Travel Time, December 2025!

Howdy! It's the Chess Friends!

This past week was filled with travel! The Man Benji headed to Los Angeles, California for a volleyball championship! The Myth Sarang and The Legend Vivaan headed to Spokane, Washington for the K-12 National Grade Level Chess Championships.

Here are some highlights from Spokane:

1. Getting to make friendships with new people and making friendships stronger with friends from around the country.

2. Playing the main event and scoring 4.5/7 (WLWDDDW) with two "upsets" to finish top 20 in the nation among 7th graders (The Myth Sarang)!

Sarang with Coach Tim, who, fun fact, coaches all three Chess Friends

3. Playing in the K-12 Bughouse Championship and scoring 8.5/12, with upset wins over multiple master-level teams! We, The Myth Sarang and The Legend Vivi played together as a team! One kind high school master came up to dad and said "wow your 7 year old is relentless and absolutely cooked me!"

4. Playing in the K-12 Blitz and scoring 5/12 against 1900+ rated competition (Sarang) and scoring 7/12 in the K-6 Blitz (Vivaan).

5. Giving Fun Master Mike (FM Mike Klein, the face of ChessKid, the app that we used for the first three years of our chess careers) a copy of our book, Q&A Chess Tournament Edition.

6. The Legend Vivi repping US and WA Chess on the Spokane local news NBC affiliate KHQ, marketing our new book and playing fun chess games with the reporter! Check it out here.

Vivaan playing with and being interviewed by Cory Howard, NBC Spokane affiliate KHQ

7. Seeing the world's largest Radio Flyer Wagon and sliding down it while seeing the historic clock tower in downtown Spokane.

Can you find The Myth and The Legend in this photo?!

8. Eating delectable fried avocado tacos from Borracho - Tacos & Tequila while watching several football games at once.

9. Playing airport chess with buddies leading up to our flight back home.

10. Seeing tons of awesome Christmas light displays throughout the city.

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Meanwhile, in sunny California (though stuck in the LA Convention Center), The Man Benji and his teammates were playing in an intense 3-day volleyball tournament: the SoCal Winter Formal. Here are his thoughts about it.

When I was in middle school in 6th grade, in our ELA class, we read this book, called Paradise on Fire, by Jewell Parker Rhodes. It's about a group of city kids who traveled to California to spend their summer in a camp in the middle of the forest. While there, they learn wilderness survival skills, and then a terrible forest fire breaks out. Even though it's a bit of a sad story, I appreciated reading it. It has some interesting ideas that I still carry with me to this day, like this quote: "To know yourself, you need to journey." I'm still learning about myself, and, with every trip, I do get wiser. Here are some wise things I learned during my exciting adventure.

1. Be ready for what life throws at you.

2. Don't take anything for granted.

3. Everyone is unique and has something that works for them. Don't just find it, conquer it.

4. After a long, exhausting trip, after ups and downs of the tournament, go to the beach, see the ocean, and your worries will feel insignificant.

5. Dunkin Donuts is a good place to eat.

Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends!

The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivi