A year earlier, I made a New Year’s Resolution, but I did not achieve it. Upon looking back, I found that my resolution was so naive and silly. This year, instead of making a New Year’s Resolution of Abe’s chess improvement of x rating points increase, I found a better alternative — making no Resolution [...]
One chess parent told me he thought one of main benefits of having kids playing chess was the constant challenge to kids. The kids learn to deal with setbacks since they are in up and down all the time. I remember I heard more than once Abe told himself “I’d better win this one”, but [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
