Blog Archives - Chess Parents FAQs

When is my child ready for tournament?

2/26/2015

There is no hard definition for readiness. Here are some basic requirements:

Knows basic piece moves
Knows check and checkmate
Knows what is win, lose, and draw

S/he must be able to take instructions and advises from the Tournament Director. As long as s/he is school-ready, s/he is tournament-ready.

To achieve better results, i.e. maintaining his/her interest and not getting discouraged, wait until s/he can play games with ease. Ease can come after 3 to 6 months of play, or after 100 casual games. The older the child, the quicker s/he becomes ready. Child's maturity also helps.

Do NOT expect much from first few tournaments, rated or unrated. S/he just goes there to taste the experience. Keep encouraging him/her. This is like the first hundreds of steps of an infant. S/he will fall often, but s/he has made the move. The willingness to take the step is the most important.

How much time should my child spend on studying chess?

2/25/2015

It depends, on what your child's goal is for his/her chess development.

According to the 10,000-hour rule, here is a rough guideline:

if s/he wants to be a GM or IM, 6 hours everyday, expecting 6-10 years
if s/he wants to be nationally ranked, national champion or a NM, 2-3 hours everyday
if s/he wants to be state champion, 1-2 hours everyday
if s/he wants to play competently in local tournaments or keep making progress, 1 hour everyday
if s/he wants to enjoy chess, any as long as s/he is having fun

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don't much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice: ...So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

How can I find my kid's rating?

2/23/2015

This is another basic question for which every tournament player and parents should know the answer.

Use the following steps:

Go to uschess.org
Click the left side menu "Players & Ratings"
Choose "Player & Rating Lookup"
Enter "Last name, first name", for example, you can enter my name "dong, andy". If you know your ID, you can enter ID too.
Click the small button "Find" in middle of the page, you will get a list of matching names back.
Choose your name. If your name is popular, you may want to check the state in 5th column.
On this "General" page, you will see your official rating. For me, it's 1968. Sometime you see a supplement rating, which will become your official rating next month.
If you want to see your most recent rating, you should click on "Tnmt Hst" to check your tournament history.

Your rating will be published on the tournament history one or two days after the tournament finishes. It may take more time if the tournament is large, or if Tournament Director is still using post office mail to send in result.

Official rating is calculated and updated every month. It may not include the tournaments in last two weeks.

Where can I find tournaments?

2/19/2015

For anyone who has played a few tournaments, this should not be a question at all. But sadly, I have been asked this question again and again by parents. Some of their kids may have played in scholastic tournaments for years. They only went to tournaments the teachers or other fellow parents told them, and they never knew there are other tournaments in other places.

Here are a few guidelines, and a how-to.

First, almost all tournaments in US are open tournaments, which means you can play in any of them as long as you are not above the maximum rating limit of the section. For example, if you are 1200, you can play in U1400, U1700, U2000, U2200, even open section, but you can't play in U1100. A K-12 student can play in both scholastic tournaments and adult tournaments, but an adult can't play in scholastic tournaments. So students have more choices.

Second, most tournaments are publicly announced in TLA. You can find it on USCF website, or if you have paper subscription to Chess Life or Chess Life for Kids, you can find TLA in magazines. If the organizer choose to not publish in TLA, you have to find the tournaments on their websites, or contact them directly. But this is a very small part.

To view TLA on USCF website, you following the steps below:

Go to: http://uschess.org/
Click "Clubs & Tournaments" on the left side menu
Choose "Upcoming Tournaments"
Select your state, such as "New Jersey"
Now you see all tournaments in your state, and some major tournaments in surround states.

Third, you are not limited to your state. You can play in any open tournaments in any state. You can play in national tournaments, even foreign tournaments (which are not listed on USCF).

A few states, such as NY, NJ, PA, CA, TX, have many tournaments, often several on every weekend. So you have many choices.

Should I ask my child to record his games?

2/13/2015

When my child plays in the lower sections at PDS or CJCT, he is not required to record his games. Should I ask him to record?

The answer is definitely YES.

First, for any rated tournament, USCF requires players to record their games. It's the evidence for Tournament Director makes decisions when there is a dispute. Some TDs might not enforce the rule, but it doesn't mean ok. I once played a 4 or 5-year old boy, who could not write well yet. His dad just stood behind him and recorded the game for him (with my permission). They later got a Monroi for the boy, who became a Master at age 10.

Second, your child need the score sheet to review games by himself or with his coach. Most players can remember games clearly right after, with a little training, but most will forget a few moves in middle after two or three days. then they can't replay the games. So score sheet is a must. Reviewing his own games is critical for him to learn and improve.

Third, writing down notation will slow down your child, so he will not rush out moves and hopefully may think more. Some writes down notation first on score sheet, then makes the move on board. He will have another chance to change mind.

You should ask your child to practice recording at home when he plays offline, so he can make it into a habit. You can create a score sheet with Excel by yourself. That's what I did initially. It's better to get a score book, Monroi or Plycount. Loose sheets are tended to get lost.

Here is one of my daughter's early score sheets. It was her first tournament, and not rated. She was not an USCF member yet, and her opponent was above 800. Luckily she didn't know it beforehand. The game lasted more than one hour, way out of scheduled time, They had to put on a clock. Under the pressure (she had not seen a chess clock before), she missed one-move checkmate (see the last move on the sheet) and lost her game after another 30 moves.

alice_elina.pdf
File Size:	160 kb
File Type:	pdf

How many scholastic tournaments should my child play?

2/11/2015

Scholastic tournaments have done a great service for all of us. They are convenient, low-budget, and fun. You can find a scholastic tournament in NJ/NY almost every weekend. Students are getting trophies and plaques, and gaining experience. Parents and coaches are happy. So should my child stay with scholastic tournaments, excel at them and try to conquer everyone of them?

For a serious student, serious means he/she wants to be a state champion or nationally ranked, the answer is NO. You have to phase out after you reach 1000. When you get to 1500, you won't have many same level opponents outside nationals or state tournaments, because most of them have been moving out to adult tournaments. Playing in adult tournaments will be inevitable.

My daughter started in Columbus, Ohio. We didn't have that many tournaments, scholastic or not. So she "unfortunately" began to play adults on her second tournament. Looking back, she only played in 4 "no-name" local scholastic tournaments, a few states, and a few nationals. Maybe too few, because her trophy collection is small, comparing to many other scholastic players. Nevertheless, she has been nationally ranked since age 9.

You have to decide how to phase out. Phasing out or not, when your child graduates from high school, he/she will be forced out anyway.

Should I watch my child playing?

2/11/2015

At many tournaments, almost all adult tournaments, parents are allowed to stay in the room as long as the space is allowed. At these times, should I watch my child's games?

My suggestion is NO. Do you watch your child taking a math test? Chess games are more like a math test than a soccer game. You can't do cheering or anything. Your child has to fight the battle on the board by himself. No need to stress yourself out and put more pressure on your child. Please read the following article: "Parents' Gambit".

I rarely watch my daughter's games. If I stay in the room, I watch other games faraway from my daughter's board. Nowadays, I don't even bother to check who is her opponent. As a parent, my job is driving her there, providing her food (if in Phily, I don't need worry about that either), and picking her up. She can handle most things that are happening in tournaments at age 8. Even if I were not there, there are tournament directors and other kind adults can help. Always remind your child to get help from the tournament directors, kind of like getting help from teachers at school or getting help from polices on street.

When she won the Susan Polgar National Invitational, the last game was video broadcasted on the Internet with no prior notice. It was tremendous pressure. There was a large screen in the hallway showing the game. Some parents and GMs were watching and discussing. I sat faraway by myself, didn't want to see anything, hear anything or talk to anyone. It's too much pressure, more than if I were playing the game myself. If you don't understand this, please read the classic: "Searching for Bobby Fischer".

In conclusion, relax yourself while your child is playing.

Should my child play in the upper section?

2/10/2015

Q: My son won his section by 4-0 over the weekend. Should he stay in the section to consolidate his performance, or should he play in the upper section?

A: First, congratulation! Sweeping a section is always great. Good job!

Second, because it's all win without lose, there will be big bonus points for him. Most likely his rating will jump a lot. His new rating will not allow him to play in the current section.

Third, there is nothing about consolidation in chess. We always try to climb up and up, until hitting a plateau. Believe me, the plateau will come. You have no need to introduce one by yourself. We all work hard to shorten the plateau so we can move up to the next level.

Fourth, if your child continues playing in the same section, he will get used to it. It's like workout, only it's mental workout. After your child gets used the level, he will be stuck in the same level. More workout time will not help much. There are so many kids stuck in scholastic tournaments at some levels for couple of years, then they give up. They never reach the advanced level (above 1500), which they should with years of efforts.

You should give your child challenges from time to time. That's how they grow.

I will talk about playing up in another post.

Is playing chess useful for college application?

2/9/2015

I really don't know. Let's hope for the best for all of us.

Here is a short list of chess players I know. If you know anyone else, please feel free to add to the list in comment.

GM Robert Hess: Yale
GM Darwin Yang: Harvard
GM Daniel Naroditsky: Stanford
IM Elected Park Zhao: MIT
IM Luke Harmon-Vellotti: UCLA (age 14, $175K scholarship, also accepted by Stanford and others)
IM Alexander Katz: MIT
IM Victor Shen: Columbia
NM Andrew Ng: Princeton
FM Alisa Melekhina: UPenn Law School
WIM Yuanling Yuan (Canada): Yale
NM Anna Matlin: Princeton
Dai Yang: MIT
Darrian Robinson: University of Chicago
Jennie Liu: Columbia
Kevin Mo: Duke
Adarsh Jayakumar: Cornell

All these players are rated above 2000. Any serious student should be able to reach that level after about 6-year tournament competitions.

How many tournaments should my child play?

2/9/2015

As many as possible, up to two constrains, your available time and your budget.

For a serious student, I assume you and your child are serious because you are reading this blog, at least twice a month. To achieve best result, try one tournament every week. Pick any outstanding chess player, and looking at their forming ages, you can see the same pattern about tournament number. The stats strongly convinces me that how many tournaments you play determines how far you can develop your chess career.

Check out the following examples, you will see the pattern by yourself.

Hikaru Nakamura: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlTnmtHst.php?12641216.10
Park Zhao: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlTnmtHst.php?12787319.9
Sarah Chiang: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlTnmtHst.php?13091081.16
Carissa Yip: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlTnmtHst.php?14514636.4

This is also the reason why there are more good chess players around those chess centers: such as NY/NJ, CA, and TX. If you check the nationals or top 100 lists on USCF, most top players are coming from these states.