Chess journey to the center of the Earth in New Mexico

Chess journey to the center of the Earth in New Mexico
http://reports.chessdom.com/news-2009/chess-carlsbad

On Sunday October 18, 2009, members of SPICE and the Texas Tech Knight Raiders Chess Team took part in an officially rated chess tournament nearly 800 feet below ground at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

After extensive research by numerous people in the past month, I am told that this is a world record for a chess tournament.

The event was officially approved by the National Park Service. NPS also provided all members of SPICE and the Knight Raiders complimentary entrance to the Caverns.

We departed from the Texas Tech Student Union Building at 9 a.m. and arrived at Carlsbad Caverns a little more than three hours later. Once we arrived, members of SPICE and the Knight Raiders descended nearly 800 feet below ground and it took about an hour to get to the playing location. However, everyone enjoyed the breath-taking sight of spectacular stalactites and stalagmites along the way.

The weather in the cave is a mild and comfortable 56 degrees year-round. The tournament started at 2 p.m.

After five hard-fought rounds, International Master Gergely Antal and International Master Gabor Papp, two of the Knight Raiders A team members, tied for first with the score of 4.5 points. The only half point they each yielded came from the draw against each other in a bitterly hard-fought game.

Murfee Elementary fifth-grader Tommy Polgar and Tech freshman Rebecca Lelko tied for third and fourth with three points. The Knight Raiders student adviser Hal Karlsson and another Tech freshman Brett James tied for fifth and sixth with two points. Eight players took part in this rated chess event.

After the tournament, everyone continued to explore the incredible "Big Room." Facts from the NPS: "The Atlas of Great Caves of the World" by Courbon, Chabert, Bosted & Lindsley published in 1989 states that the floor area of the Big Room in Carlsbad Cavern is 33,210 square meters, which equals approximately 357,480 square feet. A football field is 360 feet long (including the end zones) by 160 feet wide or equal to 57,600 square feet. By dividing 57,600 quare feet into 357,480 square feet, you roughly get that 6.2 football fields would fit into the Big Room. In acres, one acre is equal to 4,840 square yards or 43,560 square feet. Divide 43,560 square feet into 357,480 square feet and we find that the Big Room is 8.2 acres in size (more or less)."

In addition, according to the official Web site, "Carlsbad Caverns is one of over 300 limestone caves in a fossil reef laid down by an inland sea 250 to 280 million years ago. Twelve to 14 thousand years ago, American Indians lived in the Guadalupe Mountains; some of their cooking ring sites and pictographs have been found within the present day boundaries of the park."

After the tour of the Big Room, our group got back to ground level, just in time to witness the fascinating bat flight. Approximately 500,000 Brazilian (commonly called Mexican) free-tail bats call Carlsbad Caverns home during the summer. At 5:25 p.m, the bats came out of the caverns in circular formation then headed off to find food. The bats eat several tons of insects each night. We were told by the park rangers that this may be the last or one of the last bat flights of the season as they migrate to Mexico for the winter.

It was a fantastic chess experience for everyone involved. We are now searching for the next exciting chess place to explore. If you know of one, please feel free to e-mail me your suggestion.

Resources

Photo gallery

Videos

Big thanks to the U.S. National Park Service for making this possible and for their wonderful hospitality, Texas Tech University, and Peggy Flores for making all the arrangements for SPICE and the Knight Raiders. More information about SPICE and future events can be found at www.SPICE.ttu.edu

Carlsbad Caverns Blitz Chess Video

Round 3


Round 2


Round 1

Members of SPICE and the Texas Tech Knight Raiders Chess Team took part in an officially rated chess tournament nearly 800 feet below ground at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico yesterday (Sunday, October 19, 2009).

The event was officially approved by the U.S. National Park Service. In addition, all members of SPICE and the Knight Raiders were provided complimentary entrance to the caverns by the Park Service.

Once arrived at Carlsbad Caverns, members of the Knight Raiders manually descended nearly 800 feet below ground. It took about an hour just to get to the playing location. Before and after the tournament, everyone had a chance to tour the magnificent caverns.

The tournament started at 2 pm. After 5 hard fought rounds, International Master Gergely Antal and International Master Gabor Papp tied for first with the score of 4.5 out of 5. The only draw they had was against each other in a bitterly hard fought game.

Tommy Polgar and Rebecca Lelko tied for 3rd and 4th. Dr. Hal Karlsson and Brett James tied for 5th and 6th. 8 players took part in this rated chess event.

We were even lucky enough to witness the fascinating Bat Flight at Carlsbad Caverns. At 5:25 pm, approximately 500,000 - 600,000 bats came out of the caverns. We were told by the park rangers that this may be the last or one of the last bat flights of the season as they migrate to Mexico for the winter.

Here is the link to 95 pictures from the Carlsbad Caverns Blitz Chess Tournament: http://picasaweb.google.com/SPICEChess/CarlsbadCavernsChess. Videos of each round will be posted on YouTube shortly.

Big thanks to the U.S. National Park Service (http://www.nps.gov/cave/index.htm) for making this possible and for their wonderful hospitality, Texas Tech University, and Peggy Flores for making all the arrangements for SPICE and the Knight Raiders.

The pint size warrior continues to march forward

Monday, October 12, 2009

EMILY NGUYEN FROM PINT SIZE TO PROMISING FUTURE...

When Team USA was in its formative stages for the NAYCC 2009, I was very excited to know that Emily Nguyen would be participating. She captived our family's attention with her performance in the Susan Polgar National Invitational 2009.

I had no recollection of Emily prior to the SPNI 2009. Although I was not at the SPNI this year, the only girl wonder that impressed me was Annie Wang from the 2008 SPNI. After analyzing the game that Annie Wang and Claudia played, I told my daughter that she was fortunate to have won the game. We both agreed she had a special talent. Therefore, I did not think another girl wonder would come up the pipeline.

Well it happened.

Emily Nguyen shocked everyone by arriving at the SPNI 2009 at seven years of age with an 832 rating and trounce between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th round a 1251, 1501 and a 1659 player with ease (www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2009/07/pint-size-warrior.html).

It was not hard for all of us to realize that Emily, if she continued in chess, would be someone of importance.

Here is the full article.

2009 Texas Tech Home Coming Video

Texas Tech Home Coming Parade

Here is the link to 100 pictures from the 2009 Texas Tech Home Coming Parade.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SPICEChess/2009TTUHomeComingParade

Texas Tech's Knight Raiders to compete inside Carlsbad Caverns

Texas Tech's Knight Raiders to compete inside Carlsbad Caverns
Posted: Oct 09, 2009 10:58 AM CDT

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - Members of Texas Tech's Knight Raiders chess team will venture into the world of stalagmites and stalactites October 17th when they participate in a tournament inside Carlsbad Caverns.

The officially rated blitz chess tournament, which is sponsored by Texas Tech's Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE), will take place in the cavern's lunchroom, which sits more than 750 feet underground in the Big Room.

Paul Truong, director of marketing for SPICE, said he is not aware of another chess tournament that has ever been organized in a cavern before.

"The message we want to give is very simple," Truong said. "Chess is fun, and it can be played anywhere. We want to change the social stigma that chess is a boring game for old guys."

Source: http://www.newschannel10.com

SPICE World Smallest Chess Set

Dr. Tim Dallas, and his students Ashwin Vijaysai and Granapathy Sivakumar, have just created a SPICE Chess Set with the dimension of 1mm x 1mm. This was created out of the MEMS lab (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) at Texas Tech University. The SPICE Chess Set even has the SPICE logo on it :)

Here is the link to 32 pictures of this 1mm x 1mm chess set.

Great job by Dr. Dallas and his students!

Last year, I reported about the world's smallest chess set here. The dimension of that set is 0.25 cm.

Om April 2008, it was reported that a Russian man created a chess set with the dimension of 3.5 mm by 2.5 mm.

The SPICE Chess Set is smaller than both of these sets.

Chess song

Chess from the center of the earth

The Texas Tech Knight Raiders chess team members will be playing a rated chess tournament from the center of the earth (not literally)in about 2 weeks. It will take them about an hour just to manually descent about 1,000 feet to the spot where they will have the tournament. Then they will engage in a 6 round SS tournament. The event has been approved by the National Park Service. Stay tuned for more details.