Carter’s best day ever

We went to a four round game in 45 tournament yesterday. Carter “played up” which means he entered in a higher rated section with prize money instead of trophies but everyone he played would be much stronger than he was. I played in my section (under 1200 rating) which was dominated by little kids and a handful of adults I had one of my worst days ever and it was really tough. I lost to one adult, then I played the oldest kid I played (age really doesn’t mean much, it was a kid who won the whole tournament that day). In this game I got white and played the kings gambit and I was able to get way ahead but it was close, finally I was able to promote a pawn and I didn’t have much time on my clock. I choked terribly and instead of just lining up to take his pawn that was about to queen the next turn I lined up on my own king thinking I was giving check. He got his queen, I was able to at least force a queen trade and then we raced across the board and took the last two pawns with our kings for a draw with only kings on the board. What a terrible game!

It was all ok though because Carter had the best day ever. You can see what happened here:

http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblPlr.php?200709226691-001-12945576

His rating went from 1122 to 1299 and he won $80 in prize money. He has never come close to jumping 177 rating points in a single tournament. It was a big accomplishment and I am really proud of him.

He recently began getting lessons from Carlos Perdomo who hold the International Master title. He has had three lessons and I think it has really helped motivate him. He also just loves hanging out with the other guys down at the chess center. He would be there every weekend if he could.

After the match I took him home to a super late birthday party with 7 friends who slept over. I then raced off with Hunter to see Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello. Elvis Costello only played for an hour but it was really great. I love both those guys but Dylan sounded nothing like old Dylan I am used to, he was barking out the lyrics to some of the songs, when he did seem to try to sing more on softer songs it was still great but I wasn’t used to the way he sounds now. He is still great but after a couple hours we took off early cause Hunter was fussing and I didn’t want to get stuck in traffic. If Elvis Costello was headlining I would have stayed all night. He is just the greatest. It was just him on acoustic guitar. His final song was “Whats so funny about peace love and understanding”. Its my favorite rock anthem and I was glad Hunter got to see it. His voice is as good as ever and I like him solo as much as I like him with the band. There was no room to stand in front and everyone was sitting and you might as well have been at the opera. It will take something really great to get me to drive out there again to the Gwinnett Center.