Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera

I open this blog with a Yul Brenner quote, as after I created this page with the subtitle "Chess and Me" I realized that perhaps the tagline "The King and I" would be more appropriate. This space is to be about, initially at least, my experience in the 107th U.S. Open Chess Championship which begins tonight here in the Chicago area. This undertaking carries a certain amount of risk since I could fall on my sword over the next nine days and this space might read more like an obituary! Nonetheless, I'm in it because I love chess and the competition and always give my all. My wife keeps me grounded about such things by constantly reminding me, no matter my result over the board, "Did you have fun?" Yes, I always do!

So for the uninitiated to the world of competitive chess, let me take a moment to explain how this all works:
As of this writing, there are 434 players registered from 43 states. The U.S. Open is truly that: an OPEN. Any one can play and everyone plays in one big section. Most chess tournaments are played in a "Class" format, this is, restricted sections based on rating. The class designations in the chess world start at the top with GM's (Grandmasters), then IM's (International Masters), Masters, Experts, then Class 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F' and so on (I am at the top of the 'B' class and hope to crack into the 'A' class by the end of this tournament!). Class tournaments have you playing against others of similar rating, or strength, throughout. An Open such as this means I could play against ANYONE, even a GM! That would be like me teeing it up against Tiger Woods. This is a 9-round tournament played in the Swiss System, it's not an elimination tournament. The Swiss System determines who you play each round. In the beginning, everyone is ranked according to their rating and the top half plays against the bottom half (in a 10-person tourney, rank 1 would play 6, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 8 etc.). If you win you get 1 point, a draw each player gets 1/2 point, and 0 for a loss. For the next round, all the winners are ranked and the top half plays the bottom half, the players with 1/2 point get the same treatment and the players with 0 points the same. This keeps happening each round until by the final round, theoretically, the best are playing the best for all the marbles. The player with the most points at the end of the tourney wins. Currently, I am ranked 216th out of 434 (I'm ranked 2nd in my class out of 76). That's right, almost EXACTLY in the middle of the pack! Because of this placement, I could be playing either the lowest rated or the highest rated player in Round 1 tonight, depending on where my ranking falls after the walk-ups sign on this afternoon! A scary thought...

With that out of the way, I intend to make a daily update as to my progress and general experience. I'll try to post my games as well but that won't necessarily be the focus. The people you meet at a chess tournament can be eccentric enough, the games at times a sidebar.