In August, I decided to jump back into the world of chess. After searching the net, and finding almost all the clubs near Miami are scholastic clubs, I finally stumbled upon the Boca Raton Chess Club, which was definitely a blessing. They have an annual large event before Thanksgiving called the Turkey Bowl, with hundreds of $$$$ in prizes for each section. I like money, of course, so I'm there. Two little issues:

1. I haven't played serious chess in years, so I'm awful.
2. The section divisions. My rating is 1602, which means I'd probably be the worst player in the under 2000 division, and I'm 3 points too strong for the under 1600 division.

Fortunately, Boca Chess has these Friday night tournaments, G/90, one game a week for four weeks, and there was one before the Turkey Bowl. Perfect solution, right? I'd tank the games to make sure I lose at least 3 rating points, but play hard enough to make sure it's good practice.

Things did not go as planned.

(There is no Round 2 game...since it would have conflicted with Gator Growl, I took a half-point bye.)

So now that my rating is sufficiently trashed (1588), I thought I was all set for the Turkey Bowl. Only one tiny problem: the new rating might not be published in time.

You see, the USCF (U.S. Chess Federation) releases official ratings every other month, which would include October and December, but not November. Since the Friday night tourney ended after October 1, the next rating release would be Dec 1, after the Turkey Bowl is finished! So all the scheming was for nothing!