High Speeds

I went out fast and crashed. My first 10K was in about 34:00, a PR. Around 4 miles, my right leg started to burn with each step -- a sign of low fuel. Around 5 or 6, both legs started hurting. I was determined to hang on with the guy I was tailing untill at least half-way through. Shortly after I passed then start of the 10K, I lost contact. Both legs were hurting as bad as they did in the last mile or two of Utah Valley. I essentially hit the marathon wall, running my last 10K at 6:04 pace. My time was 1:15:27, not as bad as it could have been. I think that I would have run 30-40 seconds faster had I taken in some Powerade and been a little mentally tougher. I had somewhat of a mental breakdown in the last 10K, but my crash was mostly physical. In the Utah Valley half, I hadn't taken in any fuel because I hadn't needed to. I naively assumed the same would be true for all half marathons. My fuel was so low that I got confused at several turns in the course and was yelled at by the traffic-directing volunteers. Needless to say, I needed fuel. This race was a learning experience for me and my Dad.

Rode a bike for 7 miels because my legs were still to sore to run.

Went to the first three rounds of the Utah Junior HIgh State Chess Championship. In my first round I played Joanna Nhan, a Vietnamese girl, and won fairly easily. Next I played some chinese guy, I can't remember his name. He wasn't too hard to beat. This is expected. In chess tournaments, your opponents get progressively harder as you keep winning games. Since I am the number two seed, I get easy people for the first few rounds. That said, I had to keep my guard, as the third game showed. In the third round I played Terry Wang (you guessed it, Chinese. I did not play a single caucasian in this tournament. It is interesting how certain ethnicities, in particular Asians, are overrepresented at scholastic chess tournaments). I grabbed a pawn early on, but played half-asleep and missed the chance to win the Exchange. Then I made some positional blunders and Terry equalized. I could have gained the advantage again but played more careless moves and got into serious trouble. I had to sac a pawn, equalizing the material count to keep my king and rook from becoming totally inactive. Then Terry found a shocking pawn break and threatened to promote his passed b-pawn. It took several accurate moves before I equalized and ended up winning my pawn back. Then Terry traded from a probably drawn rook ending into a losing king and pawn endgame and I won. This game rattled me and hopefully woke me up. The reason Terry gave me so much trouble was because I underestimated him and played too timidly in a couple places. I expected an easy win and it almost cost me the game. I am glad to have escaped with the full point, but fear that I may repeat my mistakes tomorrow, when my opponents will not be so forgiving.

Played the last three rounds of the Utah Junior HIgh Chess Championship today.  In my first game of the day, fourth roound of the tournament, I played Patrick Bless, (a Latino this time. I mention the nationalities of my opponents because I didn't play any Caucasians thius tournament. There is a disproportianate number of Chinese and Indian kids at chess tournaments. They generally tend to win the chess tournaments.) I felt like I started playing better in this game. The proverbial lion woke up. Patrick has a low rating, but he gave me a pretty decent fight. I played a couple quick moves and may have given him some drawing chances, but he failed to realize them and I outplayed him in the endgame. 

 Sam Mason, one of my major competitors, lost this round to Stephen Yu, a 1300/1400 player who was definitely the underdog coming in. Sitting at the board next to his, I teased him before the game that if he resigned now, we would let him play bughouse (a popular alternate form of chess involving peices being passed back and forth between two simultaneous chess games) with us. With Sam effectively out of the running, the game has definitely changed. I was discussing possible outcomes of the tournament with Clancey Black, another of my competitors, and we discovered that there was a possible scenario where I would tie for first over with Clancey. He is the only other talented LDS chess player at the tournament, and in his words, "That would be cool, because we're the only Mormons that kick butt."

  I was expecting to play Stephun Yu or Jacinda Lee (another 1300 player) in the fifith round, but instead was paired against Vishwa Srinivan, another of my four serious competitors. Clancey was paired with Eric Hon, the highest rated player at the tournament. Eric's rating is 1916, mine is 1854, making me number two. This is going to make the scenario of me tying for first with Clancey implausible because if Clancey wins and I do, we'll play. If either of us loses our games, we won't win the tournament.

  This game is my first 'real' game. Vishwa, (he's Indian, not Chinese) is no pushover. He will give me a fight. We had ninety minutes per side, so the game could last up to three hours.  I took my time and he took his. The game was an unclear struggle for a while. We traded queens, and reached a critical point in the game. Vishwa spent a lot of time on a few moves. I thought that he might be able to gain an advantage or possibly draw, but I found a tactic that gave me a positional advantage (or so I thought). Vishwa made a mistake that turned my positional advantage into a two-pawn advantage. Then Vishwa walked into a trap I had calculated out while he was thinking about his move. He thought he was winning a piece, but he miscalculated and ended up losing a piece. Fortunately for me, he didn't fight to the bitter end and resigned a few moves later. He could have dragged the game out for another 45 minutes and tired me out. The relatively quick finish and long rest proved crucial to my sucess in the sixth and final round.

  Clancey and Eric fought like tigers. Their Armageddon game lasted nearly three hours. This was good for me because both of my remaining competitors wore each other out while I had enough time to be virtually fresh for the last game. Eric won -- on time. For a while, it looked like they were heading for a draw, but apparently Eric gained the upper hand at the very end. I will face Eric Hon in the last round and battle for the Championship.

The tournament directors gave Eric and Clancey a extra 15 minute break so my game with Eric Hon started later than the other games. I had Black, Eric was higher rated, and I haven't been practicing as much because I'm going to college. Coming into the tournament I was underconfident. I'm almosst surprised I didn't blow it before now. I was hoping to get White so I could surprise Eric with the English Opening, but no such luck. I will have to fight him tooth and nail in the Sicilian. That might but be a bad thing, but I was suffering from underconfidence. I thought he would be better at that type of game. It's hard to say if I was correct.

  Despite the 90-minutes per side time control, we played reasonlably quickly. Eric never more than five mintues on a move, unlike Vishwa who sometimes spent 10. I got a good position out of the opening and mnaged to divert the action in the game from his intented attack on my king to his vulnerable queenside. Then he locked things up by placing his knight on a powerful square. He started his attack and I started trying to stop his attack in its tracks and put his king under attack. Then he tried a tactic that would have seriously weakened my king's defense and possibly have decided the game -- if it had worked. Instead, Eric lost a piece -- which proved to be a decisive advantage for me. I also developed an attack on his king. I had to play patiently and carefully. Eric is a sly fox and he laid many traps -- which I carefully avoided. Having learned my lesson from my game with Patrick, I took my time and didn't move quick. There were several close calls. Several times I almost made a quick move that would have cost me the win, but something made me look more closely at the position and I saw the trap. There were certain instances when I felt prompted to make a certain move or take more time to think. I finished Eric off and won the tournament. I did not believe I'd do so well when I started the tournament. I think this is going to be a big boost to my confidence. It is the first time I have won with a perfect score in a tournament with several games and with serious competition.

  Did two miles in the morning and four at night after getting home from the tournament.

Did a 3.5 tempo today in 20:01. Started out at 5:30 pace, then faded in the last two miles.

Stepped on a drain plug today while in the shower. Got a couple puncture wounds in my heel. Was only able to run 4 today.

Foot still hurting.

My run was spread throughout the day. I volunteered at the Utah State Elementary Chess tournament. It was a lot of fun watching little kids making illegal moves right and left, playing blitz against other volunteers, and dealing with and hearing of some very interesting disagreements. In one game, both kids were left with only their kings -- a situation where it is absolutely impossible for one side to checkmate the other and win the game. Nevertheless, one kid proclaimed 'Checkmate!'. HIs opponent shrugged and said "OK, I lose". It was hilarious.

Did the same 3.5 tempo as last week in 19:23, a big improvement. After the first 2.75 at 5:30 pace I didn't have any strength left and ran 5:50 pace for the last 0.75.

Did a 6 mile tempo run at 5:50 pace. I had sideache probelms and had to stop twice to massage and do situps.

Did 3.5 hard from a majig spot in the canyon to my house. Got 19:13. Around 1.5 into the run, I had to take off my jacket and tie it around my waist because I was getting too hot. Also around this time I sped up to 5:20 pace. Somehow I managed to tie my jacket behind my back while running 5:20 pace. After the tempo we did mile time trials with Joseph and Jacob. Both set records -- Jacob 6:30 and Joseph 6:09.