I was teaching in Colorado when I encountered a Leprechaun and a Pikachu.
Today I have a tournament taking place in Denver Colorado. The first round of this 4 round event should not be too challenging. My expectation is playing someone that is around 1800 in strength. Last month I played my first game round 2 after taking a 1/2 bye for the first round and my opponent was 1900.
What bothers me now is that my chess clubs are about 6 weeks away from being completed and I need to figure out where I should travel to next. My thoughts were California, Wyoming, Missouri or back to Iowa. I was not happy with Wyoming because I might as well stay in the same area. I would be connecting with the same crowd but over a longer distance. I thought about California and decided their gas prices were too high and I would be too far from other chess events. If I were to live in California I would be limited to competing in Los Angeles and Sacramento (not bad but limiting). I figured the best places would be St. Louis or Iowa.
The bulk of my family lives in or around Iowa. The smartest decision would be opening up shop somewhere there since I would have both a safety net and a social network. The sweet spot for chess tournaments would be on the border between Iowa and Illinois. The border would allow me to travel to Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis and big cities further east.
It would be so much fun competing in those big cities, I would have so much to blog/vlog about.
Happy Belated Halloween!