Susan Polgar National Open

Daniel and I went to the Susan Polgar National Open in Arizona this past weekend, and Daniel won the 1st place in the boys K-2 section. I am so proud of him. (Here are some photos).

We came as a team representing Norcal House of Chess, and overall the team did extremely well. There were 7 kids in the team (boys K-2, girls K-2, and girls 3-5), and we were fortunate to win many trophies both individually and for the club.

More importantly, you could really feel a team spirit. One of the most fun things about scholastic chess tournaments is the team (or club) trophy. For kids at this age, getting a trophy is very very important. Even if some individual players on the team will not get an individual trophy, they continue “fighting” until the very end of the tournament so that they can contribute to winning the team trophy. Working as a team towards a common goal — that is a wonderful lesson for life.

It was a weekend I’ll never forget.