RRI Sports Club – Chess
Todays edition brings you a roundup of the latest news about national and international chess competitions.
Florin Orban, 04.09.2013, 13:29
The resort of Mamaia on the Romanian Black Sea Coast will be hosting the National Team Chess Championship, bringing together 10 teams in the women’s competition and 10 teams in the men’s competition. The novelty this year consists in the structure of women’s teams, which are made up of 3 senior players and a junior player, as compared to the previous year when teams included two seniors and one junior.
Just like in previous editions, clubs taking part in the men’s Superleague can use a maximum of 2 foreign players in the team, which must comprise a total of 6 players, of whom one must be a Romanian junior player. The women’s Superleague allows for the use of a single foreign player, while clubs must enroll teams comprising 4 players, of whom one must be a Romanian junior player. Although restricted, the right to use foreign players has added increased value to the internal Romanian chess championship.
Several players from the World’s Top 10 will be competing in this year’s edition. One of them is 8th ranked Kateryna Lagno of the Ukraine, who has an ELO of 2532 points and plays for Politehnica Antibiotice Iasi. Elina Danelian of Armenia, ranked 29th in world standings, has an ELO of 2470 points and plays for AEM Luxten Timisoara.
Ekaterina Atalik of Turkey is now 49th placed in world standings, has an ELO of 2433 points, and plays for CS Studentesc Medicina Timisoara. Other players worth mentioning are CSM Bucuresti’s Corina Peptan, ranked 51st in world standings with an ELO of 2429 points and Politehnica Iasi’s Irina Bulmaga, ranked 75th with an ELO of 2387 points. These players are actually part of last year’s winning teams.
AEM Luxten Timisoara, Apa Nova Bucuresti and CS Studentesc Medicina Timisoara have been taking turns at winning first place for the past several years in the men’s Superleague. Last year the exception was the Baia Mare Municipality Chess Club, which became national vice-champion, with Medicina Timisoara having to sit out that year’s podium.
This year Baia Mare has strengthened its team, singning Dieter Nisipeanu, Romania’s best chess player at present and the only Romanian in the World’s Top 100, as well as Levente Vajda, ranked 3rd in national standings in terms of the ELO rating system. In 2012 AEM Luxten Timisoara won the championship. Its three members, Constantin Lupulescu, Mircea Parligras and Vladislav Nevednicii are also part of Romania’s national team.
Last year Romanian chess players had outstanding results at the 40th edition of the Team Chess Olympiad, ranking 5th in the women’s competition and 8th in the men’s competition. Previously Romania had managed to finish the competition among the world’s best 10 teams only in 1998, at the Elista Olympiad in Russia, when the women’s team ranked 6th.
On the other hand Romania’s men’s team had last made it to the world’s top 10 at the Thessaloniki Olympiad of 1984. Let us further note that Constantin Lupulescu has recently ranked 5th at the European individual chess championships of Poland, having the same number of points as the medallists.
