- my state is isolated
- I can't find any tournaments here
- there is no chess club near my house
- oh, that's 30 minutes from my house, do you know anything closer?
Over the weekend, a girl from isolated state Alabama, Rochelle Wu, won the gold medal in the U10 Girls section in World Cadet (the younger part of World Youth, which is split out this year).
There are not many tournaments in Alabama. Even when you find one, that often is one section, 10 people, including Rochelle and her brother. That's how bad the situation is, comparing to NY/NJ, CA, and TX. So what do they do? They drove to neighboring states, GA, NC, TN, LA, and etc. In last 52 weeks, they drove out every weekend, except one because of snow storm. They drove to GA 21 times. That's two hours one way.
That's how you solve a problem, rather than just complaining about a problem.
Kudos to Rochelle's parents, and congratulation to Rochelle again!
Playing in tournaments every weekend is not only a test for the child, but also a test for parents.