Day 0 Extended will cover Sunday & Monday. Day 1 covers Tuesday.
I flew down Sunday morning, & the rest of the family (parents, sister) flew down Sunday evening.
We went to both parks at Universal, including Islands of Adventure. The experience was amazing, I hit most of the places & rides I wanted to do for Wizarding World of Harry Potter, with a bonus Hulk at the beginning & Men In Black after lunch. I really loved the Hogwarts ride, & the Honeydukes/Zonko's shop, as evidenced by the treats I purchased.
Selected pictures will be uploaded when I return home.
Day 1
I went out to CrossFit Kingspoint in Orlando, their original 8,000 square foot location with my sister via cab for the 9 am class. Coach Roy was excellent in demonstrating specific improvements that we each needed to do.
The workout today was 5 sets of 3 pull ups for the strength portion, followed by a 21-15-9 for time of Front Squats (115/75 pounds) & Pull ups.
At the moment, I can only do the blue band during the WOD. However, I did challenge myself on the last three strength sets on the red band & found that I could do them. I also did three attempts at the unassisted pull up. My arms did tire & I had to switch to the ring rows at the end of the second set of the WOD, where I used 95 lbs for the front squat.
After lunch, my parents, sister, & I walked around for a little bit & then walked back to the hotel.
I took a nap & then felt nervous when I woke up. I wanted to go out to eat for dinner, but the weather did not cooperate, sending cats & dogs down three times. So I bought a salad at the hotel deli. Needless to say it was cold & awful. So, I bought two cliff bars expecting to eat them during the game.
On my way to the tournament room, I spot the T-shirt seller. I see my name on the roster & ask for a medium shirt with a front logo & the roster in the back. She is skeptical at first, but I took off my jacket & she remarked that the jacket made me look bigger than I actually was.
After getting my orange shirt, I put my jacket back on & head to the tournament room. For the uninitiated, tournament rooms are typically cold with the air-conditioning running at or close to maximum power. Over the years, I have found wearing a jacket or zipper sweater to be the most useful.
I look at my pairing & the rating difference is over 600/points lower. I'm a little nervous because there is some added pressure to win with a big rating gap.
What is interesting about the US Open is that the organizers provide the boards & sets. Usually in the US, players have to bring all of their own equipment. However, here, you only have to bring the clock & your score keeping device!
My opponent transposes on the third move to a Queen's Gambit Declined, where I expected the NimzoIndian. I traded off my dark Bishop early, but I was able to play Nge2 & castle. After trading his last knight, he plays the anti-positional ...b5, ensuring that I have permanent control over c5 since his dark Bishop can't push the knight out, while the eventual trade leaves my Rook unopposed.
He tried to advance on the Queenside, but I stopped that with a4, knowing that a pawn trade invites my light bishop to hit the c6 pawn. Playing b4 ends the Queenside counter advance & allows me to play vs the c6 pawn & or the king.
I end up lining the Queen & Rook on the 5th rank to snatch the a5-pawn. When I relined my Queen & remaining Rook on the fifth rank, he sacrificed another pawn to separate my heavy pieces. Fortunately, he used his kingside pawn cover & I started thinking of ways to checkmate him. I used a simple linear mate & did it on move 34.
Full game score will be provided at a later date.
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