Answer below.

 

 

   I had a fun chess new adventure this past weekend!

 

   I was one of the "gaming monks" at the Colorado Renaissance Festival! http://coloradorenaissance.com/

 

   I traveled up to Larkspur, Colorado (a small town in between Denver and Colorado Springs) with Paul Anderson on Sunday morning.  Paul has done this many times, but it was my first.

 

   We set up 4 wooden boards, where each of us would play two people at a time.

 

   Visitors would pay $1 to play the monk, and if they won the game they got a prize (either a free drink, valued at $2.50 or a metal chain mail bracelet).

 

   The Renaissance festival takes 16% of the profits, and the monks get to keep the rest.  I actually didn't realize this when I signed up, so that was a nice added bonus.  Any prizes given out come out of the profits, so theoretically you could end the day in the hole!

 

   Paul shared some tips and tricks before the people arrived.

 

   It was a little slow at first, but quickly picked up, with people waiting and eager to play the monks.

 

   I was playing as fast as I could.  It was not as organized as a typical simul, where players are alternating turns.  One kid would yell "YOUR TURN" as soon as he moved!  

 

   You could normally tell pretty quickly how experienced a player was by their first couple of moves.  Moves like 1...b5 were surprisingly common.  If the player played 1...c5, you knew they were above average.  

 

   Moms were taking pictures of their children, which was fun.  Many people played more than one game, and came back throughout the day.

 

   There was one memorable game towards the end of the day.  There was a boy, and his dad was closely watching.  They were speaking a different language to each other during the game - it wasn't Russian, but similar.  The boy would make a move, and then the father would "correct" his son's move - but half the time made a much worse move!  I quickly won their queen, by pinning it to the king (after the dad made a blunder "helping" his son).  After I won, the dad let me know he was "wasn't playing serious", lol.

 

   A lot of people told me how much they enjoyed the game, because they enjoy playing chess, but never have anyone to play with.

 

   I did lose one game to a guy who was really good.  He was sucking down a bottle of Captain Morgans White Rum (cleverly hidden in a Dasani water bottle), at the same time, so it was impressive that he was able to beat me AND consume so much unmixed alcohol at the same time!  He didn't even claim a prize, and actually gave me a tip because he enjoyed the game so much.

 

   At the end of the day Paul counted the money, and said that it was the most that he had made since 2002!  So I thought that was really cool!  Paul won all of his games, so we did not hand out a single prize.  We don't have an exact count, but probably played around 80-90 games combined. 

 

   The weather was perfect, everyone was having a good time, and the whole thing was a blast! 

 

   Here is a pic of me in the morning after we set up.

 

 

[Event "First North Gate Open"]
[Site "Herman House, Colorado Springs"]
[Date "2014.07.12"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Carson, Anthea"]
[Black "Andersen, Gunnar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D04"]
[WhiteElo "1763"]
[BlackElo "2145"]
[PlyCount "95"]
[EventDate "2014.??.??"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 g6 4. Be2 Bg7 5. b3 O-O 6. Bb2 a5 7. a4 Ne4 8. Nbd2
Nxd2 9. Nxd2 b6 10. c4 c6 11. O-O Na6 12. cxd5 cxd5 13. Rc1 Nb4 14. Ba3 Ba6 15.
Bxb4 axb4 16. Bxa6 Rxa6 17. Qe2 Ra5 18. Rc6 e5 19. Nf3 e4 20. Nd2 f5 21. Rfc1
Qg5 22. f4 exf3 23. Nxf3 Qe7 24. Rc7 Qe8 25. Qd2 Bh6 26. Ne5 f4 27. Ng4 Bg5 28.
Qe2 fxe3 29. h4 Bxh4 30. Nh6+ Kh8 31. Rc8 Bf2+ 32. Kh1 Qe7 33. Rxf8+ Qxf8 34.
Ng4 Ra8 35. Rf1 Re8 36. g3 Re4 37. Kg2 Qf5 38. Nh6 Qd7 39. Rh1 Kg7 40. Qf3 Rxd4
41. Rh5 Qe6 42. Rh1 Qe4 43. Qxe4 Rxe4 44. g4 d4 45. g5 d3 46. Rc1 Re7 47. Rc8
Re8 48. Rxe8 1-0

 

   You can play through this game here: http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2014/7/14/Game202485631.html

   Happy Tactics!

 

   Your Friend,