5/17 My Little Son's First Scholastic Chess Tournament: Kids' Quads

Hi Chess.com Friends,

My Second-Grader joined his school's chess club earlier this year.  His coach signed up everyone for a chesskid.com account.  And that's how I learned about chess.com, and this led to a ferocious rekindling of Caissa's viral takeover of my chess immune system which had been long dormant.

Anyways, he enjoys the game, and one of his friends won a huge trophy a couple weeks ao at a National Scholastic Tournament in the u-8 division which we didn't know about.  (It was held 2 hours away).   My boy saw that, and he wanted one.  He's beaten this boy before (they're roughly equal) and so he said it was his dream to play in a tournament and to get a rating.  

So I do the google thing and I find out that the next tournament that fit our family schedule was yesterday, 5/20, and that we would have to travel 2 hours and 15 minutes to play in a 1-day Quad.  I get him a 1-year USCF u-12 membership, and ask for a 1-time discount from the organizer for entry fees for traveling costs.  

I tell my son, and he's excited!!  Then my wife says that his end-of-season Single-A Little League Team Party is the same afternoon as the Quad.  And I'm the Assistant Coach.  My wife wants him to skip the tournament, and go to the party.  He says, "No!"  He wants to play chess.  Screw the team pizza party, and everyone getting a participation trophy.  (Of course, he didn't say that, but he's been to these things before in soccer and baseball.)

My wife is upset with me.  She thinks we're obsessed with a stupid game.  We should be going to the baseball team party!  I call the manager and he says he's cool with us going to the chess tournament.  I tell my wife, and that doesn't really pacify her, but I think it's good enough cover.  ;-)

So I pack up a bunch of snacks and lunchables for the afternoon tournament.  On the loooong drive over, I just offer tips about thinking on his opponent's time, asking himself what his opponent's last move does, trying to determine his opponent's candidate moves, thinking 2 moves ahead, doing a blunder check before he makes a move, you have plenty of time, etc.  I tell him that he has to write down his moves.  He says his friend told him that he doesn't have to.  I'm irritated.  I already told him many times before that you have to review your games, especially your losses.

We finally get to the hotel site.  The TD is a nice, experienced, older fellow.  I ask him if kids have to record the moves.  He says no.  I ask him if I could watch and record my son's moves.  He then surprises me, and says that all parents are kicked out of the room, and therefore, NO, I can't record moves.  I think about it for a few seconds, and it makes complete sense.  Parents at baseball games can be a bit much, and so the same exact thing can happen in Scholastic Chess.  

My boy's happy.  He doesn't have to record his moves.  I give up.  General instructions given by the TD, then all parents or coaches exit, and the tournament doors are closed!

The chess dads have to wait outside in the lobby/drinks area.  We pull out smart phones, laptops, or reading material.  These guys know the drill.  I text my wife and daughter to let them know that all parents got booted.  They were surprised.

Games are G/30 d5.  There are 20 players.  My son is in the last section of the Quads with 3 other unrateds.  Just for playing, you get a medal.  You score 2, you get a trophy.  You score 2.5, you get a bigger trophy.  You score perfect 3, you get the biggest trophy.

Every time the door opens I look up.  Wanting to see if my son is coming out after the first game to take a break or go to the restroom.  Nothing for over an hour.  Other kids come out.  I'm getting anxious.  A little nervous even.  I hope he's not crying.  Cuz I saw one little girl, 5 or 6, come out and she was wiping away tears.   My son's quad has another 7 or 8-year old boy, a 10 or 11 year-old boy, and a high school boy.  

Finally, he comes out after about an hour and a half.  He's carrying a trophy!!  I'm ecstatic.  He's happy and proud.  He tells me that he won 2 games, lost 1.  That he lost his first game to the other little boy, but he beat the high school boy, and the 10-11 year-old boy in the 3rd and final game.  I'm proud as heck.  Tell him that I'm most proud that he played fighting chess.  How he didn't give up after his first-round loss.   He was the only one to defeat the high schooler.  And he said that the high schooler's friends were teasing and mocking their friend for losing to a little 2nd grader.  Now he says he likes to beat big kids.

I take a picture of him and the TD with him and his trophy for memory's sake.  It was a great car ride home, father and son talking about his first tournament.

P.S.   Not sure how the USCF can give a rating when all 4 players are unrated.  I asked the TD and he said that USCF assigns an average rating according to Date of Birth, and then they do the math to obtain provisional ratings.  Does anybody know for sure?

Great story, Daniel, and congratulations to your young boy.  I didn't learn the game until I was 8-years-old, and to have your boy win a trophy at age 7 (I assume) is quite something.  No wonder you're proud.

Regarding how ratings are assigned to an unrated player and then calculated according to wins and losses you can click here and download the PDF of The US Chess Rating system.  There is also A Parent’s Complete Guide to Chess Ratings at Chess4Life, just click here

I hope this helps.

Best,
Bob

Daniel, you are fortunate. Your son is fortunate. I took two of my little guys (when they were little) to a chess tournament. Both had 0-fers. Neither really has ever played much since. (Though they RULE on some video games). 

Thanks for the links, Bob!  I looked at the first one, and my math isn't that good, lol.  Suffice to say, USCF has a method for giving unrateds a rating even though all the players are unrated.

My boy is 8-years old.  Now I wish I had taught him the game when he was 4 or 5.  But in some respects, it's better this way because now he wants to do it, and he wants to learn.  I don't know if he would have wanted to play chess if I taught him at 4 or 5.  Maybe, but I'll never know.  The social/competitive aspects with other kids his own age has a real effect that a parent can't achieve on his own.  

Him seeing his friend's giant trophy really motivated him, lol.  Now he can't wait to play in his next tournament.

At least your boys can say that they've been introduced to the game of chess by their dad.  

My son is also addicted to video games.  He could play them all day long.  He fidgets like crazy; the boy just cannot sit still.  Up and down from the dinner table.  Drives me nuts.  There's no caffeine intake in his diet; I don't know what it is.  I tell him if he wants to improve in chess he's got to learn to be still so that he can focus and concentrate.

Hopefully, that works.

Wow, what a good story.

Firstly congrats to your son!

You are very dedicated too, for the 2hr drive to a quad tournament.

Hope more tournaments are in your son's future (and closer to home).

Thanks.   Actually, my wife is not really on board with chess.   I don't know how to convince her that chess is really good for Jon.   She thinks it's just a silly board game.

She sees chess boards up on his screen from chesskid.com and she gets annoyed.  

If someone has suggestions on how to get wife and mom on board with Chess as a good activity, I'd love to hear it. 

Thanks M.S.   And congrats to your boys who earned Washington State Championships in 1st and 3rd Grade!

We'll see how long he has the bug.  I hope he has it his entire life.  I think chess builds and reveals character.  

I'd try to sell chess to your wife as an activity that teaches good sportsmanship.  This is the main reason why we like chess for our son (who's in 1st grade).

Whatever you do, Daniel, don't resort to drugs.  Our current culture rushes to label boys ADHD and drug them so they behave like nice, little girls.  Unfortunately, there is a war against boys in this country by the PC numbskulls.  Perhaps what your boy needs is to get away from those video games and out of the house to burn off all that energy.

I love that your son plays little league; so did I.  At 63 I look back at my baseball days with fondness.  In my grade school years I was always outside riding my bike or bumming around the neighborhood with friends, that is when I wasn't building plastic models, preferably tanks and airplanes.  Nowadays video games have taken over everything, or so it seems.

Due to their domination and ubiquitous nature, video games have led to the aging of both pool (billiards) and bowling; neither one sees a large number of younger participants, at least those who take either seriously and join leagues.  The young often think that everything they need is right in the palm of their hands.

I confess I liked early video games when they were abstract, but not after they became first person.  What I like about chess is that it's a geometric and aesthetic abstraction in the form of a game, and with individual personality due to different playing styles.  It's no coincidence that Marcel Duchamp gave up art for chess.  I never felt the same aesthetic gratification from video games.

Fighting Bob,

My wife asked me about taking him to get checked for ADHD or ADD.  She usually has her way, but not on this one, lol.  I became Fighting Gru, lol!  No way, no how.  So what if he's got a lot of energy?  Doesn't mean that he's got to be medicated.  When I was growing up, there was no ADD or ADHD or Peanut Allergies or having to eat Gluten-Free.  Of course, that was before GMO started to become the hot topic, but goodness gracious, can't we just eat regular food?

I used to ride my bike with my mitt on the handle bars and a bat over my shoulder as I biked to school when school was out to play ball with the other neighborhood kids.  Mom used to say, "Come home before it gets dark."

Those days are long gone.  I'm an old dad who remembers the old days, the old ways, and now I know all about MineCraft, DudePerfect, Fidget Spinners, Pokemon Go, and all kinds of stuff that 2017 kids do.  It's changed so much it's ridiculous.  

I'm trying to balance between being a grin-and-bear-it curmudgeon, and just getting with the program and going with the flow.  Ain't easy, man.

Be well.