To me, a new year begins when the legendary annual Canadian Chess Championship comes back. This year, it is held in Regina, Saskatchewan.
I am coming, Regina:
The Sleepy Adventures of Huang Qiuyu: A Plane Saga!
The trip from Montreal to Regina was long. First, we had to check-in our baggage. We didn’t even know that we could save 25$ by just carrying our small baggage on board.
After paying for two checked bags, we went to the security gate: a long line of people were waiting ahead of us. The security gate is what I fear the most. I’m probably picturing that they would call the police because I had a Howitzer in my backpack. Eventually I passed it without any major issues (nor minor ones!), and we went to the boarding gate, where we met Kevin’s dad. Kevin’s a second grader who is in the Quebec team for the CCC. I talked to them for a while, then we boarded.
I watched TV for a while. There were a lot of channels to choose from, like kids channels and adult channels. I took the one called the First 48 hours. It is about some detectives who are trying to solve crimes in real life. It was interesting to watch, so I watched, and watched, and I fell asleep… Then we arrived! I mean, to Winnipeg. It was a plane stop.
Unfortunately, the plane to Regina was delayed by 2 hours, so I bought a souvenir while killing time by shopping at stores; and played some blitz games with Kevin. Before we got too bored, we had dinner at a restaurant, using the meal vouch that WESTJET provided for compensating the delay.
The flight to Regina finally arrived. There was no TV because it was only a flight of 45 mins. I listened to an audiobook named Big Nate Goes for Broke. Completely hilarious.
As if time flew at lightening speed, we arrived in Regina! A volunteer picked us up to the University of Regina’s residency. It was better than the dormitory of last year: there was one giant living room with 3 bedrooms. I was with Haruaki Omichi and Zhong Wen Xuan. It seemed like Grade 1-2-3 stayed in a dorm, and Grade 4-5-6, etc…
The Complete Profile of Omichi, Haruaki
Haruaki is a fourth grader. Last year, he won the Provincial Championship and got 3rd place in the Nationals. He likes to play soccer.
This is Haruaki with me at the RCMP tour, with the Red Serge on (we hated to wear this silly suite; but our moms found it a lot of fun to squeeze us into it):
The Complete Profile of Zhong, Wen Xuan
Wen Xuan is one grade ahead of me. He started wearing glasses a few days ago. Last year, he was second in the Provincial Championship. He likes to watch NHL.
This is Wenxuan, we teamed up for the Bughouse tournament and won the first position:
This is Wenxuan and me having fun at the tournament:
Room mates:
The Boring Adventures of Huang Qiu Yu: Potatoes for the win!
We had breakfast at the Lazy Owl, a small Bar and Grill restaurant. In today’s menu: scrambled eggs, sausages, potatoes, badly-cooked bacons, some pepper and a bottle of apple juice. Yeah! Best breakfast ever! (Can you sense the sarcasm?) The grilled potatoes were REALLY great, the bacon not good (I didn’t even have to take a second look), the scrambled eggs were also good and the sausages were between the good and the bad. So-so, period.
Next to our table, there was an arcade game. We played it a little bit after each meal.
This is how we kill time at the Lazy Owl:
The arcade game that I was talking about:
The Exciting Adventures of Huang Qiu Yu: Horse-riding police! (So called the RCMP)
We had a guided tour (about 30 people came) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s training camp and gallery. They all had a red suit. I don`t know why, probably because when the guide explained it, I was mind wandering.
(Here is why: “the red suit is called Red Serge, which refers to the red jacket of the dress uniform that RCMP. It consists of a scarlet British-style military pattern tunic, complete with a high-neck collar and blue breeches with yellow stripe identifying a cavalry history.”(1))
They had a nice “museum”:
And we know that the number of current troop is # 21:
We first went to the training camp buildings, the shaving building (what a funny name) and the parade square. There, the guide explained to us what a cease-fire was. I heard this word over and over again, without knowing its definition, nor did I look it up in the dictionary. A cease-fire is an area where doctors can help wounded soldiers in war without having to worry about enemies attacking, because both generals of each side agreed that these zones will be left untouched. What I saw in wiki:
– A temporary suspension of fighting, typically one during which peace talks take place; a truce.
– An order or signal to stop fighting.
We could say it’s the same thing. Eventually we came back to the gallery, watched a small video of 28 min that explained a cadet’s training course (a cadet is a person that just entered the RCMP Training Camp).
The story of “pepper powder” is pretty impressive:
After, we visited the gallery.
This is what a RCMP is supposed to look like:
And this is “me” version of RCMP in my mom’s camera: (sigh)
There was a virtual reality helmet that we could try: I tried it, and it was just as if you were there, on a horse. So cool. First time I experienced this technology:
After a few minutes, we came back to our dorm, preparing for the next blitz chess tournament.
The Speedy Adventures of Huang Qiu Yu: A need-for-speed (and intelligence) tournament
The fast chess tournament began! There were five rounds, and we played against the same person 2 times. So, basically, there were 10 games that we played. I played against someone that I drew in a slow game at the Kitchener North-American Youth Chess Championship U20. We drew this time, again! I didn’t lose a round in this tournament with a result of 2 draws and 3 wins, so 4 points in total. I think I was 3rd place. Yay!
Last round with Richard Chen and some other big names in Canada:
Quebec team after the Blitz:
The Hungry Adventures of Huang Qiu Yu: A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG buffet
After the tournament mentioned above, I went outside for running, and then we went to the Welcome Banquet: a buffet, held in the tournament site. We were the first ones (lucky!) and went to take a sandwich, some Nestea and a salad. My friend Wen Xuan came too late. By the time that I finished my dinner and was ready to return, he even had not had his first bite. Know why? There was a super-long line, they had to wait for a long time. I went to bed very early after a quick shower.
Welcome Buffet:
The Can-Make-You-Burp Adventures of Huang Qiu Yu: The Active Owl and round one two three four five and six
Tournament Day one:
I woke up in a great shape. We went to the Lazy Owl. Potatoes were served again in each plate! Yay!
The opening ceremony started on time. We entered the tournament room first with the head of our team, Nicholas Johnson, (who is going to Princeton University!) carrying the flag. The spectators were just there taking videos and photos of the opening ceremony. We arrived at our place and then it came a long wait: we were the first team to enter therefore we had to wait until everyone showed up and seated.
As a team (Richard is missing here):
Now we found him squeezed in Ananda’s arms:
Let go of Richard! Ananda!:
Tournament site:
One of the amazing thing is that we exchange the provincial badges with our opponents. I usually put each of them on my hat. It is pretty cool except it is not so much when someone punch your head with all the badges on the hat. It is called “pain”:
As usual we have our provincial Tshirt. You won’t believe it that this year it is Poutine Tshirt! And the more eye dropping thing is: the T-shirt got prize because of the design:
The tournament went at a hectic pace. I don’t remember exactly who played against who in which round. But there were a few things that happened. I drew against the 5th grade of Nova Scotia! What a surprise for them and for me! The parent of the child was really happy. Now, I have to beat England Max in the last round to win. Otherwise, whoosh, I will lose my chance. But all the other rounds went well.
With my opponents; good games!:
After 6 rounds, we went back to our room, played some blitz on lichess.org, took turn to take shower and eventually went to sleep.
It will be a great idea if we three really live under one roof:
The Adventures of Huang Qiu Yu: Round seven eight and nine
Tournament Day 2:
I was the second to wake up that morning. We went to grab our breakfast at the Lazy Owl again. Then, the tournament continued.
I beat Manitoba and Alberta and I played against England Max, my biggest enemy in the tournament. I won!
With England Max: he is a strong player as he has made for national tournament the second year in a row:
His dad came to congratulate me. As time goes by, we all get to know each other…
It was 3-0 at the beginning for Quebec against Ontario. After, it was 6-5 and it kept like that for a while for Quebec, until we lost the last round. If Wen Xuan could draw for that round, we could win the national! But he lost! Nooooooooooooooo! But we know we have already made great progress. Let’s save the bigger victory for next year!
A legendary score:
Trophy time! (from left: Neil Doknjas; Qiuyu Huang; England Max):
3 Quebec National Champs with the captain Lefong Hua:
National Champs from Grade 1-12: a few are still playing the play-off:
Good memory and big smile:
The Adventures of Huang Qiu Yu: Lichess game
We played lichess for the majority of the last evening at Regina. Then, we went to play soccer with some guys from Newfoundland and Labrador. They were really friendly. We played until we were VERY exhausted.
Dinner together to celebrate:
I have a feeling that potatoes have ruled the world:
And we are just a bunch of silly potato heads taking selfies:
The Sad Adventures of Huang Qiu Yu: The comeback
Returning home is always the saddest thing. I missed so much Regina. It`s so clean compared to Montreal. No offense, but Montreal should really start developing some kind of cleaning system. We took the same plane for the trip back. By accident, we got business class for around 45 min, because we wanted to change seats and the lady told us to go there.
The trip went quickly like this: TV, stop at Ottawa, soup at the stop, salad on board, ….then suddenly I found my dad waiting outside the airport. We went back home…
I am really satisfied with my results. I think next year it will be tougher, because Max and Neil will both progress. I also gave some confidence to the boy from Nova Scotia. He’s probably going to be around 1600 next year. (He is currently 1100).
Thank you!
This story was written by: Huang Qiu Yu in collaboration of his incredibly genius mind. The #1 Bestselling Book In The World called CCC was released by QY in May 2016.
(1): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Serge