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.