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Has anyone's child gone to the World Youth Chess Championships?

We had considered it but didn't. It was 11 days in Dubai, including some school days.

I know some people that have.

How old is your child and what was/is their rating? My son just got invited by the local chess coach to take weekly lessons from him for free if he wanted to pursue qualifying for the 2015 world championships in Greece. We would have never considered anything like this, but 2 hours of lessons a week for free is a pretty incredible opportunity for us and it is pretty amazing that the coach thinks this highly of our son. We homeschool so the time gone would not be as big of an issue for us, though the expenses certainly would be. Plus I have no idea if my son can raise his points enough in time for the qualification cutoff, though he has raised it more in that amount of time before. Currently he is #9 in the U.S. for his age, #2 in Texas for his age, #65 in the U.S. for ages 7 & Under, with a 1186 rating. So not WAY high, but decent.

Here's a naive question, sparked by something Bostonian said upthread. Why is chess so age-stratified? Why do people care to compare children who are the same age, and why are specific children's competitions with age-groupings so popular?

I just wonder whether it's grown up by accident in imitation of sports competitions, where even the most extraordinary 6yo is going to lose to a mediocre 14yo because of size. But chess is not like that. Why don't the best chess children usually compete with adults locally rather than with children further away? It doesn't look as though the tournaments are particularly good social opportunities. Is it about winning in the short term? If so, is that wise?

Tor'sMama,

Without getting into exact numbers, DS qualified by being a USCF Expert the year he turned 11. If he had gone to World Youth, he would have been in the lower half of the competitors by rating.

Strong child chess players do play in adult tournaments most of the time. But in terms of bragging rights, you hear much more about the child-only tournaments that they win.

Interesting--I didn't realize this.

Tor'sMama, I wonder if you could find someone to coach your child online for less? It seems to me that the expense to send you and your son to Greece might eclipse the savings from not having to pay for coaching.

You are probably also facing some of the same questions we are..or the same major question:

What is my ultimate goal when entering my child in chess tournaments? What do I see as the most desirable end result? What does my CHILD want, and how I can accomplish this in the most sane way?

Thank you for your thoughts.

He has been playing and competing since he was four, winning first in the kindergarten unrated category in the Nationals when he was four years, three months after he learned how to play. He took a 10 month break from competing and playing much at age five. He currently loves it, competes locally twice a month, and semi locally (within a few hours) a handful of times a year. I let him compete because he wants to. I don't have any real interest in having a young child compete. My husband loves that my son is good at something at a young age (I think he feels like he never was good at things so having a son who us is exciting to him). So my husband learned to play chess and started a local club and became a tournament director, etc.

Anyway, when his coach approached my husband and son about free lessons and the possibility of going to Greece, my son jumped on it. I am not really as thrilled, some due to the expense IF he qualified in time plus the expense of having to go to extra not so local tournaments this year to play different players (we live in a small town), some due to the fact that I'm afraid my son will eventually feel pressured and stressed and lose the love of the game. he is a perfectionist and can tend to get wrapped up in whether his rating is going up or down. Sigh.

This is a huge concern of ours as well, so I really sympathize.

After some hesitation about his first official tournament, my son is now gung-ho to enter more. He would probably want to go to Greece too (not that he is at this level!!), without knowing what that would mean.

However, he probably had a great time at the tournament in large part because he won all his games (well, he drew one but that was not officially counted--he played it with an older child who had no opponent in that round). I feel like he doesn't have any real idea what a big tournament and a lot of pressure would be like, and at his age he is still very innocent and might have a negative experience with older kids who might try to intimidate him (I don't mean with a good game). I have heard that this can happen. But your son has played a lot more than mine. Has he played older children, and would he in Greece? Has he had experience with losing, and losing badly? I want to see how my son does with this. I don't mean to sound like a sadist, but it's important to me to see how he handles this experience at his young age before we start putting money and time into more competition.


This would concern me a little.

Oh yes he has actually never played a child younger than he is and he often plays in adult tournaments. Older kids and adults are not intimidating to him, he relates well to them. He has experience in losing, though when he plays kids, he tends to win most if not all games. There just are not as many higher level kid players locally. But he has lost significantly playing adults before and I'm sure once he starts driving to the closets city for tournaments, he will lose to kids, too. He has learned to lose with dignity and we love that.

I am concerned about my DH living vicariously through my son, yes. And I've had many talks with him about it but he doesn't see any harm in any of it. I just don't see why my son HAS to try to world championship now. Why not just let him enjoy playing the game in our small life here. But I'm not competitive and although I was good at a few things growing up, I was never the best at them and my parents were always just supportive of me, enjoying coming to my plays and musical performances because they enjoyed watching ME not because I was amazing. And I really want the same for my kids but I'm not sure my hubby truly feels the same way. I think he sees our son's potential and wants to encourage him to reach it. I just want our son to be happy and for us to do what's right for our family... And having so much revolve around chess takes a toll on us to be honest, on me and on our finances and on the rest of the three kids, though I'm sure my DH does not see that.