Vancouver WA Open

A Flight Adventure

The Vancouver WA Open chess tournament was played over the weekend of October 22-23, 2016, in the Hilton Vancouver WA, next to the Esther Short Park and the colorful Saturday Market.  

Naomi played 3 rounds on Saturday and took 2 half‐point byes on Sunday.  Thus we didn't stay overnight, just drove there early Saturday morning and drove back home late at night.  Naomi won Rounds 1 and 3, and lost Round 2 to Seth Talyansky, who got the National Master USCF rating 2200 as the result, congratulations!

After glancing through the small art exhibit in the nearby Slocum House, we headed to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Plaza with its unique Remembrance Wall.

The highlight of the trip was our visit to the nearby Pearson Air Museum.  This is the "anti-ADHD" kind of museum, which requires actually reading and understanding the text on the stands.  We both love this type of museums, the only downside being it took full two hours to go through all exhibits in the small hangar.

The cherry on top was our surprising discovery of the very prominent Chkalov 1937 Transpolar Flight exhibit in the museum.  We of course knew about Chkalov, his co-pilots, and their famous transpolar flight since childhood, though mostly as a Soviet propaganda icon.  It was almost weird to re-discover their story from the other side.

In 1937, their plan was to fly from Moscow, Russia to the North Pole, and then continue all the way to Oakland, CA, where the official reception with the Soviet ambassador waited for them.  Because of heavy polar storms they used more fuel than planned, and couldn't make it all the way to Oakland, therefore midway through Oregon they turned around and approached the backup landing site near Portland.  

However, after spotting a large excited crowd on the ground, and remembering how Lindbergh's plane was broken by ecstatic spectators in a stampede, Chkalov instead crossed the Columbia River, and found the Pearson Air Field to land on.  Their ANT-25 plane had its brakes removed to save weight, so they stopped just yards in front of the hangar.

The three Soviet pilots were received by the Vancouver barracks commander (and future Chief of Staff, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense) General Marshall -- prompting a pun from one of the pilots, in Russian: "So, is he a general or is he a marshal?"  Chkalov died next year in a test flight crash, whereas both his co-pilots attended the opening of the 1937 Transpolar Flight Monument next to the museum, in 1975.

Enjoy the complete photo album: 2016-10-22 Vancouver WA Open chess tournament

2012 US Chess Open

2012 US Chess Open

Ethan plays better, Naomi is better looking

Girls Stand Out

This outstanding photo of Naomi was taken by Philip Peterson (see his other great photos here) at the 2012 US Chess Open Championship in Vancouver, WA:

He also took this photo of Naomi back in 2010:

And in general, chess girls make the most photogenic images, like this one, with all six nice participants of the 2012 US Women's Open:

Vancouver, WA - Scorched by the Sun

Fort Vancouver, founded by the Hudson Bay Company for fur trade with natives, was a British bid to hold territory to the north of the Columbia River.  However, eventually the US took all the territory up to the 49th Parallel.  And anyway, what would Canadians do with two Vancouvers? ;)

The place was hot, hot, hot on August 5-12.  The black powder, musket and pistol demonstrations were the most memorable.

Fort Vancouver

Canon balls

Musket fire

Results

According to the famous law of big numbers, the larger the experimental sample, the closer its distribution is to the probability theory expected results.

Due to the large number of games and players, this law has obviously affected the players results distribution: ratings are well correlated with final standings:

http://www.alchess.com/chess/12/usopen

However, Ethan has played better than his rating, while Naomi hasn’t played as good as she looks ;)

Photos

First day photos by a phone camera:

2012_08_04 US Open Chess Championship, Vancouver WA (phone camera)

Second day - Fort Vancouver, Portland Aerial Tram:

2012_08_05 US Chess Open, Vancouver WA, Portland OR

That night I returned home by Amtrak, leaving the car to my wife and kids in Vancouver.  They spent another week playing chess at the US Open in Vancouver, WA.

Last couple of days:

2012_08_11 US Chess Open, Vancouver WA

2012_08_12 US Chess Open, Vancouver WA