Check and Mate!

Well, folks, I crossed another thing off my list of things I wanted to accomplish this year. It is number two: compete in a chess tournament. Let me start off by saying, wow! What an experience that was!

I've blogged about how I developed an interest in chess and the chess tournament I have been preparing for was this weekend. It was quite a mixture of adults and kids, minus women, which wasn't a shock. I had been warned about that. Anyway, it took place in the gym of Bethel Bible Village. There were 4 rounds with 1 hour on the clocks. For non-chess folks, that means each player had 1 hour to make their moves/each game had a 2-hour limit. Yes, it was a quite a long day.

I didn't win any matches, but with the exception of my last one of the day, I played good games. For someone who is still fairly new to the game, I am not ashamed of my performances yesterday. I left feeling pretty good about the whole experience and I'm really looking forward to participating in another tournament in the future. Albeit, with a few lessons learned:

-Get better at the game, obviously.
-Drink more coffee beforehand (imagine that)
-Have myself a little more prepared for a tiring day. While playing was a lot of fun and I really did enjoy myself, I was intellectually spent. I came home, changed clothes, chilled out for a few minutes, and collapsed into bed at 8:00.Yes, it was still daylight out, but I didn't care. My head was pounding and it had been a long day. Pfft, I wasn't this tired after running 7 miles last week. THIS was tired, no kidding.
-And for the love of all that's good and holy, make a point to eat/drink during the course of the day. I didn't eat breakfast, didn't eat anything on our lunch break, and didn't bring any water or anything. To say I thought I was going to pass out when I left is a humongous understatement. I had ample opportunity to eat and didn't. Huge fail on my part.

Scott took a few pictures, which I won't post here since there are some kids in the shots, but I will leave you with this one. The only one of me in the bunch smiling. Ha, all the other ones have my "Lindsay is not amused" look on my face. What can I say? I look mad when I'm concentrating! ;-)

I will also leave you with a funny story about the day. After my second round, I went to the ladies room to put my hair up. I got a look at myself in the mirror and said, "Oh crap." Yes, I had the Lindsay Rash going on. The lovely splotchy red rash I get all over my neck and chest when I'm nervous. Oh joy. I walked in feeling really good, not nervous and all, but I guess I was just deluding myself. When I got home I told Scott about it. He very sweetly informed me I'd had it all morning. Nice, huh? It gives me away every time!