An Improbable Iowa State Fair

"There comes a time in every man's life, and I've had plenty of them." - Casey Stengel

At the Hawkeye Pantry in the Des Moines Skywalk I selected AMP Energy Focus for my Iowa State Fair energy and hydration needs. Caffeine, Choline, Theanine, Guarine, Taurine, Nicotine, Chlorine, and Mr. Clean. Everything a body needs and many things it doesn't...

  Last Wednesday I played in the Iowa State Fair speed chess tournament for the fifth year in a row and the eighth time in the last eleven years. I’ve posted about my previous attempts to win the coveted 1st place blue ribbon (you can read them here). Last year I finally succeeded and shared the championship with Joe Meyer (AKA Joe from Waterloo). This year I hoped to give my blue ribbon a partner so it wouldn’t be lonely amongst the two red (2nd), two white (3rd) and two yellow (participant) state fair chess ribbons I’ve earned over the years. I didn’t have the burning desire to win the blue ribbon that I coveted so much when I didn't have one but I did have the experience of winning it and the resultant knowledge that I was capable of winning a second blue ribbon.

  I wrote last week how poorly I played against Christine Denison in a two game match the Saturday before the Fair. I didn’t consider that a harbinger of bad tidings for the State Fair tournament. Christine played smart, practical, enterprising chess and showed me exactly what I needed to do on and off the board to get my head right for the State Fair in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if I’d managed to wriggle off the hook in our games and swindle my way into draws or wins.

  I prepared for the tournament by doing 100+ puzzles a day from my amazing iPod’s Chessimo app and got some serious speed chess training when my former chess traveling partner Jaleb Jay spent the summer off from college in Marshalltown. Jaleb came to our Thursday chess club meetings and each week we played four to six games at five minutes per side (the same time limit as the fair). Jaleb is a great five minute player and competing with him weekly made me step up my game. More importantly it helped me internalize the rhythm of a five minute game. Rhythm is an essential part of speed chess, subconsciously keeping the player from getting into time trouble or moving too fast while leaving the conscious mind free to find the best moves possible.

If you like your food on a stick, you've come to the right place!

  On the day of the tournament I went to work like always and started to get a little tired at 2pm. Last year I brought a Mountain Dew/Rooster Booster mixed soda from a Quik Trip to supply my energy needs. This year I was stationed downtown without a nearby Quik Trip so I took a ‘Skywalk’ over the downtown streets to the Hawkeye Pantry and surveyed their energy drink selection. I settled on two ‘AMP Focus’ drinks for $3 and waited in line behind a group of people from the nearby apartments getting their mid-afternoon supply of beer, liquor, cigarettes, and the occasional gallon of milk. I sipped some of the first ‘AMP Focus’ and feeling much more alert left work at 4:30 and headed to the fairgrounds.

  Traffic was light. At 4:45 I paid my $10 to park and had to decide whether to pay $11 to enter the fairgrounds immediately or wait until 5 o’clock and pay only $6. I didn’t want to hang around outside the fair so I paid my $11 and went right in. I used the fifteen minutes taking pictures of the food vendors and soon arrived at the tournament site – the porch of the administration building. The scholastic chess tournament was still going on and I chatted with Drake and his parents Heather and Jason. Drake attends my youth tournaments and won a blue ribbon for the second straight year. I congratulated him and mentioned it was a good omen since I failed to win a blue ribbon for ten years until Drake won one last year. Then I saw my wife Kathy and sons Matt and Ben. They had come to the fair from Marshalltown but not to play chess – they had been to the fair for the day and were going to leave after watching some chess. In 2006 Ben won the State Fair speed chess tournament at the age of 10 which I believe to be a record and Matt would have been one of the stronger players there so while they are family I wasn’t unhappy to see them leave without playing.

  Among the people that were planning to play was my State Fair arch-rival David Skaar – a multiple time champion who I have a wild battle with almost every year. We exchanged greetings and I surprised David with a present - a copy of ‘The Chess Journalist’ magazine containing a picture of us pretending to trade punches. The picture was taken at the 2012 tournament and accompanied an article I wrote about boxing metaphors for chess. When the magazine was published, TCJ editor Mark Taylor sent me an extra copy to give to David, who was thrilled to receive it.

On the left is 2006 State Fair champ Ben Anzis. In the center David Skaar and I pose with our 2012 state fair picture from 'The Chess Journalist' magazine (You can read the accompanying article on page 12 by clicking here) while on the right Joe Meyer and Cub Noble warm up for this years slugfest and try to get in next year's magazine!

  Joe Meyer, my co-champion from last year was ready to play and so was 2012 champion Cub Noble. Tim Mc Entee, 4 time and current Iowa Chess Champion, was there to watch but not play which boosted the rest of the competitors' winning chances. Tournament regulars Tim Harder and Steve Jacobs were also waiting along with a number of people I hadn’t met before and one familiar Iowa chess face I’d never seen at the State Fair. Sitting quietly at one of the tables waiting for the tournament to begin was 2011 Iowa Chess Champion Bob Keating. Bob had come to the fair with his family and decided to compete in the speed chess tournament. I wrote about my 2006 game with Bob in last week’s post and when I went over to say hello Bob said ‘I hear I made your Mount Rushmore list’ (which Tim Mc Entee had told him about earlier in the day).

  While Bob and I talked about that game from almost a decade ago, Tim was helping long time Des Moines chess legend and State Fair tournament director Ben Munson set up the tournament format for the 15 players. Ben was planning on setting up four pools with the winners of each pool making up the field for a final tournament to decide the prize winners. Tim was helping and they asked me what I thought about the relative strengths of the players. My only thought was that Cub, David, Joe, and I should be in separate pools since we were the past champions but any decisions were OK by me. I wasn't there to hang out with my family or play speed games on the side or worry about pool play assignments. I was there to play, have a great time with the friends I get to meet at the State Fair and maybe one or two other times a year, and get another blue ribbon. After a few minutes the pool assignments were up. Joe and Cub were in pools with players I’d never met while David was in a ‘group of death’ with Bob and Steve Jacobs and for the second year in a row I was in a pool of three players.

Bob Keating, 2011 Iowa chess champion and the new kid on the block at the Iowa State Fair.

  Pool play is one of the aspects of the State Fair speed chess tournament that differentiates it from every other tournament I've played in. Most chess tournaments are indoors with conditioned air, softened water, and any errant noise quickly and firmly shushed. My outdoor tournaments are under a covered shelter in Pioneer Park a hundred yards away from birthday parties and picnickers and stay fairly quiet. The State Fair tournament is played on the porch of the administration building. The porch wraps around the entire building and is used by hundreds of fair goers who pass by inches from the players. Unaware a contest of state wide importance is taking place, these passerbys think nothing of continuing their loud conversations or sitting down next to the players to take a break. Occasionally one will interrupt a game to ask a player how that 'horsey shaped piece' moves. There is a tractor pull at the nearby grandstand that emits a deafening roar whenever a tractor attempts to pull whatever tractors pull at tractor pulls. On the south side of the building is a band shell with bands, clog dancers, and as on this day, a hypnosis act (‘You are getting sleepy…sleepy…sleepy’). The twilight sun pours onto the porch leaving the players a choice of sitting with the sun blinding them or roasting their backs while considering the moves on a board that their own or opponents shadow covers in darkness.

  My pool partners were two people I’d never met before named Forrest and Sam. I was scheduled to have Black against Forrest in the first game, watch Forrest and Sam play, and then have White against Sam. I waited by the pairing sheets watching for Forrest to find his name and look for me. Within a minute I heard a young college age man say ‘Who’s Hank?’ so I introduced myself and we sat down to play. Forrest is a college student from Iowa State University in Ames. Forrest isn’t part of the Ames chess scene but he proved to be an experienced player who played the Tennison Gambit against my Center Counter defense (1.e4 d5 2.Nf3 de 3.Ng5). I didn’t try to keep the offered pawn and built a strong center. We castled on opposite sides. I attacked Forrest with my pieces while he launched his pawns forward against my king. With each of us having two of our original five minutes left I disrupted Forrest’s attack by plunking a knight behind his attacking pawns, hitting his queen in the process. That flustered Forrest and he moved a piece in an attempt to trade the knight, forgetting his queen was under attack. I took the queen and Forrest resigned. I marked the score down and saw that Sam’s (the third pool player) name had been crossed out and replaced by Tim, who was none other than Tim Harder. This was unwelcome news to me. I’ve traveled with Tim to the Okoboji and Jackson Opens and enjoy his company but we’ve played blitz three times over the past three years and he’s beaten me twice. Tim beat Forrest much quicker than I did and after a couple of minutes we sat down to play to see who would advance from our pool.

My pool play partners Forrest and Tim Harder battle on the left while on the right David Skaar tries to get out of the 'Group of Death'. The shadows, sun, noise, and passerbys at the state fair chess tournament can be as much a factor as the clock, board, and pieces.

  We played the Slav Exchange variation and I took over the c file with my queen and rooks while falling behind on the clock three minutes to four. Tim defended well and when I wasn’t able to land a knockout punch he managed to trade all the pieces except a set of rooks. Tim had an isolated queen pawn but his king was two steps closer to the center than mine. I was down on time 30 seconds to 90 and would lose the king and pawn ending with Tim’s king so much closer to the center. I tried to keep my rook active and Tim spent two moves trying to trade it off. I used those two moves to bring my king to the center and only then did I trade rooks. Without a better king’s position Tim’s isolated pawn was a fatal liability and I captured it with 20 seconds left on my clock. Realizing that the 1 second delay on the clocks would leave me more than enough time to win the game, Tim resigned and I was off to the finals.

  My finals partners were Joe, Cub, and Bob. Bob beat David Skaar in his pool which meant that for the first time in five years David and I would not trade blows at the State Fair. Ben put the pairings up and I had White against Joe in round one, Black against Bob in round two, and White against Cub in round three. I sat facing the sun in pool play which worked out well enough but when I tried to lure Joe into the sunlight for our finals match he suggested we play in the portion of the porch that the setting sun left covered in shadows. That was fine with me and we sat down for our game.

This years finalists with tournament organizer Ben Munson on the left.

  I’ve beaten Joe exactly once in over 15 meaningful games and I knew he was out for blood today when he played the Benko Gambit. For the second time this day I concentrated on development instead of trying to hang on to the offered pawn. I slowly expanded on the king side but Joe pinned my knight against both my queen and rook with his bishop. There were a lot of tricks to watch out for but I slowly untangled myself. My plan was to plant a knight on b5 to stop Joe’s queen side attack while I was attacking his king with everything else but every time I put my knight on b5 Joe would attack it with his bishop. I retreated my knight and he moved his bishop and I put my knight back and he attacked it with his bishop and I retreated my knight and after the third or fourth time we agreed to a draw.

  Tim Mc Entee saw the draw and said that my kingside attack would have been faster than Joe’s queen side attack with or without a knight on b5. I’m sure Tim is right but I was happy to get on the scoreboard with the draw and face Bob Keating over the board for the first time in eight years.

  Bob is an e4 player and I played my Center Counter defense. Bob played an early h3 pawn move. If it was anyone else I would have considered it a ‘soft-serve’ move and made a grab for the center. Instead I made an escape hatch for my queen with an early c6 move that I’ve seen International Master John Bartholomew play at the Okoboji Open a number of times. Bob had the advantage of controlling four rows of the board as opposed to my three rows and we were fighting for footholds on the no-man’s land fifth row of the board. Bob wasn’t pushing the action more than trying to maintain control over the position. After nine minutes Bob had a bishop and I had a knight and we each had six pawns, a rook, a queen, and thirty seconds left. That’s when things got weird. I had played a fine game but at this point I cracked and let Bob get a passed pawn on the a-file. While I was trying to stop his pawn from advancing I lost a pawn so I was down a pawn and soon to be down a queen. In desperation I threw my queen on the same side of the board as Bob’s king to threaten a series of checks. As I made my move I noticed that I had five seconds left to Bob’s eight. Bob considered his move but the change in the game must have disrupted his rhythm - he forgot about the time situation, his eight seconds ran off, and he ran out of time, leaving me as the winner. It wasn’t the way I would choose to win but I’ve lost plenty of games in the exact same way including a 2011 State Fair game where I had a mate in 5 but no time on the clock (there was no delay that year). As soon as the game was over Tim and Joe showed how I had a perpetual check and with a two second delay I could have gotten a draw but with a one second delay I was sure to run out of time. Bob was as gracious in defeat as he’s been the many times I’ve seen him after a victory and correctly noted that under these tournament conditions he was the rookie in the crowd and his inexperience cost him this game.

  Joe beat Cub in their game and I sat down against Cub knowing a victory would assure me of at least a tie for first place. The game was a Slav Exchange just like my pool play game against Tim Harder. I had a reasonable game going but allowed Cub to get his pawns deep in my territory while I grabbed a pawn in the center. Cub got a rook and queen in my territory and I was scrambling to try to trade queens. Eventually we reached a similar situation as my game with Joe – I would push Cub’s Queen away with my knight, he would retreat his queen, I’d retreat my knight, he’d bring his queen back, I’d push his queen away with my knight, etc... I offered a Cub a draw and he accepted and as soon as we shook hands Tim Harder showed us that Cub had a devastating knight sacrifice that would have won immediately if I had accepted it. The draw left me with 2 points and gave Joe a chance to finish in first place all by himself if he could beat Bob. The game was equal with Bob having a time advantage when a typical State Fair moment arose. A food concession worker was cutting through the administration building porch with her friends when she saw the game between Bob and Joe and shouted to her friend (directly in Joe’s ear) “OH LOOK…THEY’RE PLAYING CHESS!!!” Joe’s concentration was wrecked and he lost the game a few seconds later which meant that Bob and I tied for this year’s State Fair speed chess championship.

2014 Iowa State Fair Speed Chess co-champions : Hank Anzis and Bob Keating.
What would Casey Stengel have thought of that?

  Bob wanted to know if we were going to play a tie break game to decide the championship. I suggested that we have a race to 30 pushups and Bob countered that we have an orthopedic surgery contest. I might have gone for that if Bob wasn’t an orthopedic surgeon but since I had my handy pocketknife I offered a compromise and proposed an amputation contest. I went looking for a volunteer when Ben Munson came to the rescue and presented us each with a blue 1st place ribbon with no tiebreak necessary.

  After six trips to the State Fair with no blue ribbon I’ve won it two years running. I wrote last year that I’ve rarely seen anybody win a tournament without some lucky breaks and that went for me in spades this year. I could have lost to Tim Harder in pool play and not even made it to the finals. In the finals I could have lost all three games but every break went my way and I was the only player out of the 15 to be undefeated. Lucky as I was, sharing the championship with Bob wasn’t all luck. I did a lot of things to help me be successful. I brought a t-shirt and some Amp Focus to keep me comfortable, hydrated, and alert as well as doing my tactics puzzles and live game practice. Luck must still be taken advantage of and if I hadn’t been practicing or been too thirsty or hot to function properly I wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of the breaks that came my way.

The championship dinner! Deep fried vegetables and a strawberry smoothie!

  Once the tournament was over, Tim Mc Entee, his friend Bryon, Bryon’s wife, Joe, and I had dinner before heading home. In the Iowa State Fair tradition I wanted something fried or on a stick or both fried and on a stick and settled on a $6 stickless fried veggie combo at the ‘Veggie-Table’ stand and for desert a $3.50 strawberry smoothie at the smoothie stand next to ‘Veggie-Table’. The smoothie really hit the spot since my Amp Focus was long gone and I was feeling very thirsty. The vegetable combo had all the grease I would expect from an Iowa State Fair food item and then some. I could barely taste any of the vegetables but after winning the blue ribbon I could have been eating mud and it would have tasted great.

  After our dinner, the group split up and Joe and I walked to my car so I could give him a ride to his car (parked a mile away on a side street). On our way out we saw David Skaar heading back into the fair after taking a walk around Des Moines. We chatted for a bit and said our goodbyes for yet another year. I dropped Joe off and headed back to Marshalltown for a short but happy night of sleep before another day of work and another year until the next Iowa State Fair speed chess tournament.

  Getting a blue ribbon this year was an improbable result. I was one of the oldest participants and much older than the other finalists. I wasn't close to being the best player yet I was still standing at the end. It was a surreal couple of hours. My old friend and mentor Dale Steiger had a word for this – he called it ‘serendipity’. I thought about the events of the day on the hour long drive home and came to the conclusion that my getting a blue ribbon at an Iowa State Fair speed chess tournament was no more improbable than a kid from New Jersey spending half his life getting wasted and playing in an Iowa State Fair speed chess tournament in the first place and I've been there and done that plenty. When I plugged my amazing iPod into my car and turned on the Rhapsody Music app the first song that played was a 1983 song by Yes called ‘It Can Happen’...

“It can happen to you
It can happen to me
It can happen to everyone eventually
As you happen to say
It can happen today
As it happens
It happens in every way”

...and there was no argument from me.

The Once a Year Chess Club

To quote President George W. Bush's May 1, 2003 speech - "Mission Accomplished"

  The Iowa State Fair was last week and on the Wednesday of the State Fair I went to play in the speed chess tournament for the fourth year in a row (and the seventh time overall) to try to win the elusive first place blue ribbon in the annual speed chess competition. I’ve written about my experiences at this tournament in each of the past three years (you can see them here) and spent much of my hour-long commutes back and forth to work the week before wondering if this year’s State Fair post would be one of triumph or tragedy.

  The State Fair speed chess tournament isn’t attended by many of the state’s top players but that doesn’t diminish its importance as a statewide chess event. When I discuss chess with non-chess players their eyes glaze over when I talk about competing in a CyChess tournament or heading to Minnesota for next week’s Jackson Open or directing the super strong Okoboji Open but when these same people saw my name on TV or in the paper as a second place finisher in last year’s state fair speed chess tournament they congratulated me and treated it like a big deal and treated me like a big-time chess player because while many people don’t get chess tournaments they do get the State Fair and the status winning a blue ribbon confers.

Blue ribbon students Alex and Drake!

  I left work at 3:00 and stopped at a QuickTrip for a 32 ounce Mountain Dew/Rooster Booster Energy drink mix and a bottle of 5 hour energy in case I felt tired. I got to the fairgrounds around 3:30, paid $10 to park in the fairgrounds parking lot and another $11 to enter the fairgrounds and then made my way past the hordes of people eating anything and everything that can be coated in grease and poked with a stick while guzzling carbonated beverages out of overprized souvenir cups to get to the Administration building where the tournament was going to be held.

  When I got to the Administration building the scholastic tournament was going on with a small crowd of players. Attendance at the fair has been down in general and with school starting in August and the economy requiring more parents to work more hours and inflation raging despite what the ‘official’ numbers say I think it is getting increasingly more difficult for parents to take a day off from work to bring their kids to play chess during the week.

  Among the players in the scholastic section were 2 of my students, Alex and Drake. Alex’s mom is my chess camp nurse and in return for her help I gave Alex some lessons last summer and enjoyed it so much that we continued all year. He has steadily improved to the point that he has beaten me twice in our training games during these lessons. I donated some lessons to the Animal Rescue League for an auction in the spring and Drake’s parents bid on them and won. Drake is a super-talented 7 year old who tied for the state first grade championship last year and has won five of my beginner youth tournaments. He is a quick learner and when we played a training game in our last lesson, he outplayed me and should have won! Drake and Alex both received blue ribbons for winning their sections and I got to get some pictures of them, while making sure to tell them that winning the blue ribbon was a very big deal and also mentioning that I’ve been trying to get one for years.

  I had my second place ribbon hung up in my work cubicle where I could see it every day since last year’s fair (and my third place ribbon the year before that) to remind me how much I wanted to win the blue ribbon, but my preparations didn’t stop at hope. I did 25 puzzles from Tim Brennan’s Tactics Time database every morning (finishing all 10,001 last week!) after walking Daisy and Baxter and spent part of every lunch hour at work doing puzzles from my amazing iPod’s Tactics Trainer app. Mix in a liberal amount of blitz games on the Internet, time odds blitz games, and training games during lessons and I was as prepared to win the State Fair tournament as I ever was. But while being prepared is nice, you also have to play well on the day.

Ben Munson explaining the pool play
assignments to Life Master Tim Mc Entee

  While I was hanging out watching the scholastic players and chatting with the parents, the other speed chess players began to arrive. 3 time state champ Tim McEntee was there, but luckily for everyone who had designs on winning the tournament he was only there to hang out with the chess players and watch his student and defending champion Cub Noble compete. Joe Meyer from Waterloo (the winner of the 2012-2013 Marshalltown Blitz Series) arrived shortly after that and we caught up with a long chat. Then David Skaar, multiple-time State Fair winner and my state fair nemesis showed up. David only plays in this one tournament every year and while we were talking said that the State Fair tournament was his once a year chess club and he was right on the money. Many of us head to the Iowa State Fair this one Wednesday just to play in this chess tournament and hang out with each other for a couple of hours just like my Thursday Night chess club in Marshalltown. Steve Jacobs and Carl Peters were the other two tournament players I recognized that arrived before the 5:30 registration deadline.

  All told, there were fourteen players and tournament organizer and legendary Des Moines chess teacher Ben Munson divided us into four pools: two three player pools and two four player pools and told us that the winner of each pool would advance to the finals. I thought this was a curious decision since the players in the three player pool that didn’t advance would only get to play two games in the tournament. I think it would have been better to have two seven player pools with the top two or three advancing to the finals but it wasn’t my tournament and I was focused on playing chess. The pool assignments gave me a major break in that I was in a three player pool with two less experienced players while Cub and Joe had to play in the same pool and David and Dr. Peters were also matched up in the same pool so it was likely that some of my main competitors wouldn’t even get to the finals.

In the lead after a round
one bye in pool play

My pool play partners:
Dennis(left) and Adam

  I was in a pool with Adam and Dennis, who were playing in the first round while I had a bye. I hung out talking to Tim and watched Cub and Joe play their pool game which was won by Joe. Adam won against Dennis and I played Dennis next with the white pieces. After 5 moves, Dennis lost a piece and I went on to easily win and then Adam and I squared off to see who would advance to the finals from our pool. Adam was much better than Dennis and came up with a twist to my favorite Center Counter opening that I hadn’t seen before. I concentrated on getting a solid position and won a rook for a bishop when Adam went for an early queen exchange. I managed to open a line for my extra rook to attack Adam’s king and once my rooks crashed through the game was over and I was on to the finals. Joe was also in along with David and we were joined by Caden, who upset Steve Jacobs to win his pool. Caden was the only scholastic player to compete in last years speed chess tournament and he lost all his games. Last year we all tried to keep him from getting discouraged and were happy to see him have a big success this year by getting to the finals.

  Once the finalists were determined, Ben wrote down the schedule. I had Black against David in round one, Black against Caden in round two, and White against Joe in the final round. David and I sat down, shook hands, and squared off for our game. For the first time ever in our meetings, David opened with his king pawn and we entered a line of the Center Counter that led to a quick queen exchange. I managed to give him a weak pawn on d3 and spent most of the 5 minute game (with a 2 second delay) keeping him on the defensive but I was unable to win the weak pawn. I moved on to try to force another weakness and David managed to exchange all the pieces and we were each left with less than a minute on our clocks and a king and a pawn apiece. I managed to queen my pawn one move before David and this allowed me to check his king with my queen. In any other game, I would have offered a draw, but I really wanted to try to win this game so I gave four or five checks in the hopelessly drawn position and David made a disastrous move that cost him his queen and the game.

pgn4web chessboards courtesy of pgn4web.casaschi.net

Finalists Joe and David

Finalist Caden

  Two weeks ago I wrote how I offered a draw in the July Time Odds Blitz when I could have just run my opponent out of time and I said it didn’t mean I was a good sport – it just meant that winning or drawing the game didn’t mean very much to me. In this game my actions didn’t mean I was a bad sport – it just meant that winning this game was very important to me. I felt bad for David but I still was happy to get past the first hurdle. Joe beat Caden and when we went to the scoring table to write down our results I asked Ben if there was going to be a playoff for the blue ribbon in case of a tie. Ben said he had enough blue ribbons so there would be no playoff so I told Joe that when we played I would accept a draw at any time. Joe said we should worry about that later because we still had work to do. I sat down to play Caden and after 10 or so moves, he allowed a tactic that cost him a piece. I thought he would fall apart but Caden played extremely tough and made me push him back square by square, all the while setting little traps to give me ways to go wrong. I finally managed to trade off a lot of pieces and make an extra queen just before he ran out of time.

  Joe beat David a few minutes after my game was finished and while I was setting up the pieces for our game, Joe told Ben that we had agreed to a draw and a shared championship. I was willing to play for the ribbon if Joe insisted (After all, I wouldn’t have had a choice), but I was so thrilled to finally get the Iowa State Fair blue ribbon that I gave Joe a big hug and congratulated him and thanked him. Then Joe said that I wasn’t going to get off that easy and we still needed to play a game for the ‘unofficial’ championship. Joe knew all about my ‘Boris’ opening so I just played a standard setup against his Benoni but quickly got on the defensive when he managed to trade one of his queenside pawns for in return for my e4 pawn which was the key to my center position. I managed to hold on and open a file for my rooks and when Joe hastily took my other center pawn, it allowed me a tactic to win a piece and the game. Does this mean I would have won the blue ribbon if we had played for it? Hardly! I’ve only beaten Joe once in 14 rated tournament games although I have a much better record against him in casual games which means that Joe is a different player when there is something on the line or I’m a bit of a choke artist or (as is often the case) a little bit of both.

  I relayed this story of our zero move draw to a friend of mine the next day. She said that was no way to win a blue ribbon and I have to respectfully disagree. I know I got into the winners circle through the back door but it doesn’t matter whether you get in through the front door or the side door or the back door or even the doggie door – the goal is to get INDOORS. I finally have my blue ribbon, couldn’t ask for a better co-champion than Joe, and I still did have to win four games to get it. Was I lucky I had to play only four games and that David made a horrendous mistake? Sure!! But I’ve rarely seen a tournament where the eventual winner didn’t benefit from some lucky breaks along the way. I will say that I did a lot of the things that helped me take advantage of my good fortune like spending a lot of time on tactics puzzles, bringing a t-shirt to wear, apples to eat, and something to drink.

The Championship Dinner!

2012 Champ Cub Noble welcoming
me to the winner's circle

  After the tournament was over we all hung out for a while and talked and then I celebrated by sharing a late dinner with Cub and Tim. I had an $8.50 dinner of steak tips, mashed potatoes, and green beans from the nearby ‘Dawghouse’ stand and I can’t remember having a more satisfying meal. We chatted about the State Fair chess tournament and Cub’s upcoming chess tournaments in the Cedar Falls area (where he attends the University of Northern Iowa as a TRIPLE major) and then said our good byes and headed our separate ways.

  I was feeling so good about being a co-champion that I could have floated home, but instead I took my car, played ‘Cloud 9’ and ‘We are the Champions’ on my amazing iPod, and headed to the Bondurant Git’n’Go to gas up and get some coffee for the way home. Last year, I was recognized at the Git’n’Go for taking pictures to expose their scam of charging 40 cents for a 32 ounce fountain drink and $1.06 for a 20 ounce refill but given the constant churn of personnel at convenience stores in the 21st century I was able to enter the store unnoticed just 12 months later. I used the men’s room and was about to get the coffee when I noticed a sign on the ladies’ room that said ‘NO MEN’ (there was no corresponding sign on the men’s room). I was going to ask if this newly posted rule applied to state fair blue ribbon winners but I thought the better of it, paid my 74 cents for the coffee and headed home. At work the next day, I replaced the red ribbon at my cubicle at work with the blue one but on Friday I took the ribbon home and hung it on a nail with my 2 red, 2 white, and 2 yellow participant ribbons. In the years I didn’t win I wanted to keep the vision of what I wanted in front of me but now that I possess what I’ve coveted for so long I think reminding myself of that every day wouldn’t be productive to my new goal of getting a second blue ribbon!

Left: Co-champions Joe and I with tournament organizer Ben Munson. Right: Next club meeting - August 2014!

Ups and Downs at the Iowa State Fair

Left: David Skaar and I play once a year at the state fair. Here we are preparing for this year's slugfest. Right: Joe from Waterloo and I have played 14 tournaments games in the last 12 months (I've won one of them).

  On Wednesday, I continued my stretch of 5 chess tournaments in 10 days by heading to the Iowa State Fair for the annual speed chess competition. I came very close to winning the coveted blue ribbon the last 2 years, finishing second in 2010 and third in 2011 and even though I had lost 50 points off my quick chess rating in the last week I was optimistic that I had righted my ship and was ready to earn a place among the Iowa State Fair speed chess champions.

  I left work at 4:30 and made my way across town to the state fairgrounds. There was hardly any traffic this year and the people who rent their front yards for parking on state fair week were all sitting forlornly in their lawn chairs staring at their ‘Parking $5.00’ signs and empty lots. I paid my $10 to park in the main lot, paid my $10 to get in the fair and was on my way to the tournament when I saw a sign in front of a tent proclaiming free soda and energy drinks. I was armed with a shot of 5 hour energy and a travel cup of ice water with lemon, but was happy to get a free bottle of HyDrive. Next to the free drink tent was a tent proclaiming ‘Older Iowans Day’ that looked like they were also giving away free stuff but not only was I not an ‘Older Iowan’, they were only giving away sips of water, so I waded through the fair goers to the administration building where the state fair speed tournament was being held. I arrived at the building and greeted Ben Munson, who was presiding over the remnants of the afternoon scholastic tournament. He told me that there were only 12 scholastic players this year. I was disappointed at the small number since I had send out a mailing about the state fair and last year there were at least 30 players.

Left: I like FREE. Right: What are the benefits of being an Older Iowan?

  After chatting with Ben, I went over to check out this year’s competition. My longtime friendly state fair nemesis and defending co-champion David Skaar was there as well as reigning Marshalltown Blitz champion Joe Meyer (AKA Joe from Waterloo). 3 time Iowa champion and life master Tim McEntee was there along with his fellow Ankeny resident Cub Noble. Cub has been studying with Tim and shown vast improvement as most of Tim’s students do. Caden, a player from my scholastic tournaments passed on playing in the scholastic tournament to try his luck with the adults. Just before the 5:30 start time, the other defending co-champion George Eichhorn arrived. Since we had 7 players, Tim decided not to play. Ben told us that with only 6 players, we would play each of the other players twice. He also told us that unlike years past we would have a 2 second delay in addition to the 5 minutes we normally get to play the game. This was a big boost to my chances since I have always been behind on the clock at the state fair but with a 2 second delay, I would never run out of time in a winning position as long as I could make each move in the 2 second delay before the clock started running.

  I was paired with Caden in the first round and as soon as we started, tournament veteran Greg Ward showed up. I’ve seen Ben turn away players who were even a minute late, but he made an exception for Greg and told us that instead of playing each other twice, we would play each other once and each have one round off, with Greg taking the first round off. I beat Caden fairly easily in the first round with the Black pieces and had the second round off, which I spent playing a warm-up game with Tim. I played the Boris against Tim, who crushed it effortlessly.

  In the third round, I had white against George. I had a mate in 4 against him last year but lost when I ran out of time. I didn't even have a phyrric victory this year as I moved too fast in the opening and forgot to play the Boris, which allowed George to play the dangerous Albin Counter Gambit. I took the pawn but wasted so much time trying to keep it that George got a crushing bind on my queenside. I got down to 1 second on my clock, but with the delay was able to make 20 moves within 2 seconds and even managed to win a piece from George before running out of time looking for a way to stop his passed queenside pawns.

  With one loss under my belt, I sat down to play Joe with the black pieces. I’ve only beaten Joe in one of 13 tournament games (with 6 draws) but the game I won was with the Black pieces so I was confident I could win if I played well. Joe played a line against my Center Counter defense that led to a quick trade of queens and open lines for the rooks. I had 2 bishops against a bishop and knight and was pushing the action throughout, but couldn’t get Joe to fall for any tricks and we agreed to a draw when we ended up with only bishops of opposite colors. I was behind 2 minutes to 1 but with the delay there was no reason for Joe to play on. My next game was with the White pieces against Greg. Last year Greg had me beat, but ran short of time and made several poor moves in time pressure to lose so this year I wanted to stay even on the board, get ahead on the clock, and let nature take its course. I played a heady game and established a strong grip on the board against Greg’s Dutch Defense. We had even material with 6 pawns, 2 rooks, and a knight each and I was ahead on the clock with one minute to Greg’s 10 seconds when I suddenly lost my head and attempted some dubious tactics that should have lost my knight. Luckily for me, Greg missed winning the knight in his time pressure and ran out of time, giving me an undeserved win for the second year in a row. I looked up after the game was over and standing there watching was 2009 state fair champion Jon Narcisse, who was manning his Iowa Party booth and had wandered over to catch the action. Jon pointed out to Greg how he had an easy win, but when you only have a few seconds on your clock, nothing is easy.

  Feeling lucky indeed, I sat down to play Cub with the black pieces. We played a complicated game in which I wrecked Cub’s pawns to get an advantage in any endgame, but Cub used the open lines the wrecked pawns gave him to generate dangerous piece activity around my king. We were each maneuvering around and I was behind on the clock 2 minutes to 3 when Cub offered me a draw. I spent a minute looking for a way to try to get an advantage, found none, and accepted the draw.

Left: 3 Years of Iowa State Fair speed chess champions (from left) George Eichhorn, Cub Noble, Jon Narcisse, and David Skaar with tournament organizer and Des Moines chess legend Ben Munson. Right: Tim Mc Entee, Iowa's best chess teacher, observing Cub battle Joe.

  For the last round, I had white against David Skaar. The other 2 games from the last round were still going on and one of them was using my clock. We were at the table where Cub’s clock was and I asked Cub if the delay was set and he said no, his clock didn’t have a delay. I should have waited until my clock was available but I made a hasty move and decided to play using Cub’s clock. We played a complicated King’s Indian Defense and David found a tactic to win a pawn. I was behind on the clock and traded down to a Queen and Bishop ending where I was still the pawn down but while my king was safely tucked in behind my pawns, David’s was in the open and I was able to threaten it with my queen. I finally managed to win my pawn back and with each of having seconds left we had only 2 pawns each and were frantically racing them down the board. I queened my pawn first and then David queened his pawn, but I was able to force a queen trade on the next move. My king was closer than David’s to the last 2 remaining pawns and I won his with 2 seconds left on my clock. I raced my pawn down the board and made a queen and was in the process of forcing David’s king into checkmate when I stole a glance at the clock and saw I had 8 seconds left. When I checkmated David, I had 13 seconds left. I figured the clock was adding time after each move but as David and I were discussing the game afterwards, I realized that when you ran out of time using that particular clock, it starts to count up the time! I felt bad about winning that way, but it was up to David to make the claim. I could have and should have avoided the whole mess by using my clock in the first place. Anyway, it was another great game with David. We only meet this once a year, but when we battle we’re like 2 heavyweights in the middle of the ring trading blow after blow until the bell rings and this year I managed to take the split decision.

  Once I lost to George, I figured I was out of the running for a blue ribbon and when I drew Cub and Joe, I assumed there was no way I could even get third place and I watched the last game of the tournament between Cub and George. Cub was being beaten badly over the board but won the game when George ran out of time. It turned out that Cub and George were tied with 4 points apiece and by winning Cub took the tournament and I had tied for second with George. If I could have beaten Cub and if everything else has remained the same (2 very big ifs) , I would have tied him for first.

Left: The look of a champion. Right: Number 2 and Number 1, but there's always next year...

  We all talked a bit after the games were over. Caden didn’t win any games, but he had a chance to beat Greg in their matchup. We all congratulated him for playing, encouraged him, and reminded him and his parents that the best way to get better at chess is by playing stronger players and he left eager for my next youth tournament. I snapped some blog pictures, said my goodbyes, and wandered around with Tim looking for something to eat. We found a Gyro stand and I thought I had 5 minutes of incredible Gyro worker interviews, but my camera only captured a few seconds of Gyro Action! We ate under a tent while talking about the speed chess tournament, last weekend’s youth tournament, Tim’s chess plans for the area, and it was time to go home and say goodbye to State Fair speed chess and my chance at a blue ribbon for another year.

  I’m happy to have gotten my second second place ribbon, but I still covet that blue ribbon more than anything I’ve coveted in quite some time. I don’t know why I want that blue ribbon so badly. Maybe it’s because I’ve come so close or that both my children have one, but if I had to pick a reason I have to go with the totally irrational belief that the championship the blue ribbon signifies would confer a kind of Iowan chess immortality above and beyond my 2 CyChess co-championships and even the Broken Pawn’s best chess blog award. I admit it’s silly, but it’s my silliness and nothing else makes sense as to why I want to win this little blue piece of cloth so badly.

  Despite not coming home with the coveted blue ribbon yet again, I was in a pretty good mood heading home with a belly full of Gyro. I couldn’t say whether it was from the release of good feeling endorphins after the intense 5 minute battles with my fellow chess players, the realization that despite not playing especially well I was able to battle my way into second place, or just another great day playing chess and hanging out with great people. I was pretty hot and thirsty so I stopped at the Git’n’Go in Bondurant for a soda. You may recall this was the site of my June post in June about a 20 ounce soda refill costing $1.06 while a 32 ounce new soda cost 42 cents. There at the counter filing her nails was the same clerk who was on duty when I asked for a 32 ounce cup, poured the contents of my refill cup into it, paid my 42 cents, and then poured the soda back into the refill cup and left (taking photos each step of the way). As I filled my refill cup with a soda, she warily said ‘Are you going to take pictures today?’ I couldn’t believe she remembered me and I told her that I was a journalist (leaving out the chess journalist part) and that she and the 40 cent Git’n’Go anniversary 32 ounce soda figured prominently in an award winning blog. She loosened up after that, smiled, and said she told all the other clerks about me and they all have a good laugh when the subject of my taking pictures of the soda switch comes up. Then she only charged me 73 cents for the soda instead of the $1.06. So even though immortality in the world of Iowa State Fair speed chess still eludes me, I have made my mark at the Bondurant Git’n’Go. Until next year I’ll take whatever immortality I can get.

A fair Iowa State Fair

This wasn't the only shot in the gut I'd be taking from David Skaar this day.
On the right is Ben Munson, legendary Des Moines chess teacher.

  This past week was Iowa State Fair Week in Des Moines and every year on the Wednesday of that week, the Iowa State Fair Speed Chess competition is held. Last year I finished second and have been pointing to this day for over a month to make another attempt at the coveted first place Blue Ribbon to along with my red (2nd), white(3rd) and 2 yellow (participant) State Fair speed chess ribbons.

  I left work an hour early, snaked my way through Des Moines, paid 5 dollars to park in some guys backyard (the state fair lots were full and this guy lives next to their parking lots), walked through the State Fair parking lot, paid my $10 dollar fair entry fee, and walked through the throngs of people drinking $5 sodas in commemorative cups ($3 refills) and eating anything that can be fried in grease and stuck on a stick (including fried butter on a stick) towards the Administration Building where the tournament is held every year. The scholastic tournaments were wrapping up and I was happy to see some of the tournament players from my scholastic events competing. I talked to some of the kids and parents while waiting for the 5:30 start time.

  The State Fair tournament is organized and run by Ben Munson every year. Ben is a concert violinist, an expert chess player, and one of the great people of Iowa chess, spending countless hours as a volunteer chess teacher in Des Moines schools over the last 3 decades. You could say that I’m an offshoot of the Ben Munson School of running tournaments in that we both want low entry fees, lots of prizes, and have no one in our tournaments walk away empty-handed. This is not to say that we agree on everything. For example, Ben doesn’t believe that kids should be playing in USCF rated tournaments until they are rated at least 1200 (ratings start at 100 and all but a few Iowa Scholastic players are rated below 1200) and I think rated tournaments are fine as long as a child’s ratings don’t become all-consuming, but the fact remains that I respect Ben’s opinions a lot and everyone I’ve ever met that knows Ben also has an enormous amount of respect for him.

  There were a lot of strong players at this year’s event like Mike Maloney. Mike outrates me by 2 rating classes, but said he just came to watch and wasn’t going to play. Another player 2 rating classes above me was George Eichhorn (who was there to play). George is an attorney and I registered as a Republican last year solely to vote for him when he ran for Secretary of State. To this date, George is the only member of a major party I have ever voted for. As a chess player, George has made the finals of the State championship 2 of the last 3 years and beat Matt in this year’s final, costing Matt the state chess championship. My longtime state fair nemesis David Skaar was on hand, along with Tim Harder (Tim is in the same rating class as I am), rising scholastic player Cub Noble (who should have beat me last year and is even a stronger player now), Marshalltown Blitz semi-regular Steve Jacobs (who has played me even this year in Marshalltown), and tournament veteran Greg Ward.

3 generations of Iowa tournament organizers: Ben Munson and myself (left).
Cub Noble and Tim Harder, representatives of the next generation (right).

  At the State Fair it is vitally important not to fall too far behind on the clock since you only have 5 minutes for the game and there is no delay before your clock runs down to allow you to make an unlimited amount of moves with just a second left on your clock. Cub offered to play me a warm up game at the time limit. He beat me easily, but I shrugged off my sloppy play and beat him in the next 3 games. Fully warmed up, I took on Mike, who crushed me. After my beatdown, I took the rest of the time to catch up with the rest of the players and Ben, and talk shop will fellow tournament organizers Cub Noble and Tim Harder about their September 3rd Big Money Blitz tournament in Ankeny. While Ben is from the previous generation of tournament organizers that does the pairings, press releases, and promotional mailings by hand, and I am of the current generation that uses a computer for the pairings and email and Internet for promotion, Cub and Tim are the next generation of organizers that accept payment by Paypal and promote via Facebook.

  Last year there were only 8 players in the speed chess tournament and we all played each other, but this year 19 players chose to compete. An all-play-all tournament would have taken at least 3 hours, so Ben divided us into 5 groups of 3 or 4 players who would play each other and the winner of each pool would compete in the finals. I was extremely lucky in that my group had 2 beginner kids and Casey Smith, the parent of a scholastic player who has played in my parent and friends tournament but had never played with a clock set to 5 minutes before. I had Black against each youngster and dispatched them in short order and then beat Casey with White to take a spot in the finals. Cub had the misfortune to be placed in George’s group and missed the finals, while Tim lost to Skaar, and Steve was upset by Greg. That’s 3 pretty strong players not even getting in the finals!

George Eichhorn

  The 5 players in the finals were George, David Skaar, Greg, myself, and a guy I never saw before named Robert who won the fifth pool. In the first game I had the black pieces against George, a daunting challenge. I thought George wanted to attack but instead he let me get my pawns on his side of the board and make him defend against me. I crashed open the center and had a monster passed pawn that put his pieces in a horrible cramp, but made a couple of bad moves to lose all my queen side pawns. I managed to come back from that to win George’s queenside pawns back and get a winning position, but then I noticed that I had 20 seconds left on the clock and George had a minute. I raced my pawns down the board and made a Queen with a forced checkmate in 5 moves, but with no delay on the clocks at the State Fair I ran out of time and lost.

  I was happy that I was able to go toe to toe with George, but if I had matched his speed maybe I’m not able to get the winning position I did. I had the second round off and David and George played to a draw, which barring a major upset sealed me off from first place for this year. I had the white pieces against Skaar in round 3. I got a great position and won a rook for a knight, but couldn’t figure out how to break through the chain of pawns protecting David’s king. I glanced at the clock and saw I only had 30 seconds to a minute and a half for David. I tried my best to break through but with 8 seconds on my clock, I moved a piece that was pinned to my king and David took my King. I’m not sure how the State Fair rules handle this, but it didn’t matter since I had no time left so I resigned.

  I was pretty bummed out as I took the black pieces against Greg. I thought I had a great chance to come home with the blue ribbon and instead I was looking at 2 straight losses in positions I could have won. I played listlessly against Greg, got too aggressive and missed a knight fork that cost me a rook for a knight. I looked at the clock and saw that Greg had 2 minutes while I had 3. Instead of attacking me with his material advantage, Greg decided to give me a piece in order to trade queens. I had a crummy position, but with equal material and a time advantage, I was able to slowly get back in the game and was a piece ahead when Greg’s time ran out. I couldn’t take a lot of joy in the victory since I had just lost 2 games in the same fashion, but a win is a win is a win. In the last round I had White against Robert, who had lost all his games. I played a smarter game this round, making safe, quick moves and built up a 2:30 to 2:00 edge on the clock. Robert finally made a mistake in time pressure, lost a piece and I brought home the point to finish 5-2 for the day, 2-2 for the finals, and the owner of my second 3rd place white ribbon from the Iowa State Fair. David and George finished in a tie for first and Ben rewarded them each with a first place blue ribbon.

On the left are the other players in my group and on the right Cub Noble battles George Eichhorn. Over the the chessboard chess players can be a cutthroat bunch, but away from the board we tend to get along great.

  Playing at the fair this year was an interesting dynamic. Except for Robert and the 2 kids I played in the preliminary round, I knew, liked, and respected everyone I played but when we sat down at the board the smiles disappeared and we went at each other like 2 dogs going after a scrap of meat, yet after the game we were as friendly as we were before the first move. We all wanted desperately wanted to win each game we sat down to play, but also understand the randomness of chess, especially the 5 minute variety, and there were no hard feelings about the results.

  I had a great time at the State Fair tournament as always, but I’m disappointed in myself for not playing as good as I thought I could have. It’s just like I tell the kids at the tournaments. My opponents just played better than me and if I can use this experience to get better, I won’t walk away from the tournament as a loser. If I am ever going to capture that blue ribbon, I have to be more aware of the clock and not get into the extreme time pressure I did on Wednesday. I’ve signed up for Tim and Cub’s 5 minute BIG MONEY BLITZ tournament in Ankeny on Labor Day weekend and in the two weeks till the tournament I am going to practice 3 and 5 minute chess on the internet and especially working on getting in the habit of looking at the clock every move to make sure I don’t fall behind on the clock.

  I bought an ice-cold pickle for the mile walk back to my car. It was a fitting reward for my 3rd place finish since as good as the cold pickle tasted on a hot night, it also left me with a sour taste when I was done. I have the white ribbon hanging up next to my monitor at work where I can see it all the time. My co-workers are impressed with my third place finish and maybe they think I have it hanging up to remind myself of my good result or to show off. I graciously accept their congratulations, but don't mention that the real reason my white ribbon is hanging by my computer screen is to remind me as often as possible how much I want that blue ribbon in 2012.

Iowa State Fair Chess

  I had been planning to go to the Iowa State Fair on Wednesday to play in the annual State Fair Speed Chess Tournament, but our church’s fall festival committee meetings have been on Wednesdays this year and I forgot to reschedule it at our last meeting. I was resigned to not going, but then fortune smiled on me when committee stalwarts Monica and Eldon Schneider were not going to be able to make it to the meeting and Monica told me there was going to be a church affair that would occupy a couple of other members. I jumped at the chance to cancel the meeting and made my way to the State Fair after work last night for the tournament. I missed it the last 3 years due to family vacations and working in Marshalltown and not wanting to drive down for the afternoon.

  Most people go to the fair to see the bands, livestock, the butter cow that this lady makes every year, or to be able to eat anything that can be put on a stick and smothered in grease, but I am there to play chess and try to win the coveted blue ribbon for winning first place. In 2005, I tied for 3rd with David Skaar, but lost the tie break game and had to console myself with yet another participant ribbon instead of the 3rd place white ribbon. In 2006 I did manage to win the 3rd place ribbon but it was a hollow achievement because my youngest son Ben (10 at the time) won the blue ribbon for first place, and my oldest son Matt (13) won the red ribbon for second place. So even though I could claim I was the 3rd best speed chess player in the state, I was also only the 3rd best speed chess player in my own home. When I mention this to some people they say I should be happy I’m such a good teacher, but I’d have felt a lot better if I finished first and people thought I was less of a teacher for only having the 2nd and 3rd best chess players in Iowa (and my house). Most of the best players in the state are not competing at the State Fair, but I don’t think that diminishes the bragging rights for winning a statewide tournament.

  I drove down after work, parked and paid my fair entry fee. It was over a mile walk from my car to the administration building porch where the tournament was. There were 8 people signed up for the tournament. Since Ben is retired from chess and my wife couldn’t take Matt, 2 of my biggest competitors were already out of the way. I caught another break when Tim Harder, a strong player from nearby Pleasant Hill, showed up after 5:30 and wasn’t allowed to enter. There were 2 little kids, an adult who was quite a beginner, my nemesis from 2005, David Skaar, class player Dr. Carl Peters, and rising scholastic player Cub Noble. The 8th player was Jonathan Narcisse, who is running as an independent candidate for Governor, is a successful businessman, has been on the Des Moines school board, and is on the Steve Deace show on WHO 1040 talking politics on a regular basis. It is vitally important not to get too far behind your opponent on the clock. In this tournament, each side gets five minutes for the game and there is no delay, so if you get really low on time, a lost opponent can beat you by just making random moves that don’t immediately lose and make you waste valuable seconds taking pieces they just shove in the way of yours.

  In the first round, I was able to beat one of the little kids fairly easily with the black pieces and then managed to outplay Dr. Peters in Round 2 with the white pieces and wrap the game up fairly quickly. I outrate Dr. Peters by 200 points and he is not as good in speed chess as in regular over the board chess. I got to play the other little kid in round 3 and beat him with black. At this point the only undefeated players were Skaar, Narcisse, and myself. Next up was Skaar and I had the black pieces again. David takes care of his elderly father and this is the only chess tournament he plays in except for internet chess. I’ve never beaten him with Black, but this time I won a piece right in the opening, won another piece and was cruising to victory when he started making some random moves with his rook. That got me looking at the clock and I saw that I only had 45 seconds left while he had 2 minutes. I went into overdrive, made a queen and started checking David because if I could get him to make an illegal move I’d get an extra 2 minutes as his penalty. He didn’t make any illegal moves, but used up so much time making sure his moves were legal that I was able to collect my wits, capture his remaining pieces, and checkmate him with 3 seconds left on my clock.

  Now I had the white pieces against Narcisse. We started right away after my game with Skaar finished, which was a mistake on my part. I should have taken a minute to take a few deep breaths and slow my mind down after the frantic finish of the previous game. Also since we were playing on an outdoor porch, it was very hot and sunny and I could have used the iced tea I had brought with me. I started OK against Jonathan, but moved too fast, got too fancy for my own good and missed a check that lost me a piece and went down quickly. As it turns out, Jonathan outrates me by 200 points but hasn’t played in a tournament in 13 years. He just plays at the Borders Book Store club in Des Moines on Tuesday mornings. I managed to beat the adult player who was just a beginner and then played Cub Noble from Ankeny in the last round. We played a few quick games in Des Moines last November and I beat him a couple of times, but lost the last game we played when I got more involved with giving him pointers than just playing chess. During the middle of the game, Cub attacked my bishop with a pawn and I completely forgot about it, made an inconsequential move, and lost my bishop for nothing! What a maroon (as Bugs Bunny would say). Luckily, I managed to keep his king from castling which kept one of his rooks from getting in the game so I wasn’t really behind a piece as long as I could keep the rook in the corner. Cub got very low on time, gave me back the piece, and I checkmated him just before he ran out of time. Jonathan beat David to go 7-0 and I was in second at 6-1. David and Cub tied for 3rd, but David won the tiebreak game to take the white ribbon.From Participant to 3rd to 2nd.
There is only one step left in my Iowa State Fair Chess Journey.
  I was disappointed at not finishing first, but happy to get the second place ribbon. One problem with playing chess is that if you don’t get the desired result, you can only place the blame on the guy looking at you in the mirror. But I had a great time playing and catching up with tournament organizer Ben Munson, Skaar and the other players, and meeting Jonathan Narscisse in person. Jonathan outplayed me and deserved first. I told him I’ll vote for him for governor and I’ll put up a yard sign for him if he’ll give me one. It would be great to have a chess-playing governor. And if he wins, he might be too busy to play in next year’s tournament!