The Chess Engineer: State No. 31

I apologize for this post being nearly a week late - I suffered some headaches on my day off between vacation & returning to work & was unable to finish the post until now. Any missing pictures may be on my instagram @thekecmaster.

After previewing the drive from NJ to Huntington West Virginia, & realizing that it could take as long as 11 hours driving (which is not something I originally wanted to do), I opted to fly into CVG (the airport near Cincinnati), visit a friend in Covington, Kentucky, & then make the 2.5+ hour drive to Huntington, West Virginia where the tournament was held.

In CVG, as I was making my way to the rental car counter, I noticed there were four decorative sidewalk slabs on display. I made my way over & realized that they were sidewalk slabs for the inaugural Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame! I hope that I can return to Cincinnati in the future to the Interactive Park on the Banks to see these walk of fame slabs there, but I considered myself very lucky that I got a chance to see these before installation. I know the second picture says Summer 2022, but unless they installed it since this picture was taken (September 8) or they install it before Fall starts this week, there may be a delay not anticipated when the explanation sign was posted.

Before I visited my friend in Covington, I drove around to the Roebling Statue & the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. You may remember that I briefly walked across this bridge (which is the prototype of the Brooklyn Bridge) from Cincinnati to Covington & back in the summer of 2016. I didn't know or notice at the time that there was a statute of John A. Roebling himself, so I walked over to it.

After visiting my friend, I drove down 2.5 hours southeast to Huntington, West Virginia. There were a few oddities in this drive, including double digit references to the Licking River &/or any bridges crossing this river, & 4-digit Kentucky state highways crossing Kentucky State Route 9. I remember longing for lunch so I tried to visit a random place in Augusta, KY but the interior smelled like cigarette smoke (the hostile stares by everyone inside & outside for no reason would also have been sufficient on their own to get me to leave*) so I walked out & drove to some random chain named Fazoli's in Maysville, KY.

*I don't know with 100 percent certainty if it was a racist incident, as no words were said. It should be noted that if that was a racist incident, it would not be the first time it happened to me, especially as an Asian man traveling the country. I just never previously talked in my blogposts about any of my racist incidents I have encountered. I bring it up now because the last hostile stare I received as I was getting back into my car induced a flashback to the most horrifying one 4.5 years ago. It took me quite a while timewise before I could calm down.*

After consuming spaghetti, meatballs, salad, apple juice (the soda machine didn't have the drinks I wanted), I resumed the journey.

Wild & Wonderful Welcome Sign, I-64 East Mile 10 Welcome Center

So, for my sightseeing portion of the trip, I went to New River Gorge National Park. This is about 2 hours southeast of Huntington, & the drive does have some sharp elevation curves as you get closer to the park. (Side note: How anyone can go the speed limit on those curves is beyond me. I definitely drove a few miles under the speed limit as I didn't want to crash or fall. That would be bad at a minimum.)

There are some interesting statistics about the New River Gorge Bridge, the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the U.S. It was the longest steel arch bridge in the world until 2003 with the construction of China’s Shanghai’s Lupu Bridge. (nps.gov)

Picture of the Bridge Dimensions found in the Canyon Rim Visitor Center.

Information Placard along the Fayette Station Road Path

The Height of 876 feet of the bridge was claimed to be high enough for the Statue of Liberty to stand twice above the Washington Monument with 20 feet to spare. I did some digging this afternoon on nps.gov to do some number checking (similar to what I occasionally do for the i80 Sports Basketball Talk Podcast) & found that with the Washington Monument 555 feet 5 1/8 inches tall & the Statue of Liberty from the top of the base to the top of the torch being 151 feet 1" tall, you get 857 feet + 7 & 1/8" tall, with the resulting spare room being slightly less than 20 feet (I guess 18 feet, 4 & 7/8"). This is still a dizzying height statistic, but you could easily modify this information placard to say just under 20 feet to spare for an improvement in accuracy.

(All measurements taken from nps.gov)

Another interesting statistic is that prior to the New River Bridge, it took 45 minutes (!!) to cross the New River along Fayette Station Road on the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge (more on this bridge in a moment). The New River Bridge was finished in 1977, prompting the closure of the other bridge until it was reopened to traffic in 1998.

So to take photos of the New River Gorge Bridge, there's a little wooden walkway that gives you views from the side of both the New River Gorge Bridge & the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge (the small silver color bridge). Then, you take your small car (road not suitable for large vehicles) through Fayette Station Road (Most of it one way). There are two parking lots past the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge that allow you to park so you can walk out & take pictures of the New River Gorge Bridge from the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge.

New River Gorge Bridge, View from the Wooden Walkway near the Canyon Rim Visitor Center.

Tunney Hunsaker Bridge, view from the Wooden Walkway

Warning sign that tells you that larger vehicles cannot take this road.

Unique No Parking Sign near Fayette Station Road

There is an audio tour while driving Fayette Station Road available for free. However, if you are going to listen to it, please download it before starting the driving tour. Once my connection cut out between the information placard & the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge, I could never get it back.

View of the New River on the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge on the opposite side of the New River Gorge Bridge

View of the New River Gorge Bridge from the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge

You may be wondering, "Why is the small bridge named after Tunney Hunsaker?" Tunney Hunsaker fought against Muhammad Ali in Ali's first professional boxing match. Hunsaker also became the Fayetteville police chief for 38 years & was the youngest police chief in state history.

After the New River Gorge National Park Visit, I drove back to Huntington to visit Kinfolk Fitness.

This is a good size location. Coach Kyle was pretty awesome & my workout partners were pretty good as well.

WOD for Sept. 9.

My partners were JR & Sam, so shoutout to both of you. JR & I went at the same time, & Sam followed second. We finished this at 16:14.

Interesting Rules of Engagement Posting

Apparently they share a building with media outlets.

Side Note: The state fruit of West Virginia is the golden delicious apple, my favorite. Unfortunately, all the good orchards mentioned in the travel sites are on the eastern edge of the state. If you are near enough to any of them, go during apple picking season.

Places I ate in Huntington:

Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe, Friday night. I liked the food, service was pretty good. Price may seem a little high, but I did order a fantastic dessert & enjoyed it.

Hall of Fame Cookie Dessert

Cam's Ham, Saturday after Round 1. Tried the Shaved Ham Sandwich off a recommendation from a local. It was okay. I am not sure I would eat it again, but that is strictly only because I don't know if I like shaved ham. It was made pretty well & I had zero stomach issues, so that was a plus.

Frostop Drive-In, Saturday after Round 2. Root Beer Float ain't bad, but I don't know how to rate it since I don't normally consume root beer floats.

Jim's Steak & Spaghetti House, Saturday after Round 3. Interesting place. Service was good, I would come back. With Marshall upsetting Notre Dame 26-21 earlier in the day, there were a lot of people wearing Marshall gear in plain sight.

Gino's Pizza & Spaghetti House, Sunday after Round 4. This place was highlighted on a quick map for the chess tournament players, maybe for walking distance. The pizza was okay, service was good.

I wanted to go to a Chinese place in the Downtown area after Sunday Round 5, but I didn't get any good vibes when the one I chose was not only empty, but they were already cleaning despite it only being 7:30pm with closing 2 hours away. I am disappointed looking back that I didn't try to find another place, but I was hungry & disappointed in thinking I did not win a prize. I ended up going back to Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe for kicks.

The West Virginia Chess Association ran a smooth tournament. Chief TD Craig Timmons kept all the rounds running on time, made everything clear for the players. No real hiccups during the tournament.

[Event "83rd WV Chess Championship"] [Site "Huntington, WV"] [Date "2022.09.11"] [Round "5"] [White "Robarts, Weston"] [Black "Chen, Kevin E."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E40"] [WhiteElo "1651"] [BlackElo "1800"] [Annotator "Chen,Kevin E."] [PlyCount "136"] [EventDate "2022.09.10"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "5"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceVersionDate "2022.03.05"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 d6 5. Bd3 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. O-O Bxc3 8. bxc3 e5 {I have been playing this ...d6 & ...e5 setup more often recently online, so I chose to test it out here.} 9. e4 b6 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bh4 Re8 12. Bc2 Ba6 {I remember in some Nimzoindian variations that Black puts pressure on the c4-pawn, but this is not the variation for it.} 13. Nd2 g5 {Without a Nxg5 sacrifice, I feel comfortable breaking the pin.} 14. Bg3 Kg7 15. h4 {I didn't like this move for White as I was preparing to swing my Rook back if the h-file opens.} Qe7 ({I didn't like ...Nf8 because of Ba4, but Stockfish 15 saw this differently:} 15... Nf8 16. Ba4 Re7 17. Bc6 Rb8 18. Nf3 Ng6 19. hxg5 hxg5 20. Qd2 Bxc4 21. Qxg5 Nh7 22. Qe3 Bxf1 23. Rxf1 Re6 24. Bd5 Re8 25. Bc6 { 0.00/34}) 16. hxg5 hxg5 17. Ba4 Rh8 18. Bxd7 Nxd7 19. Qg4 f6 20. f4 exf4 21. Bxf4 Rh4 22. Qg3 Rah8 23. Rae1 Rh1+ 24. Kf2 Rxf1+ {I made this trade because I thought during the game that White's position was far better, but new engine Stockfish 15 (I put this in last week on my return home) is evaluating that White's position isn't great as his attack is not landing, which I thought it would.} 25. Rxf1 Kf8 26. Be3 Ke8 {all this time I thought he had something with an e5 & then eventual Bxg5.} 27. Ke1 Qh7 28. Qf3 Qh4+ 29. g3 Qh3 30. Bg1 Qe6 $5 (30... Ke7) 31. e5 Ke7 32. d5 Qxe5+ 33. Kd1 (33. Kf2) 33... g4 $8 34. Qxg4 Qh5 {I actually thought about offering a draw here. I am glad I did not.} 35. Qxh5 Rxh5 {In this ensuing endgame, My light bishop will eventually crack free.} 36. Bd4 Rh2 37. Be3 Ne5 38. Bd4 Nd7 {I didn't think freeing the Bishop right away was worth giving him an outside passed pawn.} (38... Nxc4 39. Bxf6+ Kd7 40. Nxc4 Bxc4 {Stockfish 15 likes this for me because of White's unhealthy pawns, but I didn't want to take a chance at falling asleep on the outside passer & thus I waited for a better opportunity in the ending.}) 39. a3 Rh3 40. Rf3 Rh6 41. Rf2 Rg6 42. Rg2 Rg4 43. Kc2 Bc8 44. Nf1 Ne5 45. Bxe5 dxe5 {This is not a common ending for me, Rook + Bishop vs. Rook + Knight, but I think I can do something here.} 46. Ne3 Rg5 47. Kd3 Bg4 {just out of curiosity to see if he is willing to trade Knight for Bishop.} 48. Rf2 Bh3 49. Rf3 f5 50. Kd2 Kf6 ( 50... e4 {I didn't like playing ...e4 because of the f4-square, but he can't get there any time soon.}) 51. d6 {this sacrifice is to open the d5-square for the knight.} cxd6 52. Nd5+ Ke6 53. Re3 Kd7 54. Nf6+ Kc6 55. Kc2 Bf1 56. Kb3 Rg6 57. Nd5 Bxc4+ (57... Kc5 {is a beautiful option here, but I already had the Bishop for Knight trade in mind.}) 58. Kxc4 b5+ 59. Kb4 Kxd5 60. Kxb5 e4 61. a4 Ke5 62. Ka6 Rg7 63. a5 d5 64. Re1 Rxg3 65. Rc1 Rg7 66. Rb1 e3 67. Rb7 Rxb7 68. Kxb7 e2 (68... e2 69. Kxa7 e1=Q 70. a6 Kd6 71. Kb7 Qb1+ 72. Ka8 Kc7) 0-1

When Chief TD Craig Timmons announced the results, he didn't realize that I also won a prize. He sent me a message the following day & I am just awaiting for the check to arrive. As of the time of the blogpost publication, it has not come in yet, but I hope it comes in soon.

On Monday, before I left Huntington, I made a quick stop at Marshall University Statue & Fountain. You may very well remember the Marshall University Football team members, coaches, staff that perished in 1970 when the plane crashed. They erected the fountain as a memorial to that football team.