Chess Poem 11: Nick Does The Trick Poem by Kim Barney

Nick is a former student of mine who was a regular member of the school chess club, which I sponsored. He recently started playing rated chess again after not playing for fifteen years.This tournament was the Southern Idaho Open, which was held in Twin Falls on 14 November 2015. As mentioned in the poem, he won his first two games. The second game was a win over Hans Morrow, who has long been a chess powerhouse in Idaho and Utah (and other states) . Hans once got a draw with Bobby Fischer in a simultaneous exhibition (as mentioned in the poet's notes of one of the chapters of my short story THE SEER) .In round three Nick managed a draw with Jeff Roland, the player who ended up winning the tournament by winning his last game and finishing with three and a half points. You can see Jeff's picture by going to the Idaho Chess Association's webpage.Nick is in the center of this picture. To his right is De Wayne Derryberry, who drew with Nick in the last round and they both ended up with a score of three points out of four and tied for second place.I could say that I taught Nick everything he knows about chess, but that would not be true. However, I feel that I really am the one who got him started playing.You're wondering how I did? Not so well. Round one: lost to a player rated 1868 (my rating was 1640) . Round two: beat a player rated 1336. Round three: drew with a player rated 1699. Round four: made a horrible blunder and lost early to a player rated 1603. Finished with one and a half points out of four. My rating will go down.written 16 November 2015