Back-to-Back!
This is my recap of the fifth and final day of the South Florida Grand Prix tournament that is hosted by the Boca Raton Chess Club (owned and operated by Jon Haskel) in Florida. I didn't do any of the other tournaments in this Grand Prix simply because all of the tournament dates weren't good for me, but this time I absolutely had to do it because 4 of my friends from school were participating and we were going to be playing as a team.
I had an OTB tournament just last weekend (I made a blog on it by the way -- go check it out) and was kinda looking forward to a Saturday of relaxation and recovery from the week, but the opportunity to play with my friends as a team was too good to pass up. Plus, this is Boca Chess Club's last Grand Prix tournament until the new school year starts in the fall, so I thought I would do it to try and end the year on a bang.
ADDITIONAL TOURNAMENT DETAILS
- Our time control is 25 minutes with a 5-second delay
- I play in the K-8 Scholastic section
- There are 5 rounds, all in one day
So it's basically the same exact thing as the Ramada Grand Prix that I was in last weekend and throughout the year but at a different location.
ROUND 1
I almost pulled a Magnus Carlsen and showed up fairly late, but thankfully, although I was tardy, the first round hadn't started yet. I played some practice games against my friends to warm up and was feeling ready when the pairings were posted.
I got paired against some kid who at first glance didn't seem to take chess all that seriously. I mean, he was wearing a gaming t-shirt and chugging Pepsi, so I'm probably not assuming wrongly. It was a pretty smooth victory for me. I was never losing, but I did struggle to find a checkmate at the end. Here is the full game:
A nice win to start things off. My inability to find a mate there was a little concerning, though. I think I need to do more puzzles...
ROUND 2
I swear that I have played my next opponent in a tournament previously. He looked incredibly familiar to me, but I couldn't exactly remember why. In our game this time around, he got an attack on my king, but I was able to defend and went on to win. See here:
I was pretty happy with my defense there. This game was over quickly, so I waited a half hour until the next round. Then, in that next round, something weird happened that I cannot explain...
ROUND 3
I had seen my next opponent around before, but had never played him. I was expecting a long game because he had defeated a high-rated player the round before, but something shocking happened and the game ended before I could blink. Check it out:
My opponent and I stood up less than 2 minutes after the clocks had started for the round. My friends all shot me a look like "Dude, what in the world?" Even the lady who records the results looked genuinely confused. I myself was genuinely confused. I had never seen someone just hang a mate that quickly... especially OTB! I shook it off, though, and woke up to the awesome reality that I was 3-0 and tied for first!
ROUND 4
I groaned when I saw the pairings for the next round. I remembered my opponent from my first-ever tournament. He was like 9 years old at the time and he completely obliterated me. He even played a brilliant move.
This time around, though, things were different. I got the edge and although the endgame was sloppy, I held on for the win! See here:
Revenge is sweet! I do think that both of us probably need to brush up on our endgames, though, because pretty much all of our moves in that endgame were wrong. However, my moves were just slightly better and I got my payback. I was undefeated going into round 5!
ROUND 5
Clutch time. 4-0 with one more game remaining. I got myself hyped up by watching the final moments of the Miami Heat game 4 ending against the Bucks in the first round of the NBA playoffs (yes, I actually did that... don't judge me). Then, it was game time.
Boom! My first 5-0 tournament! I walked out of the playing hall and was met by my friends swarming me at the door. It was crazy. We got so hyped! People were staring at us like we were insane... and we were.
AFTERWARDS
I won the tournament! Back-to-back weekends with OTB tournaments, back-to-back weekends with OTB tournament wins! This one felt especially good because it was out of 73 kids and my friends were there.
My USCF rating jumped again and is now 1157 regular rating, which is huge. Next stop: NM title! (Just kidding -- haha).
Also, my friends and I finished 4th place in the team standings. I doubt that our school will do anything big with a 4th place chess trophy, but whatever.
To top it all off, we went to go get ice cream at Dairy Queen after the trophy presentations to celebrate. It was an epic day.
I hope you enjoyed this blog. Cya next time! 
