In a recent tournament, one chess parent told me about his chess-playing son: “He played so little in the summer.” The boy is very talented and performed splendid from time to time. Since his parenting are very busy, he has not played much in tournaments recently. “Win or lose, I don’t care. Just keep playing.” [...]
Abe said sorry after I expressed deep frustration at the Illinois Open. He said he would slow down in the next tournament. The next tournament would be about a week away. It’s a strong round robin event. I would like to see if he can keep his promise. I was asked by the organizer the [...]
I was very frustrated with Abe’s recent performance in chess tournaments. He likes to blitz in his games regardless of the time control. I keep reminding him to slow down. He might realize his problem as shown in this post, but still, he will return to his bad habit very often. He did so poor [...]
From the handouts of several Abe’s recent summer chess camps, I saw more than once: “It is absolutely necessary to analyze of your game”. I guess there are two ways to analyze the game— do it yourself or with other people. When you do it yourself, some assistance, mostly computer software, is needed to point [...]
Abe went to three parties last Saturday. We went to two— the second one of his was a birthday party, we just needed to drop him off. So we left the first one early in order to make his second one, during the same time, we went to shopping to prepare the third one. We [...]
Abe’s played in a chess tournament last Saturday, won the second place. Since the entry fee’s only five dollars, we didn’t expect any prizes. However, in the end, we were told that the park district had prepared some gifts for the winners. Several of the top performers, including Abe, got surprise prizes. How nice! Here [...]
Back in January, I heard this story from NPR. Days ago, NPR said he has been caught. As many people and the police will be relieved by this news, however, it is unexpected to hear “…there’s already talk of a movie deal. Harris-Moore’s mother, Pamela Kohler, has reportedly hired Courtney Love’s lawyer to represent her [...]
We were hectic; we had a full schedule for the July 4th weekend. On Saturday morning, we went shopping and prepared for the next day’s BBQ. In the afternoon, we watched some World Cup on TV. Then Abe, I and some of our friends drove to Ravinia Festival watching (listening to) a show: A Prairie Home [...]
I read Anxiety On The Grass from New Yorker (issue of June 28, 2010). The article talked about Roger Federer: Unlike Agassi and countless other tennis prodigies, Federer never had to deal with pressure from an ambitious parent…His Swiss-born father… and his mother, who is South African, …played recreational tennis at the firm’s small club [...]
About months ago, I pre-ordered the book: Chess Child: The story of Ray Robson, America’s Youngest Grandmaster. I received it two days ago, finished reading it yesterday. It has been long long time since I finish reading a book in one day, not even the book Searching for Bobby Fisher. What a great father-son story. [...]
Last Sunday, the temperature reached 89 °F (32 °C) — very hot considering it was only 63 °F (17 °C) a week ago. Abe’s soccer game was in early afternoon. It would be quite a challenger for the kids to play under the sun in such a hot day. He was supposed to arrive the [...]
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 [...]
I like that the USCF ratings update after each tournament and they are publicly accessible on its website. So does Abe, I think. He sometimes browses the website, I don’t think he mainly worries his own rating; instead he does it out of curiosity of his friends or other players. Last Saturday, two days ago, [...]
Yes, the State Scholastic K-8 Chess Championships was last weekend. The day before, last Friday, Abe said, “I don’t want to go to chess tournament this weekend.” “Why?” I asked. “This Saturday, we have a basketball game with the Pacers—the team we lost two weeks ago.” Abe replied. Pacers won Nuggets two weeks ago. It’s [...]
Last night, on the way home from shopping at Walgreens, we listened to a show from the audio CD: English Majors by Garrison Keillor, the show was about an English major working at a fast food restaurant and correcting customers’ misuse of who or whom. The show was very funny. Abe and I both laughed [...]
Last Weekend Abe and I went to Indianapolis to play the 2010 US Junior Chess Congress. It was the first time Abe played chess tournaments out of state, his little brother: David and Mommy also came with us to show the support. The tournament was well organized, such as paring sheets were always posted twenty [...]
We used to live on second floor of an apartment building when Abe was five or six years old. The mail boxes were located on the side wall of the small entrance lobby. Each mail box was marked by the owners of the unit, in our case, it was Mommy’s last name and Daddy’s last name. One day, [...]
Abe has been to many chess tournaments, so has his little brother: David. On nice days, I bring the two brothers together, Abe plays chess in the playing hall, David and I stay in the skittles room or outside. Playing, eating, pooping and sleeping are David’s routine; I know how the day will be passed [...]
Here come the similarities between virtues of Investment and Chess: Think long term. Just ignore the latest experts’ advices. In investment, long term normally means years (I prefer decades), pay attention to what you may gain at the end, not what you may gain or loss in short term; In chess, long term means the [...]
I started investing about seven years ago. Since I did not have time and energy for trading stocks, I chose mutual funds and traded online. I consider myself a traditional guy: think long term, invest in index funds and take a slow and steady approach. I know at the current economy downturn, SP 500 index [...]
