I copied my story from the company website (www.reapot.com): Back in January 2011, our founder, Zeke, went to a chess tournament in Chicago. There was a book vendor there selling chess books and other chess equipments to people at the tournament. While Zeke was browsing chess books, a guy came in and asked the vendor, [...]
Several friends have told me how great the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis was and I should visit it with Abe sometime. Weeks ago, knowing Thanksgiving Open would be held over the Thanksgiving weekend there, without hesitation, I registered Abe for the tournament. I am excited to go see the club except [...]
I have heard or seen many teenagers who quit chess when they are in middle or high schools. These promising young chess players stop their chess improvements at early ages, which are usually best time for people to achieve their full talents in chess. On the other hand, in middle or high schools, there are [...]
Yesterday, waiting outside the chess playing hall at a chess tournament, I looked outside of the window and thought: “Fall was not bad and it’s a nice day outside”. When Abe showed up after finishing his game, I asked him, “Did you see any birds outside?” I asked him this question because I missed their [...]
Last Saturday, Abe had a bad tournament; he scored 1.5 points out 4. On the way to home, he said his face was so red (so he could not think calmly). I replied “Maybe you are over-excited (to rush)”. He had so many school activities this year. Every day, before dinner, he just got home [...]
Abe cried loud before going to bed last night. He did not have a bad tournament and was one of the top finishers of the section. But he said he wanted to be the winner of his section. I remembered he never said wanting to be a winner of any chess tournament before. The winner [...]
If you have kids, who want to play chess in a scholastic tournament, you may want to consider this one. If the kid is just a beginner, it’s fine, he/she may get a free USCF membership, and this one is a good first one for the kid to treasure. If the kid is experienced, let [...]
Summer is over! Although not officially, but I can realize it since Abe could not sleep as late as he wanted anymore. In the last week or so, he had to get up at around 7 am. At evenings, he seemed had much more homework than last year and he also had to go to [...]
Last week, when I received the check for the cash prize in the tournament I mentioned, I did not tell Abe right away. On one hand, I think I should give the whole cash prize to Abe since he earned it from chess tournaments. He earned the money and he should be able to decide [...]
Last weekend, Abe played in Chicago Class chess tournament. I put him playing up one class since Abe, most often, plays better against slightly higher rated players —plays worse against lower rated players. I guess his concentration plays a big roll in his performance. He concentrates more when playing against high rated players; he makes [...]
Over the long July 4th weekend, Abe played in the FIDE Continental America’s Amateur Chess Championship. He had a so-so performance with an even score (3.5 out 7). After the first day’s games (he scored 0.5 point out of 2), on the way home, he said he’s winning in the second game, then he [...]
Abe played at Chicago Open last weekend. He scored one win, two draws and four losses. Yesterday, after looking at computer analysis showing he made mistakes here and there in his games, he told me he did poorly at the tournament. I think it’s a good learning experience for him. Since the slow time control, [...]
GM Boris Gelfand won the World Candidates Matches final in Kazan and will challenge the reigning chess world champion next year. I was so glad to hear the news.Why? Because he is like a local hero. Boris, when he was a kid, had a coach named Tamara Golovey, Tamara has a chess club in town, [...]
Gata Kamsky won the 2011 US chess Championship weeks ago, and advanced to the semifinals in 2011 FIDE Candidates Matches for the world championship by defeating Veselin Topalov days ago. Maybe he will bring us another surprise later. I found an old article about the teenager Gata and his father and a recent article about [...]
That’s what I told Abe before the tournament last Saturday. It worked this time. Abe drew with a Master in the first round. After the game I congratulate him by saying “Good job. I was especially happy for you since you fought until the last second.” He literally had one second left on his clock [...]
Last week, we drove to Columbus, Ohio for the 2011 National Junior High Championship. Abe played in the K-8 section and got a small trophy for tying with 20th place. He felt he was lucky with his parings as he got four points from much lower rated players and two losses were against much higher [...]
There were three junior events held concurrently at North Shore Chess Center last weekend. Most of the state top junior players competed there; it was quite a strong field. Abe continued his bad performance this month. In fact, Abe did not play that quickly in several of his games, while he lost them at the [...]
Abe played in a G-45 chess tournament last Sunday afternoon. Back about four months ago, he played the same G-45 tournament when the tournament was debuted as a monthly event. At that time, only four players showed up. So they played in a round robin format, every one played each of the rest, which resulted [...]
In case you do not know Ms. Ruan, she is the runner up in the 2010 Women’s World Chess Championship, and she is also a full time student pursuing her PHD degree in accounting at Carnegie Mellon University. What an opportunity it’s to join the lecture by a world elite chess player who is, at [...]
In the last weekend’s state K-8 championship tournament, some one had a good tournament, some one had a bad tournament, Abe, however, had a very bad tournament. What could you complain about after you remembered the name of the town — Normal! The tournament was held in a university student center. At first, it seemed [...]
