Sometime last year I heard that the national elementary chess championship would be played in Pittsburgh. That wasn't too far away and probably wouldn't cost too much to attend I thought. Little did I realize that it would still be a major expenditure of effort. There were other local tournaments for Joseph to play and as he improved slowly, the state level chess tournament looked much more likely. I gave the nationals no futher thought.

Things go pretty well through the year and as time passed, the idea of going to see a national level tournament started to become more fascinating. The state level was already quite different from typical USCF tournaments and I fully expected that the national level one would be a lot bigger. It ended up not only bigger, but hugely different. The other thing that I found out is that it seems to move around the country and no one knows when the next national level scholastic tournament would be on the east coast or even within a somewhat sane driving distance. Being chess players, I guess we can say that sometimes we're not the sanest of humans.

Rain.

More rain.

Even more rain.

That was Friday morning at 5AM for me and my son leaving for Pittsburgh. It was dark too. Got the GPS programmed and even the Google Maps directions. Full tank of gas and full of anticipation. Had to stop for a break and more importantly on early long drives.... coffee. Stopped in Breezewood, PA.

Looked interesting. Would stop by there later. Otherwise, Breezewood was a typical highway/byway town on the interstate. Got my coffee and off we went..

Went through that tunnel through the mountains on I70 and popped out the other side and saw this a little while later.

"Hey Joseph! Windmills!"
"What? The tactic?"
Nevermind.
Four and a half hours later, we got to Pittsburgh and met the morning traffic.

Finally got to the David L Lawrence Convention Center and found some outdoor parking. The center
looks like this.

It may not look very big but trust us when we say that it was a very large building. You could put three 747s in it and it would still have space. Of course, the very fact that it was that large meant lots of walking to get to it and within it. I must have done about two miles each day going between parking to the 3rd floor Standings Bulletin Boards and the 2nd floor Parings Bulletin Board.
In any case, the first day's round would start at 1PM and we were early so the empty hall looked ever so perfect and neat with places for 2,200 kids that would sit down and play.

The logistics for an event like this must have been incredible. It makes me feel so insignificant when I help with our LCC tournaments.

See that slither of windows in the above picture? That's the 3rd floor and you could look down on the playing hall like so.

That section on the top left is the stage where the trophies and the top 3 boards play. The section of red seats on the right was limited seating for parents and spectators. That third floor area has parents intently peering down on the players as if they could see the moves their kids made.
Soon enough, 1PM rolls around and the first round starts.

My mind hasn't fully comprehended the scale and skill level of those kids in that hall yet. I would learn soon enough just how different this tournament would be from all the others we had been to.

Silly parents. The smarter ones had brought binoculars with them. Being one of the silly ones, I spent my time against the glass like a kid against a toy store window. The only thing was that Joseph's section always played near the windows.
Here's the obligatory Pittsburgh bridge photo.

While there, there were a few well recognized faces. I spotted Josh Waitzkin, Susan Polgar (whose son was playing in the tournament), and Elizabeth Vicary.