Ten Thousand Chess Hopes
On May 11-15, 2017 Naomi played chess at the SuperNationals VI in Nashville, TN, at the vast Gaylord Opryland Resort. See our previous trips to the Nationals and SuperNationals at that location: 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015. There are age sections, but no gender categories. Naomi played against best US boys.
It's a huge chess event which occurs every 4 years. This year 5,578 kids play (134 players from WA alone), grades K to 12. Adding parents, coaches and organizers, there might be around 10,000 people involved. It's the largest chess tournament in the world.
Before the main tournament, on May 11, Naomi played blitz in the K-9 section. She placed 20th out of 265 participants, and Naomi's school placed second out of 35 teams in blitz.
The last blitz opponent didn't let Naomi move pieces when his time ran out, in order to make her time run out too. Feeling distressed, Naomi haven't reported this clear violation to tournament directors. She should have gotten 9 points, rather than 8.5.
The main tournament started on May 12 at 1pm. Naomi played in the K-8 section -- see the results here. There are 7 rounds overall. Naomi has won in Round 1 against Patrick Leary from Georgia.
Photo album: 2017-05-12 Nashville SuperNationals Opening, Round 1, 2
(don't miss Garry Kasparov's 6 minutes speech video)
(don't miss Garry Kasparov's 6 minutes speech video)
(look at the crazy board numbers)
In Round 2 Naomi won against Gatlin Black from North Carolina:
On May 13, in Round 3, Naomi defeated William Wang from Illinois.
At the start of Round 3, Garry Kasparov was about to make the symbolic first move on Board 1 of section K-9. The great Washington State player Derek Zhang was at the board, but his opponent hasn't appeared on time. Kasparov has made the first move on Board 2 instead, and then proceeded to entertain the audience:
Then Naomi lost Round 4 to Christopher Shen, OH, who went on to take 2nd place, and won Round 5 over Jonathan Gollapudi, MO. That day, May 13, had three rounds!
On May 14, Naomi won Round 6 over Atticus Halley, GA, and lost Round 7 to Ricky Wang, IL, who went on to take 8th place.
Overall Naomi scored 5 points out of 7, and took 24th place out of 244, while playing against some of the strongest US boys her age. That's not bad at all.
Naomi's Odle Middle School chess team shared 2nd/3rd place in the overall team standings. That's a remarkable result at the US Scholastic Chess SuperNationals!
