And the winner is.....

Ethan competed in his first 5 round swiss chess torunament today at Riverton Elementary. In all, 27 schools participated and there were 162 kids. Ethan competed for his former school, Willow Springs because his current school does not have a chess program. It was a very long competition (he left home around 8:20 am and got back around 3 pm) I wondered if he would last the 6 hour the tournament. He really wanted to get a trophy so before he left home I started preparing him by giving him the spill of "we play to have fun not just to win and a ribbon would be nice, maybe a medal would be great and he might not get a trophy, etc... He waited for me to be done and then said, "oh, I signed up for the trophy competition mom". My eyes went wide open and in horror I thought to myself, "oh, no!, trophies are only given to the top 10 competitors and you are a first timer".

Well, he did last the entire competition. He lost the first round, he won the second and third rounds, he lost the fourth round, he tied the fifth round. He had 2.5 points and had no ranking (because it was his first time competing at this tournament). I did not know what his score meant but the moment of truth arrived at around 2 pm. The winners were announced, they started with the "outstanding performers" that would get a medal. They named one after another first grader. I was on the edge of my seat when the announcer said, "and the last competitor is ........ blah, blah, blah. SIGH!!!! whew! he actually made the cut and I could not believe it! He was a top ten competitor! I looked at Dave, who was sitting behind me, and we both had a huge grin on our faces. Then the announcer said, "10th place goes to................Ethaaaaaaan Christenseeeeen!!!!!! the crowd went  crazy, applause, standing ovation, flashing cameras, and loud cheering could be heard and it was all coming from ....... mom! What can I say? after all, he is my first born and this was a first for our entire family.  I was so happy for him, I wanted to cry! He was so excited about his trophy until..................he saw the much larger trophy his friend got for 4th place.

While we waited for the scores to be calculated, Dave had been perusing all the goods being sold and purchased a chess timer, some chess software with all the greatest and latest tactics and who know what else. I reminded Dave that this was just a for fun thing and Ethan would probably soon loose interest.
When we got home Ethan asked his dad to pull the chess board out so he could play!
So I said, "Why do you want to play? you have been playing all day long, aren't you tired?.
In a very stern, serious loud voice he said, "I have to practice mom, I have the state championship in a month!"
I rolled my eyes and resisted the temptation of banging my head against the wall.