Denker: The Dénouement

[Writing six days after-the-fact is not conducive to good memory recall, but I'll do my best.

Also, I realize that my links are, for some reason, not working. Any help with that would be appreciated in the comments.]

So the 6th round ended. And I wended my way out of the playing hall. It was all over. I had counted down 101 days, and now it was done.

I saw the final standings. I was 45th out of 46. Number 46 (West Virginia) was the only player I beat. But I was glad that even he had achieved a half-point.

We had a few hours to spare before the Awards Ceremony, which was at 4 in the afternoon. My brother, Joshua, was in a Quad event, so we (My dad and one of my other brothers) left him at the venue while we went to our rental house 1.5 miles away to pack up and check out. After we did that, we came back to the venue, where my dad bought me a blue long-sleeve shirt [picture to come, hopefully].

We went into the book store and wandered around a little, looking for some equipment for Joshua.

I looked at the time and saw that it was almost 4 o' clock. So we headed to the Awards Ceremony.

The first event at the awards was a "trivia game." In the way of explanation, everyone was encouraged to get on their cell phones (At a chess event? No way!) and go to ngitchess.com. Then, a number of questions were called out, the answers of which were on that website. Only one prize was allowed per participant. The questions started coming, and I let them go by, allowing others to answer them and get prizes — partly because I couldn't find the answers, and partly because I was shy. So it looked as if I wouldn't get anything.

But then, I heard I question that I knew I could answer. My hand shot up. The question was, "What does FIDE stand for?" (I love to learn foreign language, so this question was perfect for me.) The announcer (Dewain Barber) pointed to me and said for me to stand up. I wasn't sure if he meant me or someone else, because I think other hands were also raised. Eventually, though, I got the idea that, yes, he did actually mean me, and so I stood up. A few seconds later, after exhibiting my feeble French to the whole room (I attempted to say, "Federation Internationale des Echecs"), I walked up to choose from the few prizes that remained. I could have chosen a small wooden box or a wallet, but I chose some goofy Cheshire Cat socks instead [again, picture to come, hopefully].

After the trivia questions, the real Awards were presented. What does a virtual bottom-finisher do at an Awards Ceremony? First, he shows up. Then he applauds with heart. He's never coming back — as a player anyway — but that doesn't matter. He's there for those who won. At least Alabama (Rochelle Wu) tied for 3rd in the girls' tournament! UPDATE: She also won the $500 Ursula Foster Award for being the top finisher under 13 in the National Girls' Tournament of Champions (NGTOC).

[Photo Credit: alabamachess.com]

So there it was. I did the Awards Ceremony. Now it was time for the goodbyes. I looked around for some people, finding some and not seeing others. I said goodbye to Mr. LSU (Maureen Grimaud's husband). I said goodbye to Abhinav Suresh. And GM Timur Gareev.

And then I said goodbye to Indianapolis.

(Cross-fade to "My Denker Experience," which is yet to come.)