My first OTB tourney

We'd found the tourney announcement in the back of Chess Life (& Review). Mixed in with all the others (they had yet to divide it up by regions).

I stayed over at my friend’s house that night so we could get an early start, and we talked about whatever it is high school kids talk about late at night.

Next day we were heading out...to beautiful downtown Modesto (for the Modesto Open). Since American Graffiti had been filmed in our town only a few years before, I suppose there was a certain aptness to all of this (not that such a thing likely would’ve occurred to me then).

It was held at an elementary school, and managed to summon 23 players from the surrounding countryside (we were definitely right in the midst of the Fischer boom!) :D

First round I found myself playing on board 2...on the raised dais where they’d put the top board (in the middle of what had to be the school’s assembly hall). I thought my expert opponent had overlooked something—only he hadn’t. And so—in the start of a long long tradition—my hopes for a 5-0 score were dashed. :)

One lingering memory I have is of the two of us going down the top boards in wonder...and marveling that every position was even in material (these guys never hung anything!). :D

The second round I fell victim to bad advice in the opening from a Reinfeld book...only I did manage to salvage the thing a piece down (and even ended up winning).

The third game I lost ignominiously, had a tantrum about it and went outside to stomp around disgruntled for a while (oh well, we were all young and ridiculous once).

That evening we camped out in this jungle gym doodad in back of the place (one advantage to playing at an elementary school, I guess). We were up on the second floor of it (to kind of hide out). And that was when I discovered how terribly, terribly flat Modesto was/is.

Seriously, there was nothing whatsoever to block out all those streetlights and whatnot, so it was more or less like trying to sleep in broad daylight. I grew up in the City of Hills, so this was all new to me; at any rate, I did finally manage to nod off.

Only to be woken up at around 8 am by the sound of voices. Seems a cop had actually noticed our rickety truck parked out in front (literally the only vehicle in the school parking lot on a Sunday morning) and decided to roust us, and my friend was down there talking to him. No problem though—we could use the wake-up call anyway. :)

So we availed ourselves of some more of the chicken that my friend’s mom had prepared for us (in an ice chest)...along with a few other snacks.

One of the first guys to show up that morning let us know that Keres had just died that weekend. The guy had only just gotten the word via shortwave...back in those days when that was often the only way around the Soviet machine (remember Chernobyl?).

For my fourth game I was paired against the TD. The main thing I remember about it is that I overlooked an e.p. capture which would’ve picked off a piece (I’d never forget about that move again!).

I did manage to win in the last round for a 2-3 score. And my friend, who went 3-2, actually won money at his first tourney! (the $30 Unrated prize).

Afterwards we headed for home in his ancient truck...which did indeed break down somewhere on the void of Interstate 5. So he put up the hood...and while we waited for an AAA guy to drive by, we played chess on the front seat (with this cool little wooden set from Russia that he had). :)