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Why learning opening doesn't help my child much?

8/31/2015

40 years ago, as a child, I had been asked this questions many times: do you know a lot of openings by heart? My answer was NO.

Nowadays, I have been asked by beginners' parents many times: should my child learn some openings? My answer is still NO.

Beginners will not understand why a move in an opening line should be there. Missing a move or switching move order will change the opening completely. A good sound opening may become total suicide. Learning opening this way will not help your child, instead will hurt your child. They will not think by themselves. If the move is in the line, they will consider it's good. If not, then bad. Sometimes it's just a similar move, they still consider it's good. When opponents change moves, going out of opening line, they will be surprised and stunned. They won't know how to handle it.

My suggestion for beginners always is: learn the 3 principles, controlling center, developing minor pieces, and castling for king safety, after that, fight.

When I played against the French for the first time 10 years ago, I didn't know the line, and I didn't even know the name. But I looked at my opponent's moves and thought that they were reasonable, so had to be some line. I followed my common sense and reasoning, and I survived.

9 years later at NJ Open, I thought I had already seen most openings, but I noticed all my white opponents played the same opening moves which I didn't know. I learned later they all played Catalan. Was I scared? No, I wasn't. I just did my best to survive the opening, and win all of them in middle game or endgame.

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Why we learn more from our loss than our win?

8/31/2015

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Kids always like to show off their winning games, but when a coach reviews his students' games, he wants to see the losing games. It's great to enjoy winning games and share the joy, but it's more useful to learn from the losing games.

In winning games, because you win, you are not serious in looking for mistakes. If you can't find mistakes, you can't correct anything. Your opponent might have made a big mistake which leads you to win, but this doesn't mean your moves are all correct. Sometimes his mistake might be bigger than yours, or he didn't catch your mistake, but you caught his. You may be misled to think some of your moves or plans are correct. One of the common mistakes for beginners is forgetting about development and trying to chase black's f7 pawn to score a cheap checkmate. Sometimes it works, but in the long run it actually deters his chess development.

In losing games, it's much easier to spot mistakes. The student is also more inclining to admit mistakes and learns to correct them. We always learn a lot from our mistakes. If you never lose games, which means you are only picking up easy battles, you will never improve.

Losing is the best teacher.

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What is skittles room?

8/28/2015

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Do not confuse this with skittles candy. They are not related. No one knows its origin.

In large tournaments, the organizer always reserve one or several rooms as skittles room, other than the tournament hall. Basically it's a casual place, where players and parents can rest, chat, eat, and play blitz or bughouse. When players finish their tournaments games, they can come here to review together, because they can't do that in the tournament hall.

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Why reviewing your game with your opponent right after is important?

8/26/2015

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There is a great tradition in Chess or Go: reviewing your game with your opponent right after. This is really special for board games. No other sports can do that.

Why is it important?

First, both of you have just finished the game, so you can remember it clearly. Most times you don't need your score sheet. Your ideas and thoughts are still vivid in your mind. You can exchange your ideas with your opponent, getting some critique, or learning some new perspectives. If your opponent is stronger and honest, you can learn a lot from the review. Even when your opponent is weaker, you can still learn something that you might miss when you think during the game. No one is perfect.

Second, at this moment, the competition is over. The exchange is more friendly. Sometimes you can build up new friendship during your review.

Third, the review forces you remember your moves (no one wants to be seen as the one who can't remember anything and has to copy moves from his/her score sheet). This indirectly enhances your memory.

Do NOT fear you might show your opponent too much of your secret weapon, if you have any. It's rare that you will play the same opponent again using the same moves.

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Is there any bluffing in chess?

8/26/2015

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Yes, there is, but not much. Bluffing never happens in beginners' games, because they don't think too much. It can happen between two mid-level players or between a stronger player and a weaker player.

I had one game in which I made a move to start an attack. I was so confident the ensuing complexity is better for me. My confidence must have been shown in my action. My opponent looked at me and thought for about 15 minutes. Both of us were class A players. He could not believe that I made a simple blunder. He'd rather believe that I had some plan hatched out, so he chose a simplified response. Instead of up by a whole piece with no compensation for me, he just gave up a key pawn for my piece. This in fact led to a more active position for me and I won the game in the end.

When a stronger player is losing, sometimes s/he tries to swindle the weaker opponent. S/he will make moves so forcefully and quickly as if s/he is already winning. The opponent may be so intimidated that s/he began to make weaker moves and the game might be reversed, especially when time is short for both sides.

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Should my child withdraw from a tournament if he didn't play well in first few rounds?

8/25/2015

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Yes or No. It's your personal choice.

My personal choice and suggestion is NO. Playing chess is not only about winning or losing games, but also about building character. Continuing fighting under bad start is how we learn to persevere in unfavorable situations. If your child quickly admits defeat and retreats, s/he might get into a bad habit, quitting easily if an endeavor is not smooth. S/he will perform great when all stars perfectly line up, but will get crashed in real life which is tough sometimes and not perfect.

The worst case for your child to finish the tournament is that s/he loses all the remaining games. But the tournament is already bad, withdrawl will not make it any better. Losing more will not make it much worse either. If s/he wins a few games in later rounds, s/he can regain some confidence and recover a little on the spot. S/he will be ready for the next tournament.

Some parents are worrying that their children will be mentally crashed and quit chess forever. Most times it's not happening. Children are much stronger than we think. In fact, parents are the ones who get crashed first. Sometimes they feel losing face because of their children's lose. That will be a big problem in the long run, for both the child and the parent.

My daughter has had a great share of bad tournaments, but she never asked for withdrawal. She always sits back to the board, and plays the next game. Here is one example:

55 | ALICE DONG |2.0 |L 3|L 27|L 57|B 0|L 42|W 69|
NJ | 13398051 / R: 1659 ->1611 | | | | | | | |

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What is bye?

8/24/2015

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A bye is a round that you are not playing.

You can get a bye in two ways: requested by you or assigned by the Tournament Director (TD).

In a Swiss tournament, if you have schedule conflict or you suddenly feel not good, you can request bye to skip a round. TD will not pair you in the round. If it is allowed, (most large tournaments allows one or two byes requested before certain round), you will have half point for the round, so you may be still eligible for some awards in the end.

People often request bye for first round (can't come on the first night) or last round (have to catch a plane). If it's a later round, you normally have to commit (request) the bye earlier. TD won't allow you to take a bye in the last minute to prevent anyone from stealing an award by getting half point in the last round.

If TD assigns you a bye, often based on rating or your performance in earlier rounds, you get a full point. But you lose a practice chance.

In Round Robin, you can't request a bye. All rounds and pairings are set according to some pre-decided schedule. If you get a bye, that means the section is in odd number, then everyone will get a bye in some round. Therefore nobody will get any point. If you can't play any round, you have to forfeit it.

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Is it possible for a kid to improve 500 points a year?

8/24/2015

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YES, it's not only possible, but also common if your child starts with a low rating.

Because the first provisioning rating can be anything, we have to wait a few tournaments for it to be stable before we count it. Even if your child's real rating is that low initially, with some hardwork and proper guidance, s/he should be able to make progress quickly. At this stage, it's very easy for him/her to win a section outright, 3-0, 4-0, or 5-0, which will award him/her some significant bonus points. Therefore, jumping up 100 to 300 points in a single tournament is happening often. Your child will be able to rack up points quickly in this way if s/he doesn't give back too much in other tournaments. 500 points is very common for a good scholastic player.

Of course, you don't expect 500 a year every year. The higher his/her rating is, the more difficult it will be to move up a lot.

My daughter moved up 700 points in her first year. Recently, I have three students whose rating soared up 500 points or more in less than 8 months. Another extreme example, one girl from NJ All-Girls Chess Camp saw her rating zooming up 300 points over the weekend after the camp. The training and pep talk at the camp definitely had pumped her motivation up.

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Where can I find good parent guides for chess?

8/24/2015

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First, I hope you find the information on this blog are helpful. All these opinions are mine from the standpoint of view of a chess parent and a chess coach.

Second, I strongly suggest you read the following two articles from USCF. Although they are geared for chess coaches and scholastic chess organizers, they are very helpful for you to understand how scholastic chess is running. Both are well-written, but both take some time to read.

http://www.uschess.org/images/stories/scholastic_chess_resources/guide_to_scholastic_chess_rev_3-09_final.pdf
http://www.uschess.org/images/stories/scholastic_chess_resources/a_beginners_guide_to_coaching_scholastic_chess.pdf

Here is an interesting guide for complete beginners' parents.
http://www.uiltexas.org/files/capitalconference/Randolph-TeachingChesstheEasyFunWaywithMiniGames.pdf

A few more guides are here.
http://www.georgiachess.org/Resources/Documents/A%20Parent's%20Guide%20to%20Scholastic%20Chess%20Tournaments.pdf
http://www.chessctr.org/pdf/parents_guide.pdf

There are a few books written a decade ago, which enjoy excellent reviews. Unfortunately I have not read either one so I can't comment. But they are definitely classics. Remember one thing when you read, using computer and playing online were not popular yet a decade ago.

A Parent's Guide to Chess Paperback – April 2, 2002
by Dan Heisman (Author)

Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors Paperback – September 14, 2004
by Robert M. Snyder (Author)

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Is it true that "the more a parent knows chess, the better the kid could be"?

8/24/2015

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No, it may not be true.

First, a parent can't teach his/her child much. Most times his/her knowledge is not enough to help his/her child in the best possible way. Even when knowledge is enough, the child may not listen to the parent, while most children tend to listen to their coaches or teachers.

Second, a child can't always play against his/her parent. The exposure is too narrow. They may always make the same moves, use the same openings, and follow the same plans. It will be boring eventually and not helpful.

Third, a knowledgeable parent may think that s/he is good enough to criticize his/her child's games. You can always hear some parents berating their children in the tournament halls. The children will either retreat into a shell and ignore all their parents' speech, or be completely crashed second time (first time over the board) and quit the game forever. This is the worst part.

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