North Avenue Beach

I was up early Sunday morning and walked out to the lake. Pleasant, but a little hazy and warm. Ironically, it actually felt better a couple hours late in the city, maybe because the breeze was more noticeable. I wandered among the runners and bikers up to the end of the curved jetty at north Avenue Beach before turning around and heading back to coffee and breakfast.

We came back later in the afternoon. The morning's blue skies had given way to dark clouds and the possibility of a thunderstorm. D played chess for an hour and a half with other folks at the little pavillion along the path while I wandered around and M talked on the phone.

Washington Square Park

This was M's second visit to the neighborhood today, since she wandered down here while D and were at the baseball game. We came back in part to check out NYU and in part so D could hustle some chess games. He played a while in the park, then tossed a disc with some other guys in the only grassy area available, then headed off to the tables on Thompson Street to play some more chess till long after dark. This is a lively neighborhood with lots of character and M&I spent an hour walking around, occasionally checking back to see if D was done.

The piano in the park was part of a special project (Play Me, I'm Yours) that placed keyboards in public places all over the city, inviting people to stop and play. I passed one in Central Park and there was one in the middle of Times Square.

SuperNationals

The tournament wrapped up Sunday evening and the players started heading off on buses and airplanes for New York, Arizona, Florida, and 40-odd other states. Some of the players (ours, for example) stayed up until 3am playing bughouse in the hotel hallways. No big trophies, but the three musketeers all walked away with 4.5 wins out of 7 in the championship section.

Opryland

D and I arrived yesterday evening after driving hours through severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings. At least by the time we got to the hotel, the tornado warnings had been relaxed and they had let folks back into the atriums (atria?) - of which this place has several big ones. I might worry as much about big hail stones as about twisters.

The Gaylord Opryland is a huge hotel - maybe one of the biggest in the world that isn't a casino. It's sort of a grown up Disneyland - no rides, but lots of waterfalls and shrubbery and overpriced stores. Sort of like really big cruise ship that ran aground on the Cumberland River.

We were here four years ago and must have raved so much about this mega-bubble that M decided to come out and join us this time. Bad weather screwed up her connection, so she spent last night in a Ramada near Dallas, but she arrived on a morning flight around lunchtime today.

The main event began this afternoon and right now over 5000 players from all over the country, of all skills and grades, are in the second of their seven rounds.

Mount Vernon

Our team was disappointed that they didn't clean up like they did last year, but Interlake and Lakeside have accumulated a deep stack of very good players and are awfully hard to beat. These two teams put on a great show - tied going into the last round, played each other in the last round and drew, and then went into a blitz playoff. Five rounds of three-hour games and it all comes down to the best of five simultaneous 3-minute games. Interlake won.

D managed to win all his games but the one against Michael in round four. He was down all through his fifth round game against Lynden, only to pull off an amazing end game victory at the very end.

We converged on Red Robin in Marysville at 10 and got back to Seattle after midnight.

Nationals

Sunday night. It's over. Seven four hour rounds over three days. Over 1200 players, many of whom were rated over 2000.

Garfield finished 12th among fifty teams, an incredible accomplishment for a team not even contemplating Nationals a few months ago. The top teams came from all over the country and included a couple of very strong Arizona teams, Stuyvesant HS from New York City, and Bellaire from Houston (where Garfield's best player from last year now goes). All six Garfield players won games against higher-rated players.

Results at: High School Nationals

Garfield at Washington State Championships

Peachtree Center

This year's tournament is being held at the Hyatt - which is quite an experience for kids whose experience is limited to Motel 6. The elevators gridlock about 20 minutes before every round as the players race down from their rooms, which is probably annoying to business folks and others not here for the tournament.

Round Five

Garfield moved back up several notches in the team standings with a strong 4th round this afternoon. If they can stay awake through tomorrow's games, they may do pretty well in the tournament.

D had a great afternoon round, beating his first Master! Of course, that means tonight's matchup is even tougher (2263).

Burlington

Garfield beat Mercer Island (the defending champions) in the final round of this weekend's state high school chess tournament, taking home the championship for the first time since the early 1990s. Time to get a bigger trophy case.

Hard Rock Cafe

This year's tournament is over. The Three Musketeers all did well, though not as well as they had probably hoped, and not well enough to delay dinner in order to stay around for awards ceremony. Which also meant E could hang around a bit longer, since he's got to get back to San Francisco and school tomorrow morning! The boys wouldn't consider Joe's Crab Shack (our last night in Louisville last year) so we wound up at the Hard Rock Cafe. Milk shakes and big desserts for D & E. P was much more restrained. They wound up playing chess out on the patio before we dragged them back to pick up trophies (P&D got WMS 22nd place, despite only two on their team) and to send E and his mom on their way back to SF. P&D were up until 1AM playing in the lobby.

Sunday Morning

Beautiful morning in Sacramento. Round Six got off at 9, with kids still running in after the clocks started. Some of them, like P, played until 11 last night, though this morning the players didn't look as wiped out as they have in some past years. Maybe its because unlike some years, we didn't have to set clocks ahead Saturday night. One more round to go, this afternoon, and then awards and 1000 kids heading for airport to go back to school in Phoenix, Tampa, the Bronx, and Deer Isle-Stonington (Maine). Not to mention Seattle.

I'm settled in at the Temple on 10th - free WiFi, good coffee, and a little less overwhelming than the Starbucks at the Convention Center.

Round Three

D had a frustrating game last night, but won in Round Three this morning. P has won all three rounds so far! And E wound up playing an almost four-hour game on Board One (fuzzy picture) against Marc Tyler Arnold (rated over 2300, top player in this tournament). Round Four is underway - I guess I should head back over and check on the guys - or at least buy another latte.

Nationals

It's nice to have one of these events on the west coast - though the trips to Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Louisville the last three years have been fun. I'm glad there are still some big crowds of kids from back east, representing both some big inner city districts and a bunch of really high end suburban private and public schools. About 1000 kids are registered this year.

K-9 Chess Championships

Weather is great and Convention Center is just across from the hotel. We found a great crepe place for dinner last night a few blocks west on "L" Street.

Mercer Island

We struggled to round up the requisite five players for a team - some of our players actually have other things to do on Saturdays than play chess! Our final five included a wide range of experience, from D with hundreds of games to J with only four rated games prior to this event! They did great, taking 2nd Place to Odle, which is probably not just the top MS team in the state, but the top MS team in the country! P managed a draw on Board 2 in our match against Odle, keeping them to 24.5 points (out of a possible 25).

Las Vegas

We spent the holiday in Seattle, but flew to Las Vegas late Christmas Day for the four-day North American Open. D opted to play up, which is admirable, since his chance of winning the big bucks would have been better if he'd played in his own division. Besides playing chess, D has watched lots of ESPN. During the rounds M&I have wandered the strip, watching volcanoes and pirate ships. We walked across the both the Brooklyn and Rialto Bridges (different nights).

Bally's put us in the newly-renovated north tower the first night. Fine, except the phone didn't work, the toilet didn't work, and you had to walk through the casino to get to the tournament rooms. So we asked to move. They said the decor in the south tower might not be as nice, but it seems fine, and now we look out on the Eiffel Tower, with the New York skyline in the distance. We can watch the south half of the Bellagio music-fountain show, too.

Market Street

M&D headed off for San Francisco last week, while I stayed in Seattle getting some work done. I suspect they had more fun than I did.

D got introduced to the Market Street chess scene. I understand there was money involved, though not enough for it to count as a summer job. Maybe if he juggles on the side.

Berkeley Prep

Last day of the camp. As far as we know, no kids were permanenty misplaced, not more than half a dozen got sick, and most got to bed by 3 this morning. Impressive to see the line up grandmaster coaches, including Kaidanov, Shulman, Onischuk and DeFirmian (in picture playing bughouse with D the previous evening), at the final ceremony.

In the Kolty "B" section, there was a four-way tie for first in the camp tournament. The Washington delegates had to play each other in the last round (travel 3000 miles to play someone you've played every year since 2nd grade!). They agreed to a draw after six moves!

I thought it was appropriate that D got to play at Berkeley, which appears to have been built in part on the fortunes of the Yankees (a Steinbrenner philanthropy).