Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Chess tournaments

Yes, for example each player could get 30 minutes for all of his moves, with a 5 second time delay, meaning that once your clock is pressed, it only starts counting down after five seconds. Little kids play very fast, so their running out of time is not a concern.

I would start him with casual tournaments. In our area, these are often at the local schools and have age groupings that are fairly small (ex. K-1, 2-4, etc.). They are not timed, I don't think and are a good introduction to tournament play. Our son starting playing at age five and is very good, according to adult chess players who have seen him play. He swept the local tournaments last year. Took him to a more major, K-8 in one grade, timed tournament (first time he'd seen clocks, PM me if you want a recommend on one) and he wiped out. It was a different system of play, he spent the first two games starting at the clocks, etc. Since then, we've had coaches work with him on clocks and notation. We may try a formal tournament again this year.

Info above is accurate about the timed games.

There are some great chess books and a magazine for kids. Chessmaster 10,000 is a good computer game and there are a few others.

This seems like a pretty small and casual tournament. I found the website with info but it is hard to make heads or tails of it for someone with no experience. I can, of course, talk to the coaches, but they don't offer an email address and we have almost no time at pickup due to schedule constraints. I will try to see if I can speak to other parents who have done this.

I don't think it's a good idea to take him to watch, because he would want to play, I guarantee. Looking at videos of tournaments of YouTube is a good idea.

Here is a checklist of beginner's knowledge. If your son can at least do (1) (you can practice with him) he may be ready for a tournament.

(1) Can checkmate with king and queen vs. king from a random starting position.
(2) Same as (1) with rook instead of queen.
(3) Knows how to castle on either side of the board, and knows when castling is disallowed.
(4) Knows what stalemate is -- can construct a stalemate position with king and queen vs. king.
(5) Knows to start the game by moving the pawns in front of the king and queen and bringing out the knights and bishops.
(6) Knows the rank order of the value of the pieces.
(7) Knows what the four move checkmate is ("Scholar's mate") and can defend against it.

I actually don't know all of what he knows because his sister teaches him things. She gets weekly chess lessons at school. She is also not by any means a prodigy, and is actually not that interested, but being bright and having a good memory, she naturally retains much of what she is taught. He has never beat her but occasionally beats us (which makes sense since DH and I have never been instructed in chess in any way, nor read anything about it--also we don't care very much and sometimes play half-heartedly, which she doesn't do).

He can castle, knows what stalemate is, knows the rank order, and knows how to start the game in the accepted way (DD has taught him this). I don't know about this scholar's mate thing, which I am not familiar with, but it's possible DD knows about it. I'm not sure what you mean by "random starting position" in 1 and 2--we obviously don't play this way so it's hard to say. He also knows about forks and skewers (I don't really even know what I am talking about here, but again, DD taught him this).

What he has going for him in terms of a tournament is that he is in K. I see now that the tournament has a K-1 category so he would not play kids a lot older than he is.

Sounds like he is ready. Random starting position means that if if he has a king and queen vs. king, he should be able to mate in about 20 moves regardless of the initial positions of the pieces.

Based on what you've shared, it sounds like he's ready. We have an extracurricular chess club at school and my kids have gone to several local, kid-friendly chess tournaments and really enjoyed them. We are outside of Philadelphia and there is a group here -- shining knights chess - that hold tournaments for kids K-8. They're saturday afternoons, grouped into K-6 U200 (based on chess rating, I believe kids generally start in this grouping if it's their first tournament), k-8 U600, and the a k-12 group.

One thing to be aware of -- often the parents are REALLY competitive, way more competitive than the kids. My kids were clueless to it, but I was certainly aware of some of the crazy parents.

Okay, yes, this is info I was looking for. I am guessing this will vary by region, but I was curious about the culture of this scene. Neither of my children has ever competed in anything. (DD9 is actively anti-competition and DS is only 5.) This kind of attitude is a major turn-off to me, but I don't think I will mind as long as there isn't an attitude on the part of the kids--as in, poor sportsmanship. I am a little worried about what will happen when DS loses anyway, but gloating or poor sportsmanship on the part of his opponent (or opponent's parents!) could really seal it.

I am also wondering how involved parents are generally and if our total lack of knowledge about chess is going to be an issue.

If it is K-1, it is worth trying! BTW, our son learned along with my husband (who had only played once or twice) and quickly surpassed him. I believe Chess for Children by Murray Chandler is the book that DS read that really helped him progress.

At the larger tournament we attended, there were clearly some hyper parents, and one or two obnoxious kids, but generally speaking, it was a pretty quiet (due to the chess games in progress), subdued environment. I would take along things for your son to do that are quiet, in the event his games finish before the time limit.

Chess is great enrichment because it is similar to the music community. Interest, discipline, desire to learn, and long attention span are the key factors to progress. For children "locked" into their grade-level by age, it's a great opportunity to just develop skill, no matter your age. In fact, the younger and less experienced children often make great chess team members because of their willingness to absorb and learn the strategy behind the game- before learning some bad habits. I teach enrichment chess for an after school program- the youngest often have the best attitudes!

The only thing jarring about chess tournaments is that they often keeps parents at a distance. If a child has separation anxiety or gets nervous in new situations, it's best to go and observe a tournament first so they are exposed to the environment. It's much easier to focus and play your best if you are not stressed in a new situation.

Standard for most tournaments is 1 hour, each player with 30 minutes on their clock. With young children, this is usually plenty of time- they tend to play fast.

Good luck!