In Portland, weirdness is an industry
The 65th Annual Oregon Open chess tournament was held on September 5-7, 2015 in the Lloyd Center DoubleTree Hilton hotel in Portland, Oregon. As Naomi prepares for the coming World Youth Chess Championship in Halkidiki, Greece in October 2015, this Oregon Open tournament is a good opportunity to hone her battle skills.
At 7 AM in the morning of September 5, we drove 3 hours to Portland, OR. Naomi played in the Open section (she's too strong for Reserve now). There were 2 games every day, 6 games overall.
On the first day Naomi lost the first game to a player with the USCF rating 2222, and won the second one over a 1820. On the second day she drew with a 2039 and won over a 2096! On the third day she lost to a 2059 and drew with a 1956. Overall Naomi got 3 points out of 6, and her rating went up from 1848 to 1885 as a result of her great showing. (And 3 weeks later Naomi's USCF rating reached 1926!)
We've been to Portland before, so this time we mostly mopped up some places we missed on previous occasions. The most memorable visit was the one to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), which hosted the Ripley's Believe It or Not! exhibition, and the adjacent USS Blueback, an old navy submarine.
Shrunken heads of defeated chess opponents
Take a look at some pretty interesting stuff we've seen there: https://goo.gl/photos/24FRA3jcGfc2qNHR9
We walked a lot along the Portland waterfront on both sides of the Willamette River, including the less-explored eastern one. We re-visited the Pittock Mansion and the nearby International Rose Test Garden. Lastly, we went for a very nice guided walking tour of the downtown from the Pioneer Courthouse Square.
