State No. 46 - South Carolina

So, I traveled to South Carolina for my 46th different state for #fiftystatesofchess.

With the tournament being only one day, Saturday, I had time on both ends to do stuff.

Right after the airport, I dropped in at Crossfit Soda City for the 12pm WOD.  It had some difficulty as the number of rounds increased, the reps decreased, & the barbell weight increased.  I did this at 95, 115, & 135 pounds respectively.

Coach Jeff was very welcoming & made sure he introduced the regulars to myself & another drop in at the start of class.  He made sure everyone knew what to do for the warmup, & looked over our sample movements before starting the workout.  It was a very challenging but fun workout.  I was happy that I was able to finish the workout (23:34 scaled) and start the weekend off right.

I made an incorrect decision after the workout.  I drove over to Yogi Bear's Honey Fried Chicken in Huntsville.  Now, the honey fried chicken I thought was good.  However, the decision to drive between 60-90 minutes to eat it, not so much.

I had planned to visit Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden &/or Swan Lake Iris Gardens after eating at Yogi Bear's, but after the honey fried chicken, the sudden thunderstorms put an end to that thought.  After waiting out the thunderstorms at a grocery store, it was too late to reach the garden locations before closing time, so I drove back to Columbia.  

In the downtown area, I discovered that they had a Nickelodeon Movie Theater!  

It was actually near a Mast General Store, which is a general store chain that has been around since 1883.  One of its tag lines had something to do with no automated checkouts, which would have attracted me to the store even if it didn't have what I was specifically looking for.

I was in search for Blenheim Ginger Ale.  It drinks spicier than the mass commercialized ginger ales out there, but I kinda enjoyed it.  Warning: the cap is not a twist off, it needs a bottlecap opener (if you drink alcohol or Jarritos, you know what I am talking about).  Luckily, the store took off the cap for me after I purchased it.

After finding the ginger ale, I found the Never Bust Chain (Artist: Blue Sky), 

which was initially built without City Approval (the land between the two linked buildings is city property) but eventually beloved & accepted.  

I then walked over to the Tunnelvision Mural (Artist: Blue Sky)

So the chess tournament is part of a series of monthly tournaments called Tunnelvision, & they are all named after this mural.  (Surprising that I was the first one to make this connection in the 47th running of Tunnelvision)

For some reason, this made me think of the paintings Wile E. Coyote used to try in the desert versus the Road Runner in the cartoons, where the Road Runner & various trucks drove through, but Wile would run smack into the wall or run through the canvas & fall to the ground deep below.

After checking into the hotel, I decided to eat shrimp & grits for dinner.  I didn't want to take the chance of eating a new food the round before the tournament started. I went to the Bistro at Lake Murray Boulevard in Nearby Irmo.  The Shrimp & Grits was good, & so was the orange chocolate mousse. 

There was tasso ham & redeye gravy in this, which was also good.

So Tunnelvision 47, just like the previous Tunnelvisions over the last 2+ years, have been held at the Columbia Chess Club (both on facebook & instagram (IG: columbiachessclub).  The interior is really nice, two separate rooms, TVs that display the pairings & the DGT boards, one board per table, a hidden drawer to put your cell phone in.

I think this is easily one place to play that I would love to come back to.  It's really conducive to holding tournaments.  

Tunnelvision 47 started off pretty good for me, & then it dissolved.  I won Round 1, then lost Rounds 2, 3, & 4 to finish 1-3 and my rating dropped 31 points to 1864.  I have not fully finished analyzing Rounds 2-4, so only Round 1 will get a full look in this post.

I would like to give a shout to my round 1 opponent as I saw on the gram that he executed a clean sleep in a recent quad.

The Round 1 Game was interesting.  My opponent opened both his wings & was trying to attack my kingside, but I opened the center & his king had a little less cover than mine did.

[Event "Tunnelvision 47"] [Site "Columbia, South Carolina"] [Date "2026.08.08"] [Round "1"] [White "Chen, Kevin E."] [Black "Kemp, Jr., Thomas"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Chen, Kevin E."] [ECO "C62"] [WhiteElo "1895"] [BlackElo "1651"] [PlyCount "67"] [EventDate "2026.08.08"] [EventType "team-swiss (rapid)"] [EventRounds "4"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceVersionDate "2026.02.28"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. O-O Bg4 {I haven't liked castling so quickly in the Ruy Lopez due to this counterpin, so I will have to continue to work on how to handle this counterpin.} 5. h3 Bh5 6. d3 Nge7 7. Be3 a6 8. Ba4 Qd7 9. c3 h6 10. d4 b5 11. Bb3 g5 {If you're going to play this move, you better hope the center stays closed, as otherwise the King has nowhere to hide with both flanks advanced. I saw this and thought, 'I had better start opening the other areas of the board quickly.'} 12. Nbd2 Bg7 13. Qc2 g4 14. hxg4 Bxg4 15. a4 b4 16. dxe5 Bxe5 {this move I found curious...the dark Bishop could have been more useful in a position that is opening. I don't necessarily think it is bad though.} 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. f3 {I thought it was more important to close off the d1-h5 diagonal & provide additional protection to the f3-square. I figured that if I can stop Black's attack, his position will fall due to his lack of king security.} bxc3 19. Qxc3 Be6 20. Rfc1 Bxb3 21. Nxb3 Rg8 22. Kf1 (22. Bxh6 $4 Qh3 {where black threates checkmate & the bishop. Even if ...Qh3 is not immediately available, why would you want to open lines to your king?}) 22... Qe6 23. Rc2 h5 24. Bd4 Nd7 25. Rac1 c5 26. Bf2 Qg6 27. Bh4 {The interesting thing here is that there are no g-file penetration points.} Nc6 28. Rd2 Nde5 29. Nxc5 {ripping open the center was worth it for the material sacrifice.} dxc5 30. Qxc5 Rc8 $4 {[#]} (30... f6 {to blunt the Bishop's range may have been better, but I still think Black has big difficulties here.}) 31. Qxe5+ (31. Qe7+ Nxe7 32. Rxc8+ Nxc8 33. Rd8# {is even faster}) 31... Kf8 (31... Nxe5 32. Rxc8#) (31... Qe6 32. Rxc6 Rxc6 (32... Qxe5 33. Rxc8#) 33. Rd8#) 32. Rxc6 Qxc6 (32... Rxc6 33. Rd8#) (32... f6 33. Rxf6+ (33. Rxc8+ Kg7 (33... Kf7 34. Rd7#) 34. Rd7+ Kh6 35. Qf4+ Qg5 36. Bxg5+ Rxg5 (36... Kg6 37. Qxf6#) (36... fxg5 37. Qf6+ Rg6 38. Rh8#) 37. Qxf6+ Rg6 38. Rh8#) 33... Kg7 34. Rd7+ Qf7 35. Rdxf7+ Kh8 36. Rh6#) 33. Be7+ Ke8 34. Bd6+ (34. Bd6+ Kd7 35. Qe7#) 1-0

The tournament was run really well.  The time control of G/45 +10 second increment was a little fast for my liking.  Every round started on time, & we were done by around 6 or 630pm, which isn't bad.  I am personally not a fan of having lunch after Round 1 when you still have 3 games left to play.  I prefer lunch after Round 2.  I noticed this because the pizza place (which I ended up going to the next day & loving it.  It is called By the Fire Pizza) wasn't open until 12pm & my Round 1 game ended around 1130 am or so.  Not wanting to delay lunch, I drove out to get something.  If & when I do get to play here again, I would probably eat lunch after Round 2 so I only have two rounds left after eating.

I had initially planned to eat at the pizza place after the tournament, but the TD staff invited me to eat somewhere else.  I knew I would be eating by myself on Sunday, so I accepted the invitation & enjoyed a good dinner with the TD staff.  It was nice to find out the reasoning for how they set up the tournament: they are 2 hours away from everyone in South Carolina, so 10:30am or so was their preferred time to get everyone in.  They figured that Round 1 would finish around 12pm so a quick break for lunch would be then.  By finishing around 6 or 630pm, everyone can go to dinner & go home & be at home by 10pm.

They also asked some questions about my tournament experience & things I liked about their tournament & didn't like.  The one thing I found weird was the lighting in the playing room.  When I faced inward, I had to wear my sunglasses because the lights were doing strange things to my eyes.  When I was facing the parking lot I did not have this problem.  One thing I forgot to tell them was I loved the fact that parking was free.  (It is in a shopping center, but paid parking is sprouting up in lots of places - go see Willowbrook Mall in NJ where they just introduced paid parking).  As a chess player, crossfit enthusiast, & former ultimate frisbee player, I do not like paying for parking, & when I have to pay for parking, I don't like paying more than $1 or $2 per hour for parking.  

I decided for Sunday that I would drive to Charleston & spend some time there.  I knew that there was a marker in Summerville for Mason, the World's largest sweet tea.

After finding the world's largest sweet tea (2,524 gallons is really impressive, dated 6/10/16), I continued driving over to Charleston.

I found the Robert Smalls marker.

and then the Pineapple fountain

I bought some moonpies nearby (hoping to give one or two to my youngest fan)

Disclaimer: this picture was taken after I got home, but these are some of the snacks I bought.

After finding the Gateway Walk, I walked up to the Charleston Market.  Fun place, lots of shops, some indoors with air conditioning & some outdoors.

Some Benne Wafers from the Charleston Market

And I bought biscuits from Callie's Hot Little Biscuit.

Buttermilk, Cinnamon (Top), & Country Ham (Bottom Right)

King Street is a pedestrian street every second Sunday, so I walked up King Street, stopping to eat sliders & drink water with a few strangers & then continued walking until I got to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

Double Dough & Milkiest Chocolate

Paying for parking - it was an adventure.  I parked on the street in the residential area (looking for rainbow row unsuccessfully before finding Robert Smalls marker & the pineapple fountain) as the sign said the parking permit was only required mondays through fridays.  When I went to try to park closer to the action, only paid parking was available, & the king street closure wasn't considered by google maps so I had to ad-lib in an unfamiliar city.  The first two lots I found were full & the third lot said $17 for an hour.  Yeah no.  I lucked out & found a parking garage near King & Queen Streets. When I went to pay for the parking, which was supposed to be $11 for only 3 hours & 19 minutes, the machine wouldn't take either credit card I had!  I called the attendant.  Attendant restarted the machine, still no processing.  Eventually, I think the attendant lifted the gate & I ended up not paying for parking as I don't see the parking charge on my credit card transactions.  

I have been sensitive to parking charges ever since I got charged $45 a night in Cheesesteak City (remember, no true Giants fan ever calls Philadelphia the city of brotherly love, & Philadelphia Cream Cheese is actually made in New York so I don't call it cream cheese city anymore) at a hotel I stayed at 10+ years ago (might be more, I think it was 2010) for the Liberty Open (chess) & it got heightened even more after American Dream tried to charge me $57 instead of $5 last year while attending Vitruvian Games.  Paying for parking more than $2 an hour to signals a very expensive place that I want no part of being in.  I would rather walk a half mile (or even a mile if there are no known issues in the neighborhood) to park for free rather than pay over $2 per hour.  (Especially true in Westfield - I park in the train station parking lot where parking is free & cross underneath the train station to go to Yestercades & other places.)  My plan is typically to stay 3 or 4 hours, walk around, do stuff, & then leave.  I don't think paying more than $10 for parking entices me to come or come back. (Yes, I understand this thinking may upset some other transportation professionals & planners, but as a lot of the chess, crossfit, & other things I do are not typically located in downtown areas, I am used to free parking for the majority of my things I do.)

As I was entering my car to go back to Columbia, I realized that I had not taken a picture of the sweet tea mural in Summerville, so I drove back to Summerville, and took a picture of the mural.

As I was entering my car, I noticed another couple driving in looking for the mural.  (I knew they were looking for the mural because the businesses of this building were closed).  I just pointed around the corner of the building & they thanked me & found it.

After the mural, I drove back to Columbia & ate at By the Fire Pizza, the pizza place that I wanted to eat at on Saturday but couldn't do so.

Hawaiian Pizza, Mozarella Sticks, & Sweet Iced Tea

I like the fact that Columbia Chess Club & By The Fire Pizza seem to have a good relationship.  There is actually a chessboard table in the restaurant, & a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade machine as well.  I believe this to be a local, family owned & operated restaurant, & the food I ate was good.  I hope more people & more chess players eat here in the future.

8/12/26 update: I forgot to mention traveling tip: The Airport (CAE) felt like a ghost town when I got there.  I am so used to an airport being busy, but there were so few people there that I thought only Missoula had fewer people in the airport. End 8/12/26 update

And that ends State No. 46 for #fiftystatesofchess.  I believe you will see State No. 47 & 48 soon, so keep your eyes out.

State No. 45 - Kentucky

I learned of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park from comedian Ariel Elias last year, & did not regret making the sightseeing visit one bit.  Located a little more than an hour driving south of Louisville, I drove to Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park & then the actual location of the cabin he lived in for parts of his early life, the Boyhood Home at Knob Creek Unit.

When they built the main national historic park site in the early 1900s, they placed inside the memorial building the symbolic birth cabin.  While they thought it was the actual cabin, researchers eventually were  able to prove it was not the actual log cabin he was born in.

Note: 56 steps, his age when he was assassinated.

Sinking Spring, where Lincoln probably took his first water.

The cabin originally thought to be the boyhood home.

There's a game younger visitors can play (seen at the visitor center) as they learn more about Lincoln's path to the presidency.

From Ages 2 - 8, he lived in a log cabin near Knob Creek.  I actually made the drive up to the Knob Creek Tavern Visitor Center (15 minutes).  Hattie Howell Howard along with her husband Chester purchased the Knob Creek Farm in 1928 & wanted to preserve the land & share stories of Lincoln's early years.  They built the tavern in 1933 to serve the growing number of tourists.

Knob Creek Tavern Visitor Center

 A Cabin constructed from logs of the original Gollaher cabin.  It is believed that Austin Gollaher once saved Abraham Lincoln from drowining in his youth.

Two Abraham Lincoln Headbust statues.  I drove over to a nearby town to see the full statues.

Abraham Lincoln Statue, Lincoln Square, Hodgenville, Kentucky

Younger Abraham Lincoln Statue, Lincoln Square, Hodgenville, Kentucky

After taking some time to address a potential medical issue, I eventually made my way the Big Four Bridge connecting Indiana & Kentucky.  

Looking east of the Big Four Bridge

Looking west of the Big Four Bridge

During my trip, I ate Burgoo (A hearty stew of at least 2 varying meats & various vegetables) multiple times & pulled pork.  I loved them both!

Burgoo, Rubbies Southside Grill & Bar

Burgoo & Pulled Pork Sandwich, Feast BBQ

My chess playing was random.  I had 3 draws, a 4th round loss, & a last round win.  I fought hard, but overall my opponents had significant winning chances in each of the first 4 rounds.  

I have decided to show my last two rounds because it featured me playing an opening setup I do not believe I have ever played over the board in my career (a double queen pawn opening without c4) as White.  I am still trying to work out the kinks in this setup, but going 1 out of 2 versus higher rated opponents can't be too bad. To switch between the two games, just click on games within the chessbase window.

[Event "Kentucky Open"] [Site "Louisville, KY"] [Date "2026.06.07"] [Round "4"] [White "Chen, Kevin E."] [Black "Herschler, Brad A."] [Result "0-1"] [Annotator "Chen,Kevin E."] [ECO "D02"] [WhiteElo "1857"] [BlackElo "1877"] [PlyCount "72"] [EventDate "2026.06.06"] [EventType "team-swiss"] [EventRounds "5"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceVersionDate "2026.02.28"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. c3 Qb6 ({My Round 5 game was a miniature} 5... e6 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. Bxd6 Qxd6 8. O-O O-O 9. Nbd2 cxd4 10. exd4 b6 11. Re1 Nd7 12. Qe2 f6 13. Qxe6+ {1-0.}) 6. Qb3 c4 {I didn't see this variation much in the online blitz experimentations I tried & was caught unaware.} 7. Qxb6 axb6 8. Nbd2 Bf5 9. Be2 {this position is terribly cramping & I have to do a better job of opening up the middle to stop this.} h6 10. O-O b5 11. a3 e6 12. h3 Be7 13. Ne5 O-O 14. Rfe1 g5 15. Bh2 Nxe5 16. Bxe5 Nd7 17. Bg3 Nb6 18. f3 ({Stockfish 18:} 18. Bf3 Na4 19. Ra2 f6 20. e4 dxe4 21. Nxe4 Rfd8 22. Bh2 Bg6 23. Ng3 e5 24. Bxb7 Ra7 25. Bc6 exd4 26. Bxb5 dxc3 27. Bxc4+ Kg7 28. bxc3 Nxc3 29. Raa1 Bc5 30. Kh1 Bxf2 31. Rf1 Bd4 32. Bg1 Re7 33. Bxd4 Rxd4 34. Ba6 Ra4 35. Bc8 h5 36. Rf3 {-0.11/29}) 18... Ra6 19. e4 Bg6 20. exd5 {I considered the first few moves of the Sotckfish 18 Variation below, but I thought I was very passive & didn't explore further.} ({Stockfish 18:} 20. Rab1 f5 21. Bd1 f4 22. Bf2 Na4 23. Bc2 h5 24. g3 Rf7 25. Re2 Rg7 26. Be1 Ra8 27. Nf1 Kf7 28. b3 Nb6 29. bxc4 dxe4 30. Bxe4 Bxe4 31. fxe4 Nxc4 32. Rxb5 Rxa3 33. Rxb7 f3 34. Rc2 g4 35. hxg4 hxg4 36. Rc7 Nd6 {-0.35/29}) 20... Nxd5 (20... exd5 21. Bxc4 {wins a pawn due to the discovery on the unguarded Bishop.} dxc4 (21... Nxc4 22. Nxc4 {is even better for me as I eliminate his Knight.}) 22. Rxe7) 21. Rac1 f5 {My opponent admitted he thought this move was risky, but we both agreed that the e6 pawn is only truly weak if I can get to it, which I ended up failing to do.} 22. Be5 g4 23. Nf1 (23. g3 gxh3 24. Kh2 {was probably better, trying to keep my pawns connected & control of key squares.}) 23... gxh3 24. gxh3 f4 25. Bd1 Bd3 26. Bc2 Bh4 {I realized that I was dropping an exchange & tried to make the best of it.} 27. Re4 Bxe4 28. Bxe4 Bf6 29. Bxd5 exd5 30. Bxf6 Rfxf6 31. Nh2 Rg6+ 32. Kf2 h5 {this superb prophylactic move prevents my knight from ever entering this game.} 33. Nf1 Kf7 34. Re1 Rae6 35. Rxe6 Kxe6 36. h4 Kd6 {Zugzwang. The Rook eventually penetrates to g3 or g2.} 0-1

[Event "Kentucky Open"] [Site "Louisville, KY"] [Date "2026.06.07"] [Round "5"] [White "Chen, Kevin E."] [Black "Johnson, Michael C."] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Chen,Kevin E."] [ECO "B13"] [WhiteElo "1857"] [BlackElo "1900"] [PlyCount "25"] [EventDate "2026.06.06"] [EventType "team-swiss"] [EventRounds "5"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceVersionDate "2026.02.28"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. c3 e6 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. Bxd6 Qxd6 8. O-O O-O 9. Nbd2 cxd4 10. exd4 b6 11. Re1 Nd7 12. Qe2 f6 $2 13. Qxe6+ {I actually looked for three minutes before taking the e6 pawn as I was shocked. I was even more shocked when he resigned.} (13. Qxe6+ Qxe6 14. Rxe6 Nde5 {was what I expected.}) 1-0

The tournament was run pretty well.  Daro Mott picked a pretty good site with free parking & a pretty good building.  The air conditioning on the playing room unfortunately was broken on Sunday, so the room was pretty hot and I know I spent more time outside the playing room than in it.  I did think the room was a bit cramped & there could have been more room in between the chess playing tables.  I do definitely want to come back if get a chance.

In a refreshing throwback, there were two people on site selling chess items - books, clocks, special chess items, shirts, etc.  You rarely see that nowadays as there aren't a lot of people buying chess stuff at tournaments any more, so I made sure to buy two things - a tournament t-shirt & a new chess tie.

The Main Room for the Open Section.

Chess Store on site!

Tournament Shirt

New Chess Tie

And finally here are the updated #fiftystatesofchessmaps (I used mapchart.net to create these, been doing so since the 2010s)

I think that does it for Kentucky.  The rest of the pictures (including selfies) will be posted on my instagram.

State No. 44 - Rhode Island

So, on this trip, I drove up to Rhode Island.  Along the way, I stopped by the Merritt Parkway Museum & the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

The Merritt Parkway Museum is a free museum located in a multiple-office building.  They have lots of pictures, artworks, & descriptions of the history of the Merritt Parkway, how it was built, and other interesting topics. The Merritt Parkway itself is on the National Register of Historic Places.

As many people driving from the New York Areas to the New England Areas may have discovered, the Merritt Parkway is an interesting highway with lots of great views of the countryside while one drives (hopefully legally) along.  The Merritt Parkway has just two lanes of traffic in each direction & no trucks allowed as the bridges have lower height clearances & there are quite a few horizontal & vertical curves throughout this roadway.

Interesting that there was a Mr. First character.

The Merritt Parkway has significance to me as I have used it several times in my driving trips to the New England region & I always enjoyed this part of the trip on sunny days.

After the Merritt Parkway, I transferred over to I-95 & saw a billboard for the Pez Visitor Center.  Since I had a late start, I calculated that I did not have time to take this detour, which is unfortunate. I do like Pez candy & I do have a Yoshi Pez dispenser that doesn't get enough use.  I would love to visit this at some point one day.  Maybe on my trip to New Hampshire or if I go back to Rhode Island at some point in the future.

After eating at Mystic Diner, it took me roughly another hour of driving to reach the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  It seems to me only street parking is available for this place.  

I have played & watched quite a bit of tennis throughout my life, so it was fun to go through the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  I got to see different racquets, different cans of tennis balls, & other interesting facts & memorabilia, even of players I hears but didn't get to see play & players I was too young to remember that I saw play.

It is December, so no one is playing tennis outdoors in temperatures this cold.

Army Tennis Ball Can

Had to take a picture of cultural Tennis crossover references with Daffy Duck & Donald Duck

Wall of Tennis Ball Cans.

I got to watch a few favorite tennis moments as well as tennis moments I didn't remember.

Bob & Mike Bryan

Bob & Mike Bryan items.

I shared some other pictures from the ITHOF on my instagram post here.

I did take pictures of a state route sign in Rhode Island.  They pattern their state route signs with an R.I. on the top.

The tournament on Saturday was held at the New England Institute of Technology, East Greenwich Campus in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.  It was a beautiful venue with lots of free parking, & the tournament was well organized by Frank DelBonis.  The rounds were pretty much mostly on time (printer issue Round 1), the open section had only one board per table in the top ten plus boards, & equipment was provided for all of the open section & most of the U1600 section that I could see.  Spectating was not allowed, so if you finished your game you have to leave the playing room.  They did have at least one skittles room & multiple parent rooms around.  (And yes, I was amused that one parent thought I had a kid playing in the tournament.)

I ran into some personal issues the night before & morning of the tournament, so my play wasn't as sharp as it could have been.  (You can see it even in my two wins.)  I lost to a 2007, then beat a 1399 & 1338 before losing to an 1896.  As of the writing of this paragraph, I do not know how my 1867 rating will be affected.  I do sincerely doubt that I won a prize, so I marked the chess maps accordingly.

Chess Map of the 44 States I have Played in So Far

Chess Map of my Win Loss Records per State

I am going to show my second round game because I think it shows a basic theme that is helpful to know when first starting to play.

[Event "2025 Rhode Island State Championship"] [Site "West Warwick, RI"] [Date "2025.12.13"] [Round "2"] [White "Chen, Kevin E."] [Black "Kumar, Dhanath Prem"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Chen,Kevin E."] [ECO "A40"] [WhiteElo "1867"] [BlackElo "1399"] [PlyCount "61"] [EventDate "2025.12.13"] [EventType "swiss (rapid)"] [EventRounds "4"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceVersionDate "2025.01.14"] 1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 4. Nc3 Nxe5 5. e4 c6 6. Be2 Nf6 7. O-O g6 8. Bf4 Nxf3+ 9. Bxf3 Qb4 10. Rb1 d5 $4 {[#] It's very dangerous to open the center when behind in development & still uncastled.} 11. exd5 (11. Be5 {is another option if you didn't think the mating attack would be decisive.} Bg7 12. exd5 O-O (12... cxd5 13. Nxd5 Nxd5 14. Bxg7 {& Black can't be having fun here.}) 13. dxc6 bxc6 14. Bxc6 (14. Bd6)) 11... Qxf4 12. Re1+ {While the engine thinks the capture is more likely to win than the check, defending perfectly is still difficult.} ({Stockfish 16:} 12. dxc6 Be6 13. cxb7 Rb8 14. Bc6+ Ke7 15. g3 Qb4 16. Qf3 h5 17. a3 Qa5 18. Rfd1 Bh6 19. Nb5 a6 20. b4 Qb6 21. Nc3 Rhd8 22. Na4 Qc7 23. Nc5 Ng4 24. Nxa6 Qb6 25. Nxb8 Rxb8 26. c4 Ne5 27. Qe4 Nxc6 28. Rd6 Qxb7 29. Rxc6 Qd7 30. b5 Bg7 31. c5 Kf8 32. Rd6 Qc8 33. Rbd1 Bg4 {2.31/34}) 12... Kd7 (12... Be6 13. dxe6 Be7 14. exf7+ Kxf7) (12... Be7 13. d6 Be6 14. dxe7 Kxe7) 13. dxc6+ {It was so much fun to play this double check.} Kc7 14. Nd5+ {Evidence #1 of imperfect play.} ({Better was} 14. Nb5+ Kb8 (14... Kb6 15. Qd8+ {I missed this move when considering 14. Nb5+} Ka6 (15... Kc5 16. b4+ Kxb5 (16... Kc4 17. Qd3#) 17. a4+ Kxa4 (17... Kc4 18. Qd3#) (17... Ka6 18. Qa5#) 18. Qa5#) (15... Kxb5 16. a4+ Kxa4 17. Ra1+ Kb4 18. Qa5+ Kc4 19. Ra4+ Bb4 20. Rxb4#) 16. Nc7+ Ka5 17. Ne6+ b6 18. Nxf4 {& Black's King will succumb to mate soon.}) 15. c7+ Qxc7 16. Nxc7 Kxc7) 14... Nxd5 15. Qxd5 Bd6 $4 {I saw instantly that if I can separate the Queen from the d6-Bishop that I could win it outright.} 16. g3 Qf5 17. cxb7 Rb8 (17... Qxd5 18. bxa8=Q Qxa8 19. Bxa8 Be6 20. Bf3) (17... Bxb7 18. Qxb7+ Kd8 19. Qxa8+ Qc8 20. Qd5) 18. Qc6+ Kd8 19. bxc8=Q+ Rxc8 20. Qxd6+ Qd7 21. Qf6+ Kc7 22. Re7 Rhd8 23. Rxd7+ (23. Rd1 {Evidence #2 of imperfect play. I just forgot that I can achieve multiple objectives of brining the last piece into the game & piling on the pinned Queen.}) 23... Rxd7 24. Bg4 Rd6 25. Qxf7+ Kc6 26. Bxc8 g5 27. Re1 h6 28. Re3 {I thought at the time that I needed a Rook move on the third rank.} g4 29. Qb7+ Kc5 30. Re5+ Kd4 31. Qe4# 1-0

I also want to showcase something about trade offers & zwischenzug from my Round 3 game that I think you would enjoy. 

Now remember, just because you are offered a trade, doesn't mean you automatically accept it.  

In this first diagram, I wanted to trade light bishops so he doesn't have two Bishops, my pawns aren't in the way of my light Bishop, & I have greater chances of trying to control the e4 square.  However, I don't want to develop his Queen to g4 threatening Qxg7 mate. 

Round 3 - White played 10. Bg4, trying to trade light square Bishops.

So I played 10. ...Qd7, getting my Queen to f5 if he trades Bishops, which he eventually did after 11. Ne5 Qe6 12. Bxf5 Qxf5.

After 10. ...Qd7, White eventually trades Bishops & my Queen gets to f5.

In this third diagram, White played 20. Bd2 trying to trade all the Rooks.  I am not required to trade the Rooks, so I opt to improve my position instead.

Round 3 - After 20. Bd2 trying to trade Rooks.

I instead play 20. ...Re2!  Now, I can't take the Bishop because the Rook on e8 is exposed.  However, I am threatening to double up on the second rank with 21. ... Qxc2.  He can't guard the c2-pawn because it hangs the Bishop.

After 20. ...Re2! White can't guard the c2-pawn without losing his Bishop.

It was fun sharing experiences & stories with both TD staff & other players.  There was at least one person there who was at the tournament for his 9th state, & Frank told me someone (I forgot who & don't want to get the name wrong from bad memory) finished his 50th state in Rhode Island.  

Now, there was a shooting at Brown University that Frank learned about during the last round of the tournament.  Frank did a great job of keeping everyone calm while informing us of the situation, telling us that he contacted security & that they secured the building, & that everyone was able to watch the award ceremony after the last round.

Normally, I would like to stay for the award ceremony after the tournament if circumstances allow.  However, I had a personal issue which necessitated me leaving & there was a snowstorm expected to hit New Jersey at around 10pm.  I thanked Frank for hosting the tournament & explained to him that I had to leave for reasons not related to the situation at Brown University.

The drive home was interesting.  I decided to put some gas in my car, just in case there was a detour I needed to take.  While it ended up being possible for me to delay a gas station trip until returning to New Jersey, I did the prudent thing & put gas just in case.  By the way, my out of state rant on gas stations continues: New Jersey gets it right.  I really hated going out of my car to go inside the convenience store just to pay for gas in cash.  Luckily, there were no food thieves of parents scolding kids for incorrect purchases like there were in my last trip in New Mexico, so I was able to gas up & leave the gas station without incident.

I tuned my phone somehow to listen to the Knicks vs Magic NBA Cup Semifinal game on my rental car's radio & listened to that as I drove back.  I made it all the way to the northernmost service area on the Garden State Parkway before taking a break.  After I decided to leave, I noticed it had started snowing so I took a detour to Applegate Farms so I could notch another winter of eating ice cream or milkshakes during a snowstorm.  (I don't know how many times I have done this, but it's fun to stand outside eating ice cream or drinking milkshakes while snow is falling.)

Frozen Hot Chocolate Ice Cream with Hot Fudge while the snow is falling.

I made it safely home shortly after the ice cream stop, & that concludes the post for State No. 44 for #fiftystatesofchess