2009 Minnesota State Chess Tournament

I spent today at the 2009 Minnesota State Chess Tournament.  The tournament started at 9:30am and lasted until 5:00pm tonight.

The morning began with a juggler and merit-point awards. The juggler was (apparently) a current child chess player who also juggles.  His iPod/speaker system wasn’t loud enough to carry the gym, and his ‘assistant’ couldn’t really figure it out, but the juggling was pretty impressive for a high-school age kid.  Truth be told, juggling and chess tournaments do not mix well, no matter how good the juggler.

Merit points are awarded for every tournament that a kid attends (1 point per tournament), plus a point for every game you win at the tournament.  Lars was very excited to get the bronze medal for 10 merit points.  He was the only second grader to get the medal today.  He worked hard for that medal - there were a lot of losses that came with his wins.

Usually parents are not allowed in the room where kids are playing chess, but today I got a rare glimpse of Lars (back row, red) playing chess.  Sadly, this was one of his losses for the day and by the time I arrived, I could see that he was hoping the game would end soon.  Still, it was exciting for me to see and I was able to give some ‘fatherly advice’.