K-12 National Championship, Day 3

Dylan is now feeling very good and has discovered a herd of friends that she is running with.  I think she might have forgot why we were here as her last two games did not go so well and she was more concerned about finding her new friends from Louisiana and Texas after the games.  For round 6 & 7, she played against a 900 and a 310 from Texas and lost both games after an hour of play.  Upon retrospect, she does not feel like she was playing her best games against these kids.  Last night she could not sleep and kept waking me up to ask me questions about chess.  I think it sunk in that she passed up on an opportunity that she could have capitalized on.

Desmond, however, really had his game face on and struggled with Yue Chu (1372) from Texas and narrowly lost his first game of the day after a 2 1/2 hours.  In the end, we noticed a pawn push could have salvaged a draw and possibly a win in the end game of pawns and a rook each.  In fact, most of Desi's games went longer than 2 hours and he recorded the games allowing us to see other possibilities.  Going into round 7, Des was in second place for his section and  after another 2 1/2 hour game, Des won his section!  I am very glad it was a fun game for him.  Lorenzo Frati (823) from Florida and Des "laughed a lot" and "joked around" during the game, and while in the parent's play pen, I could see some of the craziness on their faces during play.  I was getting nervous about the game and Des spotted me and nodded.  He is bringing some well-earned hardware!  1st place, U800.

I am proud of my kids and I really enjoyed this event.  I know my children did too.  While at Aunt Sandy's house eating dinner with Aunt Marlene, Uncle Bobby, and Aunt Pat, Des and Dylan both suddenly were distant and commented that they missed being at the tournament and were sad that it was over.

My Aunt Sandy and Uncle Herbert deserve much appreciation for providing lodging, food, and transportation, and lot's of family love.  This morning was much craziness with my wallet and keys left on the floor of her car after Sandy dropped me off.  As it was dark at 5 am, I did not see them laying there!  Then my cell phone was dead and I couldn't call her to have her turn around, but this was a moot point anyway since she didn't have hers cell phone anyway.  Consequently, we are going to fly back to Boise and arrive at 11:30 pm, and then we will drive 3 hours to Sun Valley!  What an awesome trip!