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  The first in our career mass trip of Lviv group abroad , was participation in tournament Cappelle la Grande in France. Having agreed it with organizers, I persuaded parents to support this trip. In 2005 with orange scarfs (exactly after Orange revolution in Ukraine) we triumphantly went to conquest the Europe! The way to the tournament place went through Paris or Brussels. We never waste the chance to take benefit of this undoubted plus, our company always tried to arrive one day prior and enjoy sightseeing.

                                                              The beauty of Brussels (Hrabinska, Matseyko, Chulivska)

                                                                                The charm of spring Paris

     Since that time this competition became traditional piligrim destination for the group of Lviv grandmasters and masters. Exactly here many of them gained their title norms, and in 2009 Yuri Vovk left it with main Cup of grandious festival. For those who didn’t read yet his detailed review about the victory - I highly recommend it. The only problem it’s not translated in English yet, but it will be – I promise.

      Few days ago this famous tournament celebrated its 26^th birthday. This time I broke 5-year tradition since I could not play in it. So I will share my nostalgia about its peculiarities. Good organization, about 100 grandmasters in event, famous French cuisine and pleasant communication at dinner with French wine. Specific pairing of this tournament is aimed to let title players play with each other from the first rounds and give them chance to gain the next possible chess title. In last year Yuri Vovk and Andrei Grekh met already in the first round. I will not repeat again how it resulted for Yuriy. Today Andrei Grekh gave again a start push but for Yuriy Kryvoruchko this time. In general there were not much sensations on 1^st round. Players with higher ratings easily won against players with lower ratings. Let us add some mathematics of 1^st round. Here are the pairs of players who were most interesting to me.

KRYVORUCHKO Yuriy         2602    1-0     GREKH Andrey                    2352

OLEKSIENKO Mikhailo          2546     1-0     RAYKHMAN Alexander        2319

VOVK Yuri                        2546    1-0       WANTIEZ Fabrice               2315

KRAVTSIV Martyn              2543    1/2      NILSSON Sebastian             2312

AMBARTSUMOVA Karina     2297    0-1       ZHEREBUKH Yaroslav          2527

LEON HOYOS Manuel         2516    1-0      CHULIVSKA Vita                  2290

VOVK Andrey                    2512    1-0     HOURIEZ Clement                2278

TRUWANT Pieter              1956     0-1      MACKINNON Keith              2155

 Mexican second of Ivanchuk defeated Vita Chulivska. Let you not me surprised by new name in this list Mackinnon Keith - he is my new student from Canada, so I am his fan as well. Martyn missed half point. Maybe he still cannot forget Indian exotics. Traditionally I give link to official site and also on-line translation. Tomorrow evening Andrei Vovk will annoy to top rating holder Ivan Sokolov. Yuriy Vovk in his turn is going to make pressure on tournament’s veteran Igor Naumkin. I will never forget the blissful answer he gave once, after being asked whether he won his game: “How can one win here – everybody plays so strong!” This sounded especially amazing if take into account all 700 participants on tournament.

  Friendly Lviv company (Oleksienko, Vovk, Zherebukh, Kravtsiv, Hrabinska, Grabinsky, Chulivska, Kryvoruchko) strengthen by Valeriy Aveskulov.

                                                          Me, my wife and Notre Damme de Paris behind us. (surprise for her on Valentine's day)