Coming into round 6, there were only three players left with a perfect storm: Michael Chen from Michigan, Udit and myself. I got paired against Michael and Udit had to play the highest rated person a half-point below, Tommy He. I got a good position out of the opening against Michael and I was able to use this advantage to generate a strong attack and force through a win. Unfortunately, Udit made a mistake in the late-opening/early-middlegame and found himself in a lot of trouble very quickly. The pressure proved to be too much and he lost an uncharacteristically short game to Tommy.
That left just me with a perfect score after 6 rounds, and Tommy was the only player trailing by a half-point. I would face Tommy for the 4th time. Tommy and I recently played at the World Youth in Greece and I squandered a completely winning position, so I was eager to get a chance to play him again. Both Tommy and I had played white in the previous two rounds, so one of us was going to get three consecutive whites in a row. Turns out it was Tommy, but I still had draw odds to win the whole tournament. In the game, I made a mistake early and went down a pawn, but I was able to fight my way back into the game. At one point I was probably winning, but I knew that I only needed a draw to become National Champion, so I made sure that I wasn't going to lose. Tommy fought hard, knowing that a draw wouldn't get him the title, but in the end the position was a clear draw and I became the champion.
Udit won his final game to finish with a score of 6.0/7.0 to tie for second place. He had the best tiebreaks of the all of the 6.0s, so he got the second place trophy! Here is a shot of Udit and I with our first and second place trophies.
For most of my "chess career", I've been the only serious chess player at Regnart. That all changed last year when Pranav moved from New Jersey. We still didn't have enough players to make a team, but at least I wasn't the only tournament chess player at the school. This year, Udit moved to my neighborhood and he goes to Regnart. Now we finally had the makings of a real team. My dad started an official chess team at the school, and this nationals was our first tournament together. Pranav, his brother, Pramodh, Udit, and I all came to play in the tournament. All of us played exceptionally well and in the end, Regnart won the team competition for grade 5! In this photo, we are showing off our cool new team shirts and our new "hardware". Having a team really added something new to the whole competition. I was still trying to do my best, but I also wanted the team to do well too.
The Bay Area was well represented at this year's Nationals. Josiah Steerman won in 2nd grade. Udit and I got second and first in 5th grade. Pranav tied for 12th. Kesav was co-champion in 6th grade and got the second place trophy on tiebreaks. Allan took home the sixth place trophy in that same section. Anirudh and Pramodh also had strong results in the fourth grade section.
After it was all done a group of Bay Area kids and their parents went to Downtown Disney to play at DisneyQuest and have a celebratory dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe. It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone and finally get a chance to relax.
Our flight home didn't leave until the late afternoon. That meant we had about a half-day to play at Disney. Despite the late night celebration with our friends, we got up early, packed our stuff, and headed off to Disney's Animal Kingdom for a breakfast. The food was really good and lots of characters came to our table to visit. My mom took this picture of my brother and I with Mickey. After breakfast we had a chance to explore the park for a few hours and ride lots of cool rides. What a great way to end the trip!
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