Last weekend I was quite busy with the 37th People's Chess Tournament in Fremont Marriott. As it was a long weekend, I registered it online through www.bayareachess.com after renewing my US Chess Membership.
After a successful World Cup Cricket 2011 opening ceremony in Dhaka where Bryan Adams, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, Runa Laila, Sabina Yasmin et al perfomred in the midst of mind blowing fireworks, we gathered in Shahriar's house for the India vs Bangladesh opening match of the world cup in 19th February. He arranged lots of people and we had a nice time gossiping together (Ezaz, Amin, Dhanad, Sayeem, Wali Bhai, Sumit Bhai, Mamun Bhai, Dipu Bhai and some others). Although we lost due to a huge score from Sehwag (175) that took India's total to 370/4 in 50 overs, we gave it a fight by scoring 283/9 without being all out.
That meant I didn't get much sleep for the next morning's chess game in the tournament at 11:30 AM.
I won the first game nicely, drew a lost game against Kevin, got a win by forfeit in third round, won playing well in fourth game, drew a completely won game in fifth and finally lost a drawn Rook ending in the final (sixth) round. Despite this, I was in the prize list for my group (AB - 1700 to 1899) winning $66. I was jointly 6th-7th-8th for 4.0 out of 6 games. Look at the link below and check the AB section for my name in red in the prize list! I also gained 30 US Chess rating and my new rating now is 1797. I am planning to participate in short tournaments in future as well. This tournament was a 5 hour each game tournament for 6 rounds (move 30/90 + 60 each) spanning 3 days. My colleague Ganesh came twice during the tournament to watch my games and the final evening Amin, Shusmita, Ahyan and Suhaila came. Ahyan was very happy to see this vast gathering of chess players in Fremont Marriott (200+ participants in several groups).
In case you are interested for my games, please check my chess blog for the game notations to replay yourself at - http://chess4you.blogspot.com. I am showing you one game here out of those whichI was very happy to win due to it's attack and counter-attacking nature where I kept my head cool under time pressure.
Finally I purchased Shusmita, Ahyan and Suhaila's Bangladesh return trip air tickets calling Cathay Pacific Airways. They will start at 11th March early morning (5 minutes after midnight) and will come back at 6th May. I purchaseed Suhaila's full ticket instead of saving the money so that Shusmita can go comfortably with Ahyan and her. It will be quite difficult for her to handle such a big trip without me while going from San Francisco to Dhaka with a stop over of 10 hours 40 minutes in. Hing Kong. It will purchase my ticket later next month which will be April 9th to May 6th as I could manage 4 weeks leave from office. I received Ahyan and Suhaila's No Visa Required seal in their passports yesterday from Bangladesh Consulate of Los Angeles.
