The End of The Tournament

Now the tournament is over. I got ninth out of 126 kids and tied for fourth overall but because of tiebreaks i got ninth. the top three get medals , top eight go on stage  and top ten get certificates. something that nobody thought was going to happen was that a 14 year old girl played in the girl's under 18 section and won. that was completely unexpected because nobody has ever played up and won 1st place. nobody has ever even played up and gotten in the top 20!   

my favorite part about the tournament was tying for fourth place over all.  my least favorite part was missing 8th place by one tiny tiebreak point.  i hope i qualify for worlds next year too.  it will be in Dubai.

here is a picture of me with some team-mates, before the last round.  by the way, in the last round I beat the european gold medalist, a boy from bulgaria.

the closing ceremony was cool and loud.  the cool part was we got to see Garry Kasparov, he is the best chess player in the world.  here is a picture of people taking pictures of him.

this is us trying to get a look at Garry Kasparov.  those are my friends, Milind and Atreya.

              this was the loud entertainment

 this man could play the accordion really well.  he could even play it with one finger, with a water bottle, and while sitting on it!

 here are some kids from slovenia who joined him on the stage.

 this is me and my friend Joaquin on the bus after the ceremony.  we went out for pizza together and it was fun.

next we are going to Italy.  i am excited because in Venice it is a city on water.