Luck stroke again

Last weekend, Abe played in Chicago Class chess tournament. I put him playing up one class since Abe, most often, plays better against slightly higher rated players —plays worse against lower rated players. I guess his concentration plays a big roll in his performance. He concentrates more when playing against high rated players; he makes many careless mistakes when playing against low rated players. Moreover, even he loses to high rated players, he will learn more from the experience. I think it is good for his long term improvement.

So he played in the Class A section, unexpectedly, he scored three wins and two draws out of the five games, tied for first in his section. Some people asked me why he did so good, I replied he was lucky. In fact, in the past, it happened to him that he lost all games in a tournament, he had his share of bad luck then. While in this tournament, good luck had been with him.

Good luck or not, most players had a good time. I took a picture before the round two, as you can see, even those kids are having a good time (I think many are excited) waiting games to begin: