James went to his first in-person chess tournament (not counting the school tournaments) a couple of weeks ago. It was a team tournament, so he got to play with some of the kids he's been doing online classes with. It was really great to meet his coach (Ivan) and the other kids in person for the first time, after two years plus of online lessons!
The tournament was in New Jersey, and it was three days with two games each day. Some of the games lasted a long time (I think his longest was three and a half hours!) He won his first two games, then lost three, then won the last one. They were playing some highly rated teams in the middle, so he was pretty happy with that outcome. It was a big tournament, and some of the other teams they faced were other kids, and some were adults.
The weirdest one was the guy who wore mirrored sunglasses to play -- and apparently he even had other sunglasses that he put on when he stood up or looked at other games! (Players are allowed to get up and move around, they just aren't allowed to have cell phones or other electronics.) Maybe he had a good reason for wearing them, but to me it seemed like a bit of a jerk move, especially combined with the fact that he insisted on using his own clock (they use special chess clocks to keep track of the time, and James already had his set up first since he arrived first). Like, is this grown adult really trying to intimidate a kid??? (James and that guy were the last game of their teams to finish, and the teammates of the other guy were apparently all standing up around him watching the board. So James's teammate Rebecca decided to stick around to give him moral support! Other spectators besides the players were not allowed in the rooms once the games started, due to covid regulations.)
Coach Ivan was really great -- after the games, he would meet with the kids to analyze the games and show them where they could improve. His team was also playing in the tournament, so we were impressed by his boundless energy and enthusiasm! (Although we saw him during the last round, and we were surprised when he said his game was already over -- he offered a draw because he was just too tired!)
The tournament was in little meeting rooms and also the ballroom (James's team started in the little rooms, then got up to the ballroom, then back to the little rooms). The ballroom was kind of hilarous because the opening for each session had something going on -- one time it was some songs from an opera singer, one time it was the costume contest, one time it was door prizes based on various random things -- quite entertaining.
