Hello MNMS club members! Here is the news of the week. Over the weekend (of February 28-29) the high school states chess championships was hosted. One of the biggest things that should be included is that all of you should see Michael's second game. It was a spectacular game!
From Kingco (the chess league Michael's school played in) Eastlake finished 6th qualifying for states. They had bad games and results but made it right on time to qualify for states.
After school ended (Eastlake high school ends at 2:20) Michael brought the clocks that were going to be used for the tournament. His team sadly doesn't have as many clocks as him. The Eastlake high school chess team decided to carpool together. It was going to be a long ride for that their destination was in Mount Vernon High school. The first round was suppose to start at 5:15 PM. But all the teams had to be checked in between 3:30 and 4:20. It was the main reason why they left after school together (because they had to check in as a team). The tournament had an entry fee. It was $50 ($10 for each player on the team)! The team captain was very generous and paid the entry fee!
Before the tournament started, Michael did the one thing that he never did before a tournament starts. He played a chess game! He played bughouse with Anne-Marie, Vignesh, and another dude from Redmond high school! Michael and Vignesh were partners for bughouse but sadly lost! Vignesh turned out to make a huge mistake in his game...
After the awards were given out in all the chess leagues, the pairing were finally generated. Eastlake was playing O'Dea high school (average rating 1100)! Eastlake literally won from 5-0!! They won all their games. Here is Michael game below:
It was quite a tough game. Michael was very happy that after round 1, his school has a perfect score! He didn't want to play Redmond high school because his school lost to Redmond high in Kingco chess league.
After the game, Michael did the next thing that he has never done before another tournament game (before the second round)! After he ate his 2 slices of pizza (free pizza was provided for everyone there (the pizza was from Costco)), he played blitz with Vignesh! He was completely and totally lost but won!! Vignesh got distracted a lot during the game and Michael flagged him!!
Before showing the second game, there is another surprise. At the tournament, there was Anne-Marie Velea (1st board on Eastlake high school chess team), Sophie Tien (first board of another school), and another girl who Michael doesn't know. Usually, Michael, Nikash, and Mobius would run around everywhere and use the elevators (mainly in Embassy suites during WA Open) and run up and down the stairs. This is exactly what Sophie, Anne-Marie, and the other girl were doing! They are becoming the future Michael, Nikash, and Mobius!! They were acting exactly like Michael, Nikash, and Mobius after the first round!
Michael was disappointed about the team he was playing next. His team was playing Interlake high school. Eastlake lost to Interlake in Kingco chess league! Michael was going to play the same opponent who he played in Kingco when he was playing Interlake! He lost to him at Kingco. Interlake was by far the strongest team in the tournament. On first board they had a 2200, on second they had a 1900, on third they had a 1800, on fourth they had another 1800, and on last they had a 1700. Overall, Eastlake managed one point from the round (Interlake won from 4-1. Eastlake drew two games.). Michael had an awesome and extremely interesting game! Here is the game below:
A miraculous perpetual check! Michael thought that he was going to lose that game but he survived and drew. On board 3, there was another draw, giving Eastlake 1 point from this round. Eastlake has played on 1st board in round 2. Michael played his two round on Friday but didn't play the last three on Saturday. An alternate replaced him on Saturday because Michael's day was too full on Saturday. In the morning (of Saturday), Michael had an ACT preparation and he couldn't miss that. After that, he had Latin III. He couldn't miss both.
Other than the article, here is the puzzle of the day! Please tell me what you think about my round 2!!
