Day 12 - Tournament is over

Cameron's opponent for the last round was Joshua Johnson from Trinidad. Despite his lower rating, he had already beaten Kesav and Kadhir in the tournament, so we knew this match was not going to be easy. Cameron seemed especially apprehensive about the match, which is never a good sign. Early reports coming out of the playing hall all said that Cameron was losing. Apparently he had sacrificed the exchange for an attack, but it didn't work and he was just down material. Later reports stated that Cameron's position was probably a theoretical draw, but that it would be difficult to hold. Fortunately, Cameron was able to find the drawing idea and hold the position to a draw. He finished the tournament with 6.0/9.0 winding up in 19th place overall. Not exactly the result we were hoping for, but not bad for his first year in the Under 12 section. Hopefully he'll be able to improve next year in Slovenia.

After the tournament, we were all relieved to be done with the stress and intensity of the games. Lucas and I relaxed by going to the water park across the street. Cameron, Allan, Tanuj, and Michael relaxed by holding an impromptu blitz tournament. Apparently 9 straight days of chess was not enough for them.



Finally our vacation can begin...

Day 11 - Round 8

Mom's Gina & Me with Kadhir & Cam

Dad's Kovan & Rob with Kadhir & Cam

One of the nice things about coming to these tournaments is meeting new people.  The parents get a lot of time to hang around and talk.  We spent time with Gina & Kovan Pillai from New York, and in round 8, Cameron was playing on the board next to Kadhir.  His round 8 opponent is from Peru,

Eric Joel Chong Chinchay.  Cameron asked, how come all these guys have so many names?  I don't get it do you.  My camera obviously had a spot on the lens right on the guys eye, does that look weird.  Cameron was very insecure about playing this game and had lost a lot of confidence, we were wondering if the strain of this long tournament was taking it's toll.  In the end he won.  Cameron had an even position and slight advantage, the opponent offered two draws but Cameron could see that he had enough of an advantage that he wanted to play on and out played his opponent in the end game for the win.

Round 8 opponent Eric Joel Chong Chinchay from Peru

This is not Iguacu Falls!

I was testing if my camera really could take a
 picture under water and it worked!

Roughing it!

Lucas got to spend the day at the water park across the street.  Bitu and Tashi joined us and they had a great time.  At first Lucas didn't want to go but when it was time to leave, he didn't want to leave the park.

Lucas, Tashi & Bitu

Bitu & Tashi coming down!

Tashi is racing her mom & Lucas
She is the lighter and the fastest
down this slide.

Day 10 - Round 7

 It seems hard to believe that I have been in Brazil for nine days.  The same small hotel room.  The same food.  Breakfast does not have that much of a variety, I have skipped this a few times.  Lunch and dinner are almost the same, minus the soup at dinner.  It always consists of lots of meat, rice (white and brown), some sort of potatoes, some sort of pasta, and lots of different salads.  Although, how they prepare the dishes change, it still feels like the same food.  I'm ready to move on.  They usually make a very pretty center piece out of fruit.  They have a lovely dessert table, but I haven't enjoyed their desserts.  The texture isn't quite right, they use a lot of sugar and butter (usually that's great), but not so much for me here.  It has been nice not having to do dishes and the cooking, but laundry in the bathroom sink has not been too fun.  Cameron has two Team USA shirts, so I have been washing those every other day.  

Alligator made out of pumpkin

Pretty flower made of watermelon

Cameron's second opponent from Germany.  Patrick played the exchange variation of the Semi-Slav.  Cameron made a mistake in the opening, he could have placed his light square bishop better.  He recovered by an attack in the middle game and gained a huge advantage.  He misplayed the end game and missed a quick finish trading down to a drawn end game, but the opponent did not know how to play it either allowing Cam to win.  Cameron is now 4.5/7, which puts him in the top 40 in the section.  He started the tournament seeded 16th out of 133, and we are hoping for  a solid finish.

Round 7 Opponent Patrick Hoeglauer from Germany

Lucas and I headed to the gift shop. We stopped at the entrance to diRoma to take pictures by the sign and waterfall.  We were able to find some gifts for cousins and a few other things.  There seems to be an abundance of rocks and crystals.  Agate, Onyx, Hematite, etc.  Unfortunately, those can get a little heavy.  Lucas was very worried that things would not fit in our suitcases on the way home. Lucas said "Iguazu Falls is going to be better than this right?"

Sign at the entrance to the resort area.

Day 9 - Round 6

Cameron & Allan - Round 6

I guess it was bound to happen.  Cameron got paired against one of his good chess friends, Allan Beilin, from California.  One of the Chess Punks as we call them. It was was his second match in a row against a USA team member, and it was a very critical round for both of them.  Cameron was feeling pretty confident because he had white and that would give him a slight advantage, unfortunately this was not a win for him.  He lost this round in a little over five hours.  All reports coming from the playing hall were that the match was a draw, so we were very disappointed when we found out it was a loss.  I'll ask Cameron to post more about the game analysis later.  If you want chess detail, you'll have to wait for Cameron or Rob to post.  Bittersweet when you play such a close friend.  Happy for Allan, sad for Cameron.  It happens, you get used to it, it goes both ways.

Monkey in a tree by the pool at our resort

Lucas spent the day at the pool, enjoying the resort.  There were two monkeys in the tree by the pool.  The workers put some banana in the tree branches so they would come and eat them, then I was able to get a pretty good photo of the monkey.  It was quite small and almost looked like a squirrel or rat.  The water slides look really fun, but you actually don't go down, you get stuck and you have to push yourself down the slide.  The water in the pool is the natural thermal spring water, so it's quite warm.  They drain them every few days and wash the pools.  I don't know if that's why the water slides don't work like the ones back home or not.  There are a ton of pools at the resort, and Lucas has only wanted to swim here and not go to the Aqua Park across the street.  That water park also has a ton of different pools, but he's happy as a clam here at out hotel.

Lucas coming down water slide, just his speed.

Lucas at the pool!

USA Team Photo

A team photo was scheduled twice today. One at 2:30, right before the round, and one at 8:30 p.m. after the round was over.  Unfortunately, we did not hear about the 2:30 p.m. picture and were only present for the 8:30 picture.  Thanks to Ben Rood's mom, Robyn for helping to get the people organized.  The team room was very small, and there were lots of people, but she managed to stage the Coaches and players very nicely.

Day 8 - Round 5

Allan & Cameron walking together into the playing hall.

Cameron's 5th Round Opponent - Tommy He from Dallas

Now the whole Wheeler Family is in Brazil.  Cameron will never admit it but he loves having Lucas around.  They have a unique friendship that only brothers can have.  It's good when it's good and it's bad when it's bad.  So far, it's been pretty good.

Little Bro' Lucas rooting for Big Brother

Today's opponent is Tommy O He from Dallas.  Cameron played him last year at Greece World Youth and also has played him at Nationals.  His record against him had been 3 draws and 1 loss, so he had a losing record against him.  This was going to be a tough round.  Cameron won this round in around three and half hours.  Cameron was prepared for a French Advance, but Tommy played the French Tarrasch variation, so Cameron was out of book on move three.  Cameron made mistake on move 8, he castled premature and Tommy could have prepared an attack, but he played too passively and Cameron gained a space advantage which he eventually converted into a material advantage.

We walked through the town of Caldas Novas after dropping off Cameron at the playing hall.  Lucas got his traditional necklace and a ball to play with.  Rob & Lucas spent two hours at the pool, while I worked on my homework for the first time since arriving.

Same routine after the game, analyze game, eat dinner, get ready for bed. and go to sleep.

Day 7 - Rest Day

Cameron, Albert, Brandon & Allan waiting on basketball court.

Today was a rest day from chess. We thought we would go to the water park across the street, but the water park is closed Monday & Tuesday's for cleaning. Not so great planning on the organizers part.

When we woke up, Cameron was tired and wanted to stay in bed, I ran to the dining hall to get some coffee and breakfast before they closed.

Cameron decided he would rather stay around the resort, do something here, then work on his homework. A bunch of US players and coaches were going to play soccer on the basketball court. So I took Cameron there, but he did not want to play. They were playing teams 5 vs. 5 and rotating teams in. 2 goals or 5 minutes. People got tired of waiting so another game started on the sand court. Unfortunately, our coach, Yury got injured in that game and was rushed off to the hospital. We were beginning to think we wouldn't have a coach for the rest of the tournament.

Michael Wang & Cameron outside of the gift mall.

After lunch we walked to the gift shop with Ally, Harry, Xin & Michael Wang. Michael and Cameron ended up playing chess on a set they saw in the gift shop.

Vendor making coconut milk.

I don't think I like coconut milk.

They tried fresh coconut milk that came right out of the coconut.  There is this special tool that takes the top off and then it punctures the coconut and they put the juice into the large thermos that has ice.  So this wasn't the best tasting drink, but at least Cameron tried it.  It was exotic and good for you, but it didn't taste that great.



After we returned from our trip, we were very happy to hear that Yury was back.  His shoulder wasn't broken and it just needed to be iced and rested.  Then back to the room for more studying.

The parents had a meeting in the lobby at 6:30 p.m. and I got to meet a lot more of the USA parents.  Some of them I had never met even thought we have been here almost a week.  I told the parents that if Rob & Lucas showed up to tell them that I arranged this welcome party for them.  I decided to head back to the room to get Cameron go to the lobby and wait 15 minutes before going to dinner.  While I had returned to the room, Rob & Lucas arrived. Charley (Albert Lu's dad) was nice enough to escort them to the room to surprise us.

Rob & Lucas on balcony of our room.

We all ate in the dining hall and then Lucas was very tired and just wanted to go to sleep.  Nighty, night.

Day 6 - Double Day Round 3 & 4

Today we had to get up early to make the 10:00 a.m. round.  I woke up a little before 9:00 and I was trying to get Cameron to have some breakfast.  If his round went 5 hours he would miss lunch and breakfast might be his only time to eat.  He has such a hard time eating when he's stressing about chess, which just makes me get even more stressed out.  He forced some food down, and off we went to the round.  This time it was much better, they let everyone into the playing hall and made the main aisle wider so people could walk inside.  My third round opponent was a CM Gabriel Kimelman fromUruguay.

3rd Round Opponent - Gabriel Kimelman from Uruguay

Cameron won this game fairly quickly so he had time to analyze with Yury, eat Lunch, and rest before next round.

Next up was a very strong player from Germany, Thore Perske.  Unfortunately Cameron lost this battle in 3 hours.  He went to analyze with Coach Yury, have dinner and then relax reading before going to bed.  Lucas and Rob arrive tomorrow so this may be the last good night sleep that we both get in Brazil.

4th Round Opponent Thore Perske from Germany

Often time people ask what a tournament is like.  This picture below shows how crowded and chaotic this tournament is.  The playing hall is really too small to support this many boards.  This tournament has been unlike any I've attended in the past.  There are 1120 players from 80 countries.  Nationals are as big, I believe but much more organized and people all speak the same language.   The USA has the largest team outside of South America (Brazil, Argentina & Peru are ahead of them).  In Brazil very few people speak English and communication is very difficult.  I had heard that you can possible get by with Spanish but not really.  It's like playing a game of charades every day.  Which is very funny.  We went to town today and Tarun & Harry were trying to ask taxi drivers what the cost was to pick up their families from the airport and drive them to Caldas Novas.  They wanted to also go with the driver to the airport so their wives would recognize this.  This was all communicated via drawing and hand signals.

Playing hall before Round 4

Day 5 - Round 2

This morning we slept in because Cameron had a hard time falling asleep at night.  We skipped breakfast and used the time to rest.  Cam's lesson with Yury was at 11:00.  He's paired against a boy from Norway, Benjamin Imsrud.  He's an unrated player that won his first round against Francisco Munoz from Argentina.  Francisco is a strong 1940, so Benjamin has to be a strong player if he beat a 1940.

After lunch we headed to the playing hall.  They decided not to let parents into the playing hall that created a mob by the entrance.  I placed Cameron in the mob and said push your way to the entrance.  I kept looking for his hat to see if he made it in but it was so crowded I coulnd't see him.  Eventually he appeared right next to me.  He as too uncomfortable pushing his way in, so he came out of the mob.  I had to stand behind him and push him to the door.  It was the worst entrance to a tournament I have ever witnessed.  I wasn't able to get a picture of his opponent this round, but in Round 3, I got the picture below.

Round 2 Opponent - Benjamin Imsrud from Norway

Cameron won this match in three hours, thankfully not the four hours 50 minutes of yesterday.  He reviewed his game in the team room and we headed to dinner.  Need to get to bed early for the double day tomorrow.

Mob scene at playing hall entrance, hard to get a sense from picture how chaotic this was.

 

Day 4 - Tournament Begins

I woke in the middle of the night around 3:00 a.m. and went online.  The pairings were already posted, and Rob had already done his homework and sent as many pgn files as he had on Cameron's first round opponent from Peru, Saavedra Espiritu Enrique Emanuel.  We woke up around 9:00 a.m. and before heading to breakfast, Cameron needed to look over all six games.  At breakfast, we didn't see too many people in the dining hall.  We were hoping to find our coach, and got word that he had arrived.  We went to the reception after breakfast because our room was being cleaned.  As we were sitting there, we saw him.  Yury Schulman was indeed in Brazil and right there in the lobby.  He was excited to find one of his students and had a lesson with Cameron right then.  I ran back to the room because we had already loaded six games from Cam's first round opponent on his computer and I brought that to Yury's room.  On the way back, I ran into the Beilin's and Vasudeva's and they too went to Yury's room to schedule their first day lessons.

After the lesson, we went back to the room to do homework and rest before lunch.  We wanted to eat a late lunch because the round could last a long time. After lunch we walked to the convention center to find out where it was and how to get there.  We ran into an unrated U10 player from Brazil, Frois Vitor Amorim.  He and his mother didn't speak a word of English, but we somehow managed to communicate who we were by pointing to the pairings on the board.  Then he wanted to play chess.  They played two quick rounds and Cam beat him both times. Cameron said, "He kept trying to talk to me in Portuguese and I couldn't understand anything he was saying!” 

After that, we went back to the room to rest.  We still hadn't gotten our badges or visited the team room.  I went off to find out about those logistics while Cam rested in the room.  About 3:15 p.m. we headed to the convention center to get our badges and the first round.  It was a crazy playing hall, way too small to accommodate the number of players.  We were trying to find the U12 section and having a really hard time. We finally found it and had to make our way through a maze of parents standing in the narrow aisles.  Cam's chair was at the end of a table and there wasn't enough room to push his chair in.  He had to straddle a table leg, putting one leg on each side of it.  They boards were very close together.  They did a brief opening ceremony and then the parents were asked to leave.  I showed some folks the playing hall, walked back to convention center and then decided to head back to the room.  I ended up going back to the playing hall an hour later which started a long wait.  I got to see a lot of players exiting the playing hall.  First Tanuj, win, then Ben Rood, win, Jonathan Chiang & Tommy He, win.  It seemed that every USA player coming out was winning.  I was sitting with Kovan Pillal and Jackie Nydick.  Kadhir and Brandon were playing exceptionally long games as well.  Ally was in and out, it was uncomfortable in the waiting hall.  Stuffy, hot, bugs everywhere.   Harry showed up about three hours into the round.  Eventually Kesav came out with a smile.  Win.  Allan came out with a win.  Which I have to mention was his first World Youth win (in 12 rounds).  If you remember last year he lost his first round and then drew 10 rounds in a row.  He was very excited.  Kadhir Win, Brandon, win.  It seemed like Cameron was the only one left playing, luckily Harry had sent Tarun to keep me company.  It was very stressful awaiting the outcome and nice to have the company.  When Cameron finally came out 4 hours and 50 minutes of playing time later, his result was a draw.  It was a little heart breaking, but we needed to keep positive and focus on the rest of the tournament.  There are still 8 rounds to play.

First round opponent from Peru

1st win ever at a World Youth Championship

We headed to the team room for game analysis.  During the analysis we had a black out at the resort.  We walked via flashlight to the dining hall.  We had to eat by candle light and flash light.  It was pretty funny.  Eventually the lights came back on and everyone cheered.  After dinner, Cameron finished his analysis with Coach Yury.  Then it was time for bed.  Cameron had a very hard time falling asleep.  The excitement and stress of the tournament was getting to him and although lights out at 11:00 p.m., he did not fall asleep until 1:00 a.m. 

Day 3 - Day of Rest

Today we woke up at 11:50 a.m., if it weren't for the maid, we would have probably slept longer.  Breakfast is served from 7:00 - 10:00 a.m. so we missed that but lunch is from noon to 2:00.  We weren't hungry right then, so we decided to take a walk around the resort and then make our way to the store for water.  We bought 20 litres of water.  At the entrance to the resort was a small water fall/rock formation where we stopped to take pictures.


After we ate lunch, Cameron did some of his independent study homework.  Then we went to the Aqua Park with Tarun Uncle & Tanuj.  Cam got stuck in one of the tubes and Tarun Uncle slammed into him on the way down.  There isn't the safety concerns here in Brazil as there are in the US water parks.  After that incident, Cam was ready to get back to his homework.   He played chess with Tanuj for a couple hours and then we went to the team meeting held by the coaches.  As we were walking to the meeting we ran into Ally & Kesav.  They arrived after an eight hour bus ride from Brasilia.  We found out that Yury Schulman would be Cam's  coach but he was the only coach that had not yet arrived to Brazil.  Hope he makes it here before the first rounds starts tomorrow.

Entrance to Thermas Di Roma

After dinner, we had a restful evening.  Cameron started to read his new book Inheritance and I watched Horrible Bosses.

Cameron & Tanuj

Tarun

Allan, Kesav, Tarun & Michael and then there's Cameron off to the side not smiling

Cameron's Faux Hawk - Now he's smiling

Day 1 & 2 - Arriving in Caldas Novas

We left our house at 8:15 in the morning on Tuesday November 15.  We arrived at SFO around 9:00 a.m. for our 11:00 a.m. flight.  There was a very nice tail wind so we arrived early just under 5 hours of flight time.  That was nice because it gave us time to switch terminals and have a nice dinner before our 10:30 p.m. flight to Rio.  We had heard from Dad that our friends the Beilin's were having trouble leaving Kansas City to make their Houston connection to Rio due to bad weather in Houston.  We wouldn't know if they made it our not until we see them in Rio.

At the Rio airport, we were excited to see familiar faces at the check in to our Gionna flight,  Tarun Uncle and Tanuj were in line.  Daddy Harry wanted to have a three hour training session in Rio during our layover and we kept waiting for him to arrive.  We had no idea if he made his connection in Houston and we had no cell or internet connection in the Rio airport.  Hours went by and there was no sign of him.  Finally around 2:30 just one hour before our scheduled departure, the Beilin's arrived.  We also met Jackie and Brandon from New York.  Brandon is playing in the U10 section with Tanuj.  The  boys had a great time in the airport but definitely not having a chess lesson.  Everyone was way too tired.  Our flight was delayed for about an hour. 

When we arrived in Gionna, the bus was waiting. It was full of members of the China Team and then Team USA took over the rest of the bus.  We even picked up Michael Wang who arrived from Brasilia, their flight was delayed over 8 hours.  It was grueling two and a half hour bus ride to Caldas Novas, which we finally arrived at 9:00 p.m.  We checked into the room and hurried to the dining hall to have dinner before it closed at 10.  That's about it, two days and all we did was arrive and have dinner.  Lots of new faces and lots of familiar ones all speaking the same language of chess.  We wish safe travels to all the rest of the travelers, may your journey be smooth with no delays.

Checking our bags at SFO

Meeting some old friends at GIG and making a new one.  Left to Right, Allan, Harry, Tanuj, Tarun & new Friend Brandon from New York

Finally made it to Thermas di Roma in Caldas Novas

Bem vindos ao Brasil

Tomorrow morning my mom and I are flying to Brazil so that I can participate in the 2011 World Youth Chess Championships. We fly from San Francisco to Charlotte, NC.  Then we catch another flight to Rio de Janeiro.  Once in Rio, we will catch a flight to Goiânia, the capital of the Brazilian state of Goiás. From there it will be a short bus ride to the city of Caldas Novas, where the tournament will be held.

Caldas Novas is one of the largest hydro-thermal resort towns in the world.  The pictures of our hotel look really cool.  My little brother should have a fun time playing in all of the pools while I'm playing chess.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to relax a bit too.

This will be my first ever trip to the continent of South America.  I'm excited to see and meet other chess kids from all over the world.  My friends from the Bay Area: Tanuj, Allan, Kesav, and Michael W. are all playing in the tournament.  I'll also get to see my chess friends from Dallas: Tommy, Jonathan, and Jeffery.  Plus, John Hughes, Joshua Colas, James Black, Justus Williams, Andrew Tang, and Michael Chen from US Chess School will be there too.  The US should have a pretty strong team in my section (U12).  I also think my friend Albert Lu (from LA) will have a strong tournament in the U10 section.  You can follow my progress on this blog and on the chess-results.com server.