Tomorrow I head down Nashville, TN for the the Super Nationals. As of today there are 5180 kids signed up. 941 are from NY. That's almost as much as the next three states represented total. TX (381) + FL (304) + TN (268) = 953! It should be quite an event. Lot's of chess celebrities there including Garry Kasparov, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Zatonskih, Alexander Shabalov, Maurice Ashley and Alexander Stripunsky. They're all giving simuls. I'll pass on playing in the any of the simuls. It will be more fun watching and taking pictures. I do plan to play in the Parents & Friends tournament on Saturday. This will add state number 23 to my quest to hit all 50. US Opens and Parents & Friends events at scholastic nationals are an easy way for me to add states.
I'm taking the long way to Nashville. You got to love the airlines. For me to fly direct to Nashville out of La Guardia was going to cost close to $600. When I went to the look for a cheaper fare option, I found I could fly to Nashville, via Chicago for $232. So for less then half the money I get twice as many airline miles. The funny thing is I've been looking at booking a flight to Chicago in August and the cheapest so far is $319. Maybe I should book a flight to Los Angeles via Chicago. It would probably be cheaper then flying directly to Chicago.
I won't get there in time to see the bughouse tournament, but I will get to see the blitz. Some of the kids from my team will be competing in the blitz. In Orlando we came in second in the blitz. We'll see if we can improve on that. I like our chances in the K-9, but I'm not going to make any bold predictions. It's bad enough Sports Illustrated picked the Mets to win the World Series this year. Talk about the kiss of death. At last the Yankees are the ones who will have to deal with the cover jinx.
Stay tuned for updates from Super Nationals. If any of my fellow bloggers will be there, look for me. I'll be wearing my new Endgame Wandering King tee shirt. You won't catch me wearing the hot pink chess babe shirt. I know Ivan of Getting to 2000 will be there. Maybe we'll face off in the Parents & Friends event.
Off to bed. 7:55 am flight leaves early.
6 comments:
Good luck at the Supers.
Hope your kids do well at these super nationals, and offcourse you also a good result in the Parents and friends tournament.
That's a lot of children in one place, i hope the noise level doesn't reach the level that everybody becomes deaf.
Chess: Thanks!
tiger: Thanks. Along with 5200+ children you got to figure there will be at least one adult per child, so in reality you're talking about 10,000+ people in one place. However the hotel and convention center is huge, and everything will be spread out over several floors and rooms.
Good luck. Is "your" team the Columbus team? I saw your picture with their chess team when I was at the school recently. My son may join the team next year ( he will be in Grade 1).
Marty
Enjoy the Super Nationals. At some point this will have to become a national sensation and the national media should pick it up...
Anyway, I am among the living...alas, too much living to do and not enough time to do it in.
Howard
Marty: Mr. Hegenauer is going with te kids this year. I went with them the last two years when he couldn't do the trip. Columbus has good bunch of kids who play chess. I guess this is your younger son, since I know Jeffrey is older then that.
Howard: I hope there's lots of good publicity. I'm tired of reading about all the lawsuits in the NY Times.
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