tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89790963917997823222012-01-31T23:33:41.148ZI was on sabbatical for 10 months in 2009-2010 which I spent trying to improve my chess. My aim was to get into the English women's team in time for the 2010 Chess Olympiad, which I narrowly missed. However, I was selected into the England team in 2011 for the European Team Championship. Follow my ups and downs as I continue to play chess and hopefully improve. And please give me your support!Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.comBlogger581100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-69945684280014926222012-01-17T20:47:00.000Z2012-01-17T20:47:20.413Z

I 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.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-15514309191803090722012-01-08T21:12:00.001Z2012-01-08T21:48:27.862Z

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-21180213068801651282011-10-30T02:14:00.000Z2011-10-30T02:14:35.899Z

As 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+01:00

Lets 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+01:00

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+01:00

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 good

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-57697750120047109222010-12-21T18:33:00.001Z2010-12-21T18:34:29.652Z

It'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-18261749345773852092010-12-06T01:08:00.001Z2010-12-06T01:10:08.858Z

Well, 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 eyes are

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-57554891342523443992010-11-19T21:18:00.001Z2010-11-19T21:22:40.399Z

I 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-43795025645019904672010-11-03T23:41:00.002Z2010-11-03T23:58:58.452Z

I 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+01:00

Hello 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+01:00

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+01:00

I'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+01:00

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 more

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+01:00

I'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 mend

Maria 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+01:00

As 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, but

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+01:00

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 first WIM

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+01:00

It'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, the weather and its

Maria 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+01:00

The 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+01:00

What 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+01:00

Time 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.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-60150793482596597892010-03-18T21:11:00.001Z2010-03-18T21:12:59.295Z

My 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.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-78644990032050998632010-03-09T13:01:00.000Z2010-03-09T13:01:35.441Z

I'm finally back in England and glad to be back! I enjoyed Iceland - it's definitely worth seeing, though it might be a bit more enjoyable in the summer as it wouldn't be so cold. After the tournament finished Simon and I hired a car for a couple of days and saw some amazing scenery, hot geysers and the Blue Lagoon. Just look at this waterfall called Skogafoss! The Blue Lagoon is an open-air

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-17604523527007286432010-02-23T23:19:00.000Z2010-02-23T23:19:56.998Z

Hello everyone! It's been a busy few days for me. I finished playing at Uxbridge on the 17th February, then played at the 4NCL over the weekend and now I'm in Reykjavik, Iceland - ready to start another tournament tomorrow! Here I am playing my second game at Uxbridge, photo taken by the organiser Sean Hewitt. I had a disastrous start to my tournament in Uxbridge - I lost 4 games in the row! I

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-6089682234691948592010-02-12T17:47:00.000Z2010-02-12T17:47:45.300Z

First of all, I have some exciting news. My friends at http://www.gingergm.com/ have created and posted a video from the London Chess Classic tournament held back in December. There are several interviews with grandmasters including Vladimir Kramnik! You will also notice a few shots of me in action :) So please do check out the video and let me know what you thought of it: http://www.gingergm.com

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-30247770130884366452010-02-05T14:47:00.003Z2010-02-06T13:26:19.570Z

I enjoyed playing in Barnet Congress last weekend. I got 2 out of 4, but performed above my rating. The only game that I lost was to Jovica Radovanovic who is graded quite a lot above me at 218 ECF (his FIDE is 2337). The game was very entertaining. Playing Sicilian as black, I grabbed a pawn for white's compensation. Later on I had to give up an exchange but white opted to give it back straight

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-69230784043201125592010-01-28T15:23:00.000Z2010-01-28T15:23:16.790Z

Well, I'm now booked to play in two Open tournaments: Reykjavik in Iceland towards the end of February and Bangkok in Thailand in April! It's great as I've never been to Iceland. And even though I've been to Thailand 3 years ago, I am also really looking forward to it because it will be a lot hotter than wintry England! IM Simon Ansell is also going and we will stay for a few extra days in each

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-51025073499245318852010-01-20T00:07:00.001Z2010-01-20T00:09:26.000Z

Since I came back from Hastings I haven't done much chess because of some health problems, but I'm now nearly back to normal. Over the weekend I played two games in the British team league 4NCL and got 1.5 points. I was happy with a quick draw against a stronger opponent on Saturday and managed to win against a weaker opponent on Sunday despite feeling very unwell, so it was a good result. My

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-88676554002898185262010-01-07T20:52:00.004Z2010-01-08T12:22:51.119Z

Happy New Year everyone! It's been very quiet on my blog for a while because I've been playing in Hastings - the oldest chess tournament in the world. The current venue is a large sports centre, that's why you can see basketball rings on the photograph below. I wasn't able to play the first game and had an average performance in the rest of the tournament gaining 2.5 points out of 8 rounds and

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-24701973140018509942009-12-28T21:38:00.002Z2009-12-30T00:55:57.218Z

I'd like to show you two interesting positions from my games in the London Chess Classic festival. In both cases I didn't find the best continuation and ended up losing both games. The first position is from my game against the top seed of the tournament, IM Susan Lalic. After a long positional struggle earlier in the game I ended up in the worse endgame. However, after some inaccuracies from

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-32373760484748173562009-12-24T15:55:00.000Z2009-12-24T15:55:51.069Z

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! It's been a bit of a strange week in a nice way. John Saunders from the British Chess Magazine has published a link to my blog in his Chessbase article. Because of that I've had so many hits on my blog, from many countries all over the world, that it felt like a nice Christmas present to me. Thank you very much for everyone's comments and

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-51559672821369948672009-12-22T00:14:00.003Z2010-07-28T00:00:00.332+01:00

I'm finally ready to show you some of my creations. Here is my third round game from the women's section of the London Chess Classic. I played with white against Olivia Smith from Wales, rated 2026. Our opening was Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange Variation (D36). You can replay the whole game via an applet below. But here is the commentary with some insights into my thinking approach: M.

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-82052134618286044972009-12-16T15:09:00.005Z2010-07-27T23:59:36.482+01:00

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

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-60882673710156685252009-12-09T00:53:00.004Z2010-07-27T23:59:08.671+01:00

Today was the start of the London Chess Classic festival and I'm glad that my anticipation and training is over and all I have to do now is play chess ... but play it well! I drew my game against Elena Winkelmann today. I was a bit better throughout the game, but couldn't find a way to progress and keep my advantage so I forced a draw. However, it's nice to get a good start in a tournament. My

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-89235667149367865492009-12-01T21:27:00.002Z2010-07-27T23:58:46.601+01:00

In the past week I've played two league games. I've won both times and I think I can get used to this :) My Surrey League opponent was significantly lower rated than me at 122 ECF, so the game wasn't particularly challenging. However, I decided to have a bit of fun with my black pieces and played an unusual variation I've never played against the Torre Attack. So that kept me entertained as I

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-1144910163097726942009-11-25T00:44:00.002Z2010-07-27T23:58:12.377+01:00

The line-up for the women's round robin alongside in the London Chess Classic festival has been confirmed as follows: Susan Lalic (England) IM 2310 Arianne Caoili (Australia) WIM 2206 Arlette van Weersel (Netherlands) WIM 2193 Elena Winkelmann (Germany) 2119 Maria Ikonomopoulou (Greece) 2065 Sabrina Chevannes (England) WFM 2042 Olivia Smith (Wales) WFM 2026 Camille de Seroux (Switzerland) 1989

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-71499749823980635682009-11-17T13:28:00.002Z2010-07-27T23:57:47.699+01:00

I'd like to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to my chosen charity "Save the Children", which I'm supporting as a part of my chess challenge. With your help we've already raised £325!! And if you haven't donated yet - why not? It's for a very good cause! My donations page for "Save the Children" is here, please have a look! I didn't do too well in the Golders Green Rapidplay, I

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-33172978310255301932009-11-11T20:53:00.001Z2010-07-27T23:57:14.219+01:00

I've been so busy trying to study positional chess that I've neglected my blog! I'm currently half way through reading "Positional Play" by Dvoretsky and Yusupov. It's a brilliant book and I really recommend it. I found the chapter on prophylactic thinking especially amusing - I would have never seriously thought of some of those moves if I was playing those games myself. So, I have a lot to

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-39841420689542771252009-11-05T23:15:00.006Z2010-07-27T23:56:49.991+01:00

Yesterday I won my game for Hackney in the London League against an opponent of the same ECF rating as me. It was especially nice to win because I was on the white side of Benoni for the first time in my life, without any preparation. Basically, I'm fed up with boredom playing the Torre Attack or other similar non-main lines with white. I've only been playing those because I haven't been spending

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-29786654188046889312009-11-02T22:32:00.003Z2010-07-27T23:56:20.766+01:00

I'm so happy to be back to my lovely home in London! And very happy to be re-united with my cat who is expertly using psychological extortion to get as much tuna from me as she can possibly eat, because she knows I feel guilty for leaving her at the cattery for a month. I arrived on Saturday but still feeling jet-lagged. Despite that I have been very productive - I couldn't wait to get on with

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-5664525580725990752009-10-27T10:12:00.002Z2010-07-27T23:55:53.274+01:00

The tournament has finished a few days ago and I'm now relaxing at my gran's in Chelyabinsk. It was -7 °C when I arrived here and snowing - colder than I expected at this time of the year! I got 2.5 out of 9 at the end and lost about 15 rating points. Of course, it's not nice to lose so many games, but I'm concentraiting on the positive. Now I have a lot of my games to analyse, to draw

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-4124640683439071492009-10-23T13:00:00.003+01:002010-07-27T23:55:30.142+01:00

It's nearly the end of the tournament. I've got 2 out of 7 so far with 2 games to go. GM Volkov is the sole leader in the tournament with 6 points. I'm not looking forward to Saturday because the game will start at noon as compared to 5pm on all other days. That will be a bit of a shock to the system since I'd have to get up early to prepare. Most chess players seem to be night owls. Even a lot

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-23019091897020159722009-10-19T21:39:00.002+01:002010-07-27T23:54:43.466+01:00

After a couple of days at home I went to St. Petersburg for my next tournament. You can see the current tournament table here. For some reason I can’t connect to the free wireless at all and had problems connecting to the chargeable cable access in my room, but it’s ok now except that it’s quite expensive! The hotel is a very nice 4 star and I have a lovely room on 14th floor with a great view :)

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-92042776118831372792009-10-11T00:07:00.002+01:002010-07-27T23:54:11.519+01:00

The tournament has come to an end and I'm flying home tomorrow. GM Ulybin won it as expected. Simon got 5.5 out of 9 and ended up just outside the prizes. I expected to get a better result than I did, but at the end only got 2.5 out of 9 and lost 11 rating points. It's not a major disaster and all part of the learning experience. I do feel that I'm playing better than 2 months ago, so just have

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-88028126099053743182009-10-06T11:22:00.002+01:002010-07-27T23:53:43.990+01:00

Finally, I’ve found some time to update you about my progress in Switzerland. I couldn’t connect to the wireless from my laptop, but IM Simon Ansell managed to fix it for me, so I’m back to the world of internet! I’m not doing great - I have 0.5 out of 3 with two black losses. In the lost games I managed to get myself into slightly unfamiliar positions out of the opening and didn’t come up with

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-47191832795893328162009-10-01T00:23:00.002+01:002010-07-27T23:53:10.481+01:00

It was my last day of work today for 10 months! So exciting and strange at the same time, as I haven't been out of work for so long since I graduated. To celebrate, I treated myself to a small bottle of wine while doing some preparations for Switzerland and experimenting with my new GHD hair straighteners. Straightening my hair is a bit of a nightmare even with the best straighteners on the

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-24871954422281972472009-09-27T15:02:00.006+01:002010-07-27T23:52:47.727+01:00

Thank you very much to everyone who reads my blog. I've had hits from all over the world, which is much more than I expected when I started this. I hope you'll find this blog interesting and worth reading in the months to come. Some of you may not have met me or just don't know much about me, so it's time to give you a bit of chess background about myself. I was born in Chelyabinsk in Russia

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-15056624868812007922009-09-25T01:03:00.002+01:002010-07-27T23:52:09.354+01:00

As expected, Stereophonics were great on Monday. It was a bit of a strange gig because half of the songs were very old and the other half were from their new album due to come out in a couple of months. It's always a bit harder to get into it if you've never heard the songs before as you can't sing along! All it means is that I'll have to buy the new album, learn the songs and go to their gig

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-25836219845700651742009-09-21T01:05:00.004+01:002010-07-27T23:51:35.837+01:00

It's been quiet on my blog, because I've been playing in the Uxbridge Congress Open for the last 3 days. It was very well organised and I would recommend it to anyone. I guess I also enjoyed myself because I did quite well: 3 out of 5 with 2139 FIDE rating performance and without losing any games. Plus I gained 16 rating points :) I'm especially happy that I managed to do well despite rather fast

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-24124252718975638142009-09-16T00:52:00.001+01:002010-07-27T23:51:08.275+01:00

The weather was absolutely terrible today, I got soaked while out for dinner with a friend. At least dinner was very entertaining - my friend told me all the latest news about her ever-changing love life. And the cheesecake was outstanding! I was out last night as well. It's quite unusual for me to be out for two evenings in the row since I decided to get better at chess. Last night I was at the

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-82860665232320727702009-09-11T23:01:00.004+01:002010-07-27T23:50:39.458+01:00

It's the start of the new chess season for team competitions and I'm looking forward to catching up with friends, some of whom I haven't seen since the spring. I'm also looking forward to one of the great 4NCL traditions followed by many teams - Indian curry dinners! 4NCL is the British team league in case you don't know. I currently play for two teams: for Hackney in the top London league and

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-88429971877090811142009-09-08T17:10:00.004+01:002010-07-27T23:50:06.072+01:00

I don't really have an addictive personality, but perhaps my only addiction is chocolate. Even my ICC handle is "Shokoladka", which is Russian for chocolate. Maybe abundance of fine chocolate in Switzerland is the real reason I'm going to play chess there in October :) Chess pieces should be made out of fine white and milk chocolate and covered in transparent wrappers, so that chocolate doesn't

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-52467119022221238502009-09-06T20:51:00.003+01:002010-07-27T23:49:40.682+01:00

I'm quite excited as I've booked myself into my next international tournament which will be in Winterthur near Zurich in October. I've never been to Switzerland! It's very sweet that they've even put up my picture on their website. They do that for all titled players. But of course, I'm the lowest titled player there - see for yourself: http://www.schachwoche.org/teilnehmerMOpenEngl.php The

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-28375251692619801152009-09-03T22:12:00.005+01:002010-07-27T23:49:13.692+01:00

Music has always played a special part in chess players' lives. For example, Taimanov and Smyslov were music professionals as well as top chess players of their time. No, I'm not planning on becoming a music professional myself. I can't even play any instruments or sing. I'm more interested in exploring the topic of what music chess players use to motivate themselves. I think it's important to

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-53213619272525845452009-09-01T22:42:00.016+01:002010-07-27T23:37:17.402+01:00

It's one month exactly before my sabbatical starts. I'm counting the days as you can see :) It's been quiet on my blog as I played in the FIDE-rated Berks & Bucks congress over the bank holiday weekend. It was held in Twyford and I didn't think it would be too far to travel from London, but I ended up spending 4 hours on travelling each day for three days on a row. Probably not a wise idea as I

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-60532847687998522462009-08-27T23:07:00.008+01:002009-09-06T21:10:45.610+01:00

Hi there.As you already know, I am trying to get into the English women's team in time for the Chess Olympiad in September 2010. Since this is a very serious and difficult challenge for me, it gives me a perfect opportunity to fundraise for a charity. My favourite charities are for children and this time I chose to support "Save The Children". This charity does amazing work in the UK and all over

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-39921799174927822102009-08-24T22:47:00.002+01:002009-09-06T21:11:49.220+01:00

Going on sabbatical to play chess has its downsides - lack of income. Not only I have to train myself in chess like a nutter, but I also have to give up my lifestyle for the time being. No new clothes or shoes and no expensive entertainment. I'm sure you don't feel sorry for me as I probably have too much in my wardrobe anyway. But I love shoes! Budgeting sucks. I think the trick is not to go

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979096391799782322.post-31692663478304735272009-08-23T22:11:00.007+01:002010-07-27T23:48:25.963+01:00

If I want to take chess seriously - I have to play it! So I went to my first international tournament in 3 years. Where to I thought? Why not go to the sunny Greece in the middle of summer, especially since a couple of my friends are going as well? Kavala Open turned out to be rather strong for my rusty chess and a bit hard to adjust to the time control (1:30hr for 40 moves followed by 30 min +

Maria Yurenokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18104812143933685058noreply@blogger.com2