Round 1

In round 1, I played a Puerto Rican candidate master. I finished within 25 minutes and 20 moves. My opponent fell for a trap in the Scandinavian so I won a piece. After that I came up to the room and was working on my independent study. Yesterday, after dinner, me and Rayan Taghizadeh had a disagreement about the French Advance. However, when we went up to the room, I showed him many ways one can win for and against the French Advance. During that time, Rayan was using his distraction/entertainment tactics - and it was a lot of fun - Thanks Rayan! The pool here at Hotel Habukak is supposed to be good. I want to try it out soon...

Book Review for The Magician

If you read the first book in the series, The Alchemyst, you would have read that after escaping from Hekate's Shadowrealm, Nicholas, Sophie, Josh, and Scathach fled to Ojai where Scatty's grandmother, the Witch of Endor, lives. Here, Sophie learns the magic of air from the Witch, but instead of teaching Sophie the magic in the regular way, the Witch gives all of her memories to Sophie. When Dr. John Dee tries to trap the group, they escape through a leygate. A leygate is a point where two or more leylines meet. When you go through a leygate, you can travel from one point of a globe to another along a leyline. In this case, the group went to Paris where they were given an unwanted greeting by Dee's associate, Niccolo Machiavelli. He nearly captured them, but with the spectacular firework distraction by Flamel's old student and Master of Fire, Comte de Saint-Germain, they escaped safely. Scatty, Sophie, and Josh went with Saint-Germain while Nicholas went to retrieve some objects from his old house. At Saint-Germain's safe house, they met Saint-Germain's wife, Joan d'Arc, who was the last person to have a pure silver aura like Sophie. Joan helped Sophie to shape her aura and sort the thoughts that the Witch gave her. Sophie and Josh both sleep for nearly a day and a half and when they wake up, Nicholas is back and eating breakfast. Since Josh hasn't been Awakened yet, Nicholas gives him the sword known as Clarent to protect himself. Scatty teaches Josh the basics of sword-fighting during the time that Sophie learns fire magic from Saint-Germain. In the middle of the night, Machiavelli and Dee use Disir to attack the house. The Disir unleash the Nidhogg and then start to attack the house. Scathach and Josh try to fend off the Nidhogg, but Scathach was captured by the Nidhogg so Josh had to fight it by himself. Joan and Sophie together defeat two Disir and then together with Nicholas go after Josh and the Nidhogg. To find out what happens in the end, read The Magician by Michael Scott.

Book Review for The Alchemyst

          I am finally back on my blog after nearly a year of break! Since I am going to be reading a lot of books this summer, I decide that I would publish my reviews on this blog. I am starting out with a review about a book in the series that I am currently reading. The series' name is The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel and the book that I am going to write a review for is the first book, The Alchemyst. Sophie and Josh are two normal high school twins. During the summer, they took up jobs at a coffee shop and a bookstore, respectively, to earn money for a car. One day, an odd man comes into the bookshop and brings three creatures into it. The odd man fights with the owner, Nick Fleming, and, somehow, both of the men use magic. The owner's wife, Perry Fleming, also uses magic and is captured and taken away along with a book called The Codex. They eventually find out that Nick and Perry Fleming are just aliases for Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. They also discover that the strange man was Dr. John Dee and all three of these people are immortal. This leads them into a world where myths are the truth, legends are alive, and danger is lurking in every corner. They leave the bookstore to find Scathach, the Warrior Maid, who will become a protecter of the twins. They then leave San Fransisco and go to Mill Valley to the Elder, Hekate. She tries to awaken their enhanced senses (make their five senses sharper; *"see with acuity, hear with clarity, taste with purity, touch with sensitivity, and to smell with intensity"*) , but an army led by Dee, Bastet, and Morrigan is building at her Shadowrealm's front door. She is only able to awaken Sophie before the army breaks through. To find out more about what happens in this book, read The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. Just to let you know, all the people or Elders in this book are based on real people or legends/myths. I will be doing more reviews on this series throughout the weeks. Happy reading! A"*"means it is a quote from the book.

post North American Youth

We got back to California at about 10 o'clock Wednesday night PCT. I wasn't that tired, so I decided to go to a tennis day camp for the next two days. We hit a bunch of different strokes, played points, and played matches in the morning and evening. During lunch we watched the Wimbledon and other TV shows. On Thursday we had Subway and on Friday we had pizza and we played some basketball. On Saturday our family just lazed around other than our short walk, visit to the temple, and eating out at a Indian restaurant. On Sunday we went to Raging waters for five hours, Honeyberry, and another restaurant. Today we will see 4th of July fireworks and go to dinner somewhere.

End of the tournament

I drew my last round against Kadhir Pillai which resulted in me being tied for 3rd and I just barely beat Christopher Yang on third tiebreaks by 1/2 a point which got me fifth place. My dad and I nearly missed the flight because the rental car, check-in, and security took a long time.

                                                                                                         

NAYCC Last Round coming up

I won my two games yesterday, and now I am tied for second with 5 others...If I win my last game, then I could tie for first or second. So, wish me luck!

North American Youth 2011

After 6 months I am continuing on my blog. I am currently in Tarrytown, New York at the 2011 North American Youth with 2.5/4. I won against a 1470 and a 1660, but lost to last year's champion Hong Rui Zhu from Canada and drew with a 1800, Tanmay Khattar. I need to do well in the final 3 rounds to have a decent result. I will continue updating and post photos of my opponents tomorrow. I will also talk about what has happened in the past 6 months soon.