Good Bye Vung Tau

We spent the last day enjoying the sun and the beach.

Deep fried beach crab anyone? Looks delicious!

Closing Ceremonies

The Closing Ceremonies were as spectacular as the opening ceremonies. Vietnam has definitely raised the bar for quality and hospitality. Jonah placed 7th overall and won himself a watch for his achievements.

Making his mark in Vung Tau...

Award Presentations...

Me and my friend Kelly Wang!

Round 11 - Final Round (Board 1)

Today will be a special day for Jonah regardless of the outcome. He will be playing Thang Tran Minh, the hometown favorite on board 1! What a priviledge to play on Board 1! It will be broadcast live on the Internet. Hopefully, Jonah still has enough steam and energy inside to win his last game. His opponent has only lost one game going into the final round. He lost it to a player that Jonah has already beaten. This is anyone's game and if Tran wins, he will be the World U8 Champion. If Jonah wins, he may have the bronze and come in third place.

As a parent, It was hard to watch. I was pacing around the stadium like an expectant father! I would peek in and check on the game every so often with anticipation.

Every good winning streak must come to an end and with this game, Jonah's winning
streak ended at 6 games. Even though the last game was lost, we came out of the tournament knowing that we gave it our best and achieved excellent results. Jonah scored 7.5 points out of 11 for Canada which ties the all time high set previously by Janak Awatramani and Andrew Ho at the Worlds.

With the last game finished, we can finally relax and enjoy the closing ceremonies.

Round 10

Jonah is playing Alireza Olamaei from Iran. This will be a tough game for Jonah. After a tough battle, Jonah wins and brings his streak to 6. Jonah at this point is in seventh heaven and cannot wait until his last game.

Round 9

Today, Jonah will be playing Siarhei Kalinouski from Belarus.

Belarus is bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west and Lithuania/Latvia to the north.
Jonah wins this game and extending his winning streak to 5 games.

Round 8

Winning the last game has propelled Jonah onto Board 9 today. He will be playing Oglu Akhundov Shamshad Rahman from Azerbaijan, another strong player. Jonah contiues his streak....4 games in a row.

Round 7

Taking a day off had its advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, we had a chance to rest. On the minus side, we lost our momentum. It felt like we had started a new tournament going into the 7th round.

Today, Jonah will be playing Jain Jeet from India. Jain is the top rated player in the tournament with a FIDE rating of 1847. This will be JOnah's toughest match! After a three and half hour gruelling match, Jonah comes out on top. I was very proud as a parent and elated that JOnah found it in him to win this game. This brings Jonah's winning streak to 3 games in a row!

Free Day - A Tour of Vung Tau City

What a nice day to relax. We arranged for a local tour of Vung Tau and as a team, we visited a temple, a lighthouse and a local shopping market. Time to buy souvenirs and just relax!


Hanging out with the buddies...


Museum - sunken treasures...

What a bargain! 35,000 Dong!

A glimpse into history...

Lighthouse

Round 6

Jonah will be playing Duc Viet Do, from Vietnam. It will be interesting to see how the game plays out. Winning this game will be nice as we get a free day tomorrow and ending the week off on a positive note is good. Jonah wins this game going into the weekend. With half the tournament over, Jonah has earned 3.5 points.

Round 5

The temperature in the stadium seemed a lot cooler today. The air conditioners must have been fixed. Jonah was ready for his next match. He will face David Brinovec of Slovenia. Jonah won this game and was grinning from ear to ear again. At this point we will take each game day by day and see what happens.

Slovenia is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast and Austria to the north.

Round 4

Coming after a loss from the last round, Jonah was determined to finish the day on a positive note. Jonah will be playing Bhaskar Gupta, a strong player (FIDE rated 1610) from India. The game was progressing well, but unfortunately, Jonah miscalculated on a series of exchanges and ended up down a piece after his King was forced off the protection of one of his pieces.

It was a tough and draining day, both for Jonah and Dad. Settling into bed that night, Jonah came over and mentioned with intent, "Dad, I hate losing! I will not lose anymore games....". Thus the beginning of an exciting six game winning streak in the days to come.

Round 3

Today, the conditions at the stadium were challenging. As a spectator in the stands, the heat was unbearable as three air conditioners broke down. I can't imagine how the players are feeling. It will be the toughest day of the tournament as players are still adjusting to the climate/time change while required to play two games rather than the typical single game in the afternoon.

Jonah will be playing Chingiz Maharramli from Azerbaijan. Going into the endgame, Jonah lost his first match of the tournament.

Azerbaijan is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the west and northwest, Armenia to the southwest, and Iran to the south.

Round 2

Today, Jonah will test himself against Martin Seminario, the 2008 Pan American Champion. He didn't know this going into the round, but was surprised of the news after the game. Jonah was black and held off an initial Kingside attack by white and forced a draw in the King and Pawn endgame.

Day three will be tough as there will be two games in the day rather than just one.

Round 1

With heavy anticipation, Jonah was very excited to start the tournament. His first round game was against Turko Arsenijs (rated 1850) from Latvia.

Latvia is a country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. It is bordered to the north by Estonia, to the south by Lithuania and to the east both by Belarus and
the Russian Federation.

After 2.5 hours of gruelling chess, Jonah won in the King and Pawn endgame. After winning, Jonah was grinning from ear to ear! He was very happy and elated to have won the first game!

Opening Ceremony

Buses transported us to the Sports Stadium were the Opening Ceremonies and the competition will occur. Upon arrival we were greeted with much hospitality as we walked through a receiving line of hosts waving flags. It felt like a "red carpet" walk, not that we know what that feels like! In the background, Lions were dancing to the heavy beat of the drum while larger than life chess pieces decorated the area.

We were escorted to our seats in the stadium where we waited for an hour and a half before the official ceremonies started. The event was to be brodcasted over Vietnamese National TV. The stage was magnificent as was the show. Drummers, pop star singers, dancers - very "Vegas-like".

The opening ceremonies were much more than I anticipated and was quite impressive. Two thirds into the show, we saw people getting up and leaving. It was quite puzzling as we
thought it was quite rude to leave early and the quality of the show was not the issue. We later found out that people were leaving early to catch the buses back to the hotel. In hind sight, that was what we should have done also as we staye for the entire show and ended up stuck in the streets unable to get to the hotel.

The streets were filled with people and a mass of scooters! We were unable to make our way through the crowds and were asked to wait until it dispersed. It felt like being stuck downtown during the annual fireworks festival. We eventually made our way back to the hotel grabbed some dinner and crashed close to midnight.

Walk on the Beach - Back Beach

Vung Tau - Hotel

The Dic Star Hotel was nice and the staff there are just as friendly. The rooms are spacious and nicely air conditioned. The only glitch we had was our bathroom; no hot water. It brings back memories of being out of hot water for an eternity at home due to broken pipes.

We were given daily meal passes which were included in the price of the accomodation. Food was nice, tasty and plentiful as all meals are buffets. There was plenty of seafood and the Pho (noodle soup) was amazing.

The pool is huge and situated next to the beach. Vung Tau overall is very beautiful and peaceful.