Is my child ready for a tournament? Part I

“How do I know whether my child is ready?”

Perhaps every parent, whether familiar with the world of chess tournaments or not, asks this question.

The tournament environment is at once exciting and overwhelming to new players and parents. There appears to be some sort of order to everything, but it isn’t all quite clear to the novice.

Let’s look at the burning question about knowing if your child is ready, both in terms of skill and emotionally. The best way to prepare a player for a tournament is to work on the basic skills she should have, and make sure she has achieved those skills. Taking a player to a tournament without these basic and crucial skills would be like sending a batter to the plate without ever having seen a batting practice pitch.

Chess is a battle. It’s a game, yes, but it requires so much from an individual who is pitted against another person. Both want to win the game, but the player who makes the strongest moves, and keeps his emotions in check, stands the best chance of winning. Chess is one mind against the other. A chess player is alone. He must rely on his memory and ability to think through a problem. There’s no coach giving hints, like hold the bat up higher, and there’s no cheer squad, Saturday Night Live skits notwithstanding.

Basic tournament skills

To ensure your child has a good first tournament experience, I recommend that you use the checklist below. While all players, regardless of age or experience want to win every game played, it’s an unrealistic expectation, especially for new players. The average player probably wins two or three games in a five-game tournament. Yes, of course, there are exceptions, but setting realistic expectations is important, particularly for young players. A good tournament experience, in my eyes, is one where the child had fun, learned something new, made new friends, and wants to do it again. It is not whether he won a game or “performed” well enough to place high in the standings. If your child did play well, and won several games, and placed high in the standings, then your child may have the makings of becoming a very good player.

However, it’s been my experience, both personally and as a coach watching very good players on my team (and other teams), that today’s tournament performance is not a guarantee that the next tournament will be the same. In some cases, yes, this is true, but even very good players have off-days, and don’t play as well as usual–in baseball, this is called a hitting slump–and it happens for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is focus, or concentration, which can wane on “bad” days and affect play. Feeling ill has a direct negative effect on play and I recommend skipping a tournament if your child is ill. The other parents will thank you for not exposing their kids, and them, to a virus.

Tournament checklist

DEMONSTRATED SKILL OR KNOWLEDGE

           General

___       Three parts of the game.

o   Opening

o   Middlegame

o   Endgame

Opening

___        3 important ideas of the opening.

o   Center pawns

o   Knights & Bishops

o   Castle

___    Optional: 2 Openings each for white and black in response to white’s e4 and d4)

           e4

o   Ruy Lopez

o   Italian

d4

o   Queen’s Pawn game

o   Queen’s Gambit Declined (declined is the most often played)

          Tactics

___        Pins

___        Forks

___        Discovered attacks (check)

___        Skewer

___        Double attack

          End Game Checkmates

___        King and Two Rooks

___        King, Queen and Rook

___        King and Queen

___        King & pawn vs King End game – Rule of the square to get Queen

___        King & pawn vs King End game to get Queen

___        King and Rook

          Draws

___        Agreed upon – when to properly ask for a draw

___            Book

___                King vs King

___                King & Knight (or Bishop) vs King

___        Stalemate

          Special Rule

___        En Passant

Keeping score and using a chess clock (These are sometimes optional for elementary school players. Check with the tournament director before you sign up.)

___        Chess notation

___        Use a chess clock

Thursday: Is my child ready for a tournament? Part II