He said he was just lucky going this far in the tournament but he missed his chance to get the top prize. I told him that the same tournament: Susan Polgar World Open for Boys and Girls would come back next year. “You can have another shot next year.” I said, “But you’ll have to improve yourself, you cannot depend on luck alone.”

“No, I won’t, everyone else will improve.” Abe replied.

I knew I didn’t need to say much and Abe would figure out the answer.

“Let him cry a little more if he wants.” I thought.

The tournamnet is about one week from now, you can register online at http://www.polgarworldopen.com/

One thing he’s improved, as I saw in the last two tournaments, is his concentration level. He probably learned his lessons from several of his recent very bad tournament performances. I asked him taking a shower and a nap in his hotel room between the rounds. We used to go back our hotel room watching sports news on TV. I thought the new change should help him at a higher concentration level during the games. In addition, our hotel room was about one mile away from the tournament site, we have walked back to hotel twice. Being able to walk outside in Spring  helped Abe having a good mood and being lucky.

We had a good time, so are many others, I believe. In the chess playing hall, one thousand kids competing under one roof!

About one thousand kids playing at the 2011 National Junior High Championship

Since 32 players showed up yesterday,  there were enough players for four rounds. Some people withdrew from the last round in order to return home early. Abe played all four games— finished his last game around 8:45 pm. If you plan to play the same events in future, you might want to register early, the chess center can only hold 40 player as I counted yesterday.

When you do it yourself, some assistance, mostly computer software, is needed to point out what is wrong in your game. I have some chess computer software, but Abe does not bother to play with it. So often it is I doing the game analysis, and then Abe is asked to have a look at the results – which I do not think it is productive. Moreover, I was told not to put too much faith in the computer analysis, since it is mainly good at tactics, bad at positional chess.

I always want Abe to analyze his game with a strong opponent or a master on site at tournaments. But most of the time Abe would not do that, he would rather to play with some other little kids on bughouse, video games or others. It made me angry sometimes, but I could not find a better way other than let it be after several failed attempts to ask him to do others.

Game analyses, I think, still was very important to the past several better performances Abe had in chess. The teacher of the scholastic chess club Abe often went took the extra steps analyzing several his games, either to the whole class or to him semi-individually. Not only it increased Abe’s knowledge in chess, but also it boosted his confidence – very important in chess; Abe also fortunately have one hour’s private lesson with a GM this February because of Abe’s good luck in a raffle last year at the National Youth Action. The grandmaster told him to start to learn some endgames and play more often with strong opponents, those advices had been my guidance for selecting Abe’s chess books and chess tournaments.

Being weaker than Abe in chess from the very beginning, I can only offer my advice to him to slow down (or take his time) in every tournament so far. It is my hope that a private coach could help him analyze his game and pointing out his weakness, not in a too general term like my “to slow down”. Two days ago, he had his first lesson with the coach, and he felt very good about it. So did I.

The tournament was held in a local chess center. There were stacks of old Chess Life magazine in the room; I could read some of them while waiting for Abe’s games. One issue dated 1998 had an article about the 1998 National Elementary Championship. Hikaru Nakamura (current GM and 2008 National Champion) scored 6.5, the first in the section of the K-5. Also tired with him were two other players. In fact, Abe lost to one of these players in a tournament just less than two months ago. In that tournament, that guy was an expert.

Abe looked in awe when he read the article. Maybe he was thinking he was indirectly related to GM Nakamura. Maybe he was thinking how much he can improve in ten years: three hundred points? or more?

I also read an interview about Aleksandr Landerman (current GM) after he won the U16 world champion. His advices to other young chess players were something like: 1) play more OTB (over the board) games 2) study your own games 3) read good books. I told Abe: “We are doing #1, should you start #2.”

I know only time can verify my plan: someday Abe himself will get out of the slump. In the meantime, why not enjoying a song by The Beatles:

…

Let it be, let it be

Let it be, let it be

Yeah, there will be an answer let it be

Let it be, let it be

Let it be, let it be

Whisper words of wisdom

Let it be

…

• 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.

Illinois State Scholastic K-8 Chess Championships

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 is the first loss for Abe’s team within these two seasons. I was not with Abe in that game as I usually do because I had another appointment. I did not know what went wrong that time. Upon seeing him, I asked,

“Did you guys play like a team?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Did you guys work hard and try your best?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Did you learn something from the loss?”

“No, only big people do that, small people do not.” Abe replied. Since they are small people, why bother…

But I know Abe and his teammates want to win the rematch. This Saturday is the chance.

But this weekends’ chess tournament is the state scholastic championship; I’ve already registered him for the chess tournament. I do not know who would be their opponent until it’s too late. We have to go. I felt a little guilty.

On the evening of last Saturday, my wife told me that the coach of Abe’s basketball team sent us an email saying the team won with a great team effort. I was so glad with the win, I felt a little relieved.

After the two-day, seven-round chess tournament, Abe got six points and was the 6th place in his section

His only loss was to the final champion. After the game, Abe said, “I was winning, then blundered, then lost the game.” Here is the game:

Abe had a lucky schedule in this tournament, most of his opponents are rated much lower than him. I think he had an OK tournament. But on another note, Abe told me after the tournament, most people finish their games much quicker than the time allowed, I think that is a bad habit that might be contagious among the kids.  It is fun to play quick, but you’ll prone to make mistakes. It made easier for the high rated player to win. The higher rated players may have a faulty easy impression of his games. I’m always a little worried about that.

Of course, upset (a lower rated player wins a higher rated player) happens in whatever time control, just Abe was not one of one of victims this time.

At the end of the day,

I am glad to hear the one win. Keep the good work, “Nuggets”, let’s win the next game.
I am fine with the one loss; hope Abe will not make the similar mistakes next time.

Abe did it again within the same weekend, unfortunately, it’s the bad thing I warned him against many times; He did another thing the third time since he started playing chess, hopefully, it could be a good thing. Part 1 is about the bad thing; part 2 is about the good thing.

This past weekend, Abe and I went to the Tim Just’s Winter Open XXIV, it was held in the same venue as the Nation Youth Action 2009 (see my post about it here). The tournament includes two sections: reserve section for players rated below 1800 and open section for other players. Abe played in the reserve section. I was told this tournament is one of the best local tournaments since the long time control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, 5 seconds delay through the whole game, for example, for a game of 50 moves for each player, the time limit for each player is about 124 minutes. Therefore, the game could last up to a little more than four hours. The following two pictures shows some of the players in reserve section and open section,

some players in the reserve section

some players in the open section

It’s a pretty strong tournament; Abe’s first opponent was rated about 1780. Considering Abe’s rating was about 1400, I had no doubt Abe would lose his game. It turned out to be what I expected, about two hours in the game, Abe came out the playing hall, looked sad, I did not asked him the result since it’s quite obvious.

“I lost,” Abe murmured.

“OK, your opponent’s much higher rated than you are. Let’s go to lunch, next round is about two hours away,” I replied.

We didn’t want to drive far so we went to the McDonald’s about two blocks away.

After finishing lunch, I asked Abe how much time left on his opponent’s clock out of the first 90 minutes.

“About 10 minutes.”

“How much time left for you?”

“More than an hour.”

“ So you spent about twenty some minutes on the game, while your opponent spent eighty some minutes on the game, am I right?”

“Yes.” Abe answered with a smiling face as if he was glad at his “achievement”.

“Let’s say your opponent is about the same strength as you, you think 20-30 minutes, while your opponent thinks about 80 minutes, he will outplay you on the board. In fact, he is much stronger than you. You have to find a way to be better than yourself,” I replied. “Slow down and think deep, you could play better.”

“Maybe,” Abe still argued, “But I would be tired if I think that long.”

“For this morning’s game, maybe you can walk around in the playing hall or maybe you can take a one-hour nap, you will still have half an hour to finish your game,” I replied.

Abe’s next two opponents were both lower rated than him, he won the games quickly. So on the first day Abe scored two points out of three.

The next morning, Abe’s facing an opponent who was rated about 1600, I thought Abe might have a chance to score a point. But he lost the game, even in a quicker way than yesterday morning’s game. We waited a while before we went to lunch at noon− the final round was more than two hours away.

After finishing lunch, I asked Abe how much time left on his opponent’s clock out of the first 90 minutes.

“About half an hour.”

“Thirty nine minutes, to be exact,” I replied since I went to the playing hall and checked the game at the moment they were about to finish the game.

“How much time left for you?”

“About an hour.”

Abe did it again, I spoke to myself, he used only about 20-30 minutes while he was allowed to use more than two hours.

“Do not move that fast, fast means shallow thinking and more blunders, you will improve only if you can slow down.”

… Abe argued further with me…

Abe spent closed to one hour on his final game, he was down in material, but somehow, his opponent made a blunder and lost a winning game.

After that, we returned home for dinner. At dinner table, Abe grabbed a piece of paper out of his pocket,

“Every time I use a loose scoresheet instead of a scorebook, I will win.” Abe told his mom. “It brings me good luck.”

I thought Abe knew I did not agree and he knew I would say, but “Will Abe care what I might say? do I need to repeat another time? No, of course not,” I told my self. “I’d better shut up”. No matter what, after today’s hard learned lessons, may he start to slow down in his chess games.

How could that happen to me? It’s all my fault. My wife was complaining that I always have a problem not be able to get organized.

“Do you know you look cumbersome when you drag everything by your hands instead of putting most in you bag?” She said. I knew I am less organized than her. But…

“Do I have a problem?” I was joking, looked innocently.

“Of course, you do.”

Abe might be happy, I guessed, since he did not have to input today’s games into the computer software (Fritz) to analyze them.

I had hoped he would input his games, especially the game he lost, let the computer software find his blunders; maybe he could show the game to his chess club next Tuesday evening, the teacher will find his weakness.  But since I lost his scorebook, he did not need to do anything.

Today, Abe and I went to Mayor Daley’s Holiday Chess Tournament.

The playing hall was on second floor according to this picture.

location of chess playing hall

The were some activities in the exhibit halls, however, since it was before 10 am, not many people came yet.

Mayor Daley's Holiday Sports Festival-exhibit hall 1

Mayor Daley's Holiday Sports Festival-exhibit hall 2

A lot of kids were playing in the chess tournament.

chess playing hall

And a lot of encouragements from parents.

encouragement from the dad before a round

On the high way to the tournament, sitting in the backseat of the car, Abe suddenly remembered something,

“Dad, I forgot to bring my scorebook to notate the games.”

“I have one in my bag,” I replied leisurely while driving, keeping my eyes on road. I was acting like it is not a big deal at all to show the dad is always smart and can think what the kid could miss.

In the evening, we returned home. It was not a bad tournament. Abe won three games and lost one in the open section. According to what he said, he won the games he should win, lost the game he should loss.

About an hour after dinner, I figured it is a good time to let Abe to input his games in the computer. I tried to get the scorebook from Abe’s game bag, but it’s not there.

“Where is the scorebook?” I asked Abe.

“It is in your bag,”Abe  replied. “Remember you brought it to the tournament in your bag.”

I checked my bag, it’s not there either. Where was it?

Suddenly I remembered, when I took pictures in the award ceremony at the end of tournament, in order to free my hands to use camera, I left the scorebook on the desk. Trying to get a clear view, I moved to a couple of rows forward with only the camera, after I took pictures, I left the hall with Abe, forgetting to pickup the scorebook.

So I lost the scorebook. A strange, not so  “smart”,  feeling arose in me.

The playing facility was great, here was the hallway, the Christmas light made the tournament like a holiday event.

playing facility -hallway

In the afternoon, here came some little kids,  they ran and screamed in the hallway. Some people reminded them to lower their voices, but it only worked for a little while and then the screaming came back.

kids running-hallway

Some players came out and played a game in the hallway, the kids stopped screaming and came watching the game. See, what the chess can do! Even for little kids.

chess playing at hallway

Inside of playing room, many games were going.

1,2,3 Let’s think:

Stay tuned.

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 condition to let lamp to be lit whenever the lamp wants to be lit. The problem is how the parent should do in order to generate this condition, when will the lamp want to be lit, what kind of patience the parents should have. Do you have some suggestions on it?

As for chess, I think daily excise will help to generate this condition, such as half an hour’s puzzles excise. What else, could you please name one?

When will the lamp want to be lit? No one knows, I would like the kids having a good time, the job of parents is to “Wait!” Do you agree?

The picture below shows the playing hall before the first round of the tournament. Since the players occupied most of the room, there is no much space left.   Parents were asked to leave the playing hall before the games. So I could not take a neat picture showing only the players and the tournament directors.

Chess playing hall-before 1st round

Some parents waited in the skittles room (shown below)

Skittle room-1st day

And some parents waited at the door of the playing hall (shown below)

parents-waiting-at door

The parents are constantly on the move, some parents were reading and analyzing the player standing sheet.

Parents-at-players standing board

Sometime when paring sheet was supposed to be posted but had not, parents seemed quite impatient.

Parents-waiting-pairing sheet

Parents were waiting and chatting for two whole days, the players had to wait too. It seemed they are ready for the following round, right?

Chess players waiting to get started

A parent gave a good luck wish to the player. Is it a big support? You bet.

Parents to kids-Good luck

During the lunch break, some kids played outside of the hotel,  nice weather!

some kids playing outside

When all nine rounds were over, it was the best time for kids to play with friends while waiting the Awards Ceremony.

Kids-play-no more rounds-wait 4 awards ceremony

Finally, the separation wall was moving, the award ceremony was here.  “Let’s go.”

Wall moving-awards ceremony is next

You see, this National Youth Action is fun and would you please join us?

By the way, Abe did not perform well in this tournament  but hopefully he enjoyed the time and learned something(such as always to slow down)

Let’s have a final look at the playing hall, is it nice? See you next time.

Chess playing hall of National Youth Action 2009

On the morning of the game
Prepare breakfast for kids. Maybe you do not need to prepare a special one, but do not let kids skip the breakfast. It is a long day, kids need enough energy supply.

Do you need to bring you kids’ games with you, such as DS?
I think it depends. Between the rounds, kids need to kill time, and they also need to take a rest and keep fresh for the next round. If they have nothing to do, they will feel bored. On the other hand, if they kept the energy and concentration on games all the time during the break, they may not have enough gas left in the tank for the next round.
Therefore, my suggestion is:
1) If you know beforehand that several friends of the kids will go to the same tournament. Running around the corridors, lobby or skittles rooms with friends should be a nice activity for them, you do not need to bring game machines with you (remind your kids to be quiet).
2) Otherwise, you may bring the kids’ favorite games with him. But make sure, a) the kids should not play games all the time between the rounds, take some rest by walking around, going to bathrooms or taking some deep breaths, b) the chess tournament should be a good opportunity for your kids to make some new friends to play around.

PREPARATIONS OF KIDS
Not much, it will be a long day, have a good sleep the night before. The purpose is having fun not winning all the games. You will become stronger and better by losing games. But be patient.

Good luck to all of you.

This writing is based on the experience of a parent of a scholastic chess player and is not an expert’s extensive list. When my son just start playing in rated scholastic tournament last year, we got many help tips from the chess parents and organizers. I appreciate all the helps we received and want to make some contribution toward the chess community. I wrote this post to help readers, especially the future chess parents, to jump onto this exciting train, chess for kids to reach excellence in future. Please leave your comments if you think I missed anything or made any mistakes.

The biggest hurdle for parents is to think your kids are not good enough to attend the tournaments. In fact, quite the opposite, if you hope you kids becoming better in chess, attend the tournaments. No matter what are the levels of you kids, there is a good possibility that there are kids of both higher and lower levels. Attending the tournament is just the start of the long chess journey. Don’t wait but enjoy it.

But what is a rated tournament? Rating is a measure of how strong the player is at the tournament. This rating, done by USCF (United State Chess Federation) for each USCF member is considered an official measurement in the US, it is updated by USCF after each rated tournament, if you just start playing tournaments, you will get a provisional rating for the first 20 games. So playing in rated tournaments will give you such ratings, it is believed that such ratings, over the long run, are pretty accurate to measure the player’s strength.

PROCEDURE

1) Join the USCF (United State Chess Federation) at here, pay for your kids, get the member ID. At the time of this writing (11/09), the Premium Scholastic Membership costs $23 a year. If you want to register for multiple kids and/or adults in one family, you may want to consider the family membership.

2) Check local tournaments at here, or a better method is to check your state chess association’s website for more updated lists. For example, in Illinois, you may check here.

Get all details of the tournament your kids would attend. Some important information includes date, location, rounds time, sections, time control, payment method (online or at the door, of course, at the door usually costs more) and the contact information of the organizer (just in case you have questions to ask).

Some tournaments or sections of the tournaments are not rated, playing those tournaments will not get a rating from USCF, select a different one if you want to get an official rating after the tournament (within several days after the tournament, you would normally be able to know this new rating by checking here).

3) Register the tournament. For online registering, select the right rated section and input the USCF member, if you have questions e.g. which section is right, write an email to the organizer. If you want to register at the door (may or may not be allowed for the tournament of your choice), normally you need to email the organizer the name, USCF member ID of the player and your phone number to pre-register the event.

You and your kids are now ready to go to the tournaments, tell your kids “try your best and good luck”.

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.

Recently I reread a very good article about Josh Waitzkin from Betsy’s blog “Chess Parents and Kids”(It is pity that Betsy left her blog at November, 2008. We would like to see her back).

Many of you know  Josh was being featured in the movie “Searching for Bobby Fisher”, he was a chess prodigy and won many scholastic national champions. But he left competitive chess before he became an adult, he went on becoming a world champion in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands Competition. According to article, his passion is for education now.

The following exception in the article, said by Josh “I think a lot of well-intentioned parents and teachers are destroying their kids. It is not that they have bad intentions. They just don’t know what the questions are. They don’t know what the important things are to focus on. That’s what I have been thinking about.” It surprised me, compelled me to think: Maybe I did the same mistakes he mentioned? Did I push too hard? Did I gave not enough freedom to the kids? I do not know. But I do know I love my children and want them to be successful, but love alone maybe not enough.

As parents or teachers, should we think about the Josh’s words?  no matter it is for chess or for what else you want your kids to learn.

Please leave you thoughts on it.

Last winter break, Abe started to play in rated scholastic chess tournament. He and I watched the movie “Search for Bobby Fisher” together. I think in one of last scenes, Josh lost a queen in a chess game but he kept fighting on, you could see that his opponent was so delighted to have the big advantage and it seemed Josh would lose the match. But several steps later, Josh captured his opponent’s queen back. “Trick or Treat!” exclaimed Josh. He went on winning the game.

I do no know it was because of Josh’s tactic or fighting spirit, but to me “Trick or Treat!” is definitely associated with the sweet reward of fighting spirit. In chess games, no matter how far behind you are of your opponent, keep fighting on until you get the sweet treat.

Happy Halloween to every one! I am sure you have some sweet memory that you want to share with us.

It was indeed a tough tournament, although I was told that my son was a good fighter, both of his first two rounds (against players rated 800+ higher than him) were quick losses. After those rounds, he cried and asked to go home, he said every one was better than him. I forgot what I said exactly but I tried to be supportive and told him our only purpose of this tournament was to learn from the experience. He said that he could learn nothing and kept crying, however, he agreed to play the next round. The next round he faced a player rated about 500+ higher than him, I thought he did his best since it was a longer fight than any game of his previous tournaments. At last he drew his opponent. It gave him new confidence and he played the last round too. Although the last round was a loss, I was happy for Abe. Now days, he can frequently win or draw adult players with a couple of classes higher than him. Maybe Abe learned some thing from his first adult tournament.

So I am a support of “having scholastic player play in adult tournament”, however, you are likely to found a crying kid or a kid with big upset. Frankly, I do not know if I can handle this kind of condition right, although it happened to me a couple of times. What is you suggestion?