Category: chess
Austin is our little chess champion!
Austin and Dad...forever chess partners.
Today was the last day of chess club for the year. It was also the awards ceremony for the year-end chess tournament. Austin was up at 5 AM because he was so excited about this. Austin took first place amongst the first graders. He has improved his game so much this year. Joey was telling me that he can beat all the second and third graders. It isn’t until fourth grade that the kids start giving him a run for his money. So the trophy he got was for taking first in the tournament…and that was pretty cool. But, if you ask Austin, the ribbon is his most prized possession. Why? Because the ribbon was given to him for raising his ranking over 200 points! That was the biggest point increase out of all the kids in the entire chess club! Austin is so proud of this. He would be devastated when he’d lose during the tournament because he was afraid that it’d lower his beloved points. I don’t know why he was so obsessed with this, but he was. So, he got his big ribbon and I’m sure that has just made his entire day. We have been so blessed to have such a wonderful chess club and for all the parents whose time and efforts went in to keeping it going. Austin will definitely miss Oakwood Chess Club when he moves to Eastwood next year. We can only hope Eastwood’s chess club is just as good. Congratulations Austin!
Utah State Elementary Chess Tournament
Julia wants to be like her big brother.
Saturday was a very long day for Austin and Joey. They spent the entire day at the University of Utah participating in the Utah State Elementary Chess Tournament. Austin loved it! I don’t know how he can play chess all day long, but he did. He did very well, placing 10th out of about 35 or so 1st graders. He was humbled a bit as he lost twice, which was good for him as he’s usually used to winning. He’s not used to being beat by kids his own age. It’s easy for him to win, but hard for him to swallow a loss. We are so proud of him! We are going to need a trophy case for all of his chess awards. We are so glad for the chess club at Austin’s school and all of the hard work and time that the parents put into keeping things running. Oakwood Elementary placed 11th overall in the tournament. Austin is looking forward to signing up for more tournaments to get in more practice. We love you Austin!