2009 40th National Chess Congress

This is the fifth year that I play in National Chess Congress during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I still remember that I lost all 4 games in the U600 in my first National Chess Congress in 2005. I was so upset and my dad took me out of the tournament after 4 rounds. Four years later, I am playing in U2000. I am very proud of my progress. I played two day schedule this time because we had a party to go on Friday. The first three games are G50. I played three rated 1950 above rated players. I did relatively well. I tied two and lost one. Since those were relatively fast games, there were some chances for both sides. I could do better if I grasped these opportunities. The fourth game on Saturday is G 40/2, SD/1. I won that game against a 1600 rated player. My opponent played well until he dropped two pawns later in the game. So I got 2.5 out of 4 games in the first day. Consider my rating was just over 1800 recently, this was not bad result. After a good night sleep, I came back to the Sheraton Hotel Sunday morning and found out that I was paired to play one of my chess club member Nigel. I played him three times in the club. I won two games even though he is high rated than me. Maybe because of this, I was a little bit too relax in the game. I quickly got into trouble in the opening. Then I lost the game badly. This is probably the only regret that I had for this tournament. Since I lost this game quickly, there were almost 5 hours before the next game started. So we decided to walk to Chinatown to have lunch. The weather was beautiful. It was unseasonal warm. We went to a Sichuan style restaurant. The food was great. In the last round of the tournament, I played against 1800 player. I wanted to play an exciting game in the last round. So I decided to attack. I scarified a rook, which was the best move. Then I continuously attacked my opponent’s king. Because I need calculate more, I spent more time than my opponent. After 31 moves, I was not sure that I could win the game. So I decided to perpetual check him. After the game, I analyzed the game and found out that I was in a much better position. Even though I was down the exchange, but I could be up three pawns. In the end of the tournament, I only got 2.5 of 6 games. It was not the best result that I hoped for. But I am not disappointed either. I gained a lot of confidence from this tournament. I am also happy with the last game that I can attack with a sacrifice.

China Summer Vacation

I had a great 10 weeks summer vacation in China. I visited many places and met a lot of relatives. The trip was almost cancelled because of H1N1 flu. When our airplane landed in Shanghai, everyone must take a temperature measurement before we can get out of the airplane.


My grandparents just moved into a new community. You can see that the apartment building is really nice.


We also visited my great great grandparent's old house in the village. My grandpa was born and grew up here. But it is abandoned now. My great grandpa is already 97 years old. He moved into city to live with my great uncle.



I climbed on the top of Great Wall first time. The Great Wall is the symbol of China. It is really amazing that this built 2000 years ago. Here is the list of cities that I visited: Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan, Kaifeng, Qingdao.

Bobby

Right now it is 8:00 in the morning. Tick-tock tick-tock is the sound I hear as time runs slowly. You might ask why I'm so jittery. Well that's because my family's new dog named Bobby is coming home today. It all started the day before yesterday when we went to the pet shop to look for a dog. Now we had requirements of course but we weren't that picky either with only two requirements. One was hypoallergenic, which means the dog sheds a lot less hair than other dogs which makes it almost non-allergic. The other requirement was that he had to be a puppy because we wanted to see him grow up. Luckily we found the perfect puppy. He's a small dog with white hair that's as fluffy as snow. Though our dog is only 2 months old, he's very energetic. Although we know he's a small puppy so his size should not be that big but he's not going to be a giant dog when he is a mature adult either. Bobby is a Lhasa Poo which means that he is a Lhasa Alpso combined with either a toy poodle or a miniature poodle. On the day we bought Bobby, we also bought him his toys, food, bowls, cage, shampoo, and for cleaning up accidents-a smell remover. Well, we are all excited and ready to welcome Bobby our new dog to his new family and home.

Kil-A-Watt

I am always curious about how much electricity that a household appliance uses, especially when it is not turned on. There is a very nice gadget which can do exactly what I want. It is Kill-A-Watt. The Kill-A-Watt allows you to connect your appliances and assess how efficient they are. A large LCD display counts consumption by the Kilowatt-hour, just like utility companies. You can figure out your electrical expenses by the hour, day, week, month, even an entire year. Monitor the quality of your power by displaying Voltage, Line Frequency, and Power Factor. Here is the report from my testings:

Acer Aspire One Netbook:
On: Off: Charge:

Dell Latitude D520 Notebook
On: Off: Charge:

HP Pavilion zt1170 Notebook
On: Off: Charge:

Brother MFC-290C Printer:
Print: Standby:

Lawn Trimmer Battery Charger:
Charging:

Sony 52inch Bravia LCD TV
On: Standby:

Olevia 20inch LCD TV
On: Standby:

SuperNationals IV

The SuperNationals is this huge event that chess players from elementary, middle and high schools all around the county compete under one roof. It is held every four years. This time is the fourth SuperNationals and there were more than 5000 players participating. I had a good time there even though the final result is a little bit disappointing.

My main event K-5 Championship started on April 3. Before that, there were Bughouse and Blitz on April 2. In bughouse, if my friend Alex and I had one more point, we would get a trophy. In the blitz game, I also missed getting the trophy by tie break. Before the blitz, something unexpected happened, which caused the blitz event to be delayed half hour. It was a F1 tornado. Everyone in the hotel must go to the underground shelter until the warning was cleared.

In the K-5 Championship, I played very well on the first two days. I won four games in the row without any big trouble. In the fifth round, I played a 1950 rating player, who was eventually the co-champion of K-5. I think I did well against his Caro-Kann Defense. In the end I took the draw offer from him. I was in a little bit better position, but it was probably not enough to win. After first two days, I got 4.5 out of 5. But it was very disappointing in the last day. If I tied one of the two games, I would win a trophy. If I won one game, I would probably win the 10th place trophy. Unfortunately I lost both of them. The problem in both games was that I played too defensively which cramped my position and eventually made me lose. Even though I did not win a trophy in SuperNationals, I am still happy with the progress that I made in the last year. I am also more confident to compete in the Nationals level.

The opening ceremony was a real eye-opener. It featured the greatest chess Grand Master Garry Kasparov. I had a chance to get close to Garry Kasparov. He had two book signings and both my sister and I got our chess books signed by him. A lot of other famous chess players were there too, including GM Susan Polgar and the current Women World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. The event also featured astronaut Greg Chamoff who played chess versus people on earth when he was in space.

The Opryland hotel is… big! It has an indoor river and indoor waterfalls. There is even a boat tour through the river. It is really like a small town because there are shops, diners and even ice cream parlors. During the four days of the tournament, we did not even get out of this wonderful resort.

This was a very good experience and I will definitely go to the Elementary School Nationals at Atlanta next year.

Great Wolf Lodge

My parents have been planning a mini vacation for us at Pocono Great Wolf Lodge for a while. Finally we decided to go on March 16. I have been looking forward to this vacation because this is no ordinary hotel. This hotel has a huge indoor water park.
After about one and a half hour drive, we got to Great Wolf Lodge at Scotrun, PA. After we checked in, I wanted to jump into the water and play. Unfortunately, dinner was in our way. So after dinner, we went to the water park. My first ride was Coyote Cannon. You would go down a steep drop, then go into a roundabout, circle around two times before you go to another steep drop and end in the splash pool. The ride I liked the most was Hydro Plunge because your tube would go faster than all of the other slides. The slide I rode the most however was called Alberta Falls. It had three slides and a short, fast line. The cool thing about all the Alberta Falls slide was all of them went outside the building and back inside. But the temperature did not change. At least I didn't feel it. We played until 9:00 PM which was the water park's closing time. We weren't sleepy so we played at the arcade until it closed. I got a magnet that says Great Wolf Lodge on it and I got my sister a small cloth bag. The next morning, we went back to the water park again right after breakfast. I rode all the water rides again, then spent a lot of time relaxing in the wave pool and hot tube. At 12:30, we headed home. We did not have a chance to play the MagiQuest this time. So both my sister and I are looking forward to coming back again.

2009 PA State Chess Championship

On March 6th,  my family and I left the house right after school to go to Carlisle.  My sister and I would play in the 2009 PA State Scholastic Chess Championship.  I was top seeded in K6 Open section, but that only meant I had a good chance of winning first place.  I ended up getting third place. But I still think this was a good tournament for me.
In the first three rounds, I won without much trouble.  For example, in the third round, the result was basically decided within twenty moves.  As the tournament proceeded, my opponents got tougher and tougher.  So on the fourth game, I found myself facing one of my old rivals.  Last year, if I beat him in the last round, I would get second place.  But I lost that game and I got seventh place.  So this year I was determined to beat him.  My opponent changed his opening, which turned to be one of my own openings too. So we both played pretty well in the opening and early middle game.  The game was pretty even until he made a mistake.  After that, it is not difficult for me to defeat him.  On the last game, I could have at least tied to be co-champion but I lost due to making a quick move without carefully analyzing his threat.  It results in a two pawns loss and forcing queen exchange.  Then I lost the game quickly after that. 

Even though I am a little bit disappointed that I did not won the Championship.  But I still think that I made some improvements.  In 2007, I got 10th and in 2008, I got 7th and in 2009, I got 3rd.  I will try again next year to win the first place.  My next big tournament is Super Nationals at Nashville. I am looking forward to this big event.

2009 Amateur East Team Tournament

On Saturday noon of the Presidents Day weekend, my dad and I arrived at Hampton Inn Parsippany, NJ to play in the chess Amateur Team East for the second time. This is a team tourney with four players per team. Our team's name (Fuzzy Kings and Logic Pawns) hasn't changed nor have our players (who are my friend Alex, his dad, my dad, and me). This time, I did significantly better than the first time scoring 2.5/6 instead of 1/6 on board 1.

Our first opponent was also a two dads and two sons team.  The difference is that their two dads were on board 1 and 2 and our two dads were on board 3 and 4. They weren't very strong and the player on board one was only rated around 1200. I am rated 1660. We easily beat them 4-0. From our previous experience, we knew that we would move into the main playing hall next round and our opponent would be tougher. It did turn out to be a really tough round for us. My dad lost very quickly (only 13 moves) and we almost lost 4-0. But I tied a 2000 rated player to save our team from a total loss.

On the second day, we woke up fresh and ready to play. Once I saw the pairings, I was shocked. After losing in the second, we were going to play on a higher board. I could hold on to the draw if I didn't unwisely grab a pawn against a 2200 rated National Master. My dad and Alex tied their game.  We lost by the score 1-3 in round 3. In round four we played a team whom we probably played last year.  Some of their players were.  My opponent was on the team that we played at the 6th round last year.  His rating was 1300 at that time.  Now he rated at 1800.  What a big improvement in one year!  I lost the games in the end.  But I missed a chance to win a free pawn and missed the drawing opportunity in the end game (see the picture below, it is white's move to draw).

Last year Alex and I could not play the bughouse because we were staying at a different hotel. So we were really looking forward to it this time.  However, it turned out to be a disappointment. It should start at 11:00PM.  It did not until 11:30PM because of many late registrations. So it ended around 2:00 AM.  The big disappointment was the prize.  They only gave out cash prizes for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and a chess set for 1st place of U2000.  There were many lower rated players (more than half of participants were under 1900).  Many of them are young kids like me.  We do not have any chances to win something.  I doubt that I would play the bughouse again next year.

On the third day's morning, I played an 1800 rated player in the fifth round. Even though I did not have my routine 10 hours sleep last night because of the bughouse, my opponent wasn’t awake either.  He lost a knight on the seventh move and I won that game easily. On the last round, I did not do well.  I did not play the best move at the opening and then lost an isolated pawn.  I lost the last game to a 1500 rated player.

So our team's final score was 2.5/6 which is the same as me. It was an exciting and fun tournament.  I did not perform the best as I could.  But it was definitely better than the last time.  I need study more and do not make the same mistake again.  I think that I will win even more games next year. 

41st Annual Liberty Bell Open

On the Martin Luther King's long weekend, I went to the 41st Annual Liberty Bell Open.  Same as the National Congress, it is a tradition to me.  This time I peformed OK, scoring 3.5 out of 7 rounds in the U1900 section.  In the first day, I did not play very well.  I only got half point out of 3 games.  The half point came from the first round by tieing to U1900 co-champion named Louis.  The next game I carelessly bludered away a knight.  In the third game, I lost when I had a big advantage.  I got pretty upset about that.  In the next two days, I got 3 points out of 4 games.  I win one and tied one each day.  This was probably because that my opponents were not very strong.   Well, an OK tournament comes to the end.  The next big tournament will be Amatur Team East in Feburary.  Be sure to see my blog about that event.

BTW, on the new Feb 2009 top 100 list, I am #8 for Age 9 group ( See the list here ).  I am pretty happy about that.

2008 Holiday Vacation Part 2

After 7 days curise, my Disney adventure was about to begin.  We went to Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Universal Studios.  At Epcot, we rode Mission Mars, Ellen's Dream, and lots more.  If you look at the map, there is a circle.  Around that circle, there are "countries".  We tried different foods at each country.  In Mexico I got a quesadilla and nachos with cheese.  In Japan, I got sushi.  In China, I got noodle soup.

In the second day, we went to Animal Kingdom where my favorites were Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, and Kai River Rapids.  Guess my lunch.  Well if you guessed a giant turkey leg, you are correct. That turkey leg was like 1 ft high.

The last day was the best.  We went to Universal Studios.  There, we rode Men In Black-Alien Attack, The Simpsons, Shrek, Disaster and much more. There was a Fear Factor Live show where people had cockroaches near their head and people drank sour milk mixed with bugs.  Even though all of the rides were great, I liked the Simpsons Ride the most. No wonder we waited two hours for it.

On the 31st, I didn't want to leave, but sadly I had to.  Our plane ride was great until the landing at Philly.  The wind was very fierce and when we touched the ground the plane actually wobbled a little bit.  Well, even if this vacation has ended, I know there will be a next one.

2008 Holiday Vacation Part 1

On Dec 18 2008, we woke up really really early, about 5:00 AM. Why? It is a long story.

After checking everything in the house, setting up the security system and locking every door, we headed to Philly International Airport.  We made a quick stop at Orlando to change the flight. The plane ride was good and we got to Ft. Lauderdale around 2:oo PM.  We rented a car at the airport and got settled at our hotel in no time.  In the next two days, we went to the Gator Park and Chess Hall Of Fame in Miami, and Butterfly World in Ft. Lauderdale.  This is just the beginning of our exciting vacation.

Now we went on the cruise.  We spent the first whole day at sea.  It was very windy on the top deck and the funny thing was that my mom's glasses got blown away and she didn't even notice it until we were about to go on the elevator.  We looked for it, but we didn't find it.  We ended up finding it later in the lost and found box on the third day.  I also joined a club where I made three friends named Bryan, Jason, and Daniel.

The next day, we arrived at Cayo Laventado, Dominican Republic.  The ship wasn't docked and everybody used tender boats to get there.  That was very slow.  We went though a short vendor street and got to the beach to play.  The water was very clear and warm.  The fun part was shopping on the way back to the boat.  I was amazed how the prices could go down so much if you bargain with the sellers.   I bought a giant conch shell and two small ones for five dollars (the starting price was twenty dollars).  So I guess that was a good deal.

Our second stop was Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  The different thing there is that they drive on the left while we drive on the right.  How do I know?  I went on a tour bus which took us to some cool and beautiful sight spots including the highest point of the island and a beach where we went swimming.  When we were back on the bus after swimming, there was a problem.  Our tour bus got blocked by other buses so that it took a while to get cleared up.   Finally we went back on the boat in time to change and catch the formal dinner.

On Christmas Eve, we got to St. Maarten.  One half of the island is controlled by the French and the other by the Dutch.  It was all good until we went on the French side where we got stuck in a traffic jam and missed two viewpoints.  It was a very frustrating ride.  When we got back to the dock, the tender line was really long so we went to get some freebies.  I got a 1ct topaz worth about fifty dollars.  I ended up trading it for a 1ct midnight sapphire which is worth about one hundred dollars.  Looking back, I don't think St.Maarten was such a failure because we actually went back with the most souvenirs than from the other islands.  After I came home, I did some research and saw when the plane lands or takes off, it blows people right off the beach beacuse the beach is right next to the airport.

On the fifth day of the cruise, we were at sea on the way back.  This time it was different because it's Christmas!  Santa came and gave us presents. That night's Christmas dinner was supposed to be special. I got lobster but it was very dry.

Our last stop at Nassau, Bahamas, in my opinion, was the worst.  Because we got there in the late afternoon, we only went to the beach. We tried to get freebies there, but all we got there for free was a charm.  All the other shops were closed and the straw market didn't have anything we really wanted so we went back on the boat to eat our last dinner there.

The next day we arrived at Ft. Lauderdale at 7:00 AM.  We all woke up ealry and had a quick breakfasts.  Our train to Orlando is at 12:00 Noon.  We do not want to be late.  We decided to take the laugguge by ourself so that we can got off the boat first.  In the end, we arrived three hours early at the Amtrak station.  The train ride from Ft.Lauderdale to Kisimmee took 6 hours.  We finally got there around 7:00 PM.   

Continues on part 2