By Minna Wang
Salt Lake City

July 27, 2010

I am currently at the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. So far I have been having a really great experience at this awesome tournament.

This year instead of a tournament-only setup, we are having sessions of training with Susan Polgar herself and her husband/manager Paul Truong. The special thing about these lessons is that instead of teaching openings and how to play, they teach us how to think instead of what to think. For example, our first training we were given a set of ten rules that we should always follow on the board. Instead of looking for tricks and calculations that just aren't there, we can follow these rules and know what to do. We learn how to manage time and how to think ahead more moves than our opponent in order to win. I think this is the best way to learn chess because we don't need to memorize things like "pawn to e4" and "knight to c6." We can think it through with rules that apply to everything.

The second and third days of training were puzzle solving, playing and analyzing games, and finding the best move in various positions. For the "find the best move" contest, another girl and I tied for first place! Later that night the bughouse tournament took place. I, having never played bughouse ever before, failed miserably but it was a great experience because it was so fun.

On the fourth day we had a blitz tournament and the days after that the actual six-round tournament took place.

I really like it here and I'm glad I chose to do this. Everyone is so friendly and the atmosphere is always so casual. We joke around, we go to the rec center and swim, and of course - we play chess. I want to thank the people who made it possible for me to have this great experience: the Weber County Library System, the Utah Chess Association, my chess teacher Zandro Santiage, and of course my family for supporting me. Thanks for encouraging me and telling me I could do it. If I could come back next year I would love to do it and if you - whoever you are who is reading this - ever have a chance to do something like this I say give it a shot. What have you got to lose?

Minna Wang (front right) enjoying her first Bughouse tournament

...with friends she made at the SPNI