State No. 46 - South Carolina

So, I traveled to South Carolina for my 46th different state for #fiftystatesofchess.

With the tournament being only one day, Saturday, I had time on both ends to do stuff.

Right after the airport, I dropped in at Crossfit Soda City for the 12pm WOD.  It had some difficulty as the number of rounds increased, the reps decreased, & the barbell weight increased.  I did this at 95, 115, & 135 pounds respectively.

Coach Jeff was very welcoming & made sure he introduced the regulars to myself & another drop in at the start of class.  He made sure everyone knew what to do for the warmup, & looked over our sample movements before starting the workout.  It was a very challenging but fun workout.  I was happy that I was able to finish the workout (23:34 scaled) and start the weekend off right.

I made an incorrect decision after the workout.  I drove over to Yogi Bear's Honey Fried Chicken in Huntsville.  Now, the honey fried chicken I thought was good.  However, the decision to drive between 60-90 minutes to eat it, not so much.

I had planned to visit Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden &/or Swan Lake Iris Gardens after eating at Yogi Bear's, but after the honey fried chicken, the sudden thunderstorms put an end to that thought.  After waiting out the thunderstorms at a grocery store, it was too late to reach the garden locations before closing time, so I drove back to Columbia.  

In the downtown area, I discovered that they had a Nickelodeon Movie Theater!  

It was actually near a Mast General Store, which is a general store chain that has been around since 1883.  One of its tag lines had something to do with no automated checkouts, which would have attracted me to the store even if it didn't have what I was specifically looking for.

I was in search for Blenheim Ginger Ale.  It drinks spicier than the mass commercialized ginger ales out there, but I kinda enjoyed it.  Warning: the cap is not a twist off, it needs a bottlecap opener (if you drink alcohol or Jarritos, you know what I am talking about).  Luckily, the store took off the cap for me after I purchased it.

After finding the ginger ale, I found the Never Bust Chain (Artist: Blue Sky), 

which was initially built without City Approval (the land between the two linked buildings is city property) but eventually beloved & accepted.  

I then walked over to the Tunnelvision Mural (Artist: Blue Sky)

So the chess tournament is part of a series of monthly tournaments called Tunnelvision, & they are all named after this mural.  (Surprising that I was the first one to make this connection in the 47th running of Tunnelvision)

For some reason, this made me think of the paintings Wile E. Coyote used to try in the desert versus the Road Runner in the cartoons, where the Road Runner & various trucks drove through, but Wile would run smack into the wall or run through the canvas & fall to the ground deep below.

After checking into the hotel, I decided to eat shrimp & grits for dinner.  I didn't want to take the chance of eating a new food the round before the tournament started. I went to the Bistro at Lake Murray Boulevard in Nearby Irmo.  The Shrimp & Grits was good, & so was the orange chocolate mousse. 

There was tasso ham & redeye gravy in this, which was also good.

So Tunnelvision 47, just like the previous Tunnelvisions over the last 2+ years, have been held at the Columbia Chess Club (both on facebook & instagram (IG: columbiachessclub).  The interior is really nice, two separate rooms, TVs that display the pairings & the DGT boards, one board per table, a hidden drawer to put your cell phone in.

I think this is easily one place to play that I would love to come back to.  It's really conducive to holding tournaments.  

Tunnelvision 47 started off pretty good for me, & then it dissolved.  I won Round 1, then lost Rounds 2, 3, & 4 to finish 1-3 and my rating dropped 31 points to 1864.  I have not fully finished analyzing Rounds 2-4, so only Round 1 will get a full look in this post.

I would like to give a shout to my round 1 opponent as I saw on the gram that he executed a clean sleep in a recent quad.

The Round 1 Game was interesting.  My opponent opened both his wings & was trying to attack my kingside, but I opened the center & his king had a little less cover than mine did.

[Event "Tunnelvision 47"] [Site "Columbia, South Carolina"] [Date "2026.08.08"] [Round "1"] [White "Chen, Kevin E."] [Black "Kemp, Jr., Thomas"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Chen, Kevin E."] [ECO "C62"] [WhiteElo "1895"] [BlackElo "1651"] [PlyCount "67"] [EventDate "2026.08.08"] [EventType "team-swiss (rapid)"] [EventRounds "4"] [EventCountry "USA"] [SourceVersionDate "2026.02.28"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. O-O Bg4 {I haven't liked castling so quickly in the Ruy Lopez due to this counterpin, so I will have to continue to work on how to handle this counterpin.} 5. h3 Bh5 6. d3 Nge7 7. Be3 a6 8. Ba4 Qd7 9. c3 h6 10. d4 b5 11. Bb3 g5 {If you're going to play this move, you better hope the center stays closed, as otherwise the King has nowhere to hide with both flanks advanced. I saw this and thought, 'I had better start opening the other areas of the board quickly.'} 12. Nbd2 Bg7 13. Qc2 g4 14. hxg4 Bxg4 15. a4 b4 16. dxe5 Bxe5 {this move I found curious...the dark Bishop could have been more useful in a position that is opening. I don't necessarily think it is bad though.} 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. f3 {I thought it was more important to close off the d1-h5 diagonal & provide additional protection to the f3-square. I figured that if I can stop Black's attack, his position will fall due to his lack of king security.} bxc3 19. Qxc3 Be6 20. Rfc1 Bxb3 21. Nxb3 Rg8 22. Kf1 (22. Bxh6 $4 Qh3 {where black threates checkmate & the bishop. Even if ...Qh3 is not immediately available, why would you want to open lines to your king?}) 22... Qe6 23. Rc2 h5 24. Bd4 Nd7 25. Rac1 c5 26. Bf2 Qg6 27. Bh4 {The interesting thing here is that there are no g-file penetration points.} Nc6 28. Rd2 Nde5 29. Nxc5 {ripping open the center was worth it for the material sacrifice.} dxc5 30. Qxc5 Rc8 $4 {[#]} (30... f6 {to blunt the Bishop's range may have been better, but I still think Black has big difficulties here.}) 31. Qxe5+ (31. Qe7+ Nxe7 32. Rxc8+ Nxc8 33. Rd8# {is even faster}) 31... Kf8 (31... Nxe5 32. Rxc8#) (31... Qe6 32. Rxc6 Rxc6 (32... Qxe5 33. Rxc8#) 33. Rd8#) 32. Rxc6 Qxc6 (32... Rxc6 33. Rd8#) (32... f6 33. Rxf6+ (33. Rxc8+ Kg7 (33... Kf7 34. Rd7#) 34. Rd7+ Kh6 35. Qf4+ Qg5 36. Bxg5+ Rxg5 (36... Kg6 37. Qxf6#) (36... fxg5 37. Qf6+ Rg6 38. Rh8#) 37. Qxf6+ Rg6 38. Rh8#) 33... Kg7 34. Rd7+ Qf7 35. Rdxf7+ Kh8 36. Rh6#) 33. Be7+ Ke8 34. Bd6+ (34. Bd6+ Kd7 35. Qe7#) 1-0

The tournament was run really well.  The time control of G/45 +10 second increment was a little fast for my liking.  Every round started on time, & we were done by around 6 or 630pm, which isn't bad.  I am personally not a fan of having lunch after Round 1 when you still have 3 games left to play.  I prefer lunch after Round 2.  I noticed this because the pizza place (which I ended up going to the next day & loving it.  It is called By the Fire Pizza) wasn't open until 12pm & my Round 1 game ended around 1130 am or so.  Not wanting to delay lunch, I drove out to get something.  If & when I do get to play here again, I would probably eat lunch after Round 2 so I only have two rounds left after eating.

I had initially planned to eat at the pizza place after the tournament, but the TD staff invited me to eat somewhere else.  I knew I would be eating by myself on Sunday, so I accepted the invitation & enjoyed a good dinner with the TD staff.  It was nice to find out the reasoning for how they set up the tournament: they are 2 hours away from everyone in South Carolina, so 10:30am or so was their preferred time to get everyone in.  They figured that Round 1 would finish around 12pm so a quick break for lunch would be then.  By finishing around 6 or 630pm, everyone can go to dinner & go home & be at home by 10pm.

They also asked some questions about my tournament experience & things I liked about their tournament & didn't like.  The one thing I found weird was the lighting in the playing room.  When I faced inward, I had to wear my sunglasses because the lights were doing strange things to my eyes.  When I was facing the parking lot I did not have this problem.  One thing I forgot to tell them was I loved the fact that parking was free.  (It is in a shopping center, but paid parking is sprouting up in lots of places - go see Willowbrook Mall in NJ where they just introduced paid parking).  As a chess player, crossfit enthusiast, & former ultimate frisbee player, I do not like paying for parking, & when I have to pay for parking, I don't like paying more than $1 or $2 per hour for parking.  

I decided for Sunday that I would drive to Charleston & spend some time there.  I knew that there was a marker in Summerville for Mason, the World's largest sweet tea.

After finding the world's largest sweet tea (2,524 gallons is really impressive, dated 6/10/16), I continued driving over to Charleston.

I found the Robert Smalls marker.

and then the Pineapple fountain

I bought some moonpies nearby (hoping to give one or two to my youngest fan)

Disclaimer: this picture was taken after I got home, but these are some of the snacks I bought.

After finding the Gateway Walk, I walked up to the Charleston Market.  Fun place, lots of shops, some indoors with air conditioning & some outdoors.

Some Benne Wafers from the Charleston Market

And I bought biscuits from Callie's Hot Little Biscuit.

Buttermilk, Cinnamon (Top), & Country Ham (Bottom Right)

King Street is a pedestrian street every second Sunday, so I walked up King Street, stopping to eat sliders & drink water with a few strangers & then continued walking until I got to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

Double Dough & Milkiest Chocolate

Paying for parking - it was an adventure.  I parked on the street in the residential area (looking for rainbow row unsuccessfully before finding Robert Smalls marker & the pineapple fountain) as the sign said the parking permit was only required mondays through fridays.  When I went to try to park closer to the action, only paid parking was available, & the king street closure wasn't considered by google maps so I had to ad-lib in an unfamiliar city.  The first two lots I found were full & the third lot said $17 for an hour.  Yeah no.  I lucked out & found a parking garage near King & Queen Streets. When I went to pay for the parking, which was supposed to be $11 for only 3 hours & 19 minutes, the machine wouldn't take either credit card I had!  I called the attendant.  Attendant restarted the machine, still no processing.  Eventually, I think the attendant lifted the gate & I ended up not paying for parking as I don't see the parking charge on my credit card transactions.  

I have been sensitive to parking charges ever since I got charged $45 a night in Cheesesteak City (remember, no true Giants fan ever calls Philadelphia the city of brotherly love, & Philadelphia Cream Cheese is actually made in New York so I don't call it cream cheese city anymore) at a hotel I stayed at 10+ years ago (might be more, I think it was 2010) for the Liberty Open (chess) & it got heightened even more after American Dream tried to charge me $57 instead of $5 last year while attending Vitruvian Games.  Paying for parking more than $2 an hour to signals a very expensive place that I want no part of being in.  I would rather walk a half mile (or even a mile if there are no known issues in the neighborhood) to park for free rather than pay over $2 per hour.  (Especially true in Westfield - I park in the train station parking lot where parking is free & cross underneath the train station to go to Yestercades & other places.)  My plan is typically to stay 3 or 4 hours, walk around, do stuff, & then leave.  I don't think paying more than $10 for parking entices me to come or come back. (Yes, I understand this thinking may upset some other transportation professionals & planners, but as a lot of the chess, crossfit, & other things I do are not typically located in downtown areas, I am used to free parking for the majority of my things I do.)

As I was entering my car to go back to Columbia, I realized that I had not taken a picture of the sweet tea mural in Summerville, so I drove back to Summerville, and took a picture of the mural.

As I was entering my car, I noticed another couple driving in looking for the mural.  (I knew they were looking for the mural because the businesses of this building were closed).  I just pointed around the corner of the building & they thanked me & found it.

After the mural, I drove back to Columbia & ate at By the Fire Pizza, the pizza place that I wanted to eat at on Saturday but couldn't do so.

Hawaiian Pizza, Mozarella Sticks, & Sweet Iced Tea

I like the fact that Columbia Chess Club & By The Fire Pizza seem to have a good relationship.  There is actually a chessboard table in the restaurant, & a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade machine as well.  I believe this to be a local, family owned & operated restaurant, & the food I ate was good.  I hope more people & more chess players eat here in the future.

And that ends State No. 46 for #fiftystatesofchess.  I believe you will see State No. 47 & 48 soon, so keep your eyes out.