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I would have never thought in my life that I would have developed a passion for chess, let alone professionally competing. Well this past weekend, that unimaginable experience actually took place and it was quite interesting. Around Christmas time I officially became a member of the USCF. I honestly joined so I can receive the very cool Chess Life magazine and brag about being a member of the Chess federation without embarrassing myself. Of course I did consider eventually entering a tournament and establishing a rating but I had no plans to do so anytime soon without some vigorous preparation. Unfortunately my curiosity of wanting to attend an actual tournament and experience the environment first hand led me to getting forced to join in.

As soon as I arrived to the hotel where the tournament was being held I ran into a fellow Daytona Beach Chess Club member by the name of Kai. Kai, a young hyper 16 year old chess junkie immediately assuming I had already joined the tournament began asking what section did I enter and where was my chess set. I responded by telling him that I actually did not register and only came to watch because I didn’t feel ready to compete yet. Immediately he started to demand that I join and refused to take no as an answer. The last rebuttal I tried to give him was the last nail in the coffin when I told him it was too late to register even if I wanted to. Determined to make me compete he responded by telling me I was wrong and walked me over to the registration room and told the gentleman at the table that I was entering the tournament in the under 1200 section.

Long story short, it was 5 rounds and I had four matches (I received a 1/2 point for the first round which I missed). I broke even with a total score of 2 1/2 points to end up in a tie for 5th place and the top unrated player in my group. Their where about 10 unrated players in our group of 34 competitors. Its safe to say I feel extremely happy with my results. I expect to compete again sometime soon with hopes of even doing better. Here are some photos of the event!

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