This post is new and improved because it has pictures! When I say the hotel was a fabulous resort hotel, I mean this fabulous:
The place was so huge, and the Mills Mall next door was so huge, I lost a couple of pounds while eating out every meal. Except for breakfast on Saturday, when I was happy just to get anything. We figured we'd eat at the hotel, but when you have 5,000 players plus family all trying to eat before 9AM and only two (possibly 3) eateries were open in the hotel, I called my wife and demanded she find food for us. McDonalds was mobbed, so she hit Citgo and got us some powdered donuts and something that resembled a very small danish.
I don't want to give the impression that it was a complete disaster, but there were some rocky parts. The crush of people at the first round trying to get in the playing room but trapped in the hallway outside is something I'm trying to forget. We ducked into the game room just to re-oxygenate. While the pairings were up late, I can't believe the people who just piled up in front of the bulletin boards waiting but uncomfortably crammed in. For K5 and K6 I think the parents were in there because they didn't want their kids getting hurt, but I think it would have been better if they had just stayed back. It was comical watching them trying to get back out from the crush at the boards. Fortunately, after the first round the pairings were up well before the start of the round and spread well apart. After that rocky start, things on the playing end went very smoothly.
The blitz tournament had two defects: they moved the location without putting up a sign -- you had to ask one of the scarce as hens teeth tournament officials -- they started late, and OK, three defects, they took too much time between pairings, especially in the beginning. Here Kyle is ready to go despite the confusion and chaos in round one of the blitz tournament, just waiting to play chess:
Day 1. We were a little hyper in the first round after all the excitement of just getting to the point of finding where to sit, but new chess shirt is on, attitude is going, and it's time to make a point before the game even begins:
Day 2. We've had our donuts, we've got two games under our belt, we know the drill. Sit down, relax, fill out the red card, get the game notation all set up, pose for a picture, hope the old man leaves soon.
I thought the local tournaments were impressive until I went to this one. 5,300 kids playing chess, talking chess, arguing chess, helping each other with chess. They also ran around and acted like kids, and if they hadn't been wearing shirts with chess related slogans you wouldn't have realized they were there for the tournament. We never did go hear any of the lectures because he preferred to hang out in the skittles room with his chess buddies playing the game (bughouse was the most popular) than sit and listen to people, Grandmasters, talk about it. Maybe next year. Here's the picture that sums up the weekend:
