John D. Rockefeller III National Chess Championship!

If any of you have read my last post, you would think that this one would never exist. So I need to clear something up. Back when I competed in the Idaho Scholastic State Championship, the kid who won would go to the nationals. As some of you know, I got second place on tiebreaks. This would normally mean that I would NOT go to the nationals. What made it different was that I lost on tiebreaks to a girl. Anyway, she decided to go to the Ruth Haring tournament for girls. Which meant that since I was the co-champion, I would go to Rockefeller. I was quite surprised when I found out, but I was also happy. The tournament had a dress code, specifically you were supposed to wear a collar shirt and slacks, but I was going to wear a sports jacket too. We had problems with the store though and didn't get my full attire until the day before we were going to fly out. We quickly packed everything and then the next morning we got up at 4:30 a.m. to eat and go to the airport. Only my dad and I were going, so my mom dropped us off at the airport and went back home. We checked our bags and got onto our plane. We had a strange flight route. We were going to go down from Idaho to Los Angeles, then up to San Francisco, and then back down to Palm Springs, which was where the tournament was being held. The up-side of spending that much time getting there was that we got to use the lounges in the airports for a few hours after each flight (because of the layovers). As a bonus, my dad wanted to do something special for me, so we were flying first class the whole way. When we got there, we went outside and got an Uber to our hotel, which was right next to the tournament site. A shuttle took us to our room. By then it was quite late, so we ate dinner and went to bed.

Day 1

When I woke up, it was about 7:00 a.m.. That was probably because of jet lag. We ate breakfast and went to the swimming pool. We hung out there until it was time to leave for the opening ceremony. I took a shower and changed into my clothes. Then we walked to the tournament site. A lot of people didn't really follow the dress code, but there were some who were wearing sports jackets, just like me. At the registration table they gave us our state flags, a golden key chain knight, and a medallion. After the opening ceremony we went back to our hotel and I changed into a bathrobe. (I probably spent every spare second with that thing on. Lol). We ate lunch and then took a nap. When it was time to play I put on my clothes and we set out. When we got to the tournament hall I found my board and sat down. Honestly, I think I was a bit nervous and that didn't help my result.

Game #1

A first round loss. Sad, but I needed to suck it up. Besides, it was a higher rated player, so it's not that bad. I was pretty disappointed that I hung that tactic with Nxe5. My friend Niall actually won against a titled player so I was pretty happy for him. We went home and ate dinner, then went to sleep.

Day 2

I woke up at 7:00 a.m. again. It didn't really matter though. We ate breakfast and went to the swimming pool. The rounds were in the afternoon, so we had time. When it was time to leave, I changed and we got a ride to the hotel. When we got there, I sat down and shook hands with my opponent.

Game #2

I feel like I was winning there, but slipped it up with Nd4. After the game, we went to the pool again and then took a nap. When I woke up, we ate and went to the tournament hall for the next game.

Game #3

That was just sad. My opponent also won the biggest upset award in the round for the game. After this game, my dad said I was very generous. Haha. Then we went home, ate dinner and went to bed. I have lost all the games so far. so it's not a very good start, but I still have three rounds to go.

Day 3

In the morning, when I woke up, we ate breakfast and went to the pool. When it was time to go, we changed and went to the tournament hall for the next game.

Game #4

I was pretty pleased with this win. After the game finished, we went back to our hotel. I took a nap and then we went to the swimming pool again. Once it was time to leave for the 5th round, we changed and went to the tournament hall.

Game #5

That was a satisfying win. Now that I had won two games I was feeling a little bit more confident. My Idaho teammate Niall helped me make the game into a pgn and I submitted it for the best game prize. We went back to our hotel, ate dinner, and went to bed.

Day #4

When I woke up, we ate breakfast and then played table tennis for a little bit. The last round was earlier so we didn't have much time. When I arrived at the tournament hall, I sat down at my board. My opponent arrived soon after and we waited as the tournament director made some announcements. He said that each of us would be able to take a board home that had our section's figurehead on it, which was pretty cool. Then we finally started the game.

Game #6

After the game finished, we went back to our hotel for a little bit before the award ceremony. I was pretty happy with how I did in the last game and was in a good mood. Soon it was time to go. At first they just handed out awards for the top finishers, but then they said that my 4th round game had won the best game prize! They gave me $100 for the US chess store, and took my picture. After that, we went back to the swimming pool. When we were finished, we went back to our room, thanked Niall's mom for driving us everywhere, and ate dinner. Then we watched a movie and went to sleep.

Day #5

We had to get up really early for our flight. We quickly packed up and got an Uber to the airport. When we boarded our flight to San Jose I took a nap. When we arrived, we ate at In'n'out and then got onto our final flight. After we got home, we ate dinner and went to sleep.

Recap!

Overall, I think I did okay. Only one other kid from Idaho ever got a 2.5 out of six, so I tied for the record! I got to spend my prize money on a ton of chess books, a chess hat, and a Chess.com hoodie. It was nice to qualify and to play, and the tournament site is really nice. I want to thank everyone who helped me get here, my coach Ivan, Niall, James Wei, Adam Porth, the ICA, Larry Parsons, and Kastubh K.

Thanks for reading!