CM TOMMY HE (9 yrs. old) vs. WCM CLAUDIA MUNOZ (12 yrs. old)It all started Saturday evening at the Dallas Chess Club when CM Tommy He approached Claudia to play several blitz games before the night´s tournament started. Claudia did not know that Tommy is the 2nd highest rated player in his category in the nation with a rating of 2045
Claudia won the first and second game while Tommy He won the 3rd. Our daughter rebounded in the 4th and Tommy finished with a win in the 5th game.
Then the pairings were posted for the 1st round.
Claudia defeated Yiqun Xie in the first round. In the second round Claudia defeated Vivek Mathesh, who came in 3rd place in front of our daughter in the TEXAS SCHOLASTIC STATE CHAMPIONSHIP. In that event they never faced each other. One hour later Claudia defeated Vivek. When the game was finished he asked Claudia, ¨What is your real rating?¨
Reason for this question is that Claudia still has her 1491 rating until April 1st, yet she has been plowing over players much higher rated than her since she relocated to North Texas a few weeks ago.
In the 3rd round she faced Tommy He in a heated 57 move game, however, Claudia had given up a pawn earlier in the game, which translated into an unfavorable position. In the 4th round she faced Dion Su, rated 1939, which translated to a second loss.
Nevertheless, Claudia´s rating has jumped from 1491 to 1621 in just two weeks. We anticipate that in the following five tournaments in two weeks, she should cross into the 1800´s. Now that Claudia has relocated to the United States where she is no longer playing in USCF rated tournaments while on vacation but weekly, the playing field for her is now leveling.
We thank God for protecting our family during the commuting between Wichita Falls and Dallas, Texas.
