European Championship 2012 - conclusions

The European Championship is an open tournament and the first step on the way to chess world championship! The first 23 player qualifies for the World Cup together with 105 other players from different competitions. The top 3 from the World Cup qualifies for the Candidates Tournament where 8-12 players compete to play a match against the reigning world champion.

My starting rank was 346th here and I finished on 341th place, so slightly above expectation. Of course I had no chance and intention to qualify for the World Cup but I immensely enjoyed the tournament, especially the preparation and studying. It was a great experience to play against stonger opponents: grandmasters, international masters are real fun to play with. Honestly I was a bit afraid that I will be destroyed at the board but fortunately we played on equal terms in most of the games. With the best play I could have win 2-3 of 11 games at most but I still need to improve to win slightly better positions... besides other things.  :)

I also enjoyed Plovdiv and Bulgaria a lot. It's like an improved version of Bosnia (that I also like :). The language, landscape and kitchen is all very similar. Plovdiv has a beautiful old town, nice bars and very good atmosphere. It really worths a visit! The "Happy Bar and Grill" is one of the best resto chain/franchise I have ever seen. Excellent salads, grilled meats, fish. Simple food, good quality, good atmosphere at very good prices.

After the last round we spent the night at Excalibur bar where we played billiards and bowling but the most exciting was the karting at Lauta Karting where I ran the best lap which was the 15th best lap ever on that track. (57.862s) Maybe I should do karting instead of chess?  :)

Happy Bar and Grill

Sunny Plovdiv