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Why self-teaching rarely works for young kids?

8/30/2016

I once had a student who had great potential. After a long summer vacation, his mom notified me that the son wanted to learn by himself. I knew he could read a chess book like a novel by himself. It was a rare quality for little kids. But self-teaching? I had some doubts. After a year, he is still trying hang on to 1000. I can't say he had not made progress. He in fact did great in most people's view. But with his ability, he should do much better, and should get on the Top 100 list now.

I myself was self-taught, but I had professional training in Chinese chess when I was young, two hours a day, everyday. I self-taught myself Go. I understand what is important for beginners, how to train, and how to think. I understand when I just need to persist, what I should not spend too much efforts on right now. I know which books to read, and which books to avoid. I know what software I should use. I know how to choose tournaments and sections. I know where is my potential, and how to reach there. I know how to refuel my confidence.

For a little kid, where can he get or feel these tips by himself? He is just not mature enough.

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Why it is not good to sign up monthly class?

8/24/2016

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Some chess teachers offer monthly payment plan. You can join at any time, and quit at any time. It sounds very flexible and attractive. But it may not be good for most students.

Have you ever heard any school starts in any month, and ends in any month?

How can the teacher guarantee that your child learn all the necessary stuff to survive in chess tournaments? The teacher in fact has not system at all, or at least has no clear plan for what to teach. S/he may just grab a few classical games and teach your child some tidbits. Of course every tidbit has nutrition, but does your child get the maximum benefits of chess? No one knows.

How can s/he measure your child's progress? There is no objective standard, only subjective opinion. We all know subjective might be twisted or sugar-coated.

Giving parents an easy way to quit actually will increase quit rate. If the child hits roadblock, or has a busy schedule, s/he will ask to quit. And the parents will not persist because they have an easy way out.

The reason for us to align our class to school year is that we want to mimic the education system for other subjects, such as math or English. You sign up for a full-year course, and you make the commitment. Commitment is important, because chess is not a 3-month project, instead a 3-to-5 years long term project. For some, it might be a 10-year project. Starting with a non-committal attitude will most likely lead to non-committal ending.

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When did I feel my daughter could play chess?

8/17/2016

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My daughter's story has been told multiple times and is detailed in the book "One move checkmate" (listed in the right column). She started late, and had an aborted first try and a depressing second start. But we were lucky to have a patient parent volunteer and an encouraging coach to let her continue. I really didn't have any hope in those days, although i was a Chinese chess champion myself at her age. Chess was considered as an interesting activity in the after school programs. She also played other games, such as UNO, Mancala, and whatever was available at Latchkey.

One good thing was that she didn't fear to lose. In fact, she lost too many, and had been firmly stuck at the bottom of her club.

I felt hopeful only when I saw how she solved some one move checkmate problems. Some positions were complex and required to move her Queen into dangerous squares. Based on my former training, i knew it was not straightforward. She had to understand a couple things before she could make the dare-devil move, or she just dared. Her long game at the first inter-school tournament confirmed my discovery. I knew she could play that afternoon, and we began to devote our time and resources.

Nowadays, I agree more with Laszlo Polgar's theory: genius is made, not born. Anyone can play chess, with proper encouragement and guidance, and of course, her/his hard work.

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Why summer is not break time, instead boosting time?

8/16/2016

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School is done, scholastic tournaments are mostly out, but chess doesn't stop. Many students will have a long summer vacation, maybe 2 months out of country. They will forget a lot of what they have learned and pick up again in Fall. The setback in fact is a big mistake. Because we don't have school in summer, no homework (other than a few summer reading), no tests, it's a great time to play in tournaments. You can even extend your stay for a few days to use it as a family vacation.

On the east coast, there are a lot of open tournaments this (every) summer:

Continental Class
World Open
Manhattan Open
Atlantic Open
Continental Open
Potomac Open
Northeast Open
Bradley Open

If your child is advanced player, you could consider:

Barber/Denker/NGIT/US Open
Susan Polgar Foundation Girls Invitationals
Cadet
US Junior Closed
US Girls Junior Closed
North American Youth Chess Championship
North American Junior Chess Championship
Pan American Youth Chess Festival
Philadelphia International
New York International
Washington International

And summer ends with Labor Day, on which day almost all states have their own state opens.

In addition, you have weekly club tournaments, and chess camps. So it's a great time for your child to make big progress.

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How to select a section when signing up for tournaments?

8/15/2016

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Most parents would take a section for their child without thinking, often the lowest section s/he is qualified to play. This is actually a bad decision, costing time and money.

In USA, almost all tournaments have upper limit, but no bottom limit. You will see U1200, U1500, and etc. You can always choose to play up, but can't choose to play down. To give your child more challenge , you should choose one section above your child's level. For example, if your child is 1100, which means s/he can play in both U1200 and U1500, you should pick U1500.

When your child is young, your focus should not be the prize money, especially when the prize is only couple of hundreds. You should get the best training for your child, that's playing up. Do not expect s/he will win the section. It will reduce her/his pressure. S/he may surprise you by outperforming her/his level.

If s/he only plays the lowest section available, s/he may not perform as good as you expected. S/he might lose to lower rated opponents by carelessness. Even if s/he won the section, her/his improvement is small. S/he might even lose rating points if her/his rating is much higher than others. On the contrary, if s/he plays up, s/he might gain rating points by winning or drawing even one game. It's in fact less effort than trying to win every game.

Fast progress at young age is especially important, because her/his interest depends on her/his progress. If s/he can not progress for one or two years at low level, most likely s/he will quit.

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Why do I (as a coach) assign so much homework?

8/11/2016

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If you attend my Steps classes, you will know that I always assign three pages of homework from the workbook every week. There are 12 problems on one page, so total 36 problems. If you go to other coaches' classes, often you will get one page of homework, 2 or 4 problems, sometimes you don't get any homework. Why the big difference?

What I believe is that the more problems you have worked on, the more exposure you will have to chess, and the less chance you would make the same mistakes in your games. It's better to make mistakes when solving tactics problems than to make the same mistakes in your games and lose your games. 36 problems in fact is not much, only 6 problems a day. For a diligent student, it may only take 5 to 10 minutes. That's the minimum. I prefer to assign one page a day. That's more appropriate for a student who aspires to improve. But in that case, most students will fail to complete their homework.

When my daughter began to learn chess, she did 30 to 50 tactics problems a day, that's how she finished the 1000-problem software in a month. The problems in the Steps workbooks are less difficult than the problems in the software. So finishing one page a day should not be problem for anyone.

On the contrary, if I don't assign the homework, almost none of my students will work on those problems by themselves, although they already have the workbook. That's a sad waste.

I only compromise in the middle. So after 10 lessons, we might cover at least half of the workbook. For my private students, I ask them to work on every page, that's double the workload.

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Why self-teaching rarely works for young kids?

Why it is not good to sign up monthly class?

When did I feel my daughter could play chess?

Why summer is not break time, instead boosting time?

How to select a section when signing up for tournaments?

Why do I (as a coach) assign so much homework?

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