Limerick: Hank And Kim Poem by Kim Barney

Yesterday Hank and I rode with our friend Tom to the Ninth Annual Bobby Fischer Memorial Chess Tournament in Salt Lake City.

Tom was courageous and played in the open section, but Hank and I played in the Under-1700 section. We started with identical ratings of 1611 and we happened to be the highest-rated players in our section, so started playing on boards one and two. We should have had an easy time in destroying the field. It was not to be.

In the first round, I could only manage a draw against a player rated 1419. Hank could only draw also, against a player rated 1352.

In the second round we traded opponents, and we both lost! I lost to the 1352 player, and Hank to the 1419 player.

In round three, I had my only win, against a player rated 1316, while Hank got a draw with an unrated player.

Round four: I lost to Hank's unrated third round opponent, while he got another draw with a player rated 1387.

The tournament was six rounds, but all three of us who rode together had decided that we would only play the first four, so we had made arrangements before the tournament started to take half-point byes in the last two rounds.

Results: The 1419 player that both of us played finished with four points out of six and had his rating jump to 1548. (Chess players have numerical ratings. When they play in a rated tournament, as this was, their ratings go up or down, depending on whether they win, lose or draw, and also what the rating of the opponent was. A player who loses to an opponent rated 2100, for example, will not lose as many points as he would if he lost to an opponent rated 1300.)

The 1352 player that beat me and drew with Hank did not win or draw any other games, but his rating went up to 1374.

The 1316 player that I beat did not win or draw any games, and his rating dropped to 1266.

The unrated player that beat me and drew with Hank had a provisional rating of 1560 after the tournament.

The 1387 player that drew with Hank finished with three points (which included a full-point bye) , but his rating dropped to 1379.

Hank and I both had our ratings drop from 1611 to our rating 'floor' of 1600, although we both deserved to be much lower.

And Tom, playing against much tougher competition in the open section, lost the first three games and won the fourth, and his rating went up six points.

posted 21 August 2016

The photo shows Hank and me preparing for the tournament a couple of weeks before the event at the local McDonald's. I guess we needed a lot more preparation!

(Some guy we didn't know was kind enough to interrupt his meal and take the picture for us. Thanks, guy!)