K-12 National Champioship, Day 2

Round by Round Action

I wish everyone could experience this the way I do.  I love looking at the energy that chess players seem to have.  Even the parents of chess players seem to always be engaged in something mentally productive.  Only at a chess tournament would you frequently see T-shirts that champion "Thinking".  I love it.  Today was a great day.

Dylan was feeling much better, however, Desmond came down with the crud that she had.  Thankfully, he only felt nauseous.  Both children were in great spirits and were very punch happy by the end of the day.  Desmond ended the day with 2 pts., and Dylan showed no mercy in her last game and also has 2 pts.

I even scored 2 pts. out of 4 rounds in the parents-friends tournament against 23 combatants.  Yes, there is never enough chess for me!  G/30 felt like Blitz to me after playing G/120 for so long.  I lost the first game with an 1800+ with only seconds left on the clock and only a king and pawn for each of us (well, at least my king to his king and pawn . . .I thoroughly enjoyed the game).  All of my games had me in time trouble near the end of them.  The Colle-Zuckertort for white-2 wins!  Flailing wildly as black-2 losses.  I really need help for black as nothing is really comfortable for me and I lost my two black games.  Maybe the Dutch will have some answers for me.  Any suggestions?

I met some nice people so far.  I was talking to Susan Polgar about the length and depth of analysis that parents and coaches offer their kids when they come out of the tournament room.  It was nice to see that I agreed with her that 5-10 minutes is enough.  After all, the kids just worked hard for hours!  I use my soccer coaching philosophy here:  a good coach gets the job done before the event and fixes problems discovered after the event.  George from Columbus, Ohio has twin boys (11th graders) in the tournament, and I have taken to conversing with him between rounds.  I also got to share stories with Cheryl Bruce Knight, the tournament organizer.  I think the organizers of such an event deserve much appreciation.  The magnitude and quality of the event, and the happiness, excitement, competitiveness, and the determination of the participants speaks to the success.  In life and chess, you get what you pay for.  And this is expensive!