This weekend was SuperNationals II, a chess tournament for K - 12 grade. I was too old so I didn’t compete. Now I know what being a piano player in a whorehouse feels like. There was chess everywhere. Chess gameboards, chess magazines, chess games inside and outside the tournament, chess flame throwers (the kids love this one). The only thing I didn’t see was the “chess players mate better” bumper stickers.\
I was there because I’m working as one of the chess experts for a commemorative book coming out. For four days I got to see everything. Nakamura, a 13 year old chess prodigy who’s already achieved master status (and won the tournament), Irina Krush, who is still in high school but could come out of this tournament as the top female chess player in the United States, Josh Waitzkin and Bruce Pandolfini (subjects of Searching for Bobby Fischer), I attended lectures from Yermolinsky and Kaidanov (#9 and #4 in the US), saw a presentation from Dr. Alexey Root ('89 female US champ and professor at UT Dallas which has the hands down best chess program/team in the country), and attended game analysis sessions of Bisguier (first ever US grandmaster).
To those that don’t play chess, this is probably pretty damn boring. But I realized halfway through this tournament just how many chess experts there are here, how rare an opportunity this was to learn so much about the game from so many for absolutely nothing. They might never all be together again giving their advice. Certainly I won’t be there because SuperNationals III will probably be so far away I can’t attend.
Anyway, it was a cool weekend. Just thought I’d share.