Iasi – a Romanian chess city

We don't get a second chance to make a good first impression; on the other hand, only the foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions. Chess players are none of the above, and our in-built strategic thinking, elaborated planning and the tendency of weighing all the options on the 64 squares, might be of good use for what will come next.

Since I always enjoyed placing myself in the other people's shoes, with the occasion of the 1st edition of the International Iasi Open 2014, I did a small exercise: if I was one of the foreign players, how would I see and perceive the city hosting the chess tournament? I know that the general feeling of well-being and the result within the tournament hall are closely related, so this can be a pretty difficult affair... But I will take up the challenge since the subject is close to my heart: Iasi is my hometown.

These are real eggs, decorated by hand! The insides have been taken out through
a small hole at the bottom of the egg.

Traditional clothes, of course all hand made

Made in Romania! Told you, Romanians are friendly and their smiles are authentic

So allow me to start in the most polite manner, by speaking about the weather. Unlike in the past few years, when we used to have a free of charge sauna, at more than 30°C, this time the month of May was fairly capricious: it rained all day long, so that venturing outdoors became a rather daring activity. If this was all right for my Dutch husband, who feels like a fish in the water under such rainy circumstances, for yours truly it was far from pleasant and, perhaps, for the others too. I can imagine the heavy clouds and the impolite winds, which destroyed my two umbrellas, were not great companions, especially for those whose business on the chess boards were far from satisfactory.

But let's assume some players made the most of their time and, at the first ray of sun, they hurried outside on the city's streets. If you are not an adventurer like me, who likes to be culturally shocked and therefore feeling great precisely because of that, some of you might have had a different experience.

The entire city is under construction. Everywhere you go you have to mind your step, since there are plenty of traps around, ready to “welcome” you and your shoes (small tip for the ladies: leaving your high heels in the hotel room is recommended; don't look at us, we are native and experienced). Besides the common holes in the pavement, all around there are cranes, deafening machines used for building or restoring, a lot of dust and pollution. If you add the insane traffic, the crazy drivers and the communist architectural masterpieces, you will get a pretty greyish image, which is certainly far from appealing. And I wouldn't blame anyone if this is how they felt. It is indeed part of my Iasi, which is currently suffering some changes. To some extent I even subscribe to this view, since it is the place I grumble at most. But Iasi is also the place I love most – it is my home.

Anyway, all this chaos from the city is actually more than welcomed by all of us! More than 100 million Euros were distributed by the European Union for several projects, restorations and infrastructure. The entire town is upside down and the population agitated, but for a good cause: the old and beautiful Iasi is ready to try on a new and modern facet, without forgetting its past nor uprooting its inhabitants. In fact, Iasi is a cosmopolitan city too, and once the university year starts, the population doubles! Students all over the world come here for very good reasons: not only for the excellent studies but also for the endless eateries, drinking holes and lovely pubs. The city is alive and kicking!

There is much more to Iasi than a first glance could capture. It was not by pure chance that this city was declared the capital of Romania in the past. It was and still is the cultural heart of our country, the place where the first university was established, a city which delivered geniuses, illuminated minds, poets, writers, leaders and so forth. Their only “mistake” was to be born in a land where its language is not of international resonance, so this is why you didn't hear of them. To translate our brilliant poet for example, Mihai Eminescu, is just impossible. Try to google and interpret the word “dor” which he used so often. In a blog entry entitled Ten Most Difficult Words to Translate Goga Alexandru translated it thus: dor = the longing for someone you love very much, combined with sadness, and the need for singing sad songs. The etymology belongs to “dorinta” which means wish. It’s impossible to translate it. It conveys too much meaning, and feelings! The Portugese saudade and the German Heimweh and Sehnsucht come close without doing dor full justice.

Hundreds of monasteries, churches, theaters and plenty of historic buildings are hiding, within their walls, centuries of architectural creations, legends and stories, keeping our nation’s soul intact: we are authentic, cultured, educated. And we just love our traditions, here in Iasi! So no matter how much dust or how much mud the city has right now, it won't be able to cover our memories, to mop off the steps of Eminescu or Creanga (too bad you cannot read his funny memoirs).

The Palace of Culture and our famous Prince of Moldavia: Stefan cel Mare
(Stephen the Great), known for his resounding victories over the Turks

The only Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church we have in Iasi. The steeples are covered in gold!

The Trei Ierarhi Monastery, built in the seventeenth century in honour of
three saints: Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom

The church became renowned for the extraordinary lacery in stone which adorns the facades, from bottom to the top of the derricks. One can count over 30 non-repeating registers of decorative motives – a magnificent embroidery made of stone! And by the way, initially it was covered in gold, but legend has it that the Turkish came, surrounded the monastery with huge fires, melted the gold and off they went...

And since I mentioned that Iasi is the cultural capital of our country, should I be surprised that we are one of the candidates for the very much sought after title of the European Capital of Culture 2021? True, we need some time to fix a couple of things, but the cyclically reborn Phoenix bird is not alien to us. We like to follow its example, and we work hard for it.

Apart from its sportive character, chess is also a form of art, and it is safe to claim that Iași is the capital of Romanian chess. In our incubators chess grew strong and popular, spreading faster than a virus, first in kindergartens then in schools and in the future – in universities.

This was the context in which the 2014 Iasi Open took place. So if the first impression was not an excellent one, perhaps you, dear participants, will give us a second chance?! And thank you for the wonderful fight on the chess boards, from which I have selected just a few examples.

Brazilian GM Alexandr Fier, 2575, finished 13th with 6.5/9 points

The next example is not a tactic nor a position where you should look for a brilliant move. But...

The tournament winner, Axel Bachmann, made very close friends in Iasi

But we should have a look at what happened in the medalists' games. The tournament winner – the GM Axel Bachmann from Paraguay – is another typical exponent of the aggressive South American chess. His tactical skills, combined with some very good technique, delivered no less than 8.0/9! As Axel said, one cannot complain about such a result. And we can learn from his games too, perhaps from the win over the third place, the Romanian GM Mircea Parligras? I liked a lot that in the first 18 moves Black put his most important lady hard to work, as eight moves were made with the queen! A very nice game and a crucial one for the standings, which I strongly recommend for studying.

Third: Romanian GM Mircea-Emilian Parligras, 2559, with 7.5/9

Since the tournament was played in Romania, I cannot leave aside the very nice execution of a Dutch player, mastered by our GM Mircea Parligras; he came third and showed great pieces of calculation, like this one for example:

Final standings (after nine rounds)

• Full results and standings of all 150 players

Part two of my final report – actually part four of my reports on Iasi –
with more chess and pictures of players will be pulished shortly.

Links Official tournament site All available games in PGN You can use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.