First off, the link to the tip photos are above. Second, the pgn display of the third round game is above.
The tournament was pretty fun. I got to the University of Utah around four hours before the start of the tournament, so I did some random stuff & walked around campus a bit. The tournament had a slightly rough beginning with room conflicts & people searching for the playing rooms, but overall, I thought the tournament was run acceptably. They used SwissSys for the pairings (I got a glimpse of the laptop while waiting for one of the rounds), which is also used in New York but not in New Jersey. NJ uses WinTD. What was strange for me was the open section finished before the other sections did.
There were roughly 27 players in the Open Section. For NJ players, this may seem small, but one has to remember that there aren't that many chess players in Utah, either.
My round results in order were loss, win, win, draw, & win. The person I lost to in Round 1 ended up jumping from B-player to A-player at the end of the tournament. My last opponent was at the 2014 US Open for one of the invitational tournaments (Denker?) & hopes to come back in Phoenix next year.
The Utah Chess Association was pretty nice. Gina kept in constant contact with me as I was setting up this trip, & Grant the Chief TD was solid. I won a trophy & some cash for my efforts as the top U2000 player.
So the tournament ended on Saturday, & I planned to use Sunday to go sightseeing in Salt Lake City. This did not work out too well. I did go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performance at Temple Square, & then I walked over to the Cathedral of the Madeleine. However, I opted to take lunch after the mass, which was a mistake. I ended up walking between an 60-90 minutes since most of the places I considered going to for food were closed or dodgy. Interestingly, between the Cathedral & Dim Sum House, you could count on 4 hands or less the number of people walking around. I thought I was in a ghost town rather than a big city.
I went to Dim Sum House, & Dim Sum was still open. However, since I was by myself, I ate a little too much & had to go back to the hotel. By the time I was done in the hotel, it was past 4pm Mountain Time & just not worth it to get to the Capitol Building, which closes at 6pm Mountain Time.
Side note on weather: Friday & Saturday, according to the locals, was 3 degrees higher than the previous record high. Wearing a sweater & the New York Giants jacket was a clear mistake.
So, on Monday, I had to travel home with the trophy. I get to the airport early, & ask the ticket agent if I was allowed to carry the trophy onto the plane. She redirects me to the TSA staff 100 feet to her right. They give me the okay on the trophy, & I'm in business. The flight path going home included a connecting stop in Dallas Fort-Worth. When I stopped in DFW, the odd thing about this airport was that there were not one, but two Dallas Cowboys apparel stores in Terminal C. I don't think I have seen even one sports apparel store in an airport before, & I see two of a rival team in one place. Luckily, at least 13 people between the first two airports stopped to ask questions or comment on the trophy, which drew attention away from the fact that I was wearing my Giants jacket so I didn't have to hold it. When I got to the final airport, I told my dad picking me up, "I'm holding my trophy. You shouldn't have a hard time finding me - I don't think there will be any other trophies visible at the airport."
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