The Chess Master

 

Benjamin participated in his first chess tournament yesterday.  The tournament was open to anyone in the south Salt Lake area, so kids from about 15 schools participated.  (Some of them were really intense:  There was one team that had team shirts and did a chess cheer before each round.  They had several chess boards in an area they'd staked out in the waiting room where they would play between rounds and white board type thing that they used to analyze strategy.  Whoa!  I was totally intimidated.)  All the kids played 5 games, and they got paired with other kids depending on how they did in each round.  Benjamin's chess club leader told us that it's a really good first tournament if you win one game, so that was the goal.

In Benjamin's first game he was paired up with one of the kids from the crazy T-shirt-wearing-chess-nerd school.  I was frightened.  He was one of the last kids to finish his game, and Brigham and I were pacing the floor waiting for him to come down (parents are not allowed to watch the games so that they can't help the kids).  He finally emerged with a big smile on his face and announced that he'd won!  We were amazed and thrilled!

The second round he was pitted against a kid with a ranking in the 700s.  We were really nervous about how that would go since the ranking was higher.  But in a short amount of time he returned again proclaiming victory!  Brigham had had to leave for work, but demanded texts with every new development.  We were both surprised and so happy!

In the third round he was put up against the 4th highest rated kid in his division-- a girl rated 923.  I was sure this round would be when he would fall, so Benjamin almost floored me when he came back and announced yet another win!  At this point we were pretty giddy.  There were trophies for the top 5 kids from each grade, and suddenly we realized that he actually had a chance of winning one!

For the fourth round he was pitted against the top-ranked 4th grade chess player in the state-- a boy he knew from Peruvian Park.  I knew he would probably lose, but at that point I couldn't help wondering.  He came back announcing his first loss, but we shrugged it off pretty easily.  We realized that if he won his last game, he'd probably get a trophy of some kind, but if he lost he probably wouldn't.  Although he didn't say anything, I could tell that Benjamin desperately wanted one of those trophies.

Benjamin's last round was against a boy rated about 750.  I knew he had a decent shot since he'd already beaten 2 kids with that rating or better.  I was so nervous that I couldn't even read my book. His game took forever. Soon most of the kids in his division were back down, and I sneaked upstairs to take a peek in case I'd missed him somehow.  He and his opponant were one of only 2 couples left in the room.  They were obviously locked in an epic battle.  I returned downstairs and paced while I waited.  After forever he finally came down, and I could tell by his crushed expression that he hadn't won.

Even though he was disappointed with the outcome, Benjamin really did an amazing job!  We were so proud of him!  After only his first tournament, he is the 13th highest rated 4th grader in Utah (out of about 200)!  He's got his sights set on his next tournament on Novemeber 30th and is going for the gold!