Chicago, Chicago, Chicago!
All-Girls National Chess Championship 2016
The annual All-Girls US Chess Championship in Chicago is a venerable tradition for us. Naomi has played there four times (!): in 2012 -- Under 8 -- second place, in 2013 -- Under 10 -- first place, then in 2015 -- Under 12 -- first place again, and now in 2016 we threw her to the lions -- Under 18 -- which expectedly was a great learning experience for her ;-) with 3.5 points out of 6 and 10th place Under 18. Still, not bad for our 12 year old youngling, among much older toughs.
This time we stayed at the ridiculously expensive Hyatt Regency McCormick Place hotel, because it was the playing venue, so Naomi was able to walk to the playing hall and back to the room by herself. In 2015 we missed the tournament booking window for the Hyatt, and stayed at the more reasonably priced Chinatown Hotel, which is 8 minutes Lyft ride from the McCormick Place venue. The Chinatown location was gastronomically great, but tied us up to Naomi's chess game timing.
StrandBeest
What enticed us to Chicago was in part the desire to see StrandBeest (just click on that link!) by the artist Theo Jansen. The Chicago Cultural Center had this StrandBeest exhibition, and we just couldn't live with the thought of missing it!
Garfield Park Conservatory
In Chicago, we use Lyft all the time - from the airport, between our hotel and attractions, and it works out great.
Just for the ride back to the airport Naomi asked us pleeease to ride the exotic Chicago metro. Diagnosis: Public Transit Deficiency Syndrome (PTDS). Prescription: One Ride Per Year (ORPY). Prognosis: Full Recovery.
With the champion
All-Girls National Chess Championships in previous years
2015
2013
2012
Blog post: Under 8 -- second place (go to "2012 Flashback" section) + photo albums (this is when we fell in love with Chicago):
2010
In April 2010 Naomi was 6 years old and played for the first time in the All-Girls National Chess Championship, which took place in Columbus, OH. She took 9th place out of 45 in the Under 8 years section.
It was so long ago that there was no Chess Travel blog back then yet! So, no blog post to recall, just photo albums:
6 years ago
Future Plans
- Naomi has been invited to the 6th Schein - Friedman chess camp, in collaboration with the US Chess School, to be held at the world famous St. Louis chess club and scholastic center in June. This invitation-only camp is offered to some of the most promising young chess players in the country. Sweet!
- Both Ethan (Open Under 18) and Naomi (Girls Under 14) will travel to the 2016 Pan American Youth Chess Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay. Yay!
