Unlike most states so far, I have actually been to Massachusetts a long time ago. I believe I went at least once if not multiple times before high school, & definitely at least once if not multiple times in high school.
I drove up with my mom on Friday midday & reached Worcester in the 1 pm hour. After a spot of lunch, she wanted coffee, so we walked three blocks west to a Dunkin Donuts. The problem was, my stomach started to rumble (must have been the teriyaki glaze, as I am noticing something recently) on the walk to the Dunkin Donuts (with no restroom) & my desire to get to a restroom elevated significantly. We got to the Worcester Art Museum & I was so rattled that I did not realize that I followed Google Maps blindly & I parked in the wrong parking lot!!
After using the restroom, I walked through the various levels of the art museum. I wasn't 100% sure of the photography rules, so I didn't take any photos of the art pieces that I liked. I did, however, take a picture of the comment card (there was a section in middle of the second floor that had a comment drop box).
Someone put together a linear collection of water bottles I think connected by linear flattened paper clips. There was also a Chinese artist that illustrated overdevelopment by painting a piece where every part of the mountain is developed with something. I thought both pieces were excellent.
After I finished walking through the museum, I saw my mom reading a book or two. I know the lady at the ticket counter kept trying to get my mom to come back the next day for a museum event, but my mom didn't want to because she did not want to get lost driving my car & she hadn't learned how to use uber or lyft yet. After this, as I walked back to the car, I realized I parked in the art museum employee lot of the religious lot rather than the separate art museum visitor's lot. Luckily, I got no ticket so we could continue on.
We took a short drive to Bancroft Tower, also in Worcester. Bancroft was apparently the founder of the US Naval Academy, & his friend built this tower in his memory after he died.
Bancroft Tower
Saturday Morning, after not getting quite enough sleep (I may have a sleeping issue & will get that checked out soon), I taught my mom how to use Uber & Lyft, then took her to Westborough to a diner called South Street Diner. My mom tried to order grits, & the waitress replied, "I don't think I can teach them how to make grits," or some quip similar to that. (My mom mentioned grits before I could even warn her that grits are a southern food and that they might not have grits in New England.) I was laughing so hard as this reminded me of the 2006 or 2007 work trip to Louisiana where a coworker tried to order a Sam Adams there & the bartender told him, "I'm sorry sir, we don't serve anything that foreign around here."
So after a strange & fulfilling breakfast, I dropped her off back at the hotel we were staying at & I drove over to the chess hotel. The intention was that my mom would use uber or lyft when ready to go somewhere.
I get to the chess hotel & I start an ongoing dialogue with the Chief Tournament Director. It turns out, I played against & lost to his uncle in South Dakota! So that was an interesting tidbit of information. The pairings were posted early, & I went to my board. However, the Chief was inundated with last minute entries & playup revisions for this Northern New England Class Championships Tournament. He made a revision error to the pairings & declared me as the odd man in the Class A section. I didn't realize until a round later that there was no way it should have been me in the first round as I think I was rated #5 in the section.
He did offer an extra rated game for me against a provisional 1200 that had a higher online rating than me. This extra rated game ended up being my best game of the tournament & I present it here.
I started struggling in both Rounds 2 & 3 as I ended up losing both games. None of my plans worked in those games. I'm sure the lack of sleep played some part, but it wasn't everything.
I took Mom to a 110 Grill Place for dinner, & that's when I found out that she stayed in the hotel all day, just reading & eating leftovers from the previous night's dinner for lunch. I had noticed that strip malls on the main road close to the tournament had everything she could do, so the next morning (Sunday), after eating at a random Panera, I showed her twice how to get to the strip malls & back to the chess hotel.
I won my Round 4 game, & because the section was so small (x players to start) & so many withdrawals, there were only 7 people remaining & an even score might have had as good a chance as any to win money. The Class A section was the smallest of the classes as a lot of As decided to play up in the Expert/Master section. This was an option available to players as you could pay the $50 playup fee (in addition to the tournament standard entry fee) to play 1 section higher than your class.
I played well in my Round 5 game but still had to take a draw as I could never get a favorable minor piece trade to work & had to settle for Bishops of opposite colors. I ended up not winning any money but at least I won a game & Massachusetts is an even record state for me.
I took my mom miniature golfing (we need to do something after sitting on our butts reading or playing chess) at the Apex Entertainment in Marlborough. For some reason, I was on fire during miniature golf as I somehow finished with a score lower than total par.
The next morning was Monday, time to drive home. We had more issues than normal (almost every Dunkin Donuts was eastbound, finding the correct gas station, not being able to drive the Merritt Parkway, & three traffic lights on the Saw Mill River Parkway), but made it back to home safely.
Here are the updated #fiftystatesofchess maps:
That concludes State No. 38!
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