Visiting the FTX crypto cup Event + My Birthday

welcome back everyone and yes i know its a bit late here but like i promised in my last blog, i said i would publish this early as today is the 8th of september which is also my birthday wohooo! for today i am going to recap all the fun memories of the FTX crypto cup hotel experience from meeting most of the elite players, participating in activities and playing them.

i kind of was a bit late....

so my birthday was around the corner i was looking at some news by certain chess site announcing the magnus tour is coming to Miami in augest. i was pretty excited but also accepted the fact that i was probably not going due to money and financial problems. however i did mention it to my mom and she was like "oh yeah cool" and then one night many weeks later when i told her again it was this weekend, she went crazy out of her way to get me the tickets. 

i didn't actually have a credit card or never bought things online, my dad didn't know anything about the place other than that my mom had the amazing idea of telling us to go there for more "special information" from workers. obviously it was stupid and i looked like a crazy sweaty teenager after school in the lobby but that's actually the origin of how i met MVL at the bar. he

was walking near and then i kinda stopped him by telling him if he was MVL, we took a picture and then yeah he was as confused as i was as he was only there to visit before leaving next day.

ok mission accomplished, meet super GM who wasn't even apart of the players but still pretty exciting as i didn't need to buy tickets to meet him, great. now step 2 how do i get the tickets? no idea and we pretty much relied on a few old new friends who went there during the opening ceremony taking pictures with the elite players. i was fortunate enough that they helped me, driving me to the hotel during saturday where luckily the workers let me pay with cash. there was a discount and i had to pay a total of 180 or close to 200 bucks which was also pretty good.

Did i meet any elite players of the Event?

answer is yes but well i was extremely over-emotional on saturday due to the fact that i was practically starving, burntout, tired, and desperate to see carlsen but went home well crying for a bit that night. the good news however is that i did meet many of the normal players like Aronian, Liem, and Hans surprisingly on the first day taking autographs and pictures with fans.

one thing i particularly want to note is i didn't expect Hans Neimann to appear as one of the elite players taking photos or signatures as he was a very moody guy. when everyone saw him, he was standing very silently and staring at us as if he was seeing death in our eyes. Granted, i wanted to take his signature cause it was a special event and i was a bit hyped for carlsen at that time but really one of the more bigger highlights was Aronian who is the nicest one there to us.

there were a few activities like a Simul with commentator Tania Sachdev and another WGM i forgot her name but i got her signature as well. i missed the simul cause there was this huge line going in order from the people who registered and well as we were all playing in the outside hall on this glass table with the wooden chess board, appeared a certain player. it was Levon who came walking like a star and when National master @Yanidze offered a game he said sure.

Before this i was chatting and playing a couple games notably with my new friend and National Master @RobRam known as roberto martinez, a cool youtuber and chess master i played in a OTB prior to this about a month ago. i was telling him "wow you were right, he is the nicest" and he looked at me with a "i told you man" expression feeling very happy. he had played him in the opening ceremony and i was super lucky as i was one of the 5 people to play Levon in a game.

super glad aonian didn't decide to bail out after 2 games and accepted my challenge as one of the 5 people in line. before this he beat NM Bryan tillis and @Yanidze by forcing Zugzwang. it was cool seeing him showcase his abilities live as many people in the crowd that were normal people became awed in amazement and admiration. the game was a bit hard to tell as to what happened due to some bad camera footage and poorly improvisation but i got the game here.

its not everyday you get to at least say you were worse but slightly equalizing with one of the best players in the world till the endgame of course. he had maintained the advantage against the caro kann ever since the beginning, never letting go and simply outplaying me positionally. the skill between me and him were incomparable and granted while i did play a decent game from my level it should not take away from the fact that he is just an absolute god in this match.

there is a funny note that at the end of the video i asked if i played badly where it cut off but Aronian complimented saying i played solidly and yeah i felt like i did very well for my bad skill. after this, there was the group pictures with carlsen and since magnus was pretty upset from his matches either not feeling well or whatever they announced groups of five people. i managed to take the picture in time but it was rushed and all he really said to me was "no problem" sighing. 

yeah as you can see i was pretty rushed and didn't even know where to go for the picture, originally i wanted to be besides magnus but my colleagues were really nice and yeah i just didn't want to be rude since they were already near him so yeah i kneeled down. the group picture i was in is actually a club that i am apart of and yeah i was just a bit happy though sad. once carlsen left people didn't care much about taking photos with prag but i decided to take one as it was pretty cool and he was a very nice guy giving me his autograph so that was nice.

then there was blitz tournament where unfortunately i had flunked and while i didn't care as i did not think it would be more than top 3, realizing its top 10 really stunned me in the end. there was also this guy who was giving a free pass but since i was shy though very near him like besides him in the same board he picked another guy cause he was louder. i was so annoyed and upset cause not only did i kinda not get magnus, i was frustrated i didn't win the last game not getting a medal and that now i missed a free pass. as i stated earlier, i was very sad and i did cry for a bit once home resulting in my mom thinking something bad happened but i explained everything and she was just brushing it off but understood that i was feeling very down from it.

Will I go Back? Part 2

now that i went on saturday, they drove me back at night after purchasing some wooden boards for the club and yeah i was crying once i got home. then its sunday and i was debating about going again and even argued a bit with my mom but eventually out of luck the neighbor in our apartment decided to drive me all the way to the hotel where i payed again another 180 bucks. same treatment as last time and again i was super hesitant and desperate to talk with the viking but first i actually had some cool interactions, meeting Anish and Duda in a very funny moment.

so yeah as you can see i look like a mess in one of the most funniest rushed yet well done photos of the event. i didn't take a shower that day and again i was really desperate, tired, starving and the only thing i had practically ate for those 2 days were my moms spaghetti late. many people were in the line for Duda while i was going to the small line where anish was so a worker was going to put anish with Duda but we were all like "wait please give us 2 minutes and then take him" so we rushed and it led to this very notable photo which is arguably my favorite.

i did also get to meet people like @swohl19 and @Yanidze who i didn't even know was a NM but a random fan like me so that makes his game against levon so much more incredible. i also did chat a little with NM Bryan tillis asking him about what he thought was the most difficult thing for people aiming for the National master title. he responded saying that at that level its like boxing and people there just know how to finesse with the positions and pieces to the point that they are able to easily convert the position or out calculate their opponents, cool concept.

we were all watching prag and one thing i forgot to mention that i forgot a bit is that on saturday it was Tanias birthday and we did share a photo later in the day. before that photo i saw her drinking a little and playing fun games with fans. i even was playing a team match with her against 2 other people, blundering my rook but winning so lets just not question our magic. this also makes it more fun when i team up later with Aronian against tania and anish which was really funny and something i didn't think was recorded till someone from chessbase posted it.

the soda in our picture for the record cost 9 bucks and this was before the blitz event on saturday started but back to sunday. GM Alejandro ramirez played on team Levon and after he had to leave to prepare for his lecture, i took his place and yeah chessbase posted that video

it was fun trolling a bit and laughing alongside the elite players and while i did panic a bit under time pressure ultimately losing it was a fun game. i was actually very shy to join but Levon insisted i join while anish joked calling me his buddy and he did ask me what my rating was but i replied saying i wasn't good. then yeah the fun happened and not much afterwards appeared, carlsen didn't want pictures and well the last thing i attended was Alejandro's lecture analysis.

i did take part in a starchess activity which is a new chess variation created by Lazlo Polgar, something he presented during saturday but i was a bit bored though i did return later on as i was interested in the concept of the game itself. i decided to also take his picture on sunday and signature as well alongside many of the streamers, WGM's and workers alongside alejandro as well though when i found out he was a GM i was like "oh well i feel bad" but he is very cool.

there's also the additional pictures with prag that i took during sunday after he came back again for more pictures and signatures. he did return later on a fun note when beating magnus, playing the team match with tania and again it was just a very cool experience. the last thing i attended which i stated earlier was Alejandros lecture where he analyzed miss-opportunities and the psychology of the games themselves during the events final day. that's all there finally was, nothing happened after that but luckily some McDonalds cheered me up and i felt a bit happy.

Summary of the Event, ITS MY BIRTHDAY

so yeah its my birthday today and again overall the event was a total blast, i did have an emotional night on saturday and a bit on sunday but i did feel a bit better with McDonalds. i managed to get pretty much all the signatures from all the players except carlsen and alireza who i never really saw anywhere except inside when playing, he pretty much vanished during the days i was there. today is my birthday and at the time i am writing this its going to be 3AM but yeah just thanks to everyone for supporting me its been a blast and now i am 17, cheers!