Check Mate

It has been a long, enlightening, fun, hilarious day. We were at the U of U all day long at the State of Utah Elementary Chess Tournament. Funny, I know. Stop laughing. Kelsey's elementary school has a little chess club. We paid $25 bucks I think back in the middle of January and every Monday she stayed after school for 45 minutes to play chess. She came home a few weeks ago with a paper for this state tournament. She was the kindergarten student they chose from her school to go to this state tournament. So we did.
We all got up around 5:30 this morning so we could be in SLC at 7:30. And then our very enlightening day began.

I got the massive giggles when we walked into the Union Building and saw this sight! Then I found out that this was only for the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders! There was a separate room for the K and 1st graders, and another for the 2nd and 3rd graders. It was then that I realized how serious some people took this event! I saw a table numbered 610 and I didn't even peak into one room! Kelsey played on tables 4, 11, and such numbers like that.

Here is Kelsey's first match. Everyone played 6 matches. Matt looked at the "pairings list" and saw that she was supposed to play a student with an oriental name and told me Kelsey would get creamed. How judgemental is that? They have all the parents leave the room and just watch from the hall through the glass walls. It was so cute to see all those little kids sitting there so grown-up-like! She tied with this girl. All they had left was a king a piece.

Sweet Kendal did great for the first 2 hours or so and then she and I had to head outside. She loved to just run and run. She was so cute and funny. I told her to say cheese as she was quickly traveling down the sidewalk so I could take her picture. She stopped abruptly and sat on this rock to pose for me. She wouldn't look at the camera though!

This is the side of Kendal I saw the most of today - the back.

Kelsey finally got to go outside for some fresh air. There were about 80 kids in her room and in the first 3 matches she was the last one there! I think she likes to kill all the pieces instead of going for the king! Anyway, she didn't get to go outside too much because she was usually the last one playing and then it was time to start the next match soon after she was done!

Here is her 5th game. By this time she had won 2, tied 1, and lost 1. I learned how to read the "pairings list" and the rankings pages. She was doing really well. It was so wild to realize that kindergarten kids going into this tournament were already ranked. I was talking to a lot of the parents and at least 1/2 of the kids had been to a few other tournaments this winter already. The kid in the back corner of this picture with a red shirt on went in ranked #1 and won every match today. I wonder if he knows how to kick a soccer ball! There were 35 Kindergartners that played today and Kelsey was the cutest one.

Kendal, Sweet Kendal. Matt made the mistake of getting a coke or something out of the vending machine early on in the day. That is all Kendal wanted when she was inside! She tried to drink every one's drinks around us! She would not leave them alone! So I made Matt go get another one. She loved it. I think she had more pop (can't say that s word - too cityish for me) today than in her entire life combined!

Here she is looking at her sister through the glass. When Kendal would spot her she would just yell "Kesie, Kesie" as loud as possible.

Between matches I was consoled to see some of the kids playing soccer, football, catch with mitts and baseballs, and just running around. I was truly worried about some of those nerdy looking kids. I think a few of them don't get to see much sunlight.

Sorry, but Kendal was so cute today!

Checking out the trophies between matches. Kelsey wanted one so badly! She ended up winning 3 matches, tied 1, and lost 2 matches. That put her in 11th place. She was so excited because 14th place and up got trophies. If she would have won her last match, she would have made 4th place, but she could care less, she got a trophy!

I was so proud of my 2 girls today. Kelsey was such a super sport. There were kids that cried and cried when they lost a match. She played a little girl that wouldn't get off of her chair and leave because she was crying so hard because she lost. Her mom had to come in and get her. When Kelsey lost, she shook their hands, said good game, and held hands all the way to the judges table to tell them who had won. Kelsey had a lot of fun and I am sure learned so much. Whenever she would come out of a match she would tell me where all the pieces were and how she moved them, what her opponent did, and what she did. I just listened and nodded. There was no way I could follow her story!

Kendal did so well today too. Considering we got there at 7:30 and left at 4:30 and there was only one meltdown and only one time I lost her, I call that pretty dang good.

5:30 am really got to us, Kendal and I crashed on the bean bag when we got home. It was such a fun, horribly long day.