Fremont Open

This was my second Swiss. There were 3 of us--3 of the top 4 boards at my high school--and we were all somewhere in the 1500s USCF (naturally we had all sent our entry fees in advance in order to save 5 very big bucks). :)

It was held in a sort of rec center. Only it wasn't a terribly big rec center. Fischer fever was still on and eventually they signed up 191 players (although there was an Open section, my friends and I were all playing in the Class Championships). All the tables were crammed together (I think a few people may even have played outside that first round).

My first game was also my shortest ever. 9 moves. Okay, you know how in the Opera Game Black plays Qe7 in order to forestall the Bxf7+ mate? Well, my opponent didn't. :) So I spent the next few hours walking around this huge lake in the middle of the park while waiting for the other games to get done so we could go off to Burger King and look each other's games over.

And I saw my first-ever master too (unless you count Koltanowski during a simul a few years before at the Emporium). Despite the diminished circumstances, they actually did manage to make a smaller room available for the top players at play; you could look through the window in the door and see them.

And there he was: 2308 in the flesh. He didn't look quite like how I pictured him though. I suppose I figured a master would look more or less the way Gary Larson draws God. But nope, he was just some regular guy, on the surface of it. I mean, he even smoked a corncob pipe.

My second game took forever, but I finally managed to win it. For my third game, I hung a pawn early on. Okay, you know how in the KID you have to castle before you play e5? Well, after that game I knew about it too. :)

But I somehow managed to hang on and even came up with a somewhat cute mating net in a R & P ending.

3-0! Wow!!!

Remember, I was 14. And the top prize in my section (especially with the huge turnout) was around $250.

That evening we all stayed at the Rec Center Hilton. Actually, it was right out in back of the place on this big green. We arranged our sleeping bags there, figuring we wouldn't be hassled (and thankfully we were right).

Early next morning for the fourth round, I established a long tradition by completely choking away any chance at all for the big bucks. And in the last round I could've maybe won my entry fee back if I'd won...only I drew.

So I ended up with what turned out to be my usual score at these things: 3.5-1.5.

On the plus side though, this guy we knew from another high school won big money in the B section and so (in a tradition that actually did manage to burgeon into a tradition) he ended up buying celebratory pizza for all of us afterwards. :D