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What is the best age for my child to start learning chess?

9/29/2016

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The earlier the better. As soon as your child shows interest in chess, you should start to introduce her/him to chess. The best beginning teacher is in fact parents. That's why I encourage parents to buy the Step 1 manual, and study with your child together.

Nowadays, with the advance of computer, and the ease of travel, more and more young kids pick up the wood very early and make great progress at super-fast speed. The GM record has been lowered from high teens to low teens. The current record is 12 years old.

The best age I suggest is still 6-8. 5 is a little bit young, but can possibily work. 4 is too young for any chess school. Above 8 is a little late and require too much efforts to overcome the late-starter disadvantage.

Based on the observation in last 10 years, the average student can reach expert level (2000) after 100-150 tournaments. If your child play 2-3 tournaments a month, that will take 3-5 years. If s/he wants to be a master (2200), then add another one to two years. Add half to one year before her/his first rated tournament. Overall it might take about 8 years for a child to become a master after s/he made her/his first move. This means s/he would become a high school student and would be very busy with her/his academics. 

So, going backward, it's better to start early, and start slowly so s/he could have a solid foundation. We can have enough time to observe and decide if s/he has potential.
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What is the most important tool USCF provides for free?

9/15/2016

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Of course you go to USCF for membership, so your child could play in rated tournaments. You look up your child's rate after s/he has played in a tournaments. You search for tournaments once in a while. I have done this tournaments search every week for last 10 years. All these are just basic functions.

The most important tool USCF offered is its database of players' tournament history (MSA: Member Service Area). It includes all tournaments since the player starts to play rated tournaments to current date. No other country has done such a good job, not Canada, our closest neighbor, not UK, not China, not even FIDE, because people have FIDE rating only after they are already very good. Whenever I heard someone who claims to play chess, I will look up in MSA. If I could not find her/him there, which means one of the following two things: s/he is no longer in competitive chess (database only has records starting 1991), or s/he has never played in any rated tournaments.

Long time ago I met a coach who claimed to be a chess master. I looked up MSA, only showed that he is a life member (which means he spent $1000 for membership), but no games at all. Couple years later, he began to play in tournaments and his rating was hovering around 1500. The cold number tells the truth.

Back to the importance of MSA. It is the best research tool. I have been using it almost everyday since day one. Whenever I hear about a good scholastic player (no need to limit your research, you can check up young GM/IM too), I want to find out how s/he grows up. I try to answer the following questions:
  • When did s/he start? how old? how good was s/he?
  • How often does s/he play in tournaments?
  • When did s/he hit each milestone? 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2200. How old?
  • How long did it take for her/him to hit the milestone?
  • What major tournaments does s/he play in? How often?
  • Where were her/his plateaus? Why? Other than the natural inevitability, plateaus/setback may be caused by family relocation, getting into middle school/high school/college.
  • How long did it take for her/him to get out of plateaus?
  • Where is s/he located? This may determine how often s/he could play in tournaments.
  • if s/he is really good, any news stories about her/him? You can find out this quickly by googling "name chess".

I want to find out:
  • Why some students are successful, and why others are not.
  • What we can learn from those successful students, and what we can mimic so hopefully we could get another successful student.
  • What we should avoid so we won't lose a potential student for no reason.

All articles on this blog are my research result for last 10 years.


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Why do I arrange advanced classes off weekends?

9/12/2016

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A lot of parents try to find chess classes on weekends, but I am doing my best to stay away from the weekends. Why such a disconnection?

The main reason for my decision is: Step 2-and-up students should play in tournaments, and most tournaments are on weekends. I don't want them to miss my class due to their attendance in tournaments. My Steps classes are following a systematic approach, so missing a class means missing some key knowledge points. It's never good. If your child does that often, I have to suggest you drop the class, or your child's knowledge will be like Swiss cheese, as students from other chess schools that don't have any curriculum.

Therefore, I only schedule the Step 1 class on weekends, and all other classes on weekday nights.


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Why playing up?

9/6/2016

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I had discussed pretty extensively in previous blog, here I want to clarify a few misconceptions and provide some recent examples.


First, almost all US tournaments allow playing up, unless specified in announcements. You can safely assume that, and kindly request to play up. 

Second, some parents may think the rating their children get after playing up may be artificially higher than their real strength. It's definitely possible but no need to worry. Playing chess depends not only on one's knowledge and skill, but also on his/her confidence. The higher the rating, the more confidence s/he will feel. It's positive feedback. With higher rating, also comes higher requirements, and your child will improve faster.

A few examples from last Labor Day tournaments.

Student A: having stuck at 500 level for a while. His parent didn't know he could play up. This time confirmed with me, he signed up for U900 section (not U600), ranking at the bottom of the section. Played well, he tied for the second and his rating jumped by 320.

Student B: around 900. I suggested to play in U1200, but she wanted a trophy. Concurred by another coach, she signed up U900 as 2nd seed. But didn't play well at all, losing first two rounds. Of course she didn't get trophy, and was greatly disappointed.

Student C: also didn't perform great in the tournament, only got 2.5 out of 6. But because he was playing up, he didn't lose any points, instead gaining 40 points.



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How often should my child play in tournaments?

9/1/2016

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I have written about this multiple times. Still there is a necessity to write one more time, because a lot of parents are confusing about this. They would realize the problem until it's too late.

One short answer is: as often as possible.

Another specific short answer is: once a week.

Chess is about experience, not just knowledge. It's different from a test. You can make progress, or you can regress. A few tournaments may not reflect his/her true strength. It depends on too many things: his/her opponents, his/her mood, his/her psychology, his/her time management, etc. Only playing more can smooth these out.

Often a parent wants to see the result right away. After three tournaments, s/he will start to complain about his/her child's non-progress. The more you want to hurry, the higher the pressure your child will have, and the worse s/he might perform.

If your child treats tournaments as big tests, such as SAT, which might impact her/his chess career, then s/he will feel greatly pressured, and s/he might flunk the test. Failing is normal and losing games is normal in chess. S/he should think about tournaments as small quiz. Passing or failing will not impact anything. S/he could always try it again, and again. Every week s/he will have a chance to try again.

Making tournaments as her/his routine, just like s/he takes lessons. Then there will be no important decisions coming from their results, and no struggle. Just go and play. Sooner or later, you will see the improvement.


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    Author

    Coach Andy
    Princeton Chess Academy

    Having been a chess parent for more than 10 years himself, Coach Andy will answer questions about chess, chess education, scholastic chess for chess parents from his own experience and lessons. 

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