Blog Archives - Chess Parents FAQs

How to select a chess summer camp?

6/18/2015

When you search for chess summer camp, you will see a lot of summer camps with the shinning word "chess" in their ads, but some of them only do chess one hour a day. They are not real chess camps. The organizers just use the hot word to attract parents. Chess is only a minor activity among dozens of other activities. Most times the organizers don't have anything special to offer, so they offer a mixture of everything which they think may pique parents' interest.

To qualify as a chess summer camp, it should have at least half a day on chess exclusively. Otherwise your child will not get enough exposure and will not gain much chess experience.

The second thing you should check is the teacher. Sometimes the (famous) name on the flyer may not be the one who will teach the camp. S/he organizes the camp but hires someone else to teach. Or s/he just lends his/her name to the organizer for marketing purpose. You have to ask.

As selecting a coach, you should select a teacher with rating high enough to help your child. Unrated teachers are only good for total beginners. You should do some research on camp history and the teacher's teaching methodology. If you can talk to previous campers, they would provide you great insight on how the camp is run. The more information, the better.

It never hurts that you know the teacher before.

My child always hangs pieces, what can s/he do to correct the problem?

6/17/2015

Hanging pieces is a common problem for beginners. It basically means s/he still lacks the vision to see one-move threat.

To correct this problem, one way is to do more vision training with one or two pieces. I will describe how to do vision training in my future book: "700 points in a year - a practical training manual for chess beginners and chess parents".

The second way is to solve large amount of one-move checkmate problem. My daughter solved her problem with this approach. She actually worked through a one-move checkmate book with 100 checkmate problems. Nowadays there are software to help practice one-move checkmate. My web store has the following titles: "Chess for Beginners: Elementary Checkmates I" and II, which have 40000 and 77000 mate-in-one exercises. I can guarantee that if your child goes through 10% of these exercises, s/he will rarely hang a piece.

The third way is of course to play more chess.

Why chess homework is important?

6/16/2015

How much homework is your child doing in school? for Math? for English? Chess is like these basic subjects, without homework, without repetition, kids tend to forget what they have learned in classroom quickly.

Very few kids are proactive and can go out to search for extra work by themselves. If the teacher doesn't assign homework, then they will do nothing. With only one-hour lesson per week, how much knowledge can they retain? This is why a lot kids are stagnant at low level for years without any progress, and in the end sadly quit chess forever.

If a teacher has assigned homework, almost all students will put in some effort to try. If they don't, they will feel guilty and try to tell the teacher some excuses. Anyway, if they feel guilty enough, they may begin to correct their problem and do some homework. About half of students will do homework diligently, and may do a little extra. Not accidentally, these students are usually the ones who have made biggest progress in class.

I always assign homework, in my Steps class, my Tactics Workshop, even in my self-paced online class. The time needed for homework should be at least about same as the class time. For Steps class, I normally assign 3 pages of the Workbook, 12 problems per page, i.e., 36 problems per week. (much more than average 2 to 4 problems in other coaches' classes). I suggest to do 6 problems per day, taking about 10 minutes, so total will be 60 minutes per week.

What is GM, IM and FM?

6/16/2015

GM is GrandMaster, the highest title in chess.
IM is International Master.
FM is FIDE Master.

All three titles are awarded by FIDE. GM and IM require 3 norms and a minimum rating. FM only requires a minimum rating.

See details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_titles.

How to find a chess summer camp?

6/15/2015

In the old days, we searched for chess summer camps by collecting flyers at tournaments, chess clubs and libraries. We filled in the forms, and mailed in our payments.

Nowadays, Google is ubiquitous. We start our search with googling for "chess summer camps". I have compiled a short list of some major states. You can find them in the CAMP tab of this Blog.

You can ask around for camp suggestion in this order:

google "chess camps" in your state and surrounding states
ask your friends
ask parents of any kids who play chess
ask your school, especially when they have an after-school chess club
ask your local library or nearby libraries
check township newspapers, especially when you look for summer camps
ask any teacher you meet (he or she may have camps, or may know some coaches that have camps)
ask local chess clubs
ask your state chess federation or association
ask online

Please also read : Is chess summer camp useful?

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Is there a minimum rating requirement for Top 100 lists?

6/11/2015

No, there is no minimum rating requirement, but your child's rating must be in Top 100 for his/her age. Please notice that age is calculated by birth month, unlike age requirements for most important scholastic tournaments which are using "Jan 2".

Although there is no cookie-cut number, the lowest rating for each age group has been moving up a lot. For example, Girls Under 13 used be around 1100, now it's 1361. Much harder to get in.

Here are the lowest rating for each age group (May 2015):

Age 7 and Under: 991 (highest is 1631)
Age 8: 1254 (highest is 2058)
Age 9: 1410 (highest is 2090)
Age 10: 1616 (highest is 2260)
Age 11: 1659 (highest is 2297)
Age 12: 1754 (highest is 2421)
Age 13: 1825 (highest is 2524)
Age 14: 1906 (highest is 2655)
Age 15: 1913 (highest is 2587)
Age 16: 1907 (highest is 2634)
Age 17: 1972 (highest is 2519)
Age 18: 1855 (highest is 2575)

Girls Under 13: 1361 (highest is 2278)
Girls Under 16: 1634 (highest is 2278)
Girls Under 21: 1777 (highest is 2278)

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What is Top 100 list?

6/10/2015

Top 100 lists are lists of national top 100 players according to USCF rating. They are updated every month, but may use official rating one month ago, i.e., one-month delay.

There are age groups, from Age 7 and under, Age 8 to Age 18 for every age, Under Age 21, and adults. These lists have both boys and girls. It's not easy for girls to get on the lists, but we are seeing more and more girls, and some even lead the age group.

Girls also have separate lists: Girls Under 13, Under 16 and Under 21.

Getting on one of the Top 100 list is also a major goal for your child, other than a rating target number. It will provide great motivation for your child. My daughter spent one year to get on her first Top 100 list: Girls Under 13. She was so happy to see her name.

Ranking by age has been used in some invitational criteria, such as World Youth.

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Is it enough for my child to attend chess class once a week?

6/9/2015

My child enjoys his chess class and likes to play chess. But he only attends class once a week, and play chess there. Is it enough?

NO, it's not enough if he wants to make progress.

Class-wise, once a week is ok. But s/he needs practice a lot outside class, maybe everyday. S/he has to do his/her homework, work on tactic problems, and play many games.

My suggested ratio for class:homework:tactic:games is 1:1:5:3. So if s/he takes one hour lesson, s/he should do one-hour homework, 5-hour tactics (spreading out the whole week), and play games for 3 hours. For a beginner, s/he can play 10-20 games in 3 hours. The total commitment is about 10 hours per week.

For a rated player, s/he should also play in weekend tournaments as many as possible.

If you follow this formula, you will see big difference in your child's games after 3 months.

What should be fourth rating goal?

6/3/2015

1500 is the middle of class C, and the middle between 1000 and 2000. It should serve as a critical target nicely.

At this level, I consider your child as an advanced player. S/he can do damage to any player, even GM, if that player has made a big mistake, such as blundering away a Rook. S/he won't be swindled away his/her entitled win.

Your child already knows all tactics, and most basic endings. S/he knows many openings or has seen many openings. S/he still needs to learn deep calculation, and specific endings, such as rook endgames. But the most s/he needs are strategies, positional knowledge, and opening lines (opening repertoire). S/he may be self-sustainable, self-teaching him/herself everything. Working with a titled coach, GM or IM, will be more efficient and effective. This is a time that requires serious study.

Your child should be able to reach this level in 3 years at most. If not, s/he may want to consider chess as a total fun hobby.

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Why my child got a very low first rating, while other kids got much higher initial rating?

6/1/2015

The first initial rating is arbitrarily decided by the tournament director. S/he has the right to give any rating above 100. Some TDs are awarding fixed rating to any newcomers: 100, 300, and etc. Some will decide based on your first tournament performance. If you are signing up a section that has very high average rating, and performing half and half, they will award you the average rating or anything similar right away. Even if you have lost all your games, they will still give you a rating close to the lowest rating in the section, in the consideration that you know what you are signing up so you should be around that strength level.

We often see unrated players in a high rated section. Do not be surprise that they won the section. Most time they come from other countries, such as India, China or Europe. They are already strong players, just with no USCF ratings.

Therefore initial rating can have big difference, depending on the TDs, sections and initial performance.

Anyway, USCF considers that your rating will be stabilized after 25 games. Before that, the rating are marked as provisional. No matter what is your initial rating, your rating will be adjusted to real level with the ELO formula based on your performance in future tournaments. If you start low, you may have many rating jumps in future. If you start high, you may even see your rating slipping down for a while. So wait until you have played 25 rated games.