Day Five by Elizabeth Sherman Graif

Today is certainly the most grueling day of the tournament. With two games – the first at 10:00 a.m. and the second at 5:00 p.m. – the players are up early and working hard until late in the day.

Due to the fact that the pairings for the games cannot be prepared and posted until after the last players in a section have completed their game, the older players’ pairings for the second round were not posted until about an hour before the game. While this was nerve-wracking for the players who like to analyze their opponents’ games and prepare opening strategies, it did put everyone at an equal disadvantage: no one had much time to prepare.

At this point, there are many familiar faces in each section. Many of the Canadian players stop by the board of a previous opponent, to wish them luck before the round. Not only is this a sign of friendship, and a truly wonderful sign – but the players are also, more pragmatically, hoping their previous opponents do well for reason of tiebreaks when the final results are tallied –

At lunch today, a group of players from the Canadian team were listing the countries their opponents represented, from the previous five rounds. Turkey, Greece, Iran, Romania, Hungary, Latvia, Russia, Moldova, South Africa, Kenya and so on - their informal list included countries from every populated continent. What an extraordinary opportunity for these kids – not only a chance to meet people from everywhere, but also the top chess players from each of these countries –