State No. 34 - South Dakota

For those of you new to this blog, welcome!  I detail the chess tournament, one or two games I played, & anything else I encountered within a particular state from a trip.

For most of my travels in South Dakota, please see the previous post where I covered North Dakota non-chess items as well.  We're going to cover in this post the tournament, & last minute sightseeing on that Monday before I traveled home.

The Paul Salem Sioux Falls Open was run pretty well. The first round was delayed 15 minutes due to a few late registrants, but nothing terrible.

In this tournament, there was an unusual way for reporting results that I had never seen before in any of the previous 33 states.  It was so unusual I had to take a few pictures of it.

So, the players have to fill out the information on the card - names, round, section, & result.  The cards had different colors for each section. Players submit this along with one of the copies of the scoresheet to the director. Of all the tournaments I have played in over the previous 33 states, only the US Amateur Team East has a separate reporting card, & no other individual tournament has a separate result card that I can recall.  It's an interesting attempt to have backup to illegible scoresheets in order to verify results entered in the chess tournament computer files.  We'll see if other states have this, but if other states have this, please let me know & I will update this stat.

So, in Idaho 2022, I saw one of my opponents from a previous tournament, Eric Hon (Utah 2014).  I played against Todd Wolf (US Open 2016 in Indiana) North Dakota the previous weekend. Here in South Dakota, I saw three famous people - Dane Zagar, organizer of the 2022 US Amateur North in Minnesota where the Masters was a side event; GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez, who I played in Idaho in Round 2, & Megan Chen, another chess player featured earlier this year in Chess Life as she also tries to play chess in every state in this country! South Dakota is her 44th state, so I wish her luck in her quest as she will likely finish her 50th state before I do.

I didn't do very well in this tournament.  In fact, I did the opposite - fail to record a win for the second state in my career (Maryland).  I finished with two losses & two draws (had a 2nd round full point bye), making this the third state (Pennsylvania, New York) with a multiple game deficit under .500.  I guess I will have to come back to try to even this out.

I hallucinated a position in Round 1, dropping a piece cleanly for nothing, which turned into an exchange-down ending I could do nothing in.  I got the full point bye in Round 2, & then I ended up facing Megan in Round 3

[Event "Sioux Falls Open"] [Site "Sioux falls"] [Date "2023.04.22"] [Round "3"] [White "Chen, Kevin E."] [Black "Chen, Megan"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "D32"] [WhiteElo "1822"] [BlackElo "1803"] [Annotator "Chen,Kevin E."] [PlyCount "106"] [EventDate "2023.04.22"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "5"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceVersionDate "2023.01.07"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. dxc5 {I wasn't prepared for advancing the pawn directly here, so I took the pawn instead. This isn't common, but I did beat NM Arthur Feuerstein in 18 moves once with this opening.} e6 ({I stunned Feuerstein in 2009 (only the moves provided - my commentary & the variations are not & may be a separate post in the future) as follows:} 3... Na6 4. Nc3 Nxc5 5. g3 a5 6. Bg2 g6 7. Nh3 Bg7 8. O-O O-O 9. Nf4 d6 10. Qc2 a4 11. Nfd5 e6 12. Nxf6+ Qxf6 13. Bf4 Rd8 14. Rfd1 a3 15. Bxd6 Rxd6 16. Rxd6 axb2 17. Qxb2 Qxc3 18. Rd8+ { deflecting the g7-Bishop from protecting the Queen 1-0}) 4. Nf3 Bxc5 5. e3 { I am sure there are other ways of protecting against ...Ng4, but I did not seem to mind this one.} d5 6. Nc3 O-O 7. cxd5 {Played not necessarily to give the isolated pawn but rather to avoid having to move the Bishop twice if she initiates the capture on d4.} exd5 8. Be2 Nc6 9. O-O Bf5 10. b3 Rc8 11. Bb2 d4 12. exd4 (12. Na4 d3 (12... b6 13. Nxc5 bxc5 14. exd4 cxd4 15. Nxd4 Nxd4 16. Qxd4) 13. Nxc5 dxe2 14. Qxe2 b6 15. Rad1 Qe7 16. Nd3) 12... Nxd4 13. Nxd4 Bxd4 14. Rc1 a6 {Megan didn't like this move. I didn't like it either, but I wasn't sure how she planned to meet Bf3.} 15. Bf3 Bxc3 16. Rxc3 Rxc3 17. Bxc3 Ne4 18. Bb4 Re8 19. Re1 $2 (19. Qxd8 Rxd8 20. Re1 {is legitimate, as a future ...Rd1+ is met by Re1 for the time being.}) 19... Qb6 20. Bxe4 Qxb4 21. f3 Qb6+ 22. Kf1 {moving to the corner reintroduces back rank troubles.} Bxe4 23. Rxe4 (23. fxe4 {allows Black to gang up on the e4-pawn.}) 23... Rxe4 24. fxe4 Kf8 25. Qd3 Qc7 26. g3 {I don't remember all the rules for pawn placement in Queen endings, but I doubt placing them all on White squares to ghost opposing dark clerics will work versus the Queen. Better to limit the range of the far-reaching lady. } Qc1+ 27. Ke2 Ke7 28. Qd5 {with the Queen & the pawn in a mutual protection scenario, I am free to take a King Walk as I see fit. Kb6 would be golden if I could get it.} Qc2+ 29. Kf3 Qc3+ 30. Kg4 Qc8+ 31. Kf4 Qc1+ 32. Ke5 Qg5+ 33. Kd4 Qd2+ 34. Kc5 Qf2+ 35. Kb4 Qb6+ {this felt wrong. Keep checking from the back & I can't make progress.} ({Stockfish 15: 1)} 35... Qe1+ 36. Kc4 Qf1+ 37. Kb4 { 0.00/45}) ({Stockfish 15: 2)} 35... Qb6+ 36. Kc4 Qc7+ 37. Kd4 f6 38. a4 b6 39. e5 Qc2 40. exf6+ Kxf6 41. Qe5+ Kf7 42. Qf4+ Ke6 43. Qe4+ Qxe4+ 44. Kxe4 a5 45. Kd4 Kd6 46. Kc4 Kc6 47. b4 axb4 48. Kxb4 g5 49. h3 h5 50. g4 hxg4 51. hxg4 Kb7 52. Kb5 Kc7 53. Kc4 Kc6 {0.00/45}) 36. Kc4 Qc7+ 37. Kd4 Qd6 (37... Qb6+ 38. Qc5+ Qxc5+ 39. Kxc5 {should be winning for me.}) 38. Qxd6+ Kxd6 39. e5+ Kc6 { this felt wrong.} 40. a4 b6 41. b4 h6 {this felt wrong, but I didn't capitalize on this.} 42. g4 ({Stockfish 15: 1)} 42. Kc4 f5 43. exf6 gxf6 44. g4 Kd6 45. Kd4 Ke6 46. Ke4 a5 47. b5 Kd6 48. Kf5 Kc5 49. h4 Kb4 50. Kxf6 Kxa4 51. g5 h5 52. g6 Kxb5 53. g7 a4 54. g8=Q Ka5 55. Ke5 Kb4 56. Qd5 b5 57. Kf5 a3 58. Qa2 Ka4 59. Ke5 Kb4 {10.97/24}) ({Stockfish 15: 2)} 42. Ke4 h5 43. Kd4 g5 44. Kc4 a5 45. b5+ Kd7 46. Kd5 g4 47. Kd4 Ke7 48. Ke3 Kd7 49. Kf4 Ke6 50. Ke4 Kd7 51. Kf5 Ke7 52. Kg5 Ke6 53. Kxh5 Kxe5 54. Kxg4 Kd5 55. h4 Kc4 56. h5 Kb4 57. h6 Kxa4 58. h7 Kxb5 59. h8=Q a4 60. Qf8 f6 61. Qxf6 {10.23/24}) 42... g6 43. h4 ({ Stockfish 15:} 43. a5 Kb5 (43... bxa5 44. bxa5 Kb5 45. Kd5 Kxa5 46. Kd6 Kb5 47. Ke7 a5 48. Kxf7 a4 49. e6 a3 50. e7 a2 51. e8=Q+) 44. Kd5 bxa5 45. bxa5 Kxa5 46. Kd6 Kb4 47. Ke7 a5 48. Kxf7 a4 49. e6 a3 50. e7 a2 51. e8=Q a1=Q 52. Qe4+ Kb3 53. h4 g5 54. Qe6+ Kc2 55. Qe2+ Kb3 56. h5 Qh8 57. Kg6 Kc3 58. Qf2 Kd3 59. Qf6 Qg8+ 60. Kxh6 Ke2 61. Qf5 Ke1 62. Qf3 Qd8 63. Qf7 Ke2 64. Kg6 Qd3+ 65. Qf5 Qd6+ 66. Kxg5 Qe7+ 67. Qf6 Qe3+ 68. Kh4 Ke1 69. g5 Qe4+ 70. Kg3 {6.79/24}) 43... Kc7 44. Kd5 Kd7 45. b5 a5 46. g5 h5 47. Kd4 Kc7 {first draw offer} 48. Ke4 Kd8 49. Kd4 Ke7 50. Kd5 Kd7 51. Kd4 Ke7 52. Kd5 Kd7 53. Kd4 Ke7 1/2-1/2

After the game, Megan & I got together for a quick picture & had a brief conversation (it was already 10pm CDT after we finished) about our respective journeys & states left.

In Round 4, I faced a player who was apparently well known for time trouble (he admitted it after the game). At least three times, he made a move & then waited several minutes until he punched the clock.  (To non-chess tournament players, if your move doesn't create checkmate, stalemate, or an immediate draw based on insufficient material left on both sides (e.g. King vs King), you must complete your move by punching the clock, which is the act of stopping your clock & starting your opponent's clock simultaneously.)  The game went back & forth a few times, & we both executed beautiful knight sacrifices in the game. Unfortunately, he did checkmate me on Move 51, so I jokingly said, "You don't have to punch the clock now."

In Round 5, I used an exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez on my opponent, but he correctly traded his Bishop for my Knight & I couldn't find a win in the King & pawn ending. Bonus sign this tournament wasn't going well for me - My 4th round opponent lost his 5th round game in 5 moves. (1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 e6?? 5. g4 & he resigned as the Bishop is trapped.)

In an unusual move, my flight departing Sioux Falls didn't board until 10:32 am CDT or something like that.  Since I solved my North Dakota trophy problem by successfully playing tetris with my carryon the night before, I had a little bit of extra time to go for last minute sightseeing. I tried look at some sculptures along sculpturewalk, & I checked out Arc of Dreams. I also found primary & secondary truck route signs that I had never seen before.  You may check out these pictures Part 1 & Part 2 of my last minute sightseeing.

So, despite the lack of performance in South Dakota, overall, this was a very fun 10-11 day trip, I won a little money & a trophy, & I made a few new friends.  

Here is the combined map, simplified to try to use the 6 Toad colors from Super Mario Run mobile game (or to try to use the primary & secondary colors)

And that concludes State No. 34 for #fiftystatesofchess

State No. 33 & State No. 34 - Non-Chess Traveling Parts

I wrote most of the last post & this post this morning, the Friday the 21st of April, the day before the South Dakota Chess Tournament & incidentally, Princess Daisy's birthday today (Happy birthday Princess Daisy!)

Here is some artwork I commissioned a long ago from Instagram artist ogart64

I know it's a Christmas one, but it is one of my favorite art pieces that I ordered on commission.  To see some other Daisy screenshots from Mario Kart Tour, please see this Instagram post.

The way I arranged this trip is a little different since I am covering two states over the span of 10+ calendar days. I flew into Bismarck on Friday, & didn't get to do any sightseeing with the tournament the next day. I did get to do a drop-in at CrossFit Tertiary with Coach Bowen, & pictures may be seen from this Instagram post. I got lucky enough to watch Coach Bowen & two others perform an online competition test, 7 minutes of Burpees to a Target 6 inches above the athlete's reach.

After the Chess Tournament, I drove over to the Heritage Art Tunnel & the Bismarck Capitol Monument. 

After this, I drove west to Dickinson, & after dropping off my luggage, drove over to the Enchanted Highway, where seven metallic structures were built.  I took pictures out of order, so if you are more organized, you'll recognize which ones are not.

MS #1 - Geese in Flight - seen on I-94 WB & the start of the Enchanted Highway

MS #2 - Deer Crossing

MS #3 - Grasshoppers

MS #5 - Pheasants on the Prairie - probably my favorite of all of them.

MS #6 - Teddy Roosevelt Rides Again

MS #7 - Tin Family - first of the sculptures to be created

Cool! - Knight vs. Dragon

I assume this is the Enchanted Castle, though as it was getting dark, I couldn't go inside as I didn't want to travel back to my hotel in the dark on roads with no lights.

There was a sign pointing to this along the Enchanted Highway at MS #7, but I forgot what this is called.

MS #4 - Fisherman's Dream.  I missed this the first time because I was distracted by 3 tin cans on the other side of the road & I did not have google maps on at the time to tell me to turn.

Bonus fact about Geese in Flight - There are poles with geese on top of them lining the roadway up to this structure.

On Monday, I traveled to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  For whatever reason, this unit is Central Time Zone (Chicago) & less than a mile south of the entrance is Mountain Time Zone (Denver). Go figure.

Tilted Rock

More Tilted Rock

I travel up to River Bend Overlook so I can get a great view of the Little Missouri River.  I exit my car...and no sooner than I close the door is when I see 11 bison less than 20 feet in front of me cross the grassy environment toward the roadway to the right leading toward Oxbow Overlook. 

I saw this sign AFTER the scare of my life.

After a pause for a few minutes to make sure no more bison were in the area, & another pause of a minute after reading the above sign (there's no way I run as fast as 10 miles an hour now), I did get a few good pictures of the view at the overlook.

The problem is, after the bison scare, I was thoroughly affected.  I didn't try to go down to that little structure you saw above, & I didn't even finish the Little Mo Nature Trail below because I kept getting a feeling of more bison in the area.

On my way out of the park, I did take a picture of the Long X Trail where two brothers led cows through the little Missouri valley in this picture.

To calm myself down, I visited the Dickinson Musuem Center & Badlands Dinosaur Museum. I stumbled on an unlabeled typewriter used to teach typing in the 1930s.

Beach High School, Used to teach typing, keys are not labeled

There were also some art pieces produced by children for an art contest that I thought were excellent.

After the Museum, I went back to the hotel & walked to my second drop-in place, CrossFit Amicus. You can see pictures from my visit on my Instagram page here. My home gym, CrossFit Treehouse, was doing Cindy this week in preparation for Murph. I told my friends in the thread that if no one did Cindy, I would find a pullup bar separately to do it.  Well, CrossFit Amicus was doing Half Murph as their WOD on Monday.  No more need to find a separate pullup bar!  BTW, my classmates cheered me on even though I was the last one to finish (33:44).

Please bear with me, I had notes written about Tuesday's trip from Dickinson to Rapid City, including a trip to Mount Rushmore & the Presidential statue Scavenger Hunt & a visit to Press Start Arcade that I lost!!  I will try to recount as much as I can from the lost notes.

1) Once I left Dickinson, ND, I didn't see another traffic light until Rapid City, SD, a span covering over 3 hours & 12 minutes!! (I don't remember when I left the Dickinson boundary, somewhere after 8:49 am, but the time of the traffic signal in Rapid City was 12:12pm.)

2) It was a dream, driving down these two lane state roads with very few cars on them. (Exception the dirt roads between SD 79 / SD 34 & when I boarded I-90 East

3) Looking ahead to the Thursday trip, there were three separate occasions between where I boarded & Sioux Falls where one direction of I-90 was closed & traffic was separated by thin cone sticks on the other direction for two way traffic to proceed.

4) The path I chose to go Dickinson to Mount Rushmore did have a 2 hour 36 minute stretch of no gas stations. Newell, South Dakota ended that streak as there were gas stations a quarter to a half mile to the south after this post.

Mount Rushmore was a lot of fun. The accessible part of the President's Trail will give you most of the closer good views you need.  The 250 steps they claim to be strenuous aren't bad if you start on the accessible side as the 250 steps will go down.  The 250 steps are also scattered. What did surprise me was this statistic that I saw.

Getting selfies by yourself is difficult.  My IG has another attempt that makes me look even older.

Avenue of the Flags is arranged in alphabetical order.

You didn't think I was going to pass this selfie up, did you?

The zero deaths stat was very surprising.

I then went on a scavenger hunt for the presidential statues. The local Mount Rushmore Society Office in Rapid City has a folder with all the presidential statues locations & 10 pictures you have to find.  Two statues were removed due to construction & I believe one of them had the missing picture I couldn't find. I did find the 9 other pictures, so I brought my scavenger hunt scorecard in the next day (Wednesday), pointed out the problem, & they still gave me the reward for a completed scorecard, which was a water bottle that contained a few stickers & a 10% discount off items bought in the store. I had to bring it in Wednesday since they were closed when I was finished at 6pm.

Instagram did a terrible job of cropping pictures, so I am going to present some of the funny selfies I took on this scavenger hunt, along with beautiful traffic signal controllers overlaid with artwork (except bison, those did not get pictures taken. I don't like any kind of bison whether they move 30 miles per hour or have iron fists), a speed limit 20 sign in the downtown area, & pictures of my next stop on the trip.

Lincoln & I both looking down in a sense.

Millard Fillmore wondering what I am doing.

When I saw this statue of William Henry Harrison, I somehow thought the face looks like a movie actor.

20 mph is very unusual in my profession as a speed limit outside of private residential or retail areas.

You better believe I was going to check Press Start, the Video Game Arcade Place after the scavenger hunt.

I can't believe this is the same president (Taft) that was rumored to have gotten stuck in a bathtub. He looks like he is posing as a baseball pitcher!

Press Start has a Super Mushroom Light!

I really like this selfie where Ford looks one way & I look another.

Eisenhower & I looking ahead.

Benjamin Harrison & I looking at the ground.

After the scavenger hunt, I changed into Knicks Toad (the same character I dress up as on the NBA talks Podcast I occasionally do with my friends on i80 Sports) & went inside Press Start.

Knicks Toad ready to Press Start!

Luigi has a Mario Party game to check out!

I wish I wasn't driving so I could drink off this menu.

Standard Fake Alcoholic Drink you know I consume.

I love the no smoking or vaping sign.

The Smash Bros. Pizza - Pepperoni Bacon Cream Cheese

Sonic in Blacklight Art

Humorous Employees Only Sign

The next day (Wednesday), I went to South Dakota Air & Space Museum.  Right now, this is an outdoor only museum, as the interior is closed for renovations. (Be sure to wear jackets & extra sweaters as necessary).  I will show you planes that had my favorite descriptions &/or nicknames &/or stories.

F-105B Thunderchief, nicknamed Thud.

Air crews & ground crews accepted the nickname.

O-2A Skymaster, nicknamed the "Duck".

Most planes have nicknames.  

I don't know why this F-86H Sabre was nicknamed Miss Janet & there was no one on site to try to answer this question.

There was also an interesting photo of General Dwight D. Eisenhower & his marks on being a pilot on this site.

After dropping by the Mount Rushmore Society location to deal with the end of the scavenger hunt, I picked up at the place a book on flag care. (If I ever get my own house, I would consider displaying flags.)

Later that day, I visited Kados CrossFit. The exciting thing about this WOD was that it was a choose your own adventure WOD!! The coach & the other athletes were awesome about cheering you on, & several of us got to talk afterward.  Unlike the first two places, they actually had t-shirts for purchase, so I was able to get a t-shirt for myself as part of my drop in, & then two t shirts for my sister & her husband.

One of the coaches at Kados mentioned I should visit Badlands National Park on my way driving east on Thursday from Rapid City to Sioux Falls. I was concerned as this was already going to be a long drive, but I think the detour was worth it.  If I had to do Wednesday & Thursday again, I would do Badlands on Wednesday & SD Air & Space on Thursday so as to minimize the added driving on Thursday & give Badlands more time to visit.  You can see some pictures here.  The views were really nice.  It was windy again, so any videos I might have taken got my voice at least partially drowned out.

By the way, after Badlands, I started driving east knowing I wanted to go to Chamberlain Rest Stop & World's Only Corn Palace before getting to Sioux Falls.  There were two areas of part of I-90 closed for construction in one direction with the traffic redirected to the other direction as discussed earlier.  Other oddities noticed while driving were:

1) part of the highway is red in color - I thought I was driving on never-ending tennis courts.

2) There were parts of I-90 set up for closure for random events that necessitate closing of the highway.  Parts of the setups include gates & signs with flashers ready to turn on at the correct command of the responsible state official.

3) Time zone changes can really be hard to navigate planning & executing.

I am glad I got to visit Dignity and Lewis & Clark at the Chamberlain Rest Stop. There really should be more signs on I-90 highway, but I was lucky to know about this before the trip started.  My original plan was to eat a quick lunch & then go to the World's Only Corn Palace. However, it was already past 3:15 pm CDT & the corn palace at 1 hour & 9 minutes away was only open until 5 pm. So, I had to skip lunch & drive to Mitchell, SD

As my friend said, you don't direct a trip to South Dakota solely for the Corn Palace, but if you happen to be visiting, you could visit.  The Corn Palace actually has a basketball court in it to host basketball games & is apparently hosting a circus on Monday, April 25. What surprised me more was the connection of Mike Miller to the Palace & Bob Barker to South Dakota.  You might remember Mike Miller winning at least 1 NBA title with the Miami Heat when teamed up with Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, & LeBron James. And of course, everyone remembers Bob Barker as the legendary host of the Price is Right until about 2007 or so.

The concession stand was open, but I opted not to eat anything there.

I completed my drive to Sioux Falls, & walked over to the nearby mall to get food. I know I debated sightseeing in Sioux Falls today prior to the trip, but I think I made theright choice to not do so as my body was mostly tired from the long drive & it was snowing & hailing today at some point!! So I spent today finishing up the blogposts.  Stay tuned for the Chess portion of State No. 34 soon!

#fiftystatesofchess