One corner of IL class 2010

Hope you enjoy everything, whether it is  the snow, or it is the tension, whether you are young or you are old.

Talking about something without tension, Abe’s little bother likes to “read” books, but according to Mommy, he only reads the page numbers. However, he still looks enjoying it:

Two brothers enjoy reading in a Costco store

Whatever you do, try to enjoy it, even you can’t grasp everything of it.

We are on the way to our vacation, will be back after Christmas.

Have good Holidays, why not.

• had work
• confidence
• love, guidance and sacrifice from parents
• guidance and criticisms from tutors, even sporadically.

As Henry David Thoreau said in Walden: “However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.” I envy and congratulate Gary for his glorious hour.
I whole heartily recommended this great book to any chess parents, chess educators, chess players or someone may have an interest in it. I ordered my copy from the publisher’s website.

Last Saturday, we went to Hales Corners Challenge XI in Milwaukee.  Abe was  eligible to play in the reserve section based on his rating, but he would likely to be one of the tops of that section.  I convinced him to play up in order to play with stronger opponents. It turned out, to my surprise, Abe still had a lucky day.

In the Open section, all four of his opponents were higher rated than him. He lost to one, won the others. At the end of the day,  he was tied with many others for second place. Considering there were thirteen players being experts or masters, his finish was very good.

Here is the game he lost:

A side note, before and during the tournament, Abe asked me several times to ask the TD for some bytes so he could watch NBA playoff games.  I told him that he’d have many many chances to watch the yearly NBA playoff games. In addition, there was a TV in the hosting hotel showing the NBA playoff games, so he could watch some during the rounds. Reluctantly, he played all the games. However, I do not know if my reply and insistence were good or not. If you have an idea, please let me know.

Last time, I asked Abe read one story in the book; he finished it in minutes and said he liked it. After last chess tournament, Abe said, to not be bored between rounds, he would like to read something short and funny. So we will bring this book to next chess tournament.

I asked Abe watching this show last Sunday:

He became an instant fan of the comedian: Joe Wong even I suspect that he may not understand most of the jokes, but “Who Cares?” I said to my self, “To make good jokes, you have to study the culture deeply.”

“Yes.” Abe affirmed it, to my surprise.

The tournament was well organized, such as paring sheets were always posted  twenty minutes before each round; the tournament was held in a nice hotel;  there was enough skittles space; and the top board games were broadcast in one skittles room.  Even my wife praised there were enough water and food without leaving the hotel—a big plus for chess parents:

One chess skittles room

It was always hard to pass time for little David in chess tournaments since he had to behave himself,  and got tired quickly playing the toys we brought along. Fortunately, the books brought by some chess parents looked enormously attractive, he asked Mommy to read every book for him:

David and Mommy are reading books

There were six rounds of games in the tournament, four on Saturday, and two on Sunday. The time control of games at the first day was G/60, G/90 at the second day.

In order to let Abe have experience playing with strong opponents, I registered him in the Grade 12 section. I didn’t expect him to have a strong performance in his section, but hopefully he could learn something from his games.

In the first day, Abe won two opponents who were lower rated, he also lost two games. The first loss was the second round, his opponent was rated more than 1800 and went on winning the section;  his second loss was delivered by an opponent of 1700 in his fourth round, although Abe later said he had a chance and was up a pawn at some point. But in the end he made a blunder and lost the game. Here is the game:

After the four rounds, we went to a hotel about 15 minutes away. I had bidden the hotel on line. My previous experience of  bidding on line for two-and-a-half star hotels was great. I  knew this one was a two star hotel, I though it could be slightly worse than two-and-a-half star hotels  but still OK.  In fact, as we found out,  it was terrible: the strong wind blown out of the heater swept  me like a brush, the big noise of the refrigerator vibrated the room air like a tractor…Abe later complained his bed was too hard.

I managed to sleep since I was very tired after a long day but the sleep was not a good one, and I did not feel fresh the next day.

Anyway Abe won his first game against a lower rated player. After the game, he gladly told me he won the endgame. He said, “Previously, I won or lost games at middle games.”  Since he just started reading a chess end game book these days, I was happy for him if he could apply some of the teaching in his game. Here is the game:

   [White "Abe, 1420"]  [Black "John, 1233"]  [Result "1-0"]  [Date "Feb 21, 2010"]  [Event "US Jr Chess Congress"]  [Section "G-12"]  [Round "5"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O d6 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 Be7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. d3 h6 10. Be3 Ng4 11. Nd5 Nxe3 12. Nxe3 Na5 13. Rc1 Bg5 14. Nxg5 Qxg5 15. Qd2 Nxb3 16. cxb3 c5 17. Qa5 Be6 18. Qb6 Qd8 19. Qxd8 Raxd8 20. Nd5 Bxd5 21. exd5 Rfe8 22. Re4 f5 23. Re2 Re7 24. f4 e4 25. Re3 Kf7 26. Rce1 Rde8 27. dxe4 Rxe4 28. Rxe4 Rxe4 29. Rxe4 fxe4 30. Kf2 Kf6 31. h3 g5 32. Ke3 gxf4+ 33. Kxf4 e3 34. Kxe3 Ke5 35. g4 Kxd5 36. h4 Ke5 37. g5 hxg5 38. hxg5 d5 39. g6 Kf6 40. b4 Kxg6 41. bxc5 Kf6 42. Kd4 Ke6 43. b4 Kd7 44. Kxd5 Kc7 45. a3 Kd7 46. c6+ Kc7 47. Kc5 Kb8 48. Kb6    

Abe lost his final round to another 1800 player. The game was a long battle, when I finally saw him coming into the skittles room, he already told Mommy why he lost his game: “I had a stomach ache” and “it is too hot over there”. Here is the game:

  [White "Timothy, 1853 "] [Black "Abe, 1420 "] [Result "1-0 "] [Date "2-21-10 "] [Event " 2010 US Jr Chess Congress"] [Section "G-12 "] [Round "6"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 Nf6  5.e3 Nbd7  6. cxd5 exd5 7.Bd3 Bd6  8.0-0 0-0  9.Bd2 Nb6  10.b3 Bg4  11.Be2 Re8  12.h3 Bh5  13. Ne1 Bxe2 14.Qxe2 Nbd7 15. Nd3 Nf8  16.Na4 Ne6  17.Bc3 Ne4  18.Bb2 Qc7  19.Rac1 b6  20.Nc3 Nxc3  21.Bxc3 Ng5  22. Be1 a5  23.Rc2 Ne4  24.f3 Bh2  25. Kh1 Ng3 26.Bxg3 Bxg3  27.f4 f6  28.Rf3 Bxf4  29. Nxf4 Rad8 30.Rf1 c5  31.Qf2 Qd6  32.dxc5 bxc5  33. Rd1 d4 34. exd4 cxd4 35.Rcd2 Qc5  36. Qf3    

On our way home, I half joked as I drove on the highway, “At least, we learned something from this tournament. Abe, next time, try not to have a stomach ache.”

“Yeah,” Abe replied. “If I want to pee, I should go to the bathroom right away.” I am surprised to hear Abe’s response to my apparently unreasonable request.

“I rushed, then panicked, and then lost the game,” Abe talked about his last game.

For me, next time, I should book a better hotel  to let Abe have a good night of sleep. At least a two-and-a-half star.

Around the time of the class, Abe’s mom downloaded some  rules about chess from the internet. I also read some of the printouts, so I stared to learn how to play chess. I borrowed a couple of chess books for kids from the library, Abe sometimes READ the books himself. I am impressed again, since even I would not want to spend time on the books full of symbols and diagrams.

Anyway, except several games mainly in the library for next year, Abe spent almost no time on chess. WAIT, there was one chess tournament he attended, organized by the school district, he got his first trophy although he only got 2.5 points out of 5 ( I guessed some kids apparently did not know how to move chess pieces). he was the first place for 1st grade. In the summer followed, he attended one week’s chess camp run by the park district, he had a fun time. But the chess camp was only for camp’s sake, the camp was very close to our home. We registered Abe for camps all summer, would not miss that one with only minute’s walking distance. I knew Abe’s knowledge of rules was better than me. Sometime, he would ask me or mommy to play with him, I needed frequently to ask them about the rules, such as “what is en passant?”

When Abe was in 2nd grade, he went to the same chess tournament, hoping to get another trophy. Before the tournament, we played several games with some even results (Maybe I recalled wrong.) But this time he did not get any. He said to mommy, “Daddy’s chess is not good enough.”…Oops!?… Both my wife and I thought we should let him having better instructions and practicing with stronger opponents.

Last fall, Abe started to play in a local chess club (for kids), that was about one and half an hours’ playing/instructions per week. At winter break, he started playing in the USCF rated scholastic tournaments. Although I could win once in a while, I do not think he asked me to play with him anymore after his first couple of such tournaments, maybe I was not strong enough…”Why bother…”

I borrowed the first two chess books from the library for my self: “chess for Dummies” by James Eade and “A Parent’s Guide to chess” by Dan Heisman. After his first rated tournament, one of his friends came to our home, I heard two sentences by Abe about me, one was “Even my Dad can beat you”, another was “My Dad is reading Chess for Dummies”. Not sure they were scoffs or showoffs.

The journey started, I felt not bad.

You might want check them out if your kids began playing chess and liked reading. Before you buy them, first check your local library to see if you can borrow for free. And you may want to make sure they are what you want. The latter book is relatively deeper in analysis but your kid might still like it.