Move also to West Virginia, which briefly had only one active Master (Chuck Shulien, at 2400 + was in the top 100 in the US at the time) while I lived there, and one guy who, at 2201, never played another tournament game, keeping his master rating intact forever. The state champs were regularly won by 2000-2100s. At 1700, I routinely won the Under 21 title, and one year, I was playing for the overall State title into the last round.

Of course, it also made it hard to BECOME a master, unless you routinely travelled out of state (a long drive to the big cities, though!) One strong expert I knew there once had a year of 35 straight wins, followed by a single loss to an underrated kid that cut into all his rating gains.
Jason | 10.18.05 - 1:53 pm | #