Driving Highway 2024B in the Daily Chess Championship
Prologue
On March 15, I woke up to see my phone filled with twenty-some emails and notifications. What was going on? Had I won some sort of sweepstakes, or gifted a large inheritance by a wealthy benefactor? No, it was even better: Round 2 of the 2024 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship had begun!
The Freeway
Rather than list my chess games, sit back as I share my journey of merging onto a bustling freeway, maneuvering around 11 other vehicles as only one of us can make it to our destination—EXIT 3, leading to the ritzy neighborhood nicknamed Round 3. It is clear what is going to happen on this freeway—each of the 12 vehicles, including mine, will have 2 chances to overtake each other vehicle. And whoever passes the most vehicles is going to beat the others to the exit. Oh yeah, and as I go on my adventure, I like to imagine what each interaction with my fellow motorists would look like as a chess game, as if it were a round-robin chess tournament. Confused? Probably, but it’ll make sense soon enough.
Merging into traffic
After making it off Highway 2024A onto EXIT 2, I am tasked with merging onto the much faster Highway 2024B, and like I said, being the first one to EXIT 3.
From the on-ramp, I see a large 18-wheeler truck with a logo on the side with the name @Keks2017. I note that I will need to be careful around that fellow, especially with his special red “International Master” license plate. Seven other vehicles are also coming, a speedy convertible, a muscle car, a minivan, a moving truck, a large SUV, and a lifted pickup truck. All are definitely vehicles that could be very dangerous if their drivers know what they are doing. I don’t remember which names belonged to which, but I saw among these @Blahroo, @Yamazuto, @TheChessPianist, @YarekMG, @VictoryW10, @mikun10, and @deschaakspeler. Unfortunately, I see three vehicles have had to pull over before the on ramp. In my imaginary chess tournament, two of them timed out their games, and the other resigned all of theirs, probably by withdrawing from the tournament.
Attempting to overtake my competitors
The first vehicle I need to pass is deschaakspeler. In each of my chances to pass them, we race a little bit with little action until suddenly they slam on the brakes each time. I am not sure why they do this, but it leaves me with a comfortable lead ahead of them. I suppose in the chess tournament, it would have gone like this: we would have played our games for a bit, before my opponent resigned with neither side having a clear advantage.
The next person I need to get around on the freeway is VictoryW10. I succeed in both of my attempts against them (though I believe they resigned our first match accidentally), making good ground in my race to EXIT 3. If it were a chess tournament, here is how the matches would have played out as games:
After speeding past VictoryW10, the next car coming up beside me was mikun10. At our first meeting, they completely caught me by surprise with the “elephant trap,” a maneuver notorious in my locale, and nearly ran me off the road. I managed somehow, though, to speed ahead, and notch a victory. Here is how I believe it would have gone as a chess game.
Unfortunately, my opponent came prepared when they needed to catch up to me, and after we had faced each other twice, we were dead even in the race to EXIT 3.
We could both see, though, the 18-wheeler with the “International Master” plates cruising past nearly everything in its path, and I knew the time had come. The time to see if my 1995 station wagon could hold its own against this important matchup.
Well, as expected, it couldn’t. Our first time meeting on the road, the driver of the truck was just too skilled, and while I feel like I did the best I could with what I had, small mistakes in my driving added up and my opponent got the best of me.
This was my last chance. If I didn’t get past the formidable International Master semi-truck, I wouldn’t make it. I put the pedal to the metal and give it my best shot. And for a moment, it seems like I might keep up with the truck, but probably not pass it. What happens next, if I can’t get past him, if this mini match is a draw? Can I count on another driver to distract him long enough that I can sneak onto the coveted Round 3 off ramp? I’m going to have to hope so. But then, I make a horrible mistake. I try to make a move to ensure I come out of this match even with the International Master, but instead he flies past me, leaving me in the dust. It is a bit hard to describe it what happened, so I’ll use another chess game to explain it better.
And there it was. As I try get back up to the speed of traffic, I watch the left-most lane go to a dotted line. I glance at the sign above that reads “EXIT 3- LEFT LANE ONLY.” Against the lights of Round 3, that neighborhood I’ve always wondered about, I see the fabled Highway 2024C. I’ll make it there someday. Not this year, maybe not next year when it’s presumably renamed Highway 2025C, but someday. For now, I’m happy for the International Master driver, watching as he works his way around the driver Yamazuto, flips on his turn signal, and shifts into the exit lane.
I look around me on good old Highway 2024B. Four other drivers around me remain, probably also coming to terms with the fact that they will miss the exit. But even though we are not making it to Round 3, we continue to race, darting around each other, and I am personally having a great time. I match up against each of the other drivers two times, just as I had originally believed I would need to. These matches lasted longer than the impactful games I’ve recounted, and while I enjoyed them greatly, including them would prolong my tale when they had no effect on the ultimate outcome.
Epilogue
Thanks for reading my reimagined account of my Round 2 experience this year. This annual tournament has become a January tradition for me, and this year did not disappoint. My opponents all played great games, making this year so fun for me that I wrote my first blog on the site. I hope you enjoyed reading it!