Day 1

Day 1

Friends and family often express concern about the amount of school that Cameron misses to pursue his chess.  While it is a valid issue, we feel that the experiences he has at these large international events dwarf the negative aspects of missing a few days of school.

Today was one of those special experiences that doesn't occur in the typical classroom setting.  It turns out that this is the largest contingent of American citizens to ever travel to Slovenia as a group.  To mark this special occasion, the US Ambassador to Slovenia, Joseph A. Mussomeli, came to address the team and welcome us to Slovenia.  Ambassador Mussomeli, told us a bit about the country, the current political climate, and what his responsibilities are as an Ambassador.

After the short speech and Q&A, the kids all got to go up on stage and meet the Ambassador in small groups.  Here, Cameron exchanges a few words with him.

Following the event with the Ambassador, US Head of Delegation, Michael Khardokovsky, went over the key points from the morning's Technical Meeting.

With all of our commitments out of the way, it was time to return to the room to "relax".  Cameron did a little pre-game preparation while I worked.  I'm loving the 40Mb/s upload and download speeds provided by the hotel's Internet connection.

At 3pm (Maribor time), the tournament finally got under way.  Cameron is the #5 seed and got to play his game on a DGT digital chess board that relayed the moves to the Internet.  Interested parties can view live games at http://www.wycc2012.com/liveg.html

Cameron's first round opponent was Vassili Chesterkine from France.  Cameron was pretty nervous, and hoped to get off to a better start than last year.  It didn't take long, as Cameron caught his opponent in an opening trap on move 11, and won a piece for a pawn.  While Vassili did have some compensation for the pawn, Cameron was able to neutralize his threats and win the game in a pretty straightforward manner.

After the game, Cameron got to analyze his victory with GM Nick de Firmian.  Nick was very impressed with Cam's play. He even wanted Cameron to submit the game to GM John Fedorowicz for consideration to be published in John's upcoming article for Chess Life Online.

You could see that the win lifted a big amount of stress off of Cameron's shoulders.  After a nice dinner, it was back to the room for more work for me and some school work for Cameron.

Check back tomorrow for the next update...