Second Place, Indiana State Championships

With the closing of the ChessIQ center in Skokie, Illinois earlier this year, long time control chess tournaments are becoming an endangered animal in the Chicago area. In order to continue finding opportunities to cross swords over the board, I'm more often than not traveling to out-of-state tournaments. This was the case last weekend when I played in the Reserve (U1800) Section of the Indiana State Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana.

It turns out the Reserve Section wasn't as strong as I hoped and I was the number five seed in the section with a rating of only 1661! But, ratings aside, I fought tough battles, won my first three games, and went into the final day tied with one other player for first place.

With two games to go and first place on the line, I didn't sleep well the night before and nearly drowned myself in caffeinated coffee in order to be fully alert on Sunday. Now, since I have only drank decaf for the past five years, except in rare situations like this, I was a jitter mess the whole day and ended up staying up until 4 AM the next night.

But, the sacrifice was worth it when I drew in the last two rounds and ended the tournament tied for both the second place and U1700 prizes.