Abe scored three points out of five, he might tie for second for the the U1600 cash prize, but he did not know the amount with some games still going on. So he was glad to play with other kids while waiting. The following video shows the kids playing blitz games. It was the third [...]
Whenever we visit the local library, David, my younger son always loves to do the check-out using the auto-check-out machine. Since he is a toddler and not tall enough to reach the scan platform, he has to step on his toes and try hard, if his brother helps him, David will scream, he wants to [...]
What are your New Year’s resolutions on chess improvements for you or for your kids (Multiple choices are OK)? (polls)
Disclaimer: The story was based on what happened yesterday. 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?” [...]
As I mentioned in this post, Abe and his teammates ( of team”Nuggets”) played the Holiday Basketball Tournament from Monday to Wednesday. They played four games within three days and won all of them. The following are the highlights of all the games: Game 1, 12/21/09, “Nuggets” vs “Hornets”, posted in this post. Game 2, [...]
On Saturday, Abe and I went to 2009 Illinois Class Championship. More than 60 players showed up. Nice turnout for a Fundraising Tournament. The playing facility was great, here was the hallway, the Christmas light made the tournament like a holiday event. In the afternoon, here came some little kids, they ran and screamed in [...]
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 [...]
PREPARATIONS OF PARENTS On the day (days) before the game 1) Have all chess equipments you have ready, such as sharpen the pencils, if you have bought chess digital clocks, learn how to use it and set it to the time control advised on website for the game. But if you do not have chess [...]
Disclaimer and Introduction 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Abe went to his first adult chess tournament about six months ago. The time control was about 60 minutes, all of his previous scholastic tournaments were no more than 30 minutes. So I asked him to slow down and to think before moving. From the paring sheets, I found out almost all players are way [...]
I bought my son the first chess book “Learn Chess Tactics” by John Nunn last Christmas, he like it very much. Then I bought him a second book by John Nunn “Understanding Chess Move by Move“. Now he seldom read the first book, but he kept reading the latter one every now and then even [...]
