For the past few days I have been moving from one place to another, the whole process was extremely tiring as well as time consuming. In the meantime I also had to continue giving chess lessons, work on my own chess preparation, as well as make sure to meet some of my good friends that live in Dallas and that I will not see for the next few months. Moving from one apartment to another is a pain in the ass, moving to a different state is a whole new animal…but finally the time has come! I stored all my belongings that will remain in Dallas, and packed a big luggage for the next few months, skateboard included (San Francisco has awesome hills, as you can see in the picture below). Hope I’ll not end up in the hospital.
This transition period is quite challenging, and the hardest part will be living without all of my friends, but I know for a fact that I’ll meet new and awesome people where I’m going and hopefully will make the transition a bit easier.
On Saturday I am starting the first chess tournament, the CalChess State Championship, which is announced to be quite a strong event that will attract many titled players, and surely a few GMs among them. A few weeks ago I was planning on playing the US Masters during this time, but with the sudden decision to move to California I decided that it will be better to play something closer to my new home. I’m looking forward to play chess again and hopefully my results will improve in the upcoming months. After this tournament I will have a month break to prepare for the Millionaire Chess, which will certainly be the most interesting tournament in which I ever participated. With that being said I will now go to sleep, my flight leaves at 7 AM and I only have 2 more hours of sleep before I need to wake up and begin the adventure.
Dallas, see you in a few months!
San Francisco, see you tomorrow!