My Dad and I have been playing chess together a lot lately, and last week when we heard there was a chess tournament playing throughout Saturday and Sunday, we decided to participate.  (To play, one must be a member of the National Turkish Chess Federation, so we joined it.) It started at 1:30 Saturday afternoon, that is, was supposed to start at 1:30 Saturday afternoon but it ended up starting two hours later, since the registration took so long.  There were three classes; under ten, under fourteen, and above fourteen.  I was in the second class, with twenty-six people.  In each class, everyone plays six games and whoever wins the most games receives the gold medal.  If there is a tie, the points of the people that the winners have beaten are counted up and compared.  The games are timed, and each player has one hour.  So that is two hours total, though the games seldom took that long.  It was really exciting.  I won the first, third, fourth, and fifth games.  The second game, (I am so upset I lost it!) I was winning and I shouldn’t have lost it, but I just didn’t see the checkmate.  (Neither did my opponent.)  The sixth game was tough.  I played with the winner of the gold medal and lost.  But I did win the bronze medal and I should think that is okay for first time, right?  The tournament took about ten hours total and the next one is April twenty-third.  I am going to continue practicing a lot.  Running for the silver this time…

- Legolas