Aug
27
2010
From the handouts of several Abe’s recent summer chess camps, I saw more than once: “It is absolutely necessary to analyze of your game”. I guess there are two ways to analyze the game— do it yourself or with other people.
When you do it yourself, some assistance, mostly computer software, is needed to point out what is wrong in your game. I have some chess computer software, but Abe does not bother to play with it. So often it is I doing the game analysis, and then Abe is asked to have a look at the results – which I do not think it is productive. Moreover, I was told not to put too much faith in the computer analysis, since it is mainly good at tactics, bad at positional chess.
I always want Abe to analyze his game with a strong opponent or a master on site at tournaments. But most of the time Abe would not do that, he would rather to play with some other little kids on bughouse, video games or others. It made me angry sometimes, but I could not find a better way other than let it be after several failed attempts to ask him to do others.
Game analyses, I think, still was very important to the past several better performances Abe had in chess. The teacher of the scholastic chess club Abe often went took the extra steps analyzing several his games, either to the whole class or to him semi-individually. Not only it increased Abe’s knowledge in chess, but also it boosted his confidence – very important in chess; Abe also fortunately have one hour’s private lesson with a GM this February because of Abe’s good luck in a raffle last year at the National Youth Action. The grandmaster told him to start to learn some endgames and play more often with strong opponents, those advices had been my guidance for selecting Abe’s chess books and chess tournaments.
Being weaker than Abe in chess from the very beginning, I can only offer my advice to him to slow down (or take his time) in every tournament so far. It is my hope that a private coach could help him analyze his game and pointing out his weakness, not in a too general term like my “to slow down”. Two days ago, he had his first lesson with the coach, and he felt very good about it. So did I.
Aug
18
2010
Abe went to three parties last Saturday. We went to two— the second one of his was a birthday party, we just needed to drop him off. So we left the first one early in order to make his second one, during the same time, we went to shopping to prepare the third one.
The first party was at the rooftop of a high-rise building
The third party was at the beach
We left home at morning, came back, all exhausted, at late evening, the kids were still excited at the end. It seemed they could still play more. Apparently, they had a good time.
Summer is running out. The starting of a new school year is just around the corner, so is the new chess season. Let’s plan for them, after today.
Aug
7
2010
Abe’s played in a chess tournament last Saturday, won the second place.
Since the entry fee’s only five dollars, we didn’t expect any prizes. However, in the end, we were told that the park district had prepared some gifts for the winners. Several of the top performers, including Abe, got surprise prizes. How nice!
Here Abe is playing chess. David, his little brother and Mommy also came along with him, they are at the farmers’ market nearby.
Abe is playing chess
David and Mommy are at farmers' market nearby
Abe’s post event rating is 1700, as he guessed during the tournament. Although chess ratings should not be overly concerned, Abe’s rocky journey in terms of rating changes in the past four months is still of interest to me. In April, over a span of two weeks, he unexpectedly shot up his rating from 1515 to 1720. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, his rating took a dive in the following two months to a 1554 . Then he spent the past month climbing back to 1700.
Abe played quite some tournaments recently, even during his valley. I think that more tournaments might accelerate his dive, and also accelerate the happening of his coming back. Anyway, it is summer, Abe has time playing more tournaments.
More ups and downs are waiting ahead. Get ready, it’s a fun ride.
Jul
21
2010
Last week, Abe attended a chess camp, the same camp he attended last month. There were quite a few grandmasters as instructors at the camp. The lectures in terms of depth and quality must be excellent since Abe told me they were all very good. The biggest benefit the chess camp brought to Abe, I thought, was he had more interests in chess during the camp.
At the end of the camp, I found Abe got the first places in both blitz and puzzle solving in his group, but he did poorly in the tournament of regular games. He said he lost 2 rounds to lower rated players on time. I told him it’s OK: “Let’s worry about it later”. I felt int recent tournaments, he started to slow down his games. Instead of finishing a game quickly, he could use most of the allowed time in some games. He started to calculate deeper, think more about chess variations. Now, I would think it was a good thing even he could lose on time.
Last weekend, immediately following the chess camp, Abe played in Class B section of Chicago Class 2010. He had 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, so not bad at all. One of funniest things in the tournament was he told me the reason he lost round four was because “I played too quick.” It’s a surprise to me, in many of the previous tournaments, I told him to slow down again and again but appeared to no avail at all. This time, he admitted his mistake before I had a chance mentioning it . Maybe it was a new development? Maybe it was because of last week’s chess camp?
Whatever the reason is, let’s just hope for the better of his future games.
Tags: calculate, chess, chess variations, loss, on time, parenting, slow down, think, tournament, win | 
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Comments (0) Jul
13
2010
Back in January, I heard this story from NPR. Days ago, NPR said he has been caught.
As many people and the police will be relieved by this news, however, it is unexpected to hear “…there’s already talk of a movie deal. Harris-Moore’s mother, Pamela Kohler, has reportedly hired Courtney Love’s lawyer to represent her in any entertainment deals…”
Be serious, parents. The kid is a kid with a lot of talent; if he is doing something honest, I would be happy to hear he and his mother have a decent living. However, not now, it is not time yet to profit from it, before you have done your job—being a good parent— and your kid has become a man (a similar case reported here).
Jul
7
2010
We were hectic; we had a full schedule for the July 4th weekend.
On Saturday morning, we went shopping and prepared for the next day’s BBQ. In the afternoon, we watched some World Cup on TV. Then Abe, I and some of our friends drove to Ravinia Festival watching (listening to) a show: A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. A lot of people went there. When we arrived, we found that the main parking lot’s full. We had to try another parking lot which was more than 2 miles away. Aside from us being big fans of Garrison Keillor and we did mind the little inconvenience, the show itself was well worth it. You can listen the show from the website of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor if you want to. The show was best enjoyed if you lay on a lawn on a cool summer afternoon. In addition, it’s not a normal afternoon, but an afternoon on the July 4th weekend; no wonder so many people, including many families, came to the show.
On Sunday, we and some friends went to see the parade, then had BBQ in our backyard (the adults’ favorite was lamb kebabs, the kids’ favorite was roasting marshmallows), then walked to watch the fireworks in a nearby, if riding in a car, park when it was dark.
We didn’t know how many miles we walked in those two days. Although very tired, all seemed having a good time and could, fortunately, have a good long sleep.
Jul
1
2010
I read Anxiety On The Grass from New Yorker (issue of June 28, 2010). The article talked about Roger Federer:
Unlike Agassi and countless other tennis prodigies, Federer never had to deal with pressure from an ambitious parent…His Swiss-born father… and his mother, who is South African, …played recreational tennis at the firm’s small club close to their house… “We’d spend weekends on the tennis court”…”Roger had unbelievable coordination at very young age… We noticed this, but we didn’t push him. All the major decision of his spots career he took himself.”
It was Roger’s decision, at twelve, to quit playing soccer and to enter the program at the Swiss National Tennis Center, in Ecublens, two and a half hours by train from home…he stuck it for out for three years…
Upon reading this article, I felt that
- Roger got immersed in the tennis environment by joining tennis-enthusiasts parents.
- Parents are the big support along the way.
- Right Coaching, right parents. It does not matter that the guidance is from coach or from parents or both.
- Hard working. Roger mastered it from a very young age.
In order to verify those observations by reading more details of Roger Federer’s growth, I borrowed the book from the local library: The Roger Federer Story: Quest for Perfection. You may find the following excepts from the book fascinating:
…Little Roger hit his first tennis ball over the net at three-and-a-half years old. At four, he could already hit twenty or thirty balls in a row…
…He played soccer, handball, basketball, table tennis and tennis and, at home, he even played badminton over the neighbor’s fence…
…For hours, Roger hit tennis balls against a wall, a garage door, in his room against a wall or even against the cupboard in the house. Pictures and dishes were not safe and his sister’s room wasn’t spared either…
Tags: Andre Agassi, coach, hard working, house, library, parents, pressure, prodigy, push, Roger Federer, soccer, tennis |
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Comments (0) Jun
29
2010
Abe played in two tournaments last weekend — one on Saturday and one on Sunday, scored one point out of three and two points out of four, respectively. The performance was certainly not that good, however, it wasn’t as poor as his in recent weeks either.
Abe at Sunday's chess tournament
I had been telling him all the time: 1) Do not spend too much time on video games and 2) Slow down, therefore, try his best during chess matches. The reasons were: 1) Once having an opportunity, he would play for video games for hours non-stop, which decreases interest and time for others activities. 2) He usually played very fast when he was a beginner— in fact, the quicker the game, the more likely he would win. But not now (after around 1400, maybe) —the quicker he played, the more he could get punished. In order to win, he has to slow down and try hard for each game.
I do not know he will do better or worse in the next few months, I do believe he could get better in the next couple of years if he keeps his interest in chess. His long term performance should be in proportion to his chess knowledge: if he rises too quickly in rating, later on, his rating could drop— he needs time to catch on what he lacks.
Of course, short term performance, which nobody should care about, could be much different than the rating. Win or lose, “it is OK as long as you tried your best”, as I have been telling Abe.
Tags: chess, knowledge, long term, parenting, performance, short term, slow down, tournament, video games |
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Comments (0) Jun
25
2010
We arrived at our hotel a little bit after noon. Mommy left to her conference right away. In fact, during each day, Abe, his little brother David and I would stay in the hotel most of the time: spending hours playing in the pools and hours watching the World Cup on the TV.
As usual, Abe was in charge of the remote control. I was glad that he mostly chose the Soccer World Cup, which I was more than happy to watch together. In addition, Abe and I watched a very moving documentary film from ESPN: The Two Escobars. The film was about soccer and crime, honesty and lying, a people’s struggle and a nation’s struggle. After watching it, I said to Abe “A player needs to play with heart at every chance, never gives up.” Abe nodded. Except we all agreed it was a very good film, I did not know what else proper to say at the moment. I would highly recommend it whether you like soccer or not. You may want to check this review if you want watch it on TV or preorder the DVD.
We drove back on Wednesday afternoon, made home at about 4:30 pm. Abe’s basketball game (the first one of the summer league) began half an hour later. Upon his insistence, Abe and I had to leave at once for the game. We were glad Abe’s team won the game from behind. Abe looked a little tired, but made some defense plays.
Wow, what a team effort. Great game, everyone!
Tags: basketball, Columbia, crime, defense, ESPN, film, hotel, soccer, The Two Escobars, TV, vacation, world cup |
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Comments (0) Jun
25
2010
Abe went to a chess camp last week. There were five groups in the camp based on ratings of campers. Abe was placed in the group 5—the strongest group. Abe also came to the same camp last year, he won the first place easily in his group— group 3 at the time (there were chess tournaments during the camp). Considering the much stronger opponents in the group this year and Abe’s recent slump, I hoped he’d stand a losing streak and learn more from those losses than wins, so he would learn more from this stronger group than last year’s group. However, I was a little worried that the lectures of the strongest group might be too advanced for him.
After the first day’s camp, upon picking him up, I asked him: “What were the topics for today?”
He replied with quite a few topics, which were way over my head, however, I still wanted to ask him in order to make sure Abe had not forgotten all he learned for the day.
“Can you understand the lectures or they are too hard for you?” I asked him.
“Yes, I can understand them, although I am not sure remembering them all.” He replied. I relieved a little bit.
“One of the teachers mentioned something that he said he would not tell to a lower rated player (or other groups), so group 5 teaches more than group 3.” He said. I was glad that Abe agreed with my assumption before the camp—you could learn more from the stronger group.
Abe was excited with the lectures after each day at the camp. Especially he thought it’d be cool using the chess databases as the teachers have them. They are expensive toys, but would be very helpful in chess study, especially on openings and endgames. I worried that since he need to stay on computer to use the chess database software, would he stay doing chess study or switching to computer video games quickly? Nowadays, Abe spent too much times on video games already. Therefore, I haven’t made my mind to purchase them yet.
Although I deliberately avoided asking how he did in his tournament, Abe was eager to tell me he could beat some much higher rated opponents if not his later blunders. Maybe Abe can remember those blunders and learn from those.
Friday came and went; the week long chess camp seemed so short.
Too bad, Abe could not go to a chess tournament the following weekend to practice what he just learned. We stayed at home on Saturday and went to a trip (a conference trip for Mommy, a vacation for the rest of us) on Sunday morning.
Jun
16
2010
After reading this article (The Leap) from New York Magazine, I felt very very sad. I remember a similar case happened to one of my classmates when I was in the graduate school. After the first exam, at which I did poorly, so were most in the class—many failed, as told by the professor the next class, I admitted to myself that there were many people that were better then me. The next class, the professor brought us a very sad news—one people in the class committed suicide.
I do not know the reason behind the story. In fact, I do not want to know-it must be a very sad story. It happened, to a young graduate, how sad it was, how shocking were the parents of the kid upon hearing the news. Hope similar cases would not happen to other kids! But, today, the very sad story happened in New York to a bright high school student.
Whatever the reasons may contribute to it, as a parent, how should you contribute to stop the happening of such tragedies? From now on, let your kids know:” Even when you have a setback, you have many many more chances to fight back. Whether it is your fault making the mistake, but that is your previous fault, you can forgive yourself; let’s not make a current or future fault. ” Maybe we should learn more from this moving story, maybe we should read it once again, if you can.
Jun
6
2010
I was glad Abe was calm and in not a bad mood this raining Saturday. If you follow this blog, you know that he’s been in a slump in chess recently. In order for him to break out of the slump, I made the following plan: 1) He should play more games. 2) He should have more confidence in his games. In stead of pointing out what he did wrong, which is likely wrong too and maybe not helpful at all, I should give him more encouragements. So we went to a chess tournament even it’s raining. He continued to lose his games, but there were something good about the tournament.
The tournament was held in a local chess center. There were stacks of old Chess Life magazine in the room; I could read some of them while waiting for Abe’s games. One issue dated 1998 had an article about the 1998 National Elementary Championship. Hikaru Nakamura (current GM and 2008 National Champion) scored 6.5, the first in the section of the K-5. Also tired with him were two other players. In fact, Abe lost to one of these players in a tournament just less than two months ago. In that tournament, that guy was an expert.
Abe looked in awe when he read the article. Maybe he was thinking he was indirectly related to GM Nakamura. Maybe he was thinking how much he can improve in ten years: three hundred points? or more?
I also read an interview about Aleksandr Landerman (current GM) after he won the U16 world champion. His advices to other young chess players were something like: 1) play more OTB (over the board) games 2) study your own games 3) read good books. I told Abe: “We are doing #1, should you start #2.”
I know only time can verify my plan: someday Abe himself will get out of the slump. In the meantime, why not enjoying a song by The Beatles:
…
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Yeah, there will be an answer let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be
…
Tags: advice, champion, chess, loss, OTB, parenting, slump, study, study your own games, The Beatles, tournament |
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Comments (0) Jun
3
2010
About months ago, I pre-ordered the book: Chess Child: The story of Ray Robson, America’s Youngest Grandmaster. I received it two days ago, finished reading it yesterday. It has been long long time since I finish reading a book in one day, not even the book Searching for Bobby Fisher. What a great father-son story. I knew that I only read once, may not be eligible to write a through review on it. I, however, was once eager to read the book since day one I heard it and believe that many people who haven’t read it are eager to know someone’s first impression of book.
The book covers the period from a baby Ray in Taiwan until later 2009 when Ray got all three of the GM norms and became a GM (Grandmaster) at 15 years old. Fascinating to read include Ray’s growth in chess, Gary (Ray’s father)’s plans helping Ray along the way, Yee-chen (Ray’s mother)’s modest but consistent involvement, Ray’s different tutors at different stages, and some of Ray’s disgruntled adult playmates in chess. Gary presented with a very deep thought and spirituality mediation on the lives of his own and of his son. Although it looks daunting to get into every detail at first for the readers, that feeling disappears quickly as we read along.
The book is filled with honest observations, subtle and deep love, pungent though and funny anecdotes. In order to let Ray to be successful, how much Gary had scarified in terms of time, energy, money and others! I especially like the anecdote of a deer running into the car when Ray and Gary were on the way to a tournament while Ray thought a bird did it since he was busy reading a chess book.
The plans that Gary prepared for Ray alone worth the money you spend on this book if you are a chess parent or chess educator. I thought that several factors contributed to Ray’s success after reading this book:
- had work
- confidence
- love, guidance and sacrifice from parents
- guidance and criticisms from tutors, even sporadically.
As Henry David Thoreau said in Walden: “However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.” I envy and congratulate Gary for his glorious hour.
I whole heartily recommended this great book to any chess parents, chess educators, chess players or someone may have an interest in it. I ordered my copy from the publisher’s website.
Jun
1
2010
On the way to the parking lot from the playing hall, Abe said: “I am in a slump.”
“You will get out of it someday.”
“You know I have been on a losing streak since last tournament.”
“It is OK.” I said.
“But I learned nothing from it.”
Pulling the car out of the parking lot, we were heading to have dinner before the last round of the day.
“Every strong player needs to have enough tournaments,” I said. “Do you know how many tournaments GM Lenderman has?” I mentioned GM Lenderman since Abe and I saw him in the playing hall.
“More than one hundred?”
“More than seven hundred.” I emphasized the number; I just checked it the night before, so I was pretty sure.
“How many tournaments do you have?” I asked him.
“About thirty?”
“Forty something.” I said. “Remember to learn little by little.”
“…But the only thing (from today’s losses) I learned is (to think) more variations.”
“You said you learned nothing moments ago.”
After losing and losing, Abe had the one win at the last round. I joked since he was in good mood on the way going home.
” I wish it is the first round, not the last round.” I was pretty sure he thought the same.
In the parking lot, we saw some interesting plates and some interesting texts marked on the car:
"Got chess?"
"I play E4"
"USCF 1"
I also saw one plate saying “Mr Chess” the day before, but it’s a pity I did not take a picture of it.
OOPS, some pictures of the tournament:
Chicago Open 2010
last round of Chicago Open 2010
May
24
2010
Last Sunday, the temperature reached 89 °F (32 °C) — very hot considering it was only 63 °F (17 °C) a week ago. Abe’s soccer game was in early afternoon. It would be quite a challenger for the kids to play under the sun in such a hot day.
He was supposed to arrive the field twenty minutes earlier to take the team photo. Upon arriving the field, we found out that another game was going on. Maybe those kids were playing the last quarter, only a couple of them were still running, the others were just standing— only run a few steps if the ball getting close to their feet. It was too hot!
I posted a picture and some video I took below; I didn’t record the whole game; it was too hot even for standing along the side line of the field. By the way, Abe scored one goal, played the goal keeper at the fourth quarter, and got exhausted. His teammates were exhausted too. Though they lost to their opponent, it was a good game and every one had a good time.
team picture before the soccer game
May
17
2010
Last Saturday, Abe had the worst performance in any chess tournaments—lost all four rounds, scored zero point in the end.
Before the tournament, he said to me, as usual, “I do not want to go. Do we have to go?”
We did not have other engagements on the Saturday. He might just fool around— watching TV and playing video games—to pass the day if not going to the chess tournament. “Yes,” I replied.
His first opponent was rated closed to 1900, about 200 points higher rated than Abe. In addition, Abe’s playing black with a slight disadvantage. I thought he would lose his game, which was confirmed later: Upon seeing me at the skittles room, Abe said, “I lost.”
Abe’s playing white in the second round, his opponent are a little higher rated than him; I thought Abe might have a chance. In deed, Abe had chances in his game, but he missed the opponent’s attack (count-attack?), he lost again.
After the loss, Abe asked me: “Can I withdraw from the tournament? I do not want to play any more.”
I knew he didn’t want to lose again; I told him that he would learn more in defeat than in victory, “Remember winning by losing?” I asked. “Although you have to lose at first, you will win later by learning from the losses.”
I was surprised to find out that Abe was playing white again in round 3, however, he lost anyway. Abe was quite upset after that loss; He insisted again to exit the final round. I told him, “We have even number of players in your section now, if you do not play, some one else will lose the chance to play too.” And with some of his friends’ encouragements, he reluctantly agreed to play the final round, unfortunately, he lost again.
On the way home, Abe was not that upset any more. “How did I lose all my games?” he said to himself. He might think it was unbelievable. I quickly told him it was OK. In the meantime, I thought to my self:
Maybe last night, Abe did not have a good sleep. Maybe he, in inferior conditions, failed to take time to think a counter attack. Maybe he was too inclined to trade pieces with opponents, while failing to take time to check it’s good or bad. Maybe…
I had no confidence with any above guesses. One thing, however, became clearer to me as I thought: Abe should continue to play against the strong opponents.
If you or your kids have a very bad chess tournament, what should you do then?
May
10
2010
Last Saturday, Abe and I went to a chess tournament. Abe did so-so if not poorly in the tournament. He lost one, drew one, and won two, all to lower rated opponents.
The playing hall is almost full
Of course, there were still some thing good about the tournament. It’s not, however, the chess games themselves; it is the time in between the rounds.
In one break between chess games, Abe and I played a while of football outside of the building. The air was fresh and the sky was blue; there were forests and a creek nearby. Getting used to the crowded city life, I felt coming here was just like a nice retreat— we should definitely come back for late tournaments held in the same facility. After some running, throwing and catching the ball, Abe must have made a lot of deep breaths; it refreshed him for the next game. In addition, without it, Abe would, again and again, complain to me: “I am bored; I should bring my DS with me.”
In another break, some gentleman whom I just got acquainted with helped Abe analyzed the lost game. He pointed out several blunders Abe made and explained why. I thought his explanation was very engaging and convincing; Abe later told me he was very good. The gentleman told me:
“Abe might win me over the board, but adult like me has deeper understanding of chess than him.”
Indeed, he was right. If Abe started finding analyzing game with others was good instead of walking away while acclaiming “I know where I blundered.” I think he gained something important, more important than just some rating points, from this tournament.
Apr
29
2010
Yesterday evening, driving Abe home from his soccer practice, I heard something interesting from an interview on NPR: Some one said that no chess players had reached grandmaster quicker than 10 years. I had an immediate doubt whether it’s a fact. I knew some recent chess prodigies got the GM titles when they were younger than 15 years old. Probably they achieved that in less than 10 years?
Then I was more surprised hearing the recommended message by the host to all parents: stop calling your kid a genius and instead say, hey, good job for studying. Why? As a parent, do I have to agree with it?
The interview is short but fascinating. You could also be captivated with the followings:
- Mozart clocking 3,500 of practice by his sixth birthday.
- David Beckham kicking a soccer ball from the same spot for hours on end.
- If you don’t approach it with a voracious appetite, if you don’t clock up the deliberate practice, it’s not going to get you anywhere.
- We must praise young people for their effort and not for their talent, and try to embed the growth mindset.
If you want to read more about the interview about what lies behind success and excellence in sports and other endeavors, check here.
Apr
26
2010
Abe and I went to another chess tournament this past Saturday. The tournament had five rounds. Abe lost two against experts and won the rest. I would think he was lucky pairing with two experts, it’s a good learning experience for him playing with strong opponents, and in addition, the entrance fee is only five dollars. It looked Abe had a good time in the tournament. What a good Saturday.
round five of top three boards
The evening was a wet spring evening: it drizzled on leaves that were turning green. Abe went to play with his friends in their house. Abe’s little bother, his mommy and I went to another party.
When we returned home, Abe was waiting in front of house—he just arrived minutes earlier. We said goodbye to his friends and their parents. Going from the driveway to the front door, we found that one of two main branches of our ginkgo tree was lying on the ground. There could be a big wind when we were away that brought the branch down.
The next morning, we went out to examine the tree again. The branch just missed the roof, and it was so big the part of it laid in the neighbor’s yard. Some of our neighbors came over and talked about what happened yesterday and other similar happening in the neighborhood before. The big downed branch could cause a lot of damage, fortunately, no one was hurt and our house was not hit either.
The brothers were playing and jumping around the branch. Here are some pictures, the brothers were very happy, weren’t they?
The brothers
Abe jumps
David jumps
Apr
19
2010
OK, I am kidding. I don’t mean to borrow the title of book: From London to Elista, a chess book covers relative recent events. Abe likes it; he likes to read games, although he has not developed an interest in the anecdotes.
Last Saturday, we went to Hales Corners Challenge XI in Milwaukee. Abe was eligible to play in the reserve section based on his rating, but he would likely to be one of the tops of that section. I convinced him to play up in order to play with stronger opponents. It turned out, to my surprise, Abe still had a lucky day.
In the Open section, all four of his opponents were higher rated than him. He lost to one, won the others. At the end of the day, he was tied with many others for second place. Considering there were thirteen players being experts or masters, his finish was very good.
Here is the game he lost:
[pgn]
[Event "Hales Corners Challenge XI"]
[Date "4-17-10 "]
[Section "Open "]
[Round "2"]
[White "Richard"]
[Black "Abe"]
[Result "1-0 "]
[WhiteElo "2003"]
[BlackElo "1495"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 Bf5 5.Qb3 Nc6 6. e3 e6 7.Qxb7 Nge7 8.Bb5 Rc8 9.Nf3 Rc7 10.Qa6 f6 11.Bd2 Kf7 12.a3 Nb8 13. Qa4 Nc8 14.0-0 Nb6 15. Qa5 g5 16.Rfc1 Bd6 17.Na4 Nxa4 18.Bxa4 Qe7 19.Rxc7 Bxc7 20.Qb5 h5 21.Bb4 a6 22. Qc5 Qxc5 23.Bxc5 g4 24.Nd2 e5 25. Rc1 Rc8 26.Ba7 exd4 27.Rc5 Nd7 28.Rxd5 dxe3 29. fxe3 Ne5 30.Rc5 Kg6 31.e4 Be6 32.Bc2 Nd7 33. Rc3 Ne5 34. Be3 h4 35.Bb3 Bd7 36. g3 hxg3 37.hxg3 Nf7 38.Kg2 Ba5 39.Rxc8 Bxc8 40.Nc4 Bc7 41.Bc2 Bb7 42.Kf2 Ne5 43. Nxe5 Bxe5 44.b4 Kf7 45. Bf4 Bxf4 46.gxf4 Ke7 47.Kg3 Bc8 48.Bd1 Bb7 49.Bc2 Bc8 50.Bd3 Kd6 51.Be2 Bb7 52. Kxg4 a5 53.Kf5 axb4 54.axb4 Ke7 55. Bc4 Bc8 56.Kg6 Bd7 57.b5
[/pgn]
A side note, before and during the tournament, Abe asked me several times to ask the TD for some bytes so he could watch NBA playoff games. I told him that he’d have many many chances to watch the yearly NBA playoff games. In addition, there was a TV in the hosting hotel showing the NBA playoff games, so he could watch some during the rounds. Reluctantly, he played all the games. However, I do not know if my reply and insistence were good or not. If you have an idea, please let me know.
Tags: book, chess, Hales Corners Challenge, loss, lucky, NBA, parenting, play up, playoff, tournament, win |
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