Author: John Cotey

Tampa Palms resident Truman Hoang didn’t study like he normally does before a big chess tournament. He put it off for a week, and then another. He was busy at school and busy with friends.

By the time he got around to preparing for the U.S. National Scholastic K-12 Chess Championships at the Disney Coronado Resort in Orlando, the event was just a few days away.

“This is your last chance,’’ his father, TrongAn, told him. “If you practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, maybe you’ll have a chance.”

Truman, as it turned out, had more than a chance. He also had a little bit of luck, and a few fortunate breaks in his favor. The end result?

Truman Hoang is now the 9th Grade U.S. National Champion, besting a field that included 88 of the best freshman players in the country.

“It’s ironic that I won,’’ said Truman, a 14-year-old freshman at Middleton High in Tampa, a school he chose because of his interest in studying bio-medicine. “We were expecting it to be a lesson that not working hard has (repercussions). I didn’t think I would do well.”

Instead, the lesson was: win the matches you’re supposed to, steal a few you shouldn’t and hang tough in even the most dire circumstances. Truman won five of his total seven matches and had draws in the other two. His six points tied him with two other players, Runya Xu of Pennsylvania and Albert Lu of California, but Truman’s opponents scored more combined points than the player Xu and Lu beat to give him the tiebreaker advantage.

“A Christmas miracle,’’ Truman joked.

Truman, a former Tampa Palms Elementary student and currently the vice-president of Middleton’s freshman class, entered the tournament with a U.S. Chess Federation rating of 2176 (a rating of 2200 is considered Master status).

In his first match, he beat a player ranked at 1400, and in the second round, defeated an opponent with an 1800 rating.

“Pretty easy,’’ he said.

In the third round, he ran into trouble. After a back-and-forth battle, Truman was down to just one second on his clock (each player starts at 90 minutes) while his opponent had 17 minutes left.

That one second, however, has a five-second delay, so Truman could make his moves safely but quickly.

Both players had a pawn and a rook, until disaster struck.

“He had an advantage, and was moving fast to try and get me to move fast. He was not using his time,’’ Truman said. “And, he made a mistake and lost his rook. It was a ridiculous mistake that almost never happens.”

It turned out to be a great escape for Truman.

“After the match,’’ Truman said, “one of my friends asked me, did you make another deal with the devil?”

In his next round, against a 1976-rated player, Truman, who is coached by Tampa’s Michael Hoffer and is a member of the New Tampa Champion’s Chess Club that studies at Compton Park in Tampa Palms, blundered a move but his opponent did not take advantage of it. At the time, Truman thought he had sunk his chances.

“Immediately when I let go of the piece, I was like, ‘Oh my God that’s horrible,” he said. “I was mentally preparing myself to see the move. I was waiting….waiting…I’ve never been to jail but I was feeling like I was on death row. But he didn’t see it. So, I was pardoned.”

He added, “Even though I won four in a row, it was kind of shaky.”

In his next two matches against players of an equal rating, Truman drew. That led to his final match against Texas teenager Hiren Premkumar, rated at 2058. Truman had already beaten him at an earlier tournament this year, and in what he says was an intense game, he withstood a kingside attack to win with five seconds left on his clock.

And, more luck for Truman — Vishal Kobla of Virginia, who only had to win his final match to stay a half-point ahead of him, was paired against Lu, the highest-rated player in the tournament at 2324, and lost.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Truman, who began playing chess when he was five, gives much of the credit for his prowess to his father Trong An, a software engineer.

“He keeps me grounded,’’ Truman said. “He reminds me of how to think and how to plan and how to think about preparing. My dad is really smart.”

TrongAn taught Truman to play chess and it wasn’t long before the youngster was beating his older brother, Alexander (a senior at Middleton), and began competing in tournaments.

“I liked how the pieces move, all the pieces have different roles,’’ he says. “It’s fascinating.”

He has been a regular in the state rankings, rated the best in his class on many occasions, and has won countless state tournaments while faring well with some national wins as well.

He is not resting on his laurels, however. Though busy as the class vice-president at Middleton and being a member of the school orchestra (he plays viola), Future Business Leaders of America, Impromptu Speaking, the Health Occupation Student Association and his weekly piano lessons, Truman plans on continuing to work hard on his chess game.

He jokes that while some may have a midlife crisis, he sometimes has a chess-life crisis, wondering if it will continue to be possible to excel at the game with so many other things going in.

“I could be a lot better if I put more into it,’’ he says. “I’m still trying to put more work into it. My dad always says, if you do work on chess, the time spent shouldn’t be drudgery. Hard work doesn’t have to be hard work. It can also be fun and productive.”

And it is. Especially when you’re a newly-crowned national champion.

Last year, the New Tampa area saw more widening of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and Cross Creek Blvd., the opening of a new dog park and continued debate over development.

However, that busy 2015 could pale in comparison to what is shaping up as an even busier 2016, according to the area’s local governmental representatives.

What lies in store for 2016? We caught up with District 2 Hillsborough County commissioner Victor Crist; District 7 Tampa City Council member Lisa Montelione (D) and Florida House District 63 Rep. Shawn Harrison to see what they were looking forward to for the upcoming year.

Although Montelione and Harrison have campaigns to run in 2016 — against each other, no less — no one has a busier year ahead of them than Comm. Crist.

“The biggest issue is going to be Go Hillsborough,’’ Crist says. “That’s going to dominate first four months of the year.’’

Crist is expecting to be knee-deep in the debate over the project, which he says has a number of big-ticket items that will affect the areas he represents, like “significant” improvements in the USF area, particularly to Skipper Rd., 42nd and 46th Sts. and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. He said bottlenecks on BBD between Bearss and Fowler Ave. could be alleviated, and extensive resurfacing in the New Tampa area also is included in the Go Hillsborough plan.

Crist says his biggest goal is to make sure the items earmarked for New Tampa stay in there, especially if the Go Hillsborough plan isn’t passed. “That will be a challenge,’’ Crist says.

How to fund Go Hillsborough is, “the 900-pound gorilla in the room,’’ he says. “It’s a $14-billion plan, which is three times more money than we can raise otherwise, so we would have to go in and cut the plan back, and go in and fight to keep New Tampa projects in there. The funding is going to be a fight.”

Crist expects the debate to conclude in March and a funding source to be determined by April. “Everybody has got a different plan but the bottom line is the only one that generates the most dollars to make a dent and is bondable is the referendum (to approve a half-cent sales tax).” He says the question is will the Hillsborough County commissioners vote to let it on the ballot so the voters can decide the funding. Crist hasn’t publicly stated his position, although the other six commissioners have, forging a 3-3 tie so far.

Crist said the area also can look for improvements to the BBD/Bearss Ave. intersection, provided the funding is secured. “That’s a big issue,’’ he said. “All the (widening) along Bruce B. Downs is important, but if you have a bottleneck at Bearss and BDD, it’s not going to make a difference.”

And, look for talks over the long-planned New Tampa East-West Connector (E-W Rd.) to be resurrected, Crist says. “It’s been laying dormant the last 10 years,’’ he says. “It was such a fight last time, half of New Tampa wanted it, the other half didn’t. Since then, New Tampa and Wesley Chapel have filled in.”

Crist said opponents, mainly those living in Tampa Palms Areas 4 & 8 and in West Meadows, didn’t want the connector last time around, “but they may be outnumbered this time.”

He added, “Frankly, Bruce B. Downs is not going be enough to alleviate the potential growth and traffic that is up here. New Tampa and Wesley Chapel continue to grow, and traffic continues to outpace whatever we do to Bruce B. Downs.”

The new cultural arts center could be funded, designed and built in 2016 as well, Crist says. He said the county currently is working on contracts with the private developer who is buying the land at the front of the proposed development across BBD from the entrance to Hunter’s Green. But, the $4.5 million allocated by the county may not be enough to build the cultural arts center envisioned by Crist, who thinks the project could need $9 million to build the state-of-the-art sound, lighting, electronic and seating equipment envisioned. But, he thinks the extra money can be found in the budget amendments — “I don’t see that as a problem,’’ he says — but only if he can get four commissioners to agree.

Crist thinks the city is going to want to hit local residents up for more fees for water, sewer and other franchise utility fees.

“New Tampa always gets hit with the lion’s share because we are where the money is,’’ he said. “The disposable income is higher in the 33647 area. We are the city’s cash cows.” Crist said the new rates will be debated in the spring, and put into action around Oct. 1.

“I think we will begin to see the comeback of the economy,’’ Crist says. “It will be more noticeable in 2016. Not on steroids, but more noticeable than it’s been in five years. You’ll see more permits, more construction projects, more trucks on the road and a lot of small businesses popping up.”

Council member Montelione agrees with Crist on that point. She says a number of projects had gone through the permitting process and were approved right before the economic turndown around 2008, causing them to be shelved.

“All of the development that was already approved and stalled during the economy is now being brushed off and brought back to life,’’ she says, adding that the potential of rising interest rates could speed up the need for some to find financing. Montelione expects to see a “surge” of new businesses in the new year.

A member of the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization and four other transportation boards, Montelione’s biggest issues will involve roads, namely the completion of the BBD improvements near Bearss and the ongoing disagreement and possible resolution of the Kinnan St.-Mansfield Blvd. impasse.

“A constituent just emailed me last week, asking when is that road going to be open,’’ says Montelione of the gap of paved roadway between the north end of Kinnan in the Cross Creek/K-Bar Ranch area to Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe. “Talks had stalled before for a while with Pasco County, but our legal department is picking up that torch once again.”

Montelione says there are many moving parts in the negotiations over the opening of the road, which would connect Pasco County and the city of Tampa through two streets that currently are separated by barricades and a few feet of unpaved surface.

It may come down to finding a middle ground, helping give Pasco County a Meadow Pointe-Beardsley Dr. connector (to Morris Bridge Rd.) Pasco officials want in exchange for softening their position on Kinnan-Mansfield.

“I think there may be light at the end of the tunnel,’’ Montelione said. “I am hopeful that the county commission in Pasco will be able to push something through.”

Citing an incident where a constituent was severely burned due to a lack of communication over which firehouse should have sent help initially, Montelione said she would also like to see an additional fire station built in the K-Bar Ranch area, and has begun preliminary discussions to secure 1.5-2 acres for the project.

Montelione also will attempt to switch seats midway through her second term on the City Council, having filed to run for the District 63 Florida House seat currently held by Harrison. The Nov. 8 election is a long ways off, but both Montelione and Harrison say they are pleased with early fund-raising efforts.

Montelione will first have to get by fellow Democrat Mike Reedy in the Aug. 30 primary to face Harrison.

Rep. Harrison, who will be in session in Tallahassee into March before he begins serious campaigning, has set his sights on making sure improvements and programs at USF remain funded. “That will be a huge priority for me,’’ he said.

The University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine’s relocation to a state-of-the-art campus in downtown Tampa is one of his top priorities.

Harrison says the Florida Center for Cybersecurity (FC2), which has been principally located at the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus since it was created in 2014, also will need to be funded. “It’s cutting-edge stuff,’’ Harrison said, “and we are the first in the country to offer a degree in cyber security. It was funded for the first time last year, and I want to make sure that continues.”

Rep. Harrison also is hoping to follow up on chatter he’s been hearing about a new on-campus football stadium at USF, although that potential project, “still has a lot of hoops to jump through.”

Last year, Harrison supported former county commissioner Mark Sharpe’s Tampa Innovation Alliance, a public-private agency created to re-develop the University area of North Tampa. Although Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the $2-million earmarked for the agency, Harrison said he plans on “going to bat” for it again this year.

Harrison, who serves on the State Affairs Committee, and the Economic Development and Tourism, Healthcare Appropriations, and K-12 Education subcommittees, also is championing the elimination of the sales tax on commercial leases. “That’s a big one, said Harrison. There are multiple bills aimed at eliminating the tax, he said, but whichever one makes it through, Harrison is convinced it will be beneficial to businesses in the New Tampa area.