North American Chess Tournament Las Vegas 2014

Happy New Year everyone! I got back two days ago from another world wind chess tournament in Las Vegas. Evan didn't have his best tournament. He played in the U1500 and should have done better. He won 3 out of his 7 games and won 1 out of 10 blitz games. He is at that level now that if he really wants to compete in tournaments, he is going to have to step up his game plan. I think Chess has come pretty easy to him thus far, but now he is realizing that he is at a plateau and needs to start to really study. He hadn't been analyzing games prior to this tournament and was letting his chess.com games run out of time. I do think that after seeing his peers surpass him in ratings and the incosistencies in his tournament play will ignite a little fire in him.

But all in all, this was a pretty good tournament. The rounds were only about 30 minutes late getting started. It was great to be able to be texted with the pairing prior to the start of the round. But Bally's is the worst. I didn't like it last year and this year I liked it even less. I don't want to dwell on the negative so I will leave it at that. The best part of my trip was getting to spend time with a fellow Chess mom, Sherri Gough. Sometimes you just meet someone and there is that instant connection. It was like that with her and we had a ball together. I also got to visit with my cousin and my two other friends of mine that live in Vegas. And it is always great to see the usual suspects at the tournaments. It is such a small chess world and it is getting smaller each tournament we attend.

Some of the Grandmaster games were nail biting toward the end and that always makes for an exciting tournament as a spectator.

I didn't do much "playing" in Vegas. Didn't drop one cent on black jack or video poker or attend any shows this time. I did have dinner with my friend at Mon Ami Gabi at Paris and it was awesome! I am still dreaming about the Banana Foster Crepe that I ate and will make a point of going back there next visit.

There were quite a few bizarre events that took place. One of Evan's opponents had a blanket and pillow and napped on the floor during Evan's time. The game ended in a Rook/King v Rook/King draw and the guy said he doesn't play to draws and resigned, giving Evan the point. Another bizarre event included two players who did not bring sets. The guy playing white looks his opponent up and down and says "go find a board". It was really confrontational. I asked the guy playing white if he brought a board and he said "It's blacks responsibility to bring the board". This was a rule I had never heard of, but he said it with such conviction, I was certain he knew better than me. At the end of the tournament, I asked the TD about the rule and he said there is no such rule.

There was also a misprint on one of the flyer for the Open section start date which affected one of the players being almost an hour late for the first round. Luckily, he was still able to play.

Another unfortuante thing was that Evan's coach had another round of bad luck. He had his chess bag with clock and monroi stolen at the American Open and now he had someone mistakenly pick up a bunch of his pieces when they lost their game and were cleaning up. The person ended up withdrawing from the tournament and Quinn never did get his pieces back. Luckily he is a a good sport and was able to laugh it off. He is such a great role model for my son.