I kept an eye on the RR norm tournaments in Europe since March: especially the ones that Andy could play several tournaments in a row in one place; two, it would save a great deal of money on travel, lodge, and the entry fees; three, we only needed to travel once and Emily could go to some summer camps or visit friends and family while we were gone. So when I saw there were five back to back RR norm tournaments from May to June in Novi Sad, Serbia, we grabbed the opportunity quickly. I only wanted to register for the last four tournaments. After we confirmed the tournaments with the organizer Drazic, we booked the tickets for two for $2200 (it would be a lot cheaper in the off seasons) in case the price would raise more. But the organizer didn't seem to be in a hurry. I didn't hear from him for a long time until May. I wished I could talk to Sandeep's dad or Jonathan's mom and get some tips from them before hand. But I didn't have their contacts. This would be my first time going to Europe with Andy, an adventure for sure!
Andy fortunately pumped up his rating to 2365 in May. So he was qualified to play in the GM sections. But only half of the players registered in the GM section by May. I saw another city in Serbia had two GM norm tournaments. I registered Andy for that too in case Drazic's tournaments fell apart. Several days before the trip, Drazic asked me to call him on Whatsapp (everyone in Serbia uses Whatsapp). He told me the other tournaments we registered in the other city were canceled. The registration fee we paid were transferred to him. So I began to make the hotel arrangement three days before we traveled. It was not easy to find a place for 30 days with such late bookings. I had to divide our time into three apartments besides Drazic wanted us to stay in the tournament hotel for a couple of days. We packed two carry-ons and two personal bags. I bought two neck pillows for us to sleep on the planes: three planes for 17 hours from Dallas- Houston-Munich/Germany-Belgrade/Serbia. Unfortunately we couldn't fall asleep on either one. According to the Germany and US returning requirements, we took the online covid testing the night before we left. That was easier than what we expected. The flight connections were tight in Germany, but we made it uneventfully all the way. Neither Andy nor I had more than a couple of hours sleep. We were extremely tired. But our fatigue dissipated once we saw the beautiful scenery in Germany and Serbia from sky!!! It was a breeze going through the Serbian custom. The officer welcomed us after he knew we were there for chess tournaments.
The organizer sent a taxi to pick us up at the airport. One other guy was picked up 15 minutes after us. I thought he was a chess player too. Later I found out he was from USA and he was there for business. We rode along a beautiful two-lane winding road among the rolling hills, dotted orchards, cathedrals, and cottage buildings. I wished I could take pictures. But I didn't bother in a fast moving car. We dropped the other guy first. I thought I could take some pictures on the way back. But it turned out on the returning trip, our taxi went on the highway and it was a totally different view. I noticed that it only took about 20 minutes drive from the orchards/farms to the farmer's market in the downtown area! Andy fell asleep until we arrived at the hotel Putnik in the tourist city Novi Sad, the European Capital of Cultures. The hotel was old and very basic. But it was located in the center of the city. I was able to exchange some Serbian money and then had a lovely meal at Petrus with Andy across the street. The famous square and the cathedral were right next to our hotel. People ate in the outdoor seating areas. Groups of tourists walked by constantly. We liked this city immediately.
Andy's first game was the next day. The GM section that he registered for was canceled so he had to play in the IM section as the second top seed. I wished we had a couple of days to battle off the jetlag. I woke up at 2pm every night for the first week. Andy had a bad start with 0.5 out of 2. He went from the second top ranking to the bottom ranking. With so many under-rated Indian players and Georgia players, I just thought he was going to have a really bad tournament. I remembered someone told me in 2018 at World Cadet that you can opt out the dual ratings for the foreign tournaments. I didn't want the bad tournament in Serbia to affect the USCF ratings. So I emailed USCF to opt out the dual ratings for the first Serbia IM tournament. Later I found out, once you opt out one, you will opt out all. It turned out for Andy, only the one that I asked to opt out was rated and the ones I didn't ask to opt out got opted out. Only if I knew! Andy didn't want to opt out the dual ratings because he wanted to come-back. He got 6.5 out of the next 7 rounds and earned his second IM norm! It took lots of hard work at the board, but he did it!
After the first round started, I went out to exchange more money. I bumped into Lu, Miaoyi and her mom who came to the tournament hall to watch the games. We met Lu in Spain at World Cadet 2018 for the first time. She was the only girl who played in the open section and she was a lot stronger than Andy then. In 2019 World Cadet in China, we met them again. Andy took a picture with her and Raj while we bumped into each other. She has been playing tournaments in Serbia since November 2021. Her mom Yuanyuan is a WGM herself, winning World Youth at age 19. I was very happy to see them! Later on I got acquainted with Yuanyuan. She told me they rented a house for less than $400 a month there.
We moved out of the hotel on the fourth night into a really clean $40 apartment adjacent to the hotel. It had amazing views and all the things we needed with only one big problem: the noise at night was unbearable! The loud concerts lasted until mid-night for three nights in a row. Then the construction noises started. I had to call the owner asking to move out. Andy didn't like the apartment very much because the old elevator and stairway felt creepy, and the terrace was scary for him. I had expected to pay some penalty. The owner was unexpectedly kind to give me all the balance back. I gave her a T-shirt that I bought from Dallas as a thank-you. Since our next apartment was in the same building, I canceled that one immediately. Now I had to look for new apartment. It was the festival time with lots of sports and arts activities. It was very difficult to find a place for that week. We ended up moving into a mediocre hotel with broken windows across from a soccer field. The loud yelling and shouting from the soccer field lasted until 11pm at night for all four days we stayed there. We couldn't wait to move back to the tournament hotel. The hotel had internet problems for a while. Luckily it was fixed two days later. Many sports teams from all over the world stayed in that hotel. Andy said several Indian players were kicked out of the hotel because it was full. We stayed on the 5th floor (actually it was 7th floor if you count the lobby and M). We walked down to the tournament room or restaurant most of time. But going up, we normally took the elevator. Andy started getting sick by the end of the second tournament, maybe because he picked up some germs or viruses from the elevator buttons or the serving spoons in the cafeteria downstairs, who knows? We moved six times during the four tournaments. Our favorite and last hotel was the Arhiv Boutique House right next door. While we were waiting outside to check-in (the check out time from previous apartment was 11am and the check in from next apartment was 1pm), I scrolled on wechat and saw the conversation about the Serbia tournaments. So I jumped into the conversation to share some of my experience.
Andy didn't have a good start for the second tournament either: same 0.5 out of 2. But he managed to bounce back and got his last IM norm and the title with one round to spare. He had a change to fight for a GM norm for the last two rounds. But the 8th round opponent was the TD (2280 GM), who already asked Andy to draw with him a couple of times. We finally advised Andy not to offend the TD and to accept the draw. The TD persuaded Andy to play in a blitz tournament at the 100 years old chess club. At the club, we met IM Satea Husari who wanted to be Andy's consultant or friend. He said he helped many top players to reach the next level and he liked Andy very much. He wanted to recommend Andy to the Kasparov Foundation because he worked with Kasparov before. We appreciated him for reaching out to Andy but told him we didn't have extra money to work with him. He still followed Andy around for the rest of the two tournaments and he seemed genuinely cared about Andy.
Andy started with nose congestion after he finished the second tournament on Saturday. It got worse on Sunday. He had headache and fever. I immediately thought about forfeiting the rest of the tournaments. After all, he got what we hoped for the trip. I texted the TD and asked him where to buy medicine and vitamins. The TD told me to give Andy teas and lots of fruit and vegetable with some fresh air. We were supposed to move out to the apartment that day. But Andy was too weak to stand up, not to say move. I asked to extend for another day while I moved our stuff. The owner of the new apartment wanted to take advantage of me by asking the double price. I refused and found another place. She came back a couple of days later to tell me that she would let me stay with normal price if I was still interested. So I canceled the other place just because this one was closer. When I met her to get the key and asked her where to buy some vitamins, she told me about a farmer's market only five minutes' walk that last almost all day. She said we didn't need vitamins - vegetable and fruits were everywhere. She dropped by and brought us a big sack of fruit the next morning. I started to visit the farmer's market and I was so glad I did! The fresh cherries costed less than $2 per kilogram (one big sack). The raspberries, blue berries, strawberries, apricots, melons were so fresh and cheap! There were big variety of vegetable too. I bought the raw honey, scissors, fingernail clipper, comb, shoes, and clothes from the market too. From then on, I visited the market every day. I had bought more than one day's fruit, but half of the fruit went bad the next day because they were so ripe. No wonder the grocery store was so small - people got their stuff from the market. Andy ate the fruit like meals. Two days later he was back to his normal strength, all because of those fresh fruit and vegetables.
The TD didn't prove our withdrawal request. He arranged two quick draws for the first two rounds instead. Andy was able to play the rest of the tournaments. I asked Andy to use hand sanitizers and wear the face masks. The TD told us it was not good to wear face masks. I really appreciated that Serbian people had the same opinions as mine toward the sickness and covid. "You just go outside of the room if you need to blow your nose" he told Andy. Andy had a piece of gum on the table. The TD came over and popped it into his mouth and raised two thumbs saying "Good!" He didn't even care that Andy was sick! Luckily nobody else got sick for the next two tournaments. I believe the Serbian people are healthy because of their lifestyle and care-free attitude. One note about the TD: The TD took care of everything and everybody there. He asked for draws most of the time so that he could take care of his business. His ratings had dropped a lot because he played in the IM sections as one of the top seeds (who asked for draws). But he was still a very strong underrated GM if he decided to play in the GM section. He has two grown children. I could tell he was young at heart.
On the second day that I visited the farmer's market after dropping Andy off, I met a lady who sold clothes. She came up to me with her limited English asking me where I came from. I told her Dallas. Her eyes grew wide "My son works in Dallas! American Airlines. He bought a house in Tulsa." I told her my in-laws live in Tulsa. She immediately called me friend. "It's a small world! Please come again tomorrow!" I visited her everyday after that. She showed me the pictures of her son's work, family, and others. I loved visiting the market and watching people sampling different food that I had no idea what they were. Some day I might try some of them myself.
The Serbian people love the outdoor and sunshine! People eat outside, chat outside, play outside, and walk outside. Kids ran around by themselves without concerning of their safety. They ate lots of vegetable and fruit. They got enough sunshine and they walked everywhere. I got used to walk to the market and the grocery store (Maxi) every day. After we finished the tournaments, Andy and I walked around in the square. Andy gave some coins to a veteran who played flute. The veteran stood up and talked to Andy in Serbian language. Andy didn't understand. He then switched to Russian. Andy didn't get it either. He said again in English "Photo!" Andy realized he wanted to take a picture together. So I walked up and got a picture of them with my phone. The next day was the free day before we went home. We decided to visit the beach and the fortress. The Arhiv hotel manager suggested us renting a bike or scooter to the beach. But Andy didn't want to risk getting injured. So we ended up walking for 30 minutes in the heat (that day happened to be the hottest day while we were there) to get there. The paved walking trail was really nice, broad and smooth, with two way bike/scooter lane and jogging trail on both sides. There were plenty of benches and free wifi along the way. The only complain was it hardly had any shade. We both got very sweaty. The beach itself didn't have much to see. We stayed for about ten minutes before we turned around. I asked the guard where I could find a taxi because both Andy and I were hot and tired. The guard told us "The fortress is only 30 minutes walk away. You can walk for 30 minutes, can you?" We nodded. So I got Andy a small chocolate bar before we walked another 30 minutes back to the fortress.
The Petrovaradin Fortress (the name consists of three words meaning “the city on a rock strong as faith”) on the right/East bank of the Danube is the second largest fortress in Europe. It was a significant military fort of the Austrian rulers called "the Gibraltar on the Danube", a symbol of Novi Sad. Today it is the city's art center and home to Exit festival (the largest music festival in Europe). The stunning Clock Tower at the Ludwig bastion is peculiar for its clock-hands: the shorter one indicated minutes and the big hand represents hours so that the seamen could read the time from far away. The fortress has a massive 16 km long underground structure built in 18th century for lodging of the soldiers and keeping of weapons with gun holes and mine field maps. Andy and I went up and down twice and decided to stay to watch lights after dark. We listened to a couple of tour guides and ate in a restaurant next to the tower. While we were sitting on a bench to cool down a little, Andy pointed to a tour group, "Mommy, we saw those people yesterday at the square. See, here are the photos of them. They were in the background when I took a picture with the veteran ..." I looked at the pictures. Surely enough! I was amused. Andy walked up to them and showed the pictures. They took turns to look at the pictures. One by one they broke into laughters "Small world!" they said. It was completely dark when we got back to the hotel.
I found out that Serbia had a very rich chess history. So many top chess players played famous games in Novi Sad, including Andy's model GM Gligoric. The younger players from America we knew included Hans Niemann, Akshat Chandra and others. Andy got to play against players from over a dozen different countries. Unfortunately, one of his opponents from Russia passed away a month later. We noticed his distinct unhealthy lifestyle while we were there. Eating well, resting well and exercises are three supporters for chess players.
Andy had a great experience in Serbia. The whole trip saved us about $4000 dollars. Before we left Serbia, many people told us about three strong tournaments lined up after that (the Serbia Open, a couple of days after Andy's last tournament, had about 200 players in the open section with average fide elo 2321!) and suggested us to stay. Many of the players in Andy's tournaments would play in them. Several Chinese chess parents from America also advised Andy to play more tournaments in Serbia and push for the youngest GM record. Since I booked the tickets on Expedia and it would cost a lot to change two international tickets, I wasn't fond of the idea. Andy would likely cross the 2500 elo line and possibly make a couple of norms if we stayed. But we didn't plan to chase the GM title or the world records. I prefer letting him to have his own pace in chess. Many people had high expectation in Andy. Andy also has a big ambition. But to my observation he doesn't know what it takes to get there yet. He is still a kid. Maybe one day he will wake up and really work hard to achieve his big goal. Bible says, wherever your money is, there your heart is. Yes, we contribute to church, we sponsor the kids from Africa and El Salvado, we give to our missionary friend, we invest in spreading the Good News, ... But we spent almost as much as on chess recent years even when we did our best to be frugal! We can't justify spending so much on chess, especially watching what the Ukraine people going through right now. It would be nice to break a world record. But fame is not everything in life. It can only create pressure for the child and create imbalance in our family. Instead of booking more chess trips, we chose to donate to Let's Love Ukraine Missions (
Let's Love. Ukrainian Mission, 2022 – Reaching out to Ukraine with the love of Christ (letsloveukraine.com)) The TD GM Drazic told me Andy has tremendous potential in chess (one of the brightest he's seen from thousands of talents). He said everyone loved Andy for his personality. But he added, Andy could excel in other areas in life as well. It was a good confirmation that we are in the right path. These four tournaments landed Andy top one U12 in the world. He will gain some attentions soon. But the chess journey is long and hard. I just pray that God will lead him to his purpose in life, one step at a time.
Below are from Andy's write-up:
A Quest for My IM Title
Summer time is a great time for chess players: to play many big tournaments and to gain some ratings or reach other chess goals. I became a FM (Fide Master) last summer after I started traveling and played in the National Open and the World Open. Since then, I set my next goal to become an IM by the end of this summer. If becoming a FM to me is like getting across a creek by laying some rocks and skipping over it, then becoming an IM is like going across a river by building a bridge. It requires a lot more hard work from both me and my family. I had to travel with my parent to play some Round-Robin (RR) norm tournaments that cost a lot more money and time. With my parents’ sacrificial support, I managed to travel once a month on average trying to get closer to obtaining the IM title. I got one norm from the North America U20 tournament but missed several chances by half a point. I still needed two more norms by May this year. Because there was no RR norm tournament as we knew of in the United States in late May/June and it was actually cheaper to play four tournaments in a row in Europe than to play them separately in USA, my parents grabbed the chance for me to play four GM norm tournaments back to back in Novi Sad, Serbia. It was the least disruptive option for my school and our family because my mom and I were gone from home only once instead of four times. I was super excited about the opportunity, especially to play in the GM sections that I had never played before.
Serbia is a paradise for a chess player because there are so many Grandmasters and so many strong chess tournaments. People from all over the world come here to play chess. We arrived in Serbia exhausted on a beautiful Sunday afternoon (May 22nd) after 17+ hours of travel. Neither my mom nor I slept more than a couple of hours on the planes. Half of our fatigue was gone when the immigration officer welcomed us after he knew we were there for chess tournaments. The organizer sent a taxi to take us from the airport to the tournament hotel. I was immediately captured by the natural beauty on the way from Belgrade to Novi Sad: vast rolling hills were dotted with colorful cottage buildings, church steeples, and tidy orchards. The hotel was in the center of the old city on the west bank of the Danube river (I just learned about the Danube river in my World Culture and Mapping class last semester). There were many good restaurants and ATM machines nearby. We had our first Serbian meal in a restaurant across the street. Both my mom and I loved our dishes.
The tournaments city Novi Sad was a lively tourist city named as the European Capital of Culture. It has a rich chess history (many top players have played here before) and our tournament hotel Putnik was right in the center of the city surrounded by beautiful squares, tall cathedrals, colorful buildings, and pebbled streets. There were lots of festivals, activities, sports games, and construction while we were there. Because of the noise problems (late night concerts, constructions and loud soccer games), we moved six times in four weeks between the hotel and various apartments just to find a quiet place to sleep well at night. By the end of the second tournament, I fell sick. The TD told me to eat more fresh vegetable and fruits and get lots of sunshine. We moved from the hotel to a fully furnished apartment again so that my mom could cook. My mom was delighted to find a local farmers market just 5 minutes away. Since then I had lots of fresh vegetable and fruits to eat every day. My energy bounced back quickly after many prayers.
My first game was on the day right after we arrived. My mom had more jet lag than I did. We regretted not coming here earlier to battle the jet lag. On top of that, we were told that the GM norm section that I registered for was canceled so I had to play in the IM section as the second top seed. I knew I would have to get at least seven points to get an IM norm. But I remembered the donkey story that my mom told me before: when life threw dirt at you, shake it off and step up! My mom worried that the next three tournaments would be canceled too. Luckily the organizer reaffirmed us that we would have three more tournaments to play! They just didn't publish the player list until right before the tournaments. I didn't start well: drawing my first game to a lower-rated player and losing to a very under-rated player from India second round. My mom thought I would blow these tournaments with so many under-rated players from India and Georgia. She told me to "just use this tournament as a practice". But I said "I want to come back!" So I did - for the next seven games, I won six and drew one and earned my second IM norm!
There was one day (Sunday) break between the tournaments. I didn't start well for the second tournament again: same 0.5 out of 2. But I had the same mentality as my first tournament: I wanted to come back! As a result, I secured my final IM norm and the title with one round to spare (this time I only needed 5,5 points to get an IM norm thanks to the higher average ratings)! The TD persuaded me and my mom to visit their 100-year-old local chess club and play a rapid tournament the day before the last round. Their chess club is in the downtown area at a very old building. It has some kind of tournaments every week from Friday to Sunday with a lot more adults than kids. That was quite different from USA.
I finished my trip with four IM norms (I often heard that once you don’t need a norm any more, it just keeps coming). Some people think that it is easier to get a norm in Serbia. Luckily I didn't have that mindset so I fought hard. Some lower-rated Serbian GMs are very under-rated because they've been playing non-stop and drawing with the lower rated in the IM sections for a while. But they are very experienced and hard to prepare against. They have superior rock-solid defensive skills. I failed to get advantages against most of them. All of these tournaments were played in six or more days (three or more single round days and two or three double rounds days) so they were not as physically draining as the ones in America. Also, the average ratings of the fields were higher so I didn't have to get seven out of nine (except the first tournament) to get an IM norm. But the pairings usually didn't come out until the day of the tournaments so people couldn't do deep preparations in advance (that favored me since I don't like to prepare :)). I did miss playing along with my chess friends. This lonely environment forced me to focus more on my own games though. I was fortunate to play against some strong players from all over the world (Indian, Serbia, Israel, Georgia, Greece, Costa Rica, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Germany, China, Kyrgyzstan, America and Russia). Below are some interesting games that we played:
I heard about how relaxing/casual the European tournaments were. I can only agree with it. During the four weeks there, I arrived at the tournament rooms at the wrong time three times because of the changed times/locations. We finally learned to check the playing schedule before EACH round. During the last tournament, when the pairings came out two hours before the first round, we found out our section was divided into two sections and the Swiss 10 rounds tournament was changed to Round Robin 9 rounds! One day, everyone was asked to stop the clock to eat a Birthday cake; another day, during our last round, the meeting room next door had a banquet with loud drums. I learned to go with it and relax a bit. Chess is more fun with some twists and turns!
Silver Lake A, Serbia Open and Paracin Open lined up right after we left Serbia. I wish I could play in all of these strong tournaments. But I was ready to go home where my family and friends are. Before I went to Serbia, I didn't know what to expect. Actually both my mom and I expected the worst so much that we opted out the USCF ratings for my foreign tournaments. I was so blessed to meet my goal for the trip, thanks to the sacrifice from my family and to the support of my coach. All glory to God (May I borrow from you, Tani?)! For the rest of the summer, I will attend a week-long church camp, work on school so that I could play more chess later, make up for the piano lessons, and play one more tournament that I committed before the Serbia trip. My next goal will be the GM title. It will be another different level of commitment and training. But I think it’s achievable if I don’t quit. I’d like to share my favorite Bible verses if you are in the middle of a chess journey like me: Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
With the TD
With the Veteran
With Yoav M.
Farmers Market
Blitz in the 100-year-old chess club
Views outside our windows
Delicious food
Corner of our apartment/hotel
Visiting the fortress
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