State No. 47 - Alaska + The Bonus Trip

So, my 47th different state that I played a chess tournament in was Alaska.  I gotta say, airline flight patterns are strange...how else do you explain a flight going Newark to Anchorage via Dallas??

Normally, I would fly into a new state on Thursday, do the sightseeing before the tournament, & play in the tournament before flying either home or to the next destination.  However, due to New York Comic Con being on Thursday, I ended up flying to Alaska on Friday.

I got to Alaska...& it was warmer than expected.  The temperature was generally in the 40s & the snow hadn't hit yet in Anchorage.  The tournament was held at the Lakefront Anchorage, but since I was staying an extra night to do sightseeing, it was cheaper for me to stay at a Marriott a few miles away.

A strange thing happened when I got to the tournament.  Apparently I did not pay my entry fee previously.  So when I registered in February, there wasn't a link to pay, but I kept forgetting about it & I missed all the windows to pay reduced entry fees, because I kept thinking that I already did because I registered.  Ultimately, it is my own fault for not double checking that.  However, in the future, all tournament organizers should have the payments options ready when tournament registration opens.

Once I paid the tournament fee, I checked out the main tournament room.  It was a really nice setup.  See the sixth picture in this instagram post. The rows were spaced nicely & there were only 4 boards to combination tables.  The top board in the open section had the privilege of playing on a DGT board, which allowed the game to be broadcast live.

The bottom picture was a scoresheet for beginners I noticed.  This looks like a fun scoresheet for beginners to use in their first tournament.

In talking to the players, the players play a lot online, mostly because it is hard to invite players from other states.  I hope other players get to come up and visit.  Alaska players have chess.com ratings (I also play on chess.com, thekecmaster) that are higher than their over the board.  Now, this has been increasingly common over the last several years, but the difference here feels like it is higher than most other places.  Almost everyone I talked to here has chess.com ratings that seem significantly higher than their over the board ratings, like 700-800 rating points higher.  For comparison, my chess.com rating is lower than my over the board rating, so I find this comparison interesting and amusing.

Speaking of ratings, I found out before my trip that I was the top-rated player in the tournament, & there were no late entries that affected that status.  So I ended up playing on Board 1 three times, Round 1, Round 2, & Round 6.

The tournament was well run, the TD staff was very organized, & every round was pretty much run on time.

In my Round 1 game, my opponent was right to be fearful of ...Nb4, but his f4 bishop was the more immediate issue.  After 11. a3? (11. Bg3 & 11. exf6 were both better) I grabbed two pieces for the Rook with 11. ...fxe5 12. Bxe5 Rxf3! 13. Qxf3 Nxe5.

I eventually won once all the pieces pointed at the king.

There's no safe squares for White's Queen to save herself & guard against ...Qxc2#

There was something weird that happened in Round 2.  After dropping the exchange 27. R1xd4 cxd4 28. Rxd4

Someone's cell phone went off with an ESPN Update Ringtone!  I immediately thought of the mid-2000s ESPN Ad where Seahawks RB Shaun Alexander slips in his kitchen & falls down, and then you hear the voice of John Clayton saying, "Breaking news, Shaun Alexander is questionable with a foot injury."  The ad concluded with Shaun Alexander ducking beneath his counter & looking around to see how they knew about his slip so quickly.

I survived this position after my opponent botched a chance to set up a double rook linear mate & forced a repetition of position, securing a Round 2 draw.

I won Round 3 by winning an exchange after exposing the c-file & my doubled rooks. (23. Rec1 was a mistake, almost any reasonable other move should be okay, though he is two pawns down.)

Round 4 I won, but I did see an interesting trap that would have caught many players off guard, especially if playing too quickly.

you have to play 49. a3!, forcing Black's King to go the long way to eat the queenside pawns.  After 49. ...Kc5 50. Kxf6 Kd4 51. b4 axb4 52. axb4, he resigned.

In Round 5, my opponent in a rough position cut off his back rank defense (25. ... Nd6-c8??) & allowed a winning deflection (26. Nc5-a4!).

There's no way to save the Queen & stop 27. Rd8#

So the stage was set for Round 6.  My opponent was playing very well (+189 on his rating increase after this tournament!!), sitting at a perfect 5 points (out of the previous 5 rounds) & I was the only 4.5 point player.  Winner wins the tournament, & if a draw occurs, he wins the tournament outright.

[Event "2026 Alaska State Championship"] [Site "Anchorage, AK"] [Date "2026.10.11"] [Round "6"] [White "Molla, Mykyta"] [Black "Chen, Kevin E."] [Result "0-1"] [Annotator "Chen, Kevin E."] [ECO "C42"] [WhiteElo "1588"] [BlackElo "1857"] [PlyCount "52"] [EventDate "2026.10.10"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "6"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceVersionDate "2026.02.28"] {This was the perfect 5 score (White) vs the only 4.5 score (Black)} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Bb5 {I have not seen this move before, & my opponent admitted after the game that this may not have been so good.} O-O 5. O-O c6 {to deflect the Bishop to attackable squares.} 6. Ba4 Bxc3 7. bxc3 Nxe4 8. Re1 (8. Nxe5 $2 Qa5 {forking the two pieces.}) 8... Nc5 {no time to capture on e5 due to the hanging Bishop.} 9. Bb3 (9. Ba3 Nxa4 10. Bxf8 Qxf8 11. Nxe5 {is an unbalanced middle game but I think I prefer to play Black's position here. I did win a game earlier this tournament with the two pieces versus the Rook, so I would have had no problem here.}) 9... e4 10. Ba3 exf3 11. Bxc5 Qg5 {[#] Qxg2# & Qxc5} 12. Qxf3 Qxc5 13. Re8 {I played a similar game years ago where White had this & I eventually gave up my Queen for insufficient material.} d5 (13... Rxe8 $2 14. Qxf7+ Kh8 15. Qxe8+ Qf8 16. Qxf8#) (13... h6 14. Qxf7+ Kh8 15. Rxf8+) 14. Rae1 Be6 15. Rxf8+ Qxf8 (15... Kxf8 $4 16. Rxe6) 16. d3 Nd7 17. c4 dxc4 18. Bxc4 Bxc4 19. dxc4 Re8 {[#] I am fairly confident that the counterplay is rapidly disappearing now.} 20. Rb1 Qc5 21. h3 (21. Rxb7 $4 Re1#) 21... b6 22. Rd1 Nf6 23. Qf4 h6 {That was his last best chance. Now that the luft is created, I should be able to slowly improve my remaining pieces & trade heavies or attack the king} 24. g3 Qe7 25. Qd2 Qe2 26. Qd6 Ne4 (26... Ne4 27. Qd4 (27. Qd7 Qxf2+ 28. Kh1 Nxg3#) 27... Nxf2 28. Qxf2 (28. Rf1 Nxh3+ 29. Kh1 Qxf1+ 30. Kh2 (30. Qg1 Qxg1#) 30... Re2+ 31. Qf2 Rxf2#) (28. Ra1 Nxh3+ 29. Kh1 Qf3+ 30. Kh2 Re2+ 31. Kxh3 Qg2+ 32. Kh4 f5) 28... Qxd1+ 29. Kg2 Re2) 0-1

So, after my Round 6 game, I rushed back to my hotel to pick up an extra sweater for my northern lights tour scheduled after the tournament & then I went back to the Lakefront Anchorage.  It was fun to see the award ceremony (the first picture is me with the trophy) and see all the different trophies players earned, including the Alaska State Champion (the top playing Alaska Resident, which I am not eligible since I don't live in Alaska).

I went on the Northern Lights Tour that night (got picked up from the Lakefront Anchorage).  Parts of the sky were clear & we were able to see stars, but the part where the northern lights would have been visible from were obscured by clouds, so that was disappointing.

Next morning, I went on the glacier & wildlife tour, & that was a lot of fun.

After the glacier & wildlife, our driver took us to 

and we got some interesting views 

Warning: the Virgin Creek Falls Trail is narrow, & the lower level near the falls is hard to get to.  Only three of us max got to that lower level.

After the tour, a couple of people gave me a few additional suggestions, & I ended up eating at BEar Paw & Grill where I had Alaskan Meat Lovers Pizza (Reindeer Sausage, pepperoni, hamburger, mozzarella and marinara sauce.) It was delicious!!

Bonus food in Anchorage.  The tour guide & other visitors suggested Orso, which I had earlier in the trip with the alaskan salmon & the glacier brewhouse cream soda.  Fantastic food and drink!

Here are the updated maps for my journey

And that concludes State No. 47 - Alaska for #fiftystatesofchess!

I took the Bonus trip to Los Angeles after my adventures in Alaska. I will try to keep this brief.

After flying out of Anchorage, I flew to Los Angeles via Seattle. There was a medical issue with one of the passengers.  He fainted in the row opposite of me. The strange thing was, there were no medical personnel amongst the passengers, so the flight attendants were calling their respective offices to try to treat him.  They took him to another row where he laid down for the rest of the flight.  As I left the plane, I expressed my wishes that he gets better soon.  Last I heard, he was okay, just weak and clammy.

On Wednesday, I took a Lyft over to Super Nintendo World at Universal Hollywood.  On this visit, I purchased a Daisy band and played on Team Daisy.  Daisy is one of my favorite characters, having first been introduced to her on Mario Kart Double Dash, and I am hoping she gets her own game in the future.  (The Toads have their own game, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker) 

I knew I had to move fast, as the only way to earn a Princess Daisy crown in the hourly team competition was to do it in the morning before the ratio of Princess Daisy players to other players got huge.

Pardon the timestamp, I took the screenshot just now & the time shown is eastern standard time.  I actually earned this at 346pm that day

The disparity of Princess Daisy players is huge - I reached #1 early before being passed by the couple (1 & 2 overall were dating) and relegated to #3.  But even when I was #1 overall briefly, the next princess Daisy player was #18, & the next daisy player was in the #50s.  

I made sure to pick up a replacement Hogwarts hat.  I was initially looking for a Black Ravenclaw hat, but I didn't see it there, so I picked up a gray four house hogwarts hat that can also double as the backwards gray hat for Dry Bones for when I cosplay a variant of him based on the Koopa Troopas from Mario Kart Tour.

I was meeting up with my cousin for dinner, so in between Super Nintendo World & dinner, I walked part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame trying to get pictures of the stars I wanted to capture.  I also captured many more star square during the walk, so I didn't quite finish.  I am obviously not posting all 227 star squares I took pictures of, but I did find a few that I will post here.

MacCaulay Culkin

Angela Lansbury

Now, this is my third visit to LA, but this was the first time I took a Lyft & my driver acted in a movie I had seen - Legend of the White Dragon.  I thought that was pretty cool & it was fascinating to hear him talk about the acting industry.  I hope he does well and gets picked up for future projects.

I went on the WB Studio Tour the next day & saw a lot of fun things

Bat Signal

Superman Pretzel

Big Bang Theory set

Michael Jordan Tune Squad Uniform

Full House Facade

Friends Couch & Fountain

Looney Tunes Painting

WB Studio Tour Building

Triwizard Cup

I took a quick detour to Burbank High School. If you never watched the Victorious show, you'll see why I took a picture of the pillar structure below.

I walked through the Hollywood Walk of Fame to catch the squares I missed.

Pierce Brosnan

Bugs Bunny

Matt Damon

And that concludes the bonus trip!  Three states for #fiftystatesofchess left!

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.