello everyone!
Well, it maybe the time I close my blog as I'm sure you've noticed I haven't updated it since February! I've been doing some exciting things and played a bit of chess as well, so you might be interested to know what I've been up to before I say the final good bye.
I spent a few months teaching chess to kids in a primary school, as a part of the Chess in Schools and Communities Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-38634281047388238442012-02-13T12:53:00.001+00:002012-02-13T12:55:09.308+00:00Aeroflot Open InterviewsHi all,
Aeroflot Open is currently in progress in Moscow and I've seen some amusing interviews in Russian published on the Russian Chess Federation website. Here is my translation of selected material. You can see the photos in the original version.
First of all, an interview with GM Anton Korobov (rating 2660) who is currently leading Aeroflot Open Group A with 5 out of 6. The interviewer Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-71193847957595533812012-02-10T13:24:00.000+00:002012-02-10T13:24:11.990+00:00Gibraltar TournamentUnless you've been living on the Moon for the past couple of weeks, you know that GM Hou Yifan had a fantastic tournament in Gibraltar, gaining shared 1st place with the British GM Nigel Short and beating several GMs over 2700! This was one of the best ever women's performances even compared to the legendary GM Judit Polgar. Yifan is still only 17 years old and I will continue to follow her chessMaria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-69945684280014926222012-01-17T20:47:00.001+00:002012-04-02T21:04:34.520+01:00January 4 NCLI played at the 4NCL last weekend, for the first time this season. I had to miss the first weekend (two rounds) of the season due to the European Team Championship in November. I think I've already mentioned that my team has been re-named from Betsson.com to Blackthorne Russia because our new sponsor is the company called Blackthorne which specialises in exports to Russia. We even got our Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-15514309191803090722012-01-08T21:12:00.001+00:002012-01-08T21:48:27.862+00:00Happy New Year!Happy New Year everyone! This year has started with a big change for me as I've left my job. No, I'm not going to become a full-time chess player, but I'd like to see what I can do outside of the corporate world. I would like my new activities to be connected to chess in some way or another, so I may explore chess teaching, chess publishing and anything else I might find interesting. If you have Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-21180213068801651282011-10-30T02:14:00.000+00:002011-10-30T02:14:35.899+00:00About the BritishAs I said in the last post, I was going to play in the 4NCL rapidplay. I found 10min +10sec increment after each move to be closer to blitz than rapidplay and quite difficult, while the previously reported Golders Green rapidplay had 30 mins for the whole game that I preferred. I perform worst with very short time limits. Nevertheless, it was fun with the team event on the Saturday (I played for Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-76620288761957389912011-10-13T20:09:00.003+01:002011-10-14T17:48:41.873+01:00More Results and TacticsLets go through a few more of my tournaments and results over the past few months. My performance at the 4NCL in 2010-11 season wasn't very good and I lost a few points of rating but my team Betsson.com at last managed to get into the Championship pool after 7 rounds in the top division. This meant that we had a theoretical possibility of winning the top division, but ended up with a much more Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-47511295718297405692011-09-30T00:52:00.000+01:002011-09-30T00:52:28.662+01:00Back to Blogging!I think you may be wondering what happened to me as my blog hasn't been updated in a long time. I have some excuses like too much work and other important things, but that's probably not good enough! So I'm back to writing and the important thing is that I have played quite a lot of chess this year and I have a lot to write about.
First of all, I have to share some very good news with you - I Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-73292578869913548172011-05-04T17:57:00.000+01:002011-05-04T17:57:15.405+01:00News Flash!Hi everyone and apologies for not updating the blog for a few months.
It's been a difficult few months with work and health combined, but it's all looking good now. Since my last blog post I have played some chess in Italy, 4NCL and the London League as well! I will write a more detailed report on this over the weekend as I have to play some more chess this evening in the London League. The goodMaria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-57697750120047109222010-12-21T18:33:00.001+00:002010-12-21T18:34:29.652+00:00London Chess Classic TournamentsIt's nearly Christmas time, so Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it! Even after years of living in England I'm still not that excited about Christmas, I don't even like all the fuss in the shops and on TV in the run-up to Christmas. However I like to have a few days off work and nice food and drink on the day! I'm also not against receiving nice presents :)
Back to chess then. London Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-18261749345773852092010-12-06T01:08:00.001+00:002010-12-06T01:10:08.858+00:00News and SolutionsWell, the Russian Women's Superfinal Championship was won by IM Alisa Galliamova for the second year running. She won on tie-break after finishing equal first with WGM Natalia Pogonina and GM Tatiana Kosintseva. That's a very impressive result as the championship was very strong, including GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and IM Nadezhda Kosintseva among the other top players. Now, of course, all eyesMaria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-57554891342523443992010-11-19T21:18:00.001+00:002010-11-19T21:22:40.399+00:00More From My GamesI played a few games in the past couple of weeks. First of all, I played at the first weekend of the 4NCL 2010-11 season (British team league). My team Betsson.com did very well as we won both matches. If we continue like this we should end up in the top half of the 1st division after 7 rounds. For the past two years we were the winners of the bottom half and felt we could do better. I did ok by Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-43795025645019904672010-11-03T23:41:00.002+00:002010-11-03T23:58:58.452+00:00Cap D'Agde TournamentI recently got back from Cap d'Agde in France where I played in the Open tournament (above 2000 ELO) and watched some famous grandmasters compete for the CCAS Rapid Trophy. Among them were several famous women players: sisters Kosintsevas, Judit Polgar, Kateryna Lahno as well as famous male grandmasters. I managed to meet GM Anatoly Karpov - 12th World Champion! He didn't do very well in his Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-67468389826164154952010-10-03T18:09:00.000+01:002010-10-03T18:09:11.454+01:00Olympiad and moreHello everyone!
I've finally played my first serious game of chess since July. It was a nice win in the London League, albeit against a weaker opponent. It's good to get some practice in though! The game started off as a quiet variation of the Slav but after 24 moves I got this completely winning position. Can you find the moves to finish this game off before looking below for my answer? Black Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-5730439817609959372010-09-05T22:04:00.002+01:002010-09-05T22:13:50.821+01:00Work, Work, Work!The life has been very busy in the past month, mainly because I've gone back to work and have been working a lot! Although I'm working in the same department as before my sabbatical, I have a new manager and a different job. I always find that first few weeks in a new job demand more effort than usual as I need to learn who my stakeholders are, establish relationships, learn new working Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-63192037511927728512010-07-27T23:44:00.002+01:002010-07-27T23:47:39.493+01:00Pacific Coast OpenI'm back from the USA and suffering from jet-lag. However, there's a million things to do after being away for 3 weeks and on top of that I am going back to work on Friday, for the first time after 10 months of sabbatical! I'm so glad that BT gave me this opportunity to take the sabbatical as I think I had the best 10 months ever despite some low points at some chess tournaments.
My Pacific Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-71481367132963756322010-07-18T06:38:00.006+01:002010-07-18T06:55:34.944+01:00America!My partner Simon didn't win millions at the main event of WSOP poker tournament and I didn't win millions at Las Vegas casinos. However, I managed to break even on roulette and won $200 in 10 minutes at craps! I think that was beginner's luck as I'd never played craps before. After that Simon wisely kept me away from craps tables so that I didn't lose my winnings!
One week in Las Vegas is Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-70203542979774408992010-07-02T01:15:00.000+01:002010-07-02T01:15:59.250+01:00Endgame ExampleI've had some kind of flu for the past few days - how annoying in this great weather! I just had to stay in bed watching mainly Wimbledon. I think I've had sports overload as I've also watched enough football to last me a lifetime. Since England is out of the football World Cup I'm now supporting Andy Murray (British) and Vera Zvonareva (Russian) in Wimbledon. Thankfully, I seem to be on the mendMaria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-62611370191531139062010-06-26T01:14:00.000+01:002010-06-26T01:14:49.881+01:00Benoni SmoothieAs promised, here is one of my nice games I played in Italy against Maya Porat from Israel. I was happy with this game because my preparation paid off and the whole game seemed to smoothly follow from the beginning to the end as I gradually outplayed my opponent. Simon even called this game thematic for Benoni which I feel is a nice compliment. You can replay the game via an applet below, Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-29796217026302834352010-06-15T23:42:00.004+01:002010-06-19T17:15:55.906+01:00Italian Chess Festival "City of Roseto"Can you believe it, this chess adventure turned out to be even more successful for me than the one in Thailand. I played in the Masters section which was reserved for players above 2000 rating but they let myself and another girl in as an exception, even though we were just below 2000 rating. They probably think that they made the right decision as I got 5 points out of 9, gained my Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-87227140852386985852010-06-03T00:58:00.004+01:002010-06-19T17:14:46.195+01:00Italy's CallingIt's been a long time since I wrote the last post! I haven't actually played any chess since the 4NCL but that's about to change. Tomorrow I'm flying to Italy to play in the new Open tournament called 1° Festival Internazionale Di Scacchi ”Citta’ Di Roseto”. Italy is probably my favourite country after the U.K. so I can't wait to go. I love the Italian food, the language, theMaria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-28314369695528857022010-05-05T22:57:00.006+01:002010-05-05T23:35:21.261+01:00Interesting Game in QGDThe 2009-10 4NCL season finished over the weekend. After 7 rounds all teams in the 1st division get re-shuffled into the "championship" pool and the "demotion" pool based on their performance up till then. My team Betsson.com did exactly the same as last year - we ended up in the "demotion" half but we won the "demotion" half again and stayed in the 1st division for the next season. Here I am in Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-65758980015210894842010-04-24T07:56:00.003+01:002010-04-24T08:22:11.139+01:00Thailand OpenWhat a chess adventure it turned out to be! I showed my best ever result with 5.5 points out of 9 against average opposition of 2217. My rating performance was 2261 and I gained 45 rating points. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a WIM norm because I didn’t play against enough titled opponents and my last round opponent didn’t turn up because he thought the game was in the afternoon like on most days. Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-1857355170799787892010-04-11T00:39:00.006+01:002010-04-11T10:59:16.200+01:00A bit about GrunfeldTime flies when you're having fun! I've had some nice things happen in my life in the past few weeks but not anything to do with chess. That somewhat slack attitude might come back and bite me as I'm off to Bangkok tomorrow to play in Thailand Open and feeling like I could have done more to prepare. But I'm not sorry about it - it's important to be happy in life and not just in chess. Thailand Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-60150793482596597892010-03-18T21:11:00.001+00:002010-03-18T21:12:59.295+00:00Challenge at the TopMy birthday is over and now it's only a nice but distant memory! I wouldn't mind a birthday once a month :) However, there is still something to look forward to - my present from relatives in the U.S.A. is still on its way. I hope it didn't get lost as it's been travelling for a long time now! I'm pretty sensible these days when I go out, but this time I must have had one too many cocktails and Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com5