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Romania is placed in the crossroads of Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe, and had a long history of territorial and political changes. In 2018, the country is celebrating the Centenary of the unification of Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom.
The Turneil Regilor had its first edition in 2007, with an 11-player single round-robin tournament won by Alexander Khalifman. The event became a yearly elite competition that constantly looked for ways to raise the interest through the use of fresh formats. Some renowned winners include Nigel Short, Vassily Ivanchuk, Veselin Topalov, Wang Yue and both contenders for this year's World Championship match, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.
In this year's edition, two tournaments, one for men and one for women, were organised, with four players from Romania or from the Romanian diaspora participating in each. A rather unique system was used to decide the winners — they first played a double round robin with a rapid time control of 15+10, followed by a quadruple round robin with a blitz time control of 3+2. The winner of the rapid got 4 points, the runner-up 3 points, and so on. The same scoring system was applied to the blitz portion, and then the scores were added.
The playing hall at the Politehnica University of Bucharest
The event took place on 19-21 November at the Politehnica University of Bucharest, with two days allocated for the rapid stage and one day for the blitz. Each player was introduced in the official website, as follows:
The rapid tournament was won by Viorel Iordachescu, who actually arrived as the rating favourite at this time control. His 4/6 netted him the four points allocated to first place at this stage. Meanwhile, Istratescu edged Nisipeanu for second place after both finished on 3½/6 — the criterion that broke the tie was the amount of wins each player had scored.
Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
1 |
|
GM | Iordachescu Viorel | 2669 | 4,0 | 0,0 |
2 |
|
GM | Istratescu Andrei | 2587 | 3,5 | 1,0 |
3 |
|
GM | Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter | 2643 | 3,5 | 1,0 |
4 |
|
GM | Parligras Mircea-Emilian | 2660 | 1,0 | 0,0 |
Iordachescu and Nisipeanu about to begin their game
In the blitz portion of the tournament, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu took clear first place thanks to his 7½/12, after remarkably beating tail-ender Parligras in all four of their encounters. Istratesctu finished second and Iordachescu was third.
1 | 1 |
|
GM | Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter | GER | 2627 | 7,5 | 0,0 | 6 | 35,75 |
2 | 2 |
|
GM | Istratescu Andrei | ROU | 2617 | 7,0 | 0,0 | 5 | 38,75 |
3 | 4 |
|
GM | Iordachescu Viorel | MDA | 2536 | 6,5 | 0,0 | 5 | 36,75 |
4 | 3 |
|
GM | Parligras Mircea-Emilian | ROU | 2542 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 2 | 20,25 |
The final tournament score was finally decided by the players' placements in each stage. Curiously, three players tied on six points, but the organisers had foreseen this scenario and created a tiebreak system — the rapid results were taken as prevalent. Therefore, Viorel Iordachescu was declared winner, followed by Istratescu and Nisipeanu.
Rank | Name | FED | Rapid | Blitz | Final |
1 | Viorel Iordachescu | MDA | 4 | 2 | 6 |
2 | Andrei Istratescu | ROU | 3 | 3 | 6 |
3 | Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu | GER | 2 | 4 | 6 |
4 | Mircea-Emilian Parligras | ROU | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Viorel Iordachescu took first place
The women's event also included some of the strongest national players in its line-up. Two International Masters and two Women Grandmasters participated in Bucharest:
The rapid portion was completely dominated by Sabina Foisor, who won all six games to easily add four points to her tournament tally. Chessbase correspondent and exceptional photographer Alina l'Ami finished second on 2½/6, while Irina Bulmaga took third on 2/6 points.
Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
1 |
|
WGM | Foisor Sabina-Francesca | 2243 | 6,0 | 0,0 |
2 |
|
IM | L'ami Alina | 2375 | 2,5 | 0,0 |
3 |
|
IM | Bulmaga Irina | 2414 | 2,0 | 0,0 |
4 |
|
WGM | Paulet Iozefina | 2281 | 1,5 | 0,0 |
Iozefina Paulet and Irina Bulmaga smiling before kicking off their game
After this outstanding performance, it perhaps was expected for Foisor to have a strong showing at the blitz. However, the quicker time control did not favour the American, who actually finished in last place. Nonetheless, we saw another clear winner in Irina Bulmaga, who managed an impressive 9/12 score. L'Ami repeated her second place from the rapid and Iozefina Paulet finished third.
Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
1 |
|
IM | Bulmaga Irina | 2267 | 9,0 | 0,0 |
2 |
|
IM | L'ami Alina | 2252 | 5,5 | 0,0 |
3 |
|
WGM | Paulet Iozefina | 2281 | 5,0 | 0,0 |
4 |
|
WGM | Foisor Sabina-Francesca | 2272 | 4,5 | 0,0 |
Consistency was the key factor that gave Alina l'Ami overall first place, after getting the same amount of points as her colleague Irina Bulmaga. Once again, the rapid score served as the tiebreaker to decide the winner.
Rank | Name | FED | Rapid | Blitz | Final |
1 | Alina l'Ami | ROU | 3 | 3 | 6 |
2 | Irina Bulmaga | ROU | 2 | 4 | 6 |
3 | Sabina-Francesca Foisor | USA | 4 | 1 | 5 |
4 | Iozefina Paulet | NED | 1 | 2 | 3 |
The winners, with Alina l'Ami in the centre
Medias is the second largest city in the county of Sibiu, located in Central Romania. Known for its historical centres, well-preserved medieval fortifications and its wine, it has hosted the Turneil Regilor more than once in the past.
In order to keep the connection with the Transylvanian city, the organisers put together an online match between kids from Bucharest and kids from Medias, using the PlayChess platform. The success of the initiative provoked them to consider enlarging this idea in the future, connecting Romanian kids with kids from other countries.
In the midst of an online match
A final group picture