My New York City and Reykjavik Experience!

Couple of months ago I decided to play in Reykjavik Open, especially because this tournament was during my break in College! I’d like to share my experiences I had at this event with all of you. This tournament was my first international open tournament ever and I am amazed at how much I liked it! I have played many tournaments where I represent Canada, but have never been to one where I went just for myself. Of course  I can’t be pleased with my result at this tournament but the experiences I had were amazing, this includes: visiting a new country, meeting new people/seeing old, and just a new tournament experience! I have to admit though, before this tournament, I had 3-4 very well played tournaments and for this tournament, I ended up not earning my expectations. Instead of gaining fide elo, I actually went into the opposite direction (losing 35). Anyways, this event showed me that I must work on my chess and stop focusing on different things in life during a tournament!

http://www.reykjavikopen.com/

Here is the final standings of the tournament: I included only top 20 on my page. If you’d like to see the rest please go to this link.

Sorry about the format of the table, I know it goes into the sidebar, but I do not know how to eliminate this problem.

Final Ranking after 10 Rounds

Rk. Name Typ sex FED RtgI RtgN Pts.  TB1  TB2  TB3 Rp n w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 GM Eljanov Pavel UKR 2678 0 8.0 63.0 55.0 53.25 2799 10 8 6.10 1.90 10 19.0
2 GM So Wesley U20 PHI 2684 0 8.0 61.0 53.0 52.50 2753 10 8 6.77 1.23 0 0.0
3 GM Amin Bassem EGY 2631 0 8.0 56.5 49.0 49.00 2658 10 8 6.99 1.01 10 10.1
4 GM Giri Anish U18 NED 2722 0 7.5 62.0 54.0 48.25 2733 10 7.5 6.91 0.59 10 5.9
5 GM Cheparinov Ivan BUL 2709 0 7.5 61.0 53.0 47.25 2685 10 7.5 7.37 0.13 10 1.3
6 IM Wei Yi U14 CHN 2501 0 7.5 60.5 52.5 46.00 2661 10 7.5 5.01 2.49 10 24.9
7 GM Dziuba Marcin POL 2602 0 7.5 60.0 52.0 46.00 2619 10 7.5 6.87 0.63 10 6.3
8 GM Ding Liren U20 CHN 2709 0 7.5 58.0 50.0 44.50 2601 10 7.5 7.75 -0.25 10 -2.5
9 NM Norowitz Yaacov USA 2432 0 7.5 57.5 50.0 46.00 2547 10 7.5 5.56 1.94 0 0.0
10 GM Jones Gawain C B ENG 2637 0 7.5 57.5 50.0 45.50 2664 10 7.5 6.71 0.79 10 7.9
11 GM Sokolov Ivan NED 2644 0 7.5 53.0 45.5 42.25 2547 9 7 7.09 -0.09 10 -0.9
12 GM Yu Yangyi U18 CHN 2688 0 7.0 62.5 54.5 44.75 2666 10 7 6.79 0.21 10 2.1
13 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2715 0 7.0 62.0 54.0 44.00 2647 10 7 7.32 -0.32 10 -3.2
14 GM Gajewski Grzegorz POL 2644 0 7.0 60.5 52.5 43.25 2649 10 7 6.41 0.59 10 5.9
15 GM Ipatov Alexander U20 TUR 2569 0 7.0 58.5 51.0 42.50 2565 10 7 6.65 0.35 10 3.5
16 GM L’ami Erwin NED 2622 0 7.0 58.5 51.0 41.00 2618 10 7 6.53 0.47 10 4.7
17 GM Yilmaz Mustafa U20 TUR 2531 0 7.0 58.0 50.5 42.75 2565 10 7 6.08 0.92 10 9.2
18 GM Shulman Yury USA 2563 0 7.0 58.0 50.5 41.25 2580 10 7 6.31 0.69 10 6.9
19 GM Baklan Vladimir UKR 2609 0 7.0 57.0 49.5 42.00 2584 10 7 6.85 0.15 10 1.5
20 GM Navara David CZE 2710 0 Mahrla Praha 7.0 56.5 48.5 41.25 2588 10 7 7.95 -0.95 10 -9.5

And here is my result:

CAN

Name Orlova Yelizaveta
Title WCM
Starting rank 139
Rating national 0
Rating international 1978
Ratingperformance 1764
FIDE rtg +/- -35.8
Points 4.5
Rank 159
Federation CAN
Ident-Number 0
Fide-ID 2601826
Rd. Bo. SNo Name RtgI RtgN FED Club/City Pts. Res. we w-we K rtg+/-
1 27 26 GM Maze Sebastien 2556 0 FRA 6.0 w 0 0.08 -0.08 15 -1.20
2 81 196 Ramtin Raman 1661 1661 IRI 2.0 s 1 0.87 0.13 15 1.95
3 50 70 FM Kvisvik Brede 2314 2314 NOR Kristiansund 5.5 w 0 0.12 -0.12 15 -1.80
4 86 202 Jacobsen Trond 1610 1381 NOR SK1911 2.5 s ½ 0.90 -0.40 15 -6.00
5 82 209 Davidsdottir Nansy 1479 0 ISL Fjölnir 3.5 w 0 0.92 -0.92 15 -13.80
6 88 175 Bauza Mercere Eduardo 1809 0 ARG 3.5 s 0 0.72 -0.72 15 -10.80
7 98 218 Hrafnsson Hilmir 1331 1235 ISL Fjölnir 3.0 s 1 0.92 0.08 15 1.20
8 84 185 Leosson Atli Johann 1736 1826 ISL KR 4.5 w ½ 0.80 -0.30 15 -4.50
9 83 189 Seim Fredrik 1714 0 NOR 4.0 s 1 0.82 0.18 15 2.70
10 78 176 Hyotyla Tapio 1792 1834 SUI 4.5 w ½ 0.74 -0.24 15 -3.60

I’d also like to show my most favorite game in this tournament which I played — before I started blundering pieces in the rest of my games.

Round 3: WCM Yelizaveta Orlova (1978) – FM Brede Kvisvik (2314) 

The real reason I am proud of myself for this game is because I am probably the worst chess player ever in time trouble…and managed to not lose by time before move 40 🙂 (I began to have time trouble at move 17, I had less than 10 minutes on the clock and still had 23 more moves to get the next time control!)

1. Nf3 g6 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. e3 Qb6 7. c3 Nf6 8. O-O
O-O 9. Nd2 d5 10. Qb3 Qc5 11. Qb5 Qd6 12. N2b3 e5 13. Nxc6 bxc6 14. Qc5 Qe6 15.
Na5 Bd7 16. c4 Rfc8 17. Qa3 Bf8 18. c5 Qe7 19. b4 Bf5 20. Bb2 Rab8 21. Rfd1 Bg7
22. Bc3 Ne4 23. Be1 Ng5 24. h4 Ne4 25. f3 Nf6 26. g4 Be6 27. Rac1 e4 28. g5 Nh5
29. f4 Bg4 30. Rd2 d4 31. Nc4 dxe3 32. Nxe3 Bf3 33. Bxf3 exf3 34. f5 Be5 35.
Bf2 Nf4 36. Re1 Qc7 37. Kf1 Nh3 38. Ng4 Re8 39. Qxf3 Nxf2 40. Nxe5 Rxe5 41.
Rxe5 Qxe5 42. Rxf2 gxf5 43. Qxf5 Qxf5 44. Rxf5 Rxb4 45. Rf6 Rxh4 46. Rxc6 Ra4
47. Rc8+ Kg7 48. c6 Rxa2 49. c7 Rc2 50. Ke1 a5 51. Kd1 Rc6 52. Kd2 a4 53. Kd3
a3 54. Kd4 a2 55. Ra8 Rxc7 56. Rxa2 Re7 57. Kd5 Re1 58. Rg2 Re6 59. Rg1 Kg6 60.
Rg2 Ra6 61. Ke5 Ra5+ 62. Kf4 Rf5+ 0-1

After this game, I was quite upset that I did not beat or at least draw this FM. The rest of the tournament ended up being horrible. This tournament showed me that one loss can really affect someone’s future games, but it doesn’t mean you have to allow this to happen to you. I was not in a fighting mood after this game, which shows in the rest of my results.

New York City, USA – Feb 17, 2013 

Arrived to New York City for my flight. Had a lot of time in between so was with family in Manhattan for couple of hours!

Rekjavik, Iceland – Feb 18, 2013 – Feb 28, 2013

Photos from my whole trip. Including the Golden Circle Tour which was offered for chess player–I got to see Gullfoss waterfall, the Geysir hot spring and Bobby Fischer´s final resting place!

Side Events: 

Lunch Lecture with GM Alexander Ipatov, , “Even Steven” Blitz Tournament, & Soccer Match: Iceland VS Rest of the World.

http://www.reykjavikopen.com/side-events-calendar/

Interviews for Beauty and Chess Geek Youtube Channel!

http://www.youtube.com/BeautyandChessGeek – Don’t forget! Share, Like, and Subscribe!!!

GM Alexander Ipatov – Current World Junior Chess Champion

http://youtu.be/HQOvc3UqKdk

Also, you can check out Alexander’s Facebook Page & Website

IM Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson – Strong Icelandic Chess Player

http://youtu.be/kyx6Ir1vyHw

Also, there was a blog post written on the Reykjavik Open 2013 Website about this interview, click here to see it.

WIM Arlette Van Weersel – Strong Women Netherland Player

http://youtu.be/JjcZ6L9L9Ak

Please rate/like the interviews 🙂 & don’t forget to share them with your friends!

Feb 28, 2013 – March 3, 2013 – New York City, USA

On the way back from my Icelandic trip, I decided to stay with family for couple of more days before going back to Toronto, Canada!

Thank you for reading this long post! 🙂

Second Chess Video & Leaving to Iceland!

I am proud to say that the second chess video of ‘Beauty and Chess Geek’ is up!

I’d like to say a big thanks to my partner in crime, Alejandro Tadeo Ramirez Alvarez for doing this video alone for this week.

I have had many mid-term exams this week, and I am also getting ready for REYKJAVIK OPEN 2013!

Once again because of the time limit, we had to divide the video into two parts! Here it is!

Part 1: http://youtu.be/bbfczQlXXJs

Part 2: http://youtu.be/pqtuqol8dBQ

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/BeautyandChessGeek

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beauty-and-Chess-Geek/383148855114062

I’d like to inform my chess fans that I will try my best to make some videos when I will be playing the tournament. I would like to have couple of interviews of strong chess players, maybe i’ll show one of my best games, or I will even just include a video about how beautiful Iceland–let’s hope I will include all three of these types of videos on the channel!

I am leaving tomorrow to New York City, to catch  my flight.

I will be in Reykjavik, Iceland from February 18  – 28 & I will stay couple of days in New York City from February 28 – March 3!

It would be really nice if everyone can follow my facebook page, I will be updating it regularly about games, experience, and entertainment in Iceland! You can either get the link below, or just like on the sidebar.

My Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yelizaveta-Orlova/203077049713487

Beauty and Chess Geek’s First Chess Video!

Hello Everyone,

Beauty and Chess Geek has finally made their first chess video.
We decided to do a Tata Steel game from A-group.
Round 5: Harikrishna – Van Wely (1-0)

We decided to do this game, other than the ones requested because in this game there is a very nice king side attack which leads to a tactical finish!

Sadly, because of YouTube restrictions we had to divide our analysis in 3 parts (our video was suppose to be 27 minutes, but the minimum for new users is 10 minutes per video).

We really hope you enjoy the video, and please share us some criticism. (Especially with me, because this was my first analysis of a game with an audience, I need to improve myself for the future!)

Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and SHARE to your friends!

We would really like to know what to do for our next chess video!

Thanks everyone! Have a Nice day!

Here are the Video(s):

Part 1: http://youtu.be/wzWL8uuPDtg

Part 2: http://youtu.be/dFg80a4E53U

Part 3: http://youtu.be/zGFNfQetSlE

4th Top Rated Woman in Canada!

I am proud to say that I am currently 4th highest rated in Canada for Women!

Here is the top ten women in Canada 🙂

#

Player

Region

Regular Rating

Last Tournament Date

1 Yuan, Yuanling Toronto, ON 2336 2012-06-23
2 Khoudgarian, Natalia Toronto, ON 2284 2012-08-11
3 Peng, Jackie Richmond Hill, ON 2205 2013-01-06
4 Orlova, Yelizaveta Toronto, ON 2119 2013-01-06
5 Agbabishvili, Lali York, ON 2111 2013-01-06
6 Zhou, Qiyu Ottawa, ON 2088 2012-12-27
7 Du, Jasmine Halifax, NS 2084 2012-09-03
8 Botez, Alexandra Burnaby, BC 2038 2012-08-12
9 Yun, Chang Brossard, QC 2004 2012-09-09
10 Roy, Myriam Varennes, QC 1971 2012-11-18

10,000 Views!

 

Image

I opened this website at the end November/start of December and I amazed at how popular it became in the past two months!

Thank you everyone who has been following my website! If it weren’t for all of my fans, I wouldn’t have got this far! Thank you & Keep following for more chess news in the future!

PS. I just started a twitter account : https://twitter.com/OrlovaChess

Beauty and Chess Geek – New Youtube Chess Channel with WCM Yelizaveta Orlova and GM Alejandro Tadeo Ramirez Alvarez

Liza & Alejandro

Hello! I’d just like to inform everybody about the new Youtube channel that my friend and I are planning to start!

We will be talking about different topics in chess–tournaments, openings, players, analyzing, and much more!

Please subscribe! Help us get as many subscribers as we can!

Thank you!!

http://www.youtube.com/BeautyandChessGeek

Here are our two videos!

WCM Yelizaveta Orlova Intro – http://youtu.be/O5QMawpsDRs

GM Alejandro Tadeo Ramirez Alvarez Intro – http://youtu.be/3UCIV_0XrxI

Hart House Winter Open 2013 – Toronto

Happy New Year to everyone! I started 2013 with a chess tournament here in my home, Toronto Canada!

From January 4-6, I played in this tournament, section: U2200!

At the beginning of the tournament I was ranked as 14, but ended in 7th with 3.5/5. Here are my games from round 1-5! To view, just copy the notation and paste it in a new board in Chessbase!

[Event “Hart House Winter Open 2013”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2013.01.04”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Orlova, Yelizaveta”]
[Black “Zhang, John”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E60”]
[WhiteElo “2071”]
[BlackElo “1840”]
[PlyCount “93”]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. O-O d6 6. c4 Nc6 7. d5 Nb4 8. a3
Na6 9. Nc3 Nc5 10. Nd4 a5 11. b3 Nfd7 12. Rb1 e5 13. dxe6 Nxe6 14. Nxe6 fxe6
15. Nb5 Nf6 16. Bb2 Rb8 17. Qd2 b6 18. Na7 Bb7 19. Nc6 Bxc6 20. Bxc6 Qe7 21.
Rbd1 e5 22. Qc2 Ng4 23. c5 Kh8 24. Qc4 Qg5 25. h4 Qh5 26. Bf3 Rf4 27. Qe6 Rf5
28. cxd6 cxd6 29. Rxd6 Bf6 30. Kg2 Rf8 31. Bxg4 Qxg4 32. f3 Qh5 33. g4 Qxh4 34.
Rh1 Qg5 35. Bc1 Rf4 36. Bxf4 Qxf4 37. Qc4 e4 38. Rd7 exf3+ 39. exf3 Qxc4 40.
Rhxh7+ Kg8 41. bxc4 Rc8 42. Rh6 Bb2 43. Rxg6+ Kf8 44. a4 Ke8 45. Rh7 Rxc4 46.
Rxb6 Be5 47. Rbb7 1-0

[Event “Hart House Winter Open 2013”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2013.01.05”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Orlova, Yelizaveta”]
[Black “Inigo`, Aquino”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “A06”]
[WhiteElo “2071”]
[BlackElo “2193”]
[PlyCount “39”]

1. b3 d5 2. Bb2 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Be7 5. Ne5 Nbd7 6. f4 O-O 7. Be2 Nxe5 8.
Bxe5 c5 9. O-O d4 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 dxe3 12. dxe3 Qb6 13. Qc1 Bd7 14. Nd2
Bc6 15. Nc4 Qc7 16. a4 Rfd8 17. Qc2 Rd7 18. e4 Rad8 19. e5 Be7 20. Rad1 1/2-1/2

[Event “Hart House Winter Open 2013”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2013.01.05”]
[Round “3”]
[White “Shebetah, Wajdy”]
[Black “Orlova, Yelizaveta”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B21”]
[WhiteElo “2144”]
[BlackElo “2071”]
[Annotator “,Liza”]
[PlyCount “89”]

liza

Taken during round 3.

This game was very upsetting for me. The arbiters gave me the wrong clock which had a different time control. The time control should have been 120 mins + 30 secs, but the time control on the clock was 120h/40 moves + 1 hour. On move 30, I had less than 5 minutes on the clock, and missed a tactical variation couple of moves. Not only that, when I had less than 5 seconds on the clock, I decided to make a sacrifice of exchange. After that move, my opponent and I realized that we were put a wrong time, and that we both should be having 20 more minutes (because during that moment we had already played 40 moves.) The arbiters added 20 mins to my clock and my opponents but I slowly lost anyway because I still tried to play for win with 41…d4, instead of just going for a draw line (41…Rxe5). Anyways, the next two games I won, which secured me with being the only one with 3.5 in the tournament. Here’s my third round game, followed by the rest!

1. e4 c5 2. c3 g6 3. f4 Bg7 4. Nf3 d6 5. Be2 Nf6 6. O-O O-O 7. d3 Nc6 8. Na3 a6
9. Kh1 b5 10. Qe1 b4 11. Nc2 bxc3 12. bxc3 c4 13. d4 Nxe4 14. Bxc4 d5 15. Bd3
Bf5 16. Ne3 Nf2+ 17. Rxf2 Bxd3 18. Ne5 Nxe5 19. fxe5 f5 20. exf6 exf6 21. Ng4
Qd7 22. h3 Rae8 23. Qd2 Bf5 24. Ba3 Rf7 25. Nh6+ Bxh6 26. Qxh6 Be4 27. Raf1 f5
28. Rb2 Qc7 29. Bc5 Qg3 30. Rc1 f4 31. Bd6 Qe3 32. Rf1 Qxc3 (32… f3 33. Qxe3
fxg2+ 34. Rxg2 Bxg2+ 35. Kxg2 Rxe3 36. Rb1) 33. Rbf2 f3 34. gxf3 Rxf3 (34…
Bxf3+ 35. Kh2 Rf5 (35… Qe3 36. Qxe3 Rxe3 37. Rb1 Re2 38. Rxe2 Bxe2 39. Be5
Re7)) 35. Kh2 Qe3 (35… Qe3) (35… Rxf2+ 36. Rxf2 Bf5 37. Be5 Re7 38. Re2)
36. Qxe3 Rxe3 37. Rc1 Bf5 38. Be5 Rxh3+ 39. Kg2 Re3 40. Rc7 R3xe5 41. dxe5 d4
42. Rb2 d3 43. Kf2 g5 44. Rb6 h5 (44… a5) 45. Rxa6 1-0

[Event “Hart House Winter Open 2013”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2013.01.06”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Bellissimo, Joseph”]
[Black “Orlova, Yelizaveta”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B22”]
[WhiteElo “2064”]
[BlackElo “2071”]
[PlyCount “104”]

1. e4 c5 2. c3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. cxd4 d5 5. e5 Nc6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. Be3 a6 8. Rc1
Nh6 9. Bd3 Ng4 10. Qf3 Nxe3 11. Qxe3 Nxe5 12. dxe5 d4 13. Qf4 dxc3 14. Rxc3 O-O
15. Nf3 Qb6 16. Rc2 Be6 17. b3 Bd5 18. O-O Bxf3 19. gxf3 Rad8 20. Bc4 e6 21.
Re1 Qa5 22. Re4 Rd1+ 23. Kg2 b5 24. b4 Qb6 25. Bb3 Rfd8 26. Rc5 R1d2 27. Qh4 a5
28. a3 Bf8 29. Rc2 a4 30. Bxa4 bxa4 31. Rcc4 Be7 32. Qg3 R2d3 33. Qf4 Rxa3 34.
Red4 Rd3 35. Rxd3 Rxd3 36. b5 a3 37. Ra4 Qxb5 38. Ra7 Rd7 39. Ra8+ Rd8 40. Ra7
Qc5 41. Ra4 Qb6 42. h4 h5 43. Kg3 Bc5 44. Kg2 Qb2 45. Qf6 Qxf2+ 46. Kh3 Qf1+
47. Kg3 Qg1+ 48. Kh3 Qd1 49. Rf4 Qf1+ 50. Kg3 Bf2+ 51. Kh2 Qg1+ 52. Kh3 Qg3#
0-1

[Event “Hart House Winter Open 2013”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2013.01.06”]
[Round “5”]
[White “Orlova, Yelizaveta”]
[Black “Ye, Stephen”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A01”]
[WhiteElo “2071”]
[BlackElo “2012”]
[Annotator “,Liza”]
[PlyCount “89”]

1. b3 Nf6 2. Bb2 g6 3. Bxf6 exf6 4. c4 Bg7 5. Nc3 O-O 6. g3 Nc6 7. Bg2 f5 8.
Rc1 d6 9. e3 Re8 10. Nge2 Rb8 11. O-O Bd7 12. d4 Kh8 13. h4 Ne7 14. b4 a5 15.
a3 Ng8 16. Qc2 Nf6 17. Nf4 axb4 18. axb4 c6 19. Rfd1 Qe7 20. d5 Ne4 21. Nxe4
fxe4 22. c5 Bg4 23. Rd2 Rbc8 24. Bf1 Red8 25. dxc6 Rxc6 26. Bb5 Rcc8 27. Nd5
Qe6 28. Nb6 Bf3 29. Bf1 Rc6 30. Nc4 Bf8 31. Na5 Rc7 32. Qb2+ Bg7 33. Qb1 Qc8
34. Nc4 dxc5 35. Nd6 Rxd6 (35… Qb8 36. bxc5 f5 (36… Re7 37. Qb3) 37. Qb3)
36. Rxd6 cxb4 37. Rxc7 Qxc7 38. Qxb4 Bf8 39. Qb2+ Kg8 40. Rb6 Bg7 41. Qb1 Be5
42. Rxb7 Qd6 43. Qb3 Qf6 44. Rxf7 Qxf7 45. Bc4 1-0

This last game had so many variations, but I decided to stay safe, especially since this was the last game, and I wanted quickly to go home!

And here is the final standings:

# Name ID Rtng Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Tot Prize
1 James Fu 147873 2127 W17 W11 W6 W8 D2 4.5 500.00
2 Aquino Inigo 136995 2193 W28 D7 W19 W5 D1 4.0 120.00
3 Wajdy Shebetah 148432 2144 W23 H— W7 D4 W11 4.0 120.00
4 Leon Perelman 146258 2112 W18 D19 W14 D3 W12 4.0 120.00
5 Derick Joshua Twesigye 150779 2095 W30 W16 W20 L2 W8 4.0 120.00
6 Jonathan Yu 126131 2046 W32 W14 L1 W10 W15 4.0 120.00
7 Yelizaveta Orlova 138247 2071 W27 D2 L3 W22 W16 3.5
8 Mark Plotkin 141086 2161 W29 W12 W13 L1 L5 3.0
9 Alexandru Florea 138594 2133 W24 L13 W28 L12 W19 3.0
10 Stephan Tonakanian 150629 2107 L13 W18 W29 L6 W26 3.0

Photos!

Nikita Gusev

Jura Ochkoos

Victor Plotkin

Aris Marghetis

Playing Hall

Jackie Peng

Michael Song

Thank you, Egidijus Zeromskis for the photos!