It turned out that CCCSL is indeed great:  it is well lighted, comfortable, and with lots of fresh air.  Look at the following picture showing one play room upstairs: the solid wood table, the wood pieces and the chair. I bet you would love to play a game or two here if you know a little about chess. What else can you ask for a chess club? Besides, there are seven grandmasters playing in this tournament. As a participant, you may not play with any of them, but at least you can watch them playing if you want.  I‘d say, for chess players, it is a dream to play in the tournament here.

One chess play room upstairs of CCCSL

I also went to the Chess Hall of Fame across street of the chess club during the tournament. I was surprised to see many exciting chess sets such as the one shown below.

One chess set in the World Chess Hall of Fame

Abe’s little brother had a game with Mommy in the skittles room downstairs while Abe is waiting for his next round.

Abe’s little brother had a game with Mommy in the skittles room

I had no trouble to find free parking at a nearby (one block away) street. There’s enough space so that parallel parking’s not required since I did not mind parking a little far away.

I have been back from the trip for several days. I felt the Saint Louis trip more worthwhile as time goes by. It does not matter how you did at the tournament. You are glad you played the royal game at a cool chess playing facility, not at a stale room of some hotel.

On the way back, Abe said the trip was not worthwhile. I suspected he thought he did not have a good tournament, he had some homework waiting for him and the trip was a long drive. But I’d guess he will change his mind later.

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 how to spend it. If your kids play for chess, from time to time, on some lucky days, the kids may earn some cash prizes. The cash prizes make the kids excited. He or she might show off to the friends: something he or she truly “earned”. It is one of exciting moments in long hours’ chess playing.

On the other hand, from my experience, I think Abe might not spend it wisely if he spend all or most of the amount on his will. So I took some time to figure out how to “spend” the money. When Abe found out the envelope for the cash prize letter, he asked me “Where is the check? I want to have a look.”

I gave him the check and told him how to spend it. He said OK and run to show the check to Mommy and his little brother.

The next day, I and Abe went to a brokerage firm to open an investment account. We deposit most of his prize. I gave the rest to him. I told him, on future such occasions, I will give him one third of the cash prize he earned right away, and deposit and invest the rest. He will own the account and the money in it once he becomes an adult.

I know a little about investment as I know a little about chess, in fact I wrote some posts on them. I know it is very important to start early in the investment. I hope Abe can start early and learn a little on investment by opening his investment account. In addition, the whole thing might be one form of training on delayed gratification. It would be best usage for Abe’s cash prize earned from chess tournaments. Wouldn’t it?

Abe, I felt, was curious to everything on the trip, the farmers’ market was definitely different there:

Abe is at a farmers' market

The land was poor, so were the people, but kids could still be happy. Not supposed to be?

I would think Abe was happy too most of the time. I took a picture when he was playing basketball with his little brother.

Abe is playing basketball with his little brother

No court, no hoop, no problem. “I love this game”. Not supposed to be?

It is winter time, it is cold outside. But we found some people are playing “chess” behind a wall on street.

Some people are playing "chess" on street in winter time (zoom in)

Let’s zoom the picture out to the street view.

Some people are playing "chess" on street in winter time (zoom out)

When Abe was bored with everything else, he played some chess games with the computer during the vacation. No one asked him, another not supposed to be.

Abe is playing chess with the computer

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.

Since the weekend’s free, we could enjoy things that would otherwise be too energy consuming before a chess tournament. Friday night, we went to see the homecoming parade in a nearby university. On the way to the parade, Abe’s brother was very excited and yelled OFFENSE DEFENSE all along, maybe he thought he was going to watch a sports game. Abe and his little brother, at least, enjoyed the parade by getting a lot of candy, the parade display was very creative, the  university students were dancing, singing and screaming. It was a big party. I think they tasted a little bit of college life.

On Saturday morning, we started to worry, maybe, it’s a bad idea to take this weekend off. It’s raining, we worried that the party in the afternoon would be canceled. I thought we would better to go to a chess tournament if the party would be canceled. Otherwise, what a waste to take this weekend off.

However, the rain stopped in the early afternoon, the block party started as planed, Abe played as planned, in a beautiful fall afternoon.

The next day, the whole family went to Abe’s soccer game. Abe ‘s team won the game.  “Abe Scored!” Abe’s little brother exclaimed, with proud.

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 Abe is playing chess. David, his little brother and Mommy also came along with him, they are at the farmers’ market nearby.

Abe is playing chess

David and Mommy are at farmers' market nearby

Abe’s post event rating is 1700, as he guessed during the tournament. Although chess ratings should not be overly concerned, Abe’s rocky journey in terms of  rating changes  in the past four months is still of interest to me. In April, over a span of two weeks,  he unexpectedly shot up his rating from 1515 to 1720. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, his rating took a dive in the following two months to a 1554 . Then he spent the past month climbing back to 1700.

Abe played quite some tournaments recently, even during his valley.  I think that more tournaments might accelerate his dive, and also accelerate the happening of his coming back. Anyway, it is summer, Abe has time playing more tournaments.

More ups and downs are waiting ahead.  Get ready, it’s a fun ride.

round five of top three boards

The evening was a wet spring evening: it drizzled on leaves that were turning green.  Abe went to play with his friends in their house. Abe’s little bother, his mommy and I went to another party.

When we returned home, Abe was waiting in front of house—he just arrived minutes earlier. We said goodbye to his friends and their parents. Going from the driveway to the front door, we found that one of two main branches of our ginkgo tree was lying on the ground. There could be a big wind when we were away that brought the branch down.

The next morning, we went out to examine the tree again. The branch just missed the roof, and it was so big the part of it laid in the neighbor’s yard. Some of our neighbors came over and talked about what happened yesterday and other similar happening in the neighborhood before. The big downed branch could cause a lot of damage, fortunately, no one was hurt and our house was not hit either.

The brothers were playing and jumping around the branch. Here are some pictures, the brothers were very happy, weren’t they?

The brothers

Abe jumps

David jumps

I only allow Abe to play his DS during weekends. I guess he’d rather to stay in bed until past 7 to skip the trip, and then he’d play his DS. I do not know if he is faking asleep or otherwise, at 7, I tried to wake him up, but he just ignored me. Twenty minutes later, I tried again; he screamed “I do not want to go.”

“How about you sleep in the car when we drive to the tournament?” the tournament is more than two hours’ drive. “We are almost late if we want to make the first round.”

“Who cares?”

After further arguing, finally, we left the house at close to 7:40. I felt a little guilty for getting him out of bed to do what he did not want to do, on the other hand, on several occasions, he said he did not want go to chess tournaments on Saturdays even we were totally free on those days, but we went upon my insistence, he actually had good times and had above average performance on those trips. In addition, if we do not go there, Abe will spend hours of the day on video games.

We barely made the first round. Abe took a long nap in the car during the long boring drive, when he woke up, he was in a very good mood, and he seemed forgot how reluctant he was to come here this morning.

The tournament was held in a church, and skittles room was in an indoor gym, we were glad that he could play some basketball during the rounds; moreover, there are other kids in the tournament.

The chess tournament was held in a church

He had an OK tournament. After four rounds, he was very glad to get a nice big trophy (to show it off to his little brother) and a small cash prize.

I was glad that Abe was very happy at the end of the day, although I knew that I had a long boring drive, mostly in night, to home.

It is almost time to go to bed, they are still playing chess in Abe’s room:

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.

The little brother is waiting in the chess skittles room

The little brother is waiting outside of the chess playing hall

Playing, eating, pooping and sleeping are David’s routine; I know how the day will be passed and what I shall do. In addition, if I bring the two together, their mom can get a little nice break; On Saturdays when Abe has a tournament, I will check the weather and his mom to see if it is a good idea to bring the two together to the tournament.

During the rounds, if there is a park nearby, David and I will go to the park, he loves the playground. We always try to return before Abe finish his game.

I remember once Abe just finished the game, we three met at hallway. On the first glance of Abe from far, David gladly announced,

“There’s Abe!”

“You are right.” I replied as Abe run to us.

“Have you guys been waiting outside all the time?”Abe asked.

“No, we went to the park, just came back,” I replied. “How’s your game?”

“I won.”

“Good Job.”

The two brothers went on playing for a while, such as running in the hallway. David was proud of his big brother, he followed Abe from one room to another until he lost Abe, I knew Abe was playing some chess games with his friends somewhere.

During Abe’s next game, David said,

“Diaper on.” (Now he does not need Diaper, in stead , he uses toilet for pooping.)

I knew David need pooping. We went to bathroom to let him do his thing. After he finises, I have his dirty diaper changed. Then I put David in the stroller, walked around and around.  Finally David fell into sleep.

When I saw Abe coming out of the playing hall, I signaled him that David is sleeping in the stroller.

Abe asked in a lower voice,

“Have you guys been to the park?”

“No, we’ve been waiting outside all the time,” I replied. “How’s your game?”

“I lost.”

Before I could reply, Abe said,

“You guys should go to the park, it brings me good luck.”

It is probably not true David’s going to park brings Abe good luck in his chess tournaments. Maybe Abe can play without pressure with our absent, therefore, play better? Maybe Abe is old enough to be independent and does not like to be watched over?

Anyway, from then on, David and I go to the park more often. As long as both Abe and David have a good time at Abe’s tournaments, why not?

Sometimes, I go there by myself to pick him up. Not seeing Abe, David asks,
“Where is Abe?”
“He is at home.”
“Is Mommy at home?”
“Let’s go home and check.” I always answer like this, even Mommy is at home; David will be glad to go home with me and, in a surprise, find Mommy is waiting for him at home.

David likes to ask the name labels when I try to put on his coat, he will point to them one by one,
“What is this?”
“Justin.”
“What is this?”
“Rebeca.”
…
“It is Luke.” Luke is his best friend, he knows the name label.
…
“It is David,” He points to his own name label. “D is for David!”
…
Sometimes, Abe explains the name labels to David.

At home or library, David likes me to read books for him. Upon finding letter “A” in the book,
“It is A,” he exclaims. “A is for Abe!”

As David knows more letters, counts beyond 10, grows bigger, he likes more playing time with his mommy, his bigger brother and his daddy.

The following video was taken about one month ago at his daycare center. Enjoy the toddlers’ show before the parents and siblings:

It was the third time that Abe has won cash prizes in chess tournament: last time was last October, he won 20 dollars; the first time was last September, he won about 110 dollars.

The whole family was with him when he won his first cash prize, we stayed in a nearby hotel for a night. The hotel room was quite spacious, with a big flat screen TV and a big couch. We also played in the hotel pool for a while. The kids were excited playing in the water.  Although at age of two and half, David, Abe’s little brother, wasn’t scared of water. He even enjoyed submerging his head in water for a few seconds. Abe was fond of the hotel too. Later  he told his friends about the hotel, “The hotel has a huge flat screen TV and a huge couch. I love the hotel.”

At the end of that tournament, we waited hours to get Abe’s check since we had to wait until all games were finished. I envied that Abe had so much patience then. On the way home, we congratulated Abe again for his performance.

“Good job,” Mom said to Abe.

Abe smiled, he must be proud of himself at the moment.

“How do you want to spend your money?”

“Let me think…” Abe was excited, he must have many ideas coming to his head…but maybe too many. “I don’t know right now.”

“Do you want to buy your brother a little gift? It will be very nice.” Mom asked.

“Hum… OK…  if it is no more than ten dollars.”

Days later, we went to a local Walmart to buy some toys for Abe and David. We three went together, Abe found himself a Lego toy priced about 60 dollars, with the sale tax at 10%, I would think the toy is expensive, but since Abe use his own money, he would make his decision. I found David “ Thomas and Friends Bathtub Squirters” with three trains in the package marked about 10 dollars.  David loved the “Thomas and Friends“ and it was within budget. We bought the toys, Abe and David were eager to go home playing with them.

David liked to play his Thomas toys in the bathtub and he also liked to grabbed the trains in hands or put them on bed beside him when going to sleep. He would not go to sleep until he collected all three. Many times, we have to make additional trips to go down stairs to get the missing trains for him.

This past Christmas, David received a better toy of “Thomas and Friends“, the engine can run itself on tracks. Now he likes to play with the engine and tracks; bring them wherever he go.

Abe spent hours after getting home from the store to assemble his Lego, then he put his assembled toy in some box. Until this day, I have not seen him dissemble and assemble it again. I have seen him taking off his toy out of the box a couple of times, probably just showing he hasn’t forgot his toy, and he planed to re-assemble it. But he never did, it is too much a project. Every one is too busy nowadays, you can accomplish nothing if you do not have the urge and passion to do something. Even at times, you may have time, but you are too busy to do nothing.

So Abe’s expansive toy brought him hours of joy, while the little toy Abe bought for David was enjoyed by David for months.

Now back to this past tournament, it turned out the three games that could have three more players tie with Abe all resulted in draws; the only other player has three points was given the U1400 first place price instead of the smaller amount of U1600 tied second place price. Therefore, Abe is the sole second place winner of U1600. Here is the video when Abe received his check, the check amount is $91.20. Hope this time, Abe can spend his money wisely.

“Yes, but only a little bit.” I replied.

“Teach him whenever possible.”

She told me not to worry about some experts’ view: Learning two languages at a very young age is confusing,

“The younger the better,” she said. “Foreign languages make kids smart… my son can speak four or five languages.”

His son must be super smart, I guessed.

Back home, I searched the internet and found some chess prodigies that might have foreign language skills:

• Ray Robson, GM, won 2009 US Junior Championship at fourteen. His mother is a Chinese American, I assume he can speak Chinese.
• Alex Lenderman, GM, won the U16 division of the 2005 World Youth Chess Championship, 5^th place in the recent World Junior Championship (with a very strong field). He is a Russian American. I assume he can speak Russian.
• Hikaru Nakamura, GM, won 2005 US Championship at seventeen and then won US Championship a second time in 2009. He had a Japanese father and then a Sri Lankan stepfather. I assume he can speak one foreign language.

Do foreign language skills really help people to be smart? And they have a very positive effect on chess players too? What do you think?

I made a video on him and his little brother. The video lasts about three minutes. Enjoy.