#25 Kansas

July 11 - 12, 2009
Kansas Open - Open Section
Lindsborg, KS
0 wins
3 draws
2 losses


I had played in the Kansas Quick Championship on Friday. As I mentioned at Castling Queen Side, my first round opponent was a no show. That would not be the case this time. I had to play the same guy who crushed me in round two of the quick event. The opening was the same, but at last I avoided some of the mistakes I made on Friday night. Unfortunately the result was still the same. I had my typical difficulties against d4 Colle type lines. I never got the light squared bishop out, and I let him get way too much play on the king side. I put up a little more fight then I had on Friday night, but it still was too short a game for my taste.


DBlair-pw071109.pgn


After drawing in the second round I played another one of my quick chess opponents. Like Friday night I lost to this guy too. He was the player that I was winning against, but tossed my advantage in an ADD loss of focus moment. However I guess I had made him nervous enough on Friday that he switched to e4 for our rematch on Saturday. The game is posted here.

Sunday would be kid's day. I would be paired against two of the teenaged 1600s that had also opted to play up instead of playing in the Under 1800 section. Both games would end in draws. The first one would be a fairly quick draw. The other one would be a long draw. Those two games can be seen here.

#24 Nevada

June 6 - 8, 2009
National Open - Under 1800 Section
Las Vegas, NV
1 win
1 draw
4 losses

This was my first time setting foot in the state of Nevada, much less playing chess there. There are states that I have visited before ever playing chess there. I had been to Seattle, Washington several times on vacation. It wasn't until last year over the Thanksgiving weekend that I finally went out there to play chess. I can't count the number of times I've driven through Rhode Island or been to non-chess events there, but never playing there until 2008. On the other hand, every time I've been to Tennessee it's been for chess, but this year was the first time I got to actually play. All my other trips to Tennessee were to work as a tournament director or coach.

Since I do not gamble, and do not have any interest in it, Las Vegas has not been one of those places that's on my "Places to Visit Before I Die" list. However I have always wanted to play in the National Open because it's such a well run tournament. Friends of mine have told me "You must come play in the National Open. You'll love it." So for that reason, and for that reason alone I finally made it to Nevada. There are other places in Nevada I'd like to see, and not necessarily for chess. I would like to go to visit Lake Tahoe, and playing in one of the Reno tournaments wouldn't be such a terrible thing to do. My initial impressions of Las Vegas can be found in this post at my other blog, Castling Queen Side.


Photo by mychessphotos.com

I'm looking pretty serious in the above photograph, either that or pretty disgusted having started off the tournament 0-3. Now I know why I don't bother playing in the World Open. Why do I need to spend $300+ to get stomped on by 1600 players? Though I think the jet lag factor did contribute to my poor start. I flew in Friday afternoon, and started playing Saturday. Next time I play out West I'm coming out a day earlier and playing the regular schedule.

In the first round I was paired against a player whose name is Sky-Galenti Palma. When I come across unusual first names, it's fun to guess whether I'm playing a male or female, adult or child. I guessed my opponent would probably be male. I've seen girls with that name, but usually it's spelled Skye. I guessed he would probably be an adult. I was right on both counts. He had started in the three day schedule, but after starting out 0-2, he opted to try again in the two day schedule.

Recently I've been having problems with the White pieces. Somehow the dark squared Bishop either gets totally boxed in, or just ends out on some useless square doing nothing. I've been switching things around trying to work on this problem. However this first round game would be another one I'd waste time with the c1 bishop. It was not just time in terms of wasted moves, but also time on the clock. After 40 moves I had a slight edge with a rook and two pawns for a knight and a bishop. Unfortunately the slight material edge was negated by the big time deficit. It's hard to find good moves with only 4 seconds left. I tossed the material edge one move later, and then tossed the king a few moves after that by walking into mate.

Here is the game.


PW-SGPalma.pgn


That wasn't exactly how I wanted to start the tournament. I was not going 6-0 this weekend, but there were 5 more rounds. I still had time to bounce back. I joked with friends about playing the Swiss Gambit. However in a tournament with 200 point rating ranges in the sections, there's really no such thing as an easy next round. In a tournament like this most players are going to play in their own section instead of playing up. Losing the first round was just going to have me matched up against another player rated in the mid 1600s.

Reports on the other rounds will be posted at Castling Queen Side.

#23 Tennessee

April 4th, 2009

Super Nationals - Parents and Friends Tournament
Nashville, TN
1 win
3 draws
0 losses

This was my 5th visit to Tennessee for chess related activities. However this would be the first time I actually got to play here. My first visit was in 1992 for the National Elementary Championships in Knoxville. I was the Computer Chief Director for the Primary Championship. The funny thing was I had no idea what my job was going to be. I assumed I was going to be a computer assistant like I had been in 1991. My flight from New York to Atlanta got delayed, so I had to spend the night in Atlanta and catch a flight the next morning. I arrived just time to be brought straight to the tournament site, told I was in charge of the Primary section, here's your computer station, now get to work. Pairing software was still pretty new back then, and was all DOS based. Things have gotten a lot easier with the newer Windows based pairing programs.

A few years later I would return to Knoxville for the first Super Nationals. I had traded in my TD hat for a coaches hat. Coaching is a lot easier. The hours aren't as long. I think the hardest part about coaching was watching one of my private students in the Primary Under 800 on board one in later rounds, moving too fast or staring off into space. He went 7-0 in his section but ended out 3rd on tie breaks. It was an exciting moment for us. As you can see from the picture below, back then the trophies were more modest in size.

Nikhil Vaidya - 1997 K-3 Under 800 Co-Champion

I would make two trips to Nashville in 2005 and 2007 to coach before I'd finally get a chance to do some serious multitasking as coach, chess photo-journalist and player. If you followed my various posts, such as this one about day one, or this one about the tornado warning you know I had a busy weekend. Under normal circumstances I might have just skipped the Parents & Friends Tournament. However since it was my fifth trip to Tennessee for chess related activity, I could not miss an opportunity to add Tennessee to my list of states played. When I'm the assistant coach I have time to play in these side events. When I'm the only coach, I can't take the time to play on Saturday.


My first round game was a draw. Despite being up a piece, I couldn't convert the win. I had let his passed pawn get too far, and had give up my extra bishop to prevent the promotion.

BruceE-PollyW040409.pgn

#22 Washington

November 29 - 30, 2008
Washington State Class Championship
Redmond, WA
1 win
2 draws
3 losses

For a detailed report on this tournament go here, here and here.

My first game in Washington was a win.


ethang-polly112908.pgn


Unfortunately that would be my only win in my first visit to Washington.

#18 Florida

National K-12 Parents & Friends Tournament
12/9/2006
Lake Buena Vista, FL

1 win
1 draw
2 losses

At each of the scholastic nationals events they hold a four round game/45 tournament open to parents, siblings, coaches, etc. The players in that event team up with a kid who’s playing in the scholastic event. They add the score of the parent, coach, etc to the 4 round score of the kid. They give trophies to the top scoring team in different categories such as father/child, mother/child, sibling/child, coach/child, etc. This would be my second attempt in this tournament, teaming up with one of the kids from the team that I help with the coaching duties.

The problem is the coach/child category is always the biggest one, and there’s always some coach with a 2200+ rating that cleans up. He’s usually matched up with some kid who has gone 4-0 or 3-1 in his first four rounds. I need to be in some obscure category like aunt/child. The problem is my nephew most of my nieces are too old for this event. The one niece who is still in high school doesn’t play chess. Somehow I’d have trouble passing myself off as the aunt or cousin of any of the kids on this team.

If you think kids’ ratings are meaningless, you should see some of these parents’ ratings. Some of them only play in this event, but spend the rest of the year being their highly rated child’s personal sparring partner. Even though the wall chart says the player is only 1100, in reality he’s probably stronger then that. It seems I forgot that lesson I learned in Denver earlier in the year at the Elementary Nationals.

In round one I faced a parent rated in the mid 1000s. If I thought I was in for an easy game, I was wrong. He played the opening solidly, and I got too cautious. My timid play and poor clock management would come back and bite my in the butt.




wright-ramanatha12092006.pgn



I've directed hundreds of scholastic tournaments over the years. I've had my share of encounters with psycho chess parents who have gone nuts over pairings, tie-breaks, trophy size, rulings, what other parents or kids are allegedly doing, etc. This tournament would introduce me to a new encounter with psycho chess parents.

So having lost the first round, I was a little leery when in the next round I got paired against another parent with a similar rating. I sat down at the board, and noticed he had no score sheet and no pen. I calmly said, "Excuse me, but you're required to keep score in this section." He tells me that he's not going to keep score because I have such time advantage because I'm using a Mon Roi. I try to explain to him that; one score keeping is required and; two it's not the big time advantage that he thinks. In round 1 I had one of my time pressure induced implosions and flagged in a position down the exchange.

He didn't want to hear about that. He was adamant about not keeping score because I was using a Mon Roi. He thought it was totally unfair that such a device was allowed. I rarely get into arguments with players, but I finally went and got the TD. He explained to the opponent that he had to keep score and that if he didn't then the TD would have to make a ruling. The TD said if he don't like the ruling he could appeal. At this point about 15 minutes have gone since the start of the round. I knew if the opponent appealed it would probably be another 10 to 15 minutes getting the floor chief, explaining the issue and getting a ruling. Finally I said to the TD "Just give me a score sheet, and I'll write my moves down instead." I think the TD was tremendously relieved that I did not want to push the point further. At this point I just wanted to get on with it.

This satisfied my opponent, and the game started. It turned out this was much ado about nothing. I think the dispute took more time to resolve then the actual game. Here is the game.




wt-pw12092006.pgn




In light of how this game went, it was apparent that this was a very inexperienced player. It turned out his 1169 rating was based on his 4 games from a past Parents and Friends tournament. If anything he was probably overrated, unlike my first round opponent who was underrated. I think his issue with my Mon Roi was that he really didn't know how to keep score very well so he thought I was getting a huge advantage over him by being able to keep score on such a device. My reaction to him was stemming from my first round loss to a player of similar rating. Having lost on time in the first round, I did not want to give in on a point where I felt my opponent would gain time.

The tournament didn't get much better when in the third round a parent got upset with me because I asked his son to please not to stand next to me when watching our game. I just don't like people standing right on top of me when I'm playing. I like my space, and it bothers me when people hover too close. The dad freaked out because he thought I was accusing his son of helping him. I'm not sure how asking somebody to not stand over me can be interpreted as a cheating accusation. The game ended out being a draw.

At the end of the game I apologized for making him feel as though I thought his son was doing something wrong. I tried explain that it can disturb a player to have someone standing so close. I just need my space. It doesn't matter who is watching, if he's too close I'm going to ask the person to move back some. He told me I was taking this way too seriously. I was taking this too seriously? I wanted to tell the dad to lighten up, but he was just too freaked out. I found out later that the kid wasn't having a very good tournament, so dad was kind of stressed about that.

How much worse could it get? Would I get into another argument? No arguments. However the whole ugly tournament would come to an end with a fitting conclusion. I got paired down again. This time I would be playing a 1283. It was a tough game. I was actually up a pawn, and then needlessly fearing a discovered check, I tossed the extra pawn, and then another one. Then we were both racing our pawns down the board, but I had one of those moments where I think I forgot that knights move in an L shape. In the position below I found the worse move possible.

Black plays 45...b3??

I think anyone who knows how to move the pieces can find White's 46th move. Rb8#

After that tournament I swore I'd never play in another Parents & Friends tournament. However 4 months later I would add Missouri to my states played list by playing in the Parents & Friends at the 2007 High Nationals in Kansas City, MO.

#4 Vermont

November 5, 6, 12, 13, 1973
Shortsleeve Chess Classic
Burlington, VT

2 wins
2 losses

Rating: 1169

I arrived in Burlington for my freshman year at the University of Vermont in early September. However I didn't play in my first tournament in Vermont until November. It wasn't that I was being a hard working student concentrating on her studies by not playing chess. Nope, I played one tournament in New Hampshire, and two in Massachusetts that occur ed before I played in Vermont. I don't even remember how I got to those initial out of town tournaments my freshman year. I didn't have a car.

Unlike today's kids who apply to 10 different colleges, I had only applied to three four year colleges. I got into all of them, but I wasn't totally sure where I wanted to go. I had spent a good amount of time at Skidmore hanging out with my sister, and a good amount of time at the University of New Hampshire hanging out with my boyfriend, but had never even been to Burlington until I got the acceptance. All three schools had good programs in what I was interested in. I decided I needed to visit Burlington, and check out UVM, before making any decision. I fell in love with the city of Burlington, and really liked the campus. I pretty much decided after my visit, I wanted to go there. Another factor that I did take into consideration was, the Burlington Chess Club ran chess tournaments at the University. I hadn't seen any tournaments advertised in Durham, NH or Saratoga Springs, NY.

As it turns out, my first Vermont tournament was not run by the Burlington Chess Club at the university. Instead it was a tournament run on a couple of week day afternoons at the local junior high school. The social studies teacher, Bill Mc Grath had a chess club at school. He had a good sized group of kids who would come to classroom after school and play chess. Many of the kids also played at the Burlington Chess Club. I met Bill at one of the Thursday evening meetings of he Burlington Chess Club. He encouraged me to stop by the school in the afternoon and play with the kids from the Edmunds JH chess club. Bill was rated around 1450 at the time. He and the kids would work together to study chess. The core group of 4 of those kids would go on to win the National High School Championship in 1977 against chess powerhouses such as Bronx Science. One of the Burlington kids, Chris Richmond beat 16 year old Yasser Seirawan.

One of my college classmates who lived in the same dorm as me also came down Edmunds to play in the afternoon. As luck would have it, we got paired against each other in the first round. Alex and I played a lot of blitz at the dorm, so he had a good handle on how I played. He was rated 1600, so he clearly had my number. Often we would play guillotine chess and he still beat me in 5 to 6 games. Guillotine chess is a blitz match where both players start with 5 minutes each on the clock. After each game, the winner loses a minute. With two players of equal strength it usually comes down to the last game with both players having a minute each. That was not the case with Alex and me. He often would win the match with one minute on his clock versus 4 to 5 minutes on my clock. In other words, I'd be lucky if I won one game.

Aslive-Ppeterson-VT110573.pgn


An interesting thing happened in this tournament. In round three I played one of the kids from the junior high school. I won, and he was devastated by losing to a girl. He quit chess after that tournament. I wasn't aware of that until one his classmates told me that was why he stopped coming to chess club. Hopefully I didn't scar him for life, and that he's been able to deal with females being beter then him at some things.

#3 New Hampshire

October 19 - 20, 1973
Dartmouth Fall Open
Hanover, NH
1 win
4 losses

This would be the second of many chess road trips I would take during college. This would also be another out of state tournament that I would play in before playing my first tournament in Vermont. Freshman year I didn't have a car so I had to either take a bus, bum a ride with someone else going to the tournament, or hitchhike. Yes, I did hitchhike to a few tournament before I had a car at college. I always had someone come with me. I was crazy back then, but not stupid enough to hitchhike by myself.

This particular tournament I was able to get a ride to the tournament, and I spent the night sleeping on a friend's dorm room floor at Dartmouth College. My back aches just thinking about some of the places I slept in lieu of spending money on a hotel room. The joys of being a college student on a budget. Fortunately entry fees were pretty cheap back then. There wasn't much prize money, but that didn't matter since I sucked and never won enough games to win my class.

My first round game was against a 1646. Back then I thought 1600s were God. I wasn't sure I'd ever get my rating that high. When one plays chess as badly as I did in this game what can one expect? I blundered a piece on move 6, and got my king and queen forked on move 18.

pennington-peterson-NH102073.pgn


With a time limit of 50/2, 25/1, 25/1 I had a lot of time to kill until the second round. One of my friends took me over to the academic computer center where I played chess on the Dartmouth College mainframe. To tell you how bad chess programs were back in the 70s, I kept beating the computer. Unfortunately I did not save any of the games I played against the computer. I guess like most people at that time, I didn't think it was any great accomplishment to beat a computer at chess. Little did any of us know back then what computers would be able to do with chess in the 21st century.

The only bright spot in the tournament for me was winning in round three. I had won a knight and then in the end game promoted a pawn. The interesting thing about looking at these old games is reading the English Descriptive notation. I'm looking at Black's move sequence of P-R6, P-R7, P-R8/Q and thinking to myself "White is promoting." 30 plus years of Algebraic notation is making me think the sequence was a6, a7, a8/Q.

I would play in this tournament every fall throughout my four years in college. My junior year I had a car at school, so I didn't have to bum a ride from people. I would load up the car with some of the kids from the Burlington Chess Club or UVM and we'd hit the road Saturday morning to make it in time for round one. I got my first speeding ticket on that trip because we were too busy talking about chess, and I wasn't paying attention to the speedometer. Fortunately I got the ticket in New Hampshire where it was just a flat fine for a first time speeder. $20! My next speeding ticket would be 26 years later driving to another chess tournament. It cost more then $20!

Each year that I played in the tournament my rating was a little higher. However I never improved my record beyond 2 wins, 3 losses. Every year I would play some horribly short game on Sunday in round 4 or 5. Two years in a row I'd lose to Hal Terrie during one of the Sunday rounds. Hal Terrie is one of those players that I played in the 70s who is still an active tournament player. He's a Life Master, but at the time he was "only" rated in the high 1800s. Here is my super butt ass ugly lost from the 1974 Dartmouth Fall Open.

terrie-peterson 102074.pgn


I'm afraid too many late night hearts or blitz chess games on Saturday night in the dorm were to blame. Also three rounds on Saturday at the traditional 50/2, 25/1, 25/1 made for a long day. Many players were pretty wiped by Sunday. I think one of Bill Goichberg's best innovations was eliminating the 8:00 PM Saturday night round and changing his weekend tournaments to four rounds with two games a day. Some people bemoan advent of sudden death. Personally I don't miss the endless time controls.