congratulations.
My First OTB Tournament
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Mar 9, 2015
0
#3
Awesome! There is an expression, "DFL>DNS" "Dead Flippin' Last is better than Did Not Start".
Jun 6, 2015
0
#4
This is extra cool!
I don't know why I missed reading this earlier, but I am happy to read it now. awensomechess you did well!
To meet Susan Polgar is really cool. You met one of the most famous women chess players in the world and you met someone who actually knew Bobby Fishcer! 
Good job!
JustADude80 wrote:
This is extra cool!
I don't know why I missed reading this earlier, but I am happy to read it now. awensomechess you did well!
To meet Susan Polgar is really cool. You met one of the most famous women chess players in the world and you met someone who actually knew Bobby Fishcer!
Good job!
Thanks, JustADude! I have competed in some more tournaments since my post, and will be competing in a small one-day tournament this weekend. I'm enjoying tournament competition. I definitely liked going to the tournament I posted about and hope to return there next year.
Last Sunday, I completed my first USCF-rated OTB tournament. It was the Susan Polgar Foundation Nationwide Open for Girls and Boys. There must have been around 200 kids there, most of them between the ages of 8 and 10 (the number of participants decreased as the age categories went up, especially for the girls). I played in the U16/18 Girls section against 3 other girls (I hoped there would be more girls in my section, especially in a national open)- but all of the girls had been playing for at least several years and were strong chess players. (The highest rated girl in the U16/18 section was rated over 1700. The highest rated boy was rated over 2300.) Most of the games I played against them were close, but I lost all of the games (6 total) against them. I still got a trophy for 4th place, though (there were many, many trophies- the top 20 kids in each section received a trophy, and there were also trophies for top teams, puzzle solving contest winners, blitz tournament winners, etc.). I would post some of my games here, but I am still recovering from a thumb injury, so my notation was almost completely illegible. Susan Polgar was there and I got to meet her! She was signing books and I now I have one of her books (Chess Tactics for Champions) signed by her. Overall, the tournament was fun! Hopefully I will receive an OTB rating based on this tournament, but I read the first 26 USCF games are provisional anyway.