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.