Hi mithawk! I was hoping you would pop up again.
So there are basically two national competitions a year, both USCF, one K-1, K-3, K-6, K-9, and K-12, and one that is by each grade (K, 1, 2, etc.) Second one is less competitive. And then it appears that every so often there is this supernationals things, right? Which is the thing where all the tournaments are played in one spot (Nashville?) for osme reason. There are also local, regional, superregional (?), and state tournaments (not sure what superregional is). Do I have that right? And there are state chess federations but really just the one national scholastic chess federation? I need a cheat sheet!
Yes, he learned at 3 and in some ways I suspect his apparent talent is simply due to having learned at 3. How many 5-year-olds have 2 years of chess play already under their belts? That said, he is a careful, unimpulsive player who does not let much get by him. And yes, he LOVES the game. Between the 3 of us at home, the Fritz and Chesster CD-ROM (he is almost done with it, though he can replay), chess club, and playing his grandfather on chess.com, we try to slake his thirst, but it's hard. He easily plays an hour and a half a day and would play more if we let him.
What I see with DS is that he will soon be at the stage where he needs to learn the prescribed openings and so on. I am not totally sure about his enthusiasm for that part, but we'll see.
