Last Saturday, Abe had the worst performance in any chess tournaments—lost all four rounds, scored zero point in the end. Before the tournament, he said to me, as usual, “I do not want to go. Do we have to go?” We did not have other engagements on the Saturday. He might just fool around— watching [...]
Last Saturday, Abe and I went to a chess tournament. Abe did so-so if not poorly in the tournament. He lost one, drew one, and won two, all to lower rated opponents. Of course, there were still some thing good about the tournament. It’s not, however, the chess games themselves; it is the time in between [...]
Yesterday evening, driving Abe home from his soccer practice, I heard something interesting from an interview on NPR: Some one said that no chess players had reached grandmaster quicker than 10 years. I had an immediate doubt whether it’s a fact. I knew some recent chess prodigies got the GM titles when they were younger [...]
OK, I am kidding. I don’t mean to borrow the title of book: From London to Elista, a chess book covers relative recent events. Abe likes it; he likes to read games, although he has not developed an interest in the anecdotes. Last Saturday, we went to Hales Corners Challenge XI in Milwaukee. Abe was eligible [...]
Abe usually gets up at 7 am at Saturdays, he then dresses up and goes downstairs to watch TV or play video games. But not last Saturday; I told him the night before, if we’d wake up at 7, we’d go to a chess tournament, otherwise, we wouldn’t go. I did not tell Abe about [...]
The book is My life and Hard Times by James Thurber. Although it is an old book, it includes many short, sweet and funny stories; it’s the best written book I have read so far. I have no reservation to recommend it to kids and the parents to read. Check you local library, and I am [...]
Before round 7, Abe asked me to check his game during his play (The tournament hall was spacious, spectators were allowed). In other rounds, from now and than, I peeked at some games including his, and took a few pictures (I always had the flash off). He probably meant to check his game more often. I [...]
One of my friends—who is also a chess parent— told me during a chess tournament, according to his observation, if Abe comes out of chess playing hall quickly, he wins his game; if he comes out late, he maybe in trouble. It is a compliment to Abe. Abe has the tendency to be aggressive and [...]
From time to time, you may feel frustrated with your kids. For example, they keep playing video games on the computer although you yelled several times ” It is dinner time. Go wash your hands.” The kids don’t listen to you, or listen but wouldn’t do what you asked. Be calm, it is normal, and [...]
I recently read a very interesting article named The Junior Meritocracy in New York magazine (Feb 8, 2010). The article explained why the kindergarten admission tests required by many New York schools could be worthless. It also discussed IQ scores and proposed a better alternative screening method for future success. Some interesting points and associated [...]
I suggested you to cheer for Drew Brees in this post about two weeks ago. Now Saints won the Super Bowl, for the first time in its franchise history. Why did Saints win the Super Bowl? I think: Saints was the better team in this game, better QB, smarter coach, tougher players. Colts was the [...]
Thanks to the digital technology such as internet, David can watch many kids songs on YouTube for free; Every day, after school, Abe can’t wait to do three things on internet: checking latest chess news, following latest NBA news, and playing video games. Since the two brothers are not teenagers yet, I haven’t worried much [...]
This morning, I heard this news from NPR. The story was fascinating because: Police say the young outlaw is an amateur criminal — but a master escape artist. He had stolen planes, learning how to flight on the internet? His IQ was three points below Einstein. His mom is writing a book about her son. [...]
I know that many people have heard of Jeff, either by watching this video or reading this wonderful interview by Jennifer Shahade. I recently read the book “Searching for Bobby Fisher” by Fred Waitzkin. (Not the movie as I talked in other posts). Although this book is about the author’s son, another chess prodigy named [...]
Today, I asked Abe to read ten pages of a chess book, since the book is an advanced book, I supposed him to finish the reading no less than half an hour. He started to read the chess book, at the same time, I started to read an article from another book, minutes later, he [...]
The Holiday Basketball tournament is finally here! Abe has been waiting for it since their team started practicing on Saturdays about two months ago, he did not want to miss a single practice. He likes both basketball and chess, due to the time conflicts, he could not play as many chess tournaments as I hoped… [...]
I am puzzled by this wonderful proverb. As a parent, I know I should give more freedoms to the kids. “Leave the kids alone!” Is it the right approach to parenting? No. I don’t think so. If we just leave the lamp alone, it may never be lit. So the parents should generate a good [...]
Last weekend, Abe and I went to the national Youth Action 2009 in Oak Brook, IL. About 500 kids competed there, since it is not uncommon to have both parents accompanying one kid, I think maybe more than 1000 people were in the hotel for that event. The picture below shows the playing hall before [...]
Today, I heard an interesting interview of Andre Agassi on NPR (the website is here). Andre was a very famous tennis star. In fact, he was widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. On the show, he said he did not choose tennis when he was young but his father pushed [...]
About three years ago, once I was roaming in the local library, I found the library would have a class named something like “Chess for Beginners”. So I brought Abe to the class; several kids showed up, along with their parents. The class was very basic, covering how to set the board and how to [...]
