Wednesday May 9th, 2007
We are leaving right after I finish school today. My whole family is going to Tennessee so that I can play in the Elementary Chess Championships. I'm really excited! It's going to be a great trip!
Wednesday 11pm eastern time.
We are stopping overnight somewhere in Indiana. It has been a really long drive, and we are only half way there.
Thursday 5am eastern time.
Why are we on eastern time? Why are we getting up so early? I'm going back to sleep in the car.
We are stopping at McD's for breakfast in someplace called Cave City. They have a Dinosaur Park here. I'm not sure if we are in the eastern or central time zone, but my dad says we are right on schedule.
Thursday 9am central time
We arrive at the biggest hotel I have ever seen. This place is amazing. Over 2000 rooms and the whole place is covered with giant glass domes. There are plants and trees everywhere. We have a waterfall just outside our patio door!!!
My sister Sabrina enjoys the view from our room.
My dad has volunteered to help setup chess boards for the tournament. It doesn't take long before dad asks everyone to help setup boards. Even Sabrina helped out! There are lots of boards to set up... over 1200 of them!
The main playing hall is about the same size as three football fields.
Thursday 11am
I played in the Bughouse Tournament today. My partner is Brian Dennis, a 5th grader from Lannon Elementary School, in Lannon WI.
We didn't win a trophy in Bughouse, but we had fun.
Brian Dennis
After the Bughouse, and after lunch, my dad asked us to volunteer a little more of our time... Guess what I did for the rest of the afternoon...
Only 150 more boards to setup, I'm waaay tired!
Thursday 6:30pm
Just for fun, and because we still had some energy left. My dad and I went geocaching. Geocaching is where you find hidden treasure using a GPS. We found a cache just across the street from our hotel, and picked up some treasure.
The GPS said that we walked just over a mile from our room to the cache and back. For more info check out www.geocaching.com
New found treasures.
When we got back into the hotel, some of the plants near our room came alive and started playing Jazz. No, I'm not kidding, this really did happen... The coolest thing was one of the plants was playing a flute. I play flute too... in my school band.
Hotel Plant -playing Jazz flute!
Thursday 7:30 pm
After dinner, I went swimming with my mom and sister. The hotel has indoor and outdoor pools, and a hot tub.
Friday May 11th 7am
This morning we got up early and had a little breakfast before heading over to the tournament area. The tournament is in the convention center
attached to the hotel. I have a "Simul" with an "International Grand Master" at 9am. Susan Polgar is the top rated female chess player in America. She is the only World Champion to win the triple-crown in chess (World Blitz, Rapid and Classical World Championships).
This morning I had the honor of meeting her and playing chess with her. A simultaneous exhibition (usually called a "simul") is an event where one player (a very strong player or grandmaster) plays multiple chess games at the same time with selected players.
Susan gave chess advice to us before we began. "Focus only on your game" she said. "Do not let anything else distract you"...
A handshake, and we begin...
Susan played 24 games at once...
I hung-on for 29 moves...
When it was over, she autographed my score sheet. Susan was very nice. I got the idea for this blog page from her. Please see http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/
for more information.
Friday - High Noon
I have 2 tournament rounds to play today.
I'm in the K-5 under 900 section. My rating is 719. At least in the April supplement it was 719... and that's what they use for this tournament. I have played lots of local chess tournaments, but this is just my 4th USCF rated tournament. My dad tells me about my opponent for the first round. He only has a 329 rating, and I should not have any trouble defeating him.
I made some mistakes and lost the first round. I feel bad because I probably should have been able to win. I'm also still having trouble taking accurate notation. I know how to take notation, but I often miss a move and start writing down moves in the wrong column. I really have to find a way to get more comfortable with notation and be more accurate.
Friday - afternoon - evening
Between rounds, I went swimming with mom and Sabrina, until they kicked us out of the pool because there was some lightning.
My second opponent only has a 392 rating... I made some more bad moves, and I lost again. My dad is busy working as a scorekeeper in the tournament, so I'm going with my mom to see Josh Waitzkin.
Friday - 8:30pm
They made a movie about Josh Waitzkin. He grew up in New York, and learned to play chess in the park. Later he became a national chess champion. The movie they made about him is called "Searching for Bobby Fischer". Josh is all grown up now, and he wrote a book. Learn more about Josh Waitzkin, at his web site http://www.joshwaitzkin.com/
Josh autographed a copy of his book for me and I talked to him about the trouble I had with my first 2 rounds. He told me I should work on my bishop and knight endgames.
Sabrina, Josh Waitzkin, and me.
Friday 9pm
Dad's done with his score keeping duties, so we went swimming.
We went in the hot tub because my dad said he "volunteered too much" at the tournament and now he was hurting. I said that volunteering should give him good feelings inside to make up for the sore muscles. He told me that the world needs lots more people that think like me.
Saturday - not early enough in the morning.
I slept too late this morning. When we got over to the restaurants in the hotel, they were packed. We skipped breakfast and went straight to the tournament hall. I was really hungry!
Feed Me!!!
I lost the first round round on Saturday. I had a hard time focusing on my game because my stomach hurt. Dad said we probably should have gotten breakfast first, and came late to the tournament. I went Swimming again between rounds. It was really nice outside, so I spent too much time outside working on a nice sunburn at the outdoor pool... and then I lost my shoes. I left them at the pool. Not to worry, girls always have more shoes.
Saturday 2pm - Finally...
I won my first game of this tournament. My opponent was rated only 236. He almost beat me, but he made more mistakes than me. I'm a good loser, but I feel much better when I win. I'm happier now.
Between rounds today, my dad and I went for a walk around the hotel gardens. My dad gave me one of his cameras and I took over 150 pictures. This place is really beautiful. Here are some of the pictures I took... not bad for a beginner!
On the way back to our room, we ran into the "vine lady". She is a real person, all dressed up to look like a vine. She kinda blends-in to her surroundings and always draws a crowd of onlookers.
Saturday 6pm
The hotel is really getting busy today. There is a wedding here today and 4 High School proms. There are lots of high school kids all dressed up in tuxedos, and evening gowns.
I went to the game arcade to play some games. The claw machine is a real rip off. I had more fun with the auto racing game. Then my mom showed up. She says that I'm going to be late for my next round. My dad says It's ok if I'm a little late. I got to the tournament hall about 20 minutes late, and the Chief TD personally escorted me to my seat.
The "Sssshhhhhh" lady -
Chief TD Carol Jarecki. is a FIDE "International Arbiter"
Saturday 7pm
I lost my final round on Saturday. I got so far behind in material that there was no way for me to win. Susan Polgar says "Win with Grace, lose with Dignity." I tried hard to remain dignified as I gracefully resigned, and thanked my opponent for a good game. I like winning much more than I like loosing. I was just glad that it was over. I had a real hard time talking about it with my dad. He says that most players shouldn't resign because you never know when your opponent will make a huge mistake.
:(
Saturday 8pm
When the going gets tough... the tough go shopping!
We did some shopping in the USCF bookstore. Everyone in my family got a t-shirt, and I got a new chess clock. Mom also got a whole bunch of tournament chess sets. My mom is teaching some of the neighbor kids how to play, and now she can give all of them their own full size set.
I went swimming again Saturday night with my dad and my sister. There were lots of rowdy boys in the pool, so my dad kept my sister Sabrina off to the side of the pool where she wouldn't get splashed too much.
Sunday May 13th - Mothers day!
My mom supports me in my chess. She takes me to all the tournaments. She started helping out at the tournaments last year and got more and more involved. Now she helps run many of the WSCF tournaments. She is teaching some of the kids in our neighborhood how to play. My mom is fantastic! With a mom like mine, you just can't loose! I won both my games on Sunday. Happy Mothers Day, Mom!
I Got a good nights rest on Saturday, got up early on Sunday and had some breakfast. That seemed to help me. I felt like I was playing a little better and not making as many silly mistakes as I did on Friday and Saturday. I finished the tournament with 3 wins and 4 losses. Also, Brian Dennis found my shoes (that I lost at the pool) and brought them back to me.
Sunday 1:30pm
Between rounds we tried to get all the Wisconsin players together for a group picture, but that didn't work out too good. Only about 8 of 50 players showed up.
Sunday 7pm - Awards Ceremony
The awards ceremony was really crazy, with lots of people running around and tons of noise and confusion. My dad took lots of pictures of the Wisconsin winners. Some of the pictures will go on the WSCF web site when we get home.
Lots of kids from Wisconsin did really amazing at the tournament. In the K-5 under 900 section, Raimonds took home 2nd place. He won all 7 games. My bughouse partner, Brian took 3rd place with 6.5 points.
Parker Sumwalt tied for 30th place and won a trophy. He had to fly home Sunday afternoon, so we brought his trophy home with us. I finished in 298th place in my division out of 394 players.
Monday May 14th
We stayed one last night in our beautiful hotel, and drove home on Monday. It was a really long ride that took all day... which gave me lots of time to do my home work and get myself ready to go back to school.
I didn't win as much chess as I hoped to, but I did have a great time. The hotel was fantastic. I can't wait to go to the nationals again next year, and I really want to come back here in 2009 for the super nationals. Maybe by then I will get better at notation, and will be able to improve my rating -which has gotten a little trashed from this tournament.
The Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation (WSCF), formerly Milwaukee Area Scholastic Chess Association (MASCA), is a 501(c)(3) non profit association dedicated to promoting chess for our youth in greater Milwaukee and Wisconsin. WSCF coordinates scholastic chess tournaments at area schools, operates a chess school with qualified instructors who follow the WSCF curriculum, offers services through the WSCF chess club coach program, conducts chess club management seminars for parents and teachers, and provides chess club start-up grants.
P.O. Box 170843, Milwaukee, WI 53217-9998 Phone: (262) 573-5624
Friday July 18th, 2008