Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Chess tournaments

Oh, and in high SES areas, there seem to be a fair number of K-1 players, oddly enough.

In our area (mid-sized city), there are local tournaments hosted by some elementary schools. Those are unranked but fun for a beginning player. DS now says there's no one that provides good competition for him at those, though.

Many states have chess associations and lists of scholastic tournaments, but I think you have to search online for them. I've not seen a master list.

My DS has been participating in tournaments since he was four. He won first place in the unrated category in Kindergarten in the Scholastic K-12 Nationals before he turned 4.5. Now at age 6, his USCF rating is now slightly over 1000, so still beginner, but more "advanced" beginner, lol.

He competes in local tournaments quite often but we cant afford to go to National ones much, only if they are in our area. He loves it.

He did give up chess for about 10 months. Then got back into it. He loves studying tactics with software like Chess Tempo and loves playing other kids online at chesskid.com

Oh yes, be aware of the competitive parents.

We just use chess and tournaments to teach character. He has a pin that has a queen on it that says "Play With Honor"; if his attitude is great he gets to wear it (this is a treat for him). He is learning to be a good winner and loser. He learns to shake hands, smile, and say Great Game no matter what. He's learned that even his heros like Magnus Carlson lose at times.

It seems that my city is a bit of a chess power, for some reason. I can't quite figure this out, as we are a mid-sized city, but it does appear to be so. Odd.

Tor'sMama, your son must be very good. I don't really know what I am talking about, but I think 1000 is very high for 6. I'm curious as to why you think he gave it up for 10 months. Was it getting to be too much? Also, does he have a coach? And how in general do you find the experience for a child this age? I like your pin idea.

Hi Ultramarina,

I haven't been on this site for a while so I am just catching up on some threads.

DS has been to two national tournaments so I can give you some guidance there. We have exchanged PMs about chess in the past so feel free to do so again, or we can continue to discuss on this thread if you prefer.

There appear to be lots of "national tournaments", which would be an oxymoron. But they are all segmented by grades so for a particular child there are really only two that make sense.
The first is the national spring tournament that puts together grade groups. Often the tournaments for different grade groups are in different cities. For example the kids in 6th grade or below could be in Dallas, whereas the high school kids could be in Atlanta. Sometimes they combine them into one city, as they did in 2013. The grade groups that they have for this tournament are K-1, K-3, K-6, K-9, and K-12. While a kindergartner could theoretically play a 12th grader in K-12, the reality is that almost every child is in the lowest category for which they are eligible.

In December there is usually a national grade championship. There will be a separate category for each grade and so winning the championship is easier here, especially as many of the best players don't bother showing up for this tournament.

Also, here are my thoughts on other topics people have discussed:

1. As I stated before, I think your son has shown an unusually early talent for chess. I remember you mentioning it a couple years ago (at age 3?).

2. I commend your "no pressure" approach to the game. There are some kids that hate the game but are forced to play it. Usually the child showed early talent, and the parents are convinced they have the next Bobby Fischer if they just "Tiger Mom" enough. But my experience is that a young child's skill in chess tells very little about later skill. One local player was K-3 national co-champion several years ago, but gave up the game within five years because he did not progress, and was losing to local peers his age. On the flip side, another local kid has won nationals twice, three years apart.

3. If your son likes the game, a chess coach will certainly improve his skills. Private chess lessons, if they are affordable, are far better than group lessons.

4. When selecting the first chess coach, the most important thing is finding someone who can relate to a young child and make the lessons enjoyable. Rating is much less important for this first coach. You should not exclude anyone rated over 1800 (if currently playing), or over 2000 (if no longer playing).

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.

I think you've got it, although we don't have a super-regionals where I live.

We started DS in local kids-only tournaments. His first few tournaments were unrated, before we moved to rated tournaments. Some tournaments were at chess clubs, while others were held in libraries, or even restaurants.

I am not sure what is considered good in chess either, lol. But as of next month he is on parr to rank in the top 100 USCF players ages 7 and under. His rating is above 1100 now. I guess that's good. He's at a tournament this weekend in a neighboring city.

I think he burnt out on it. He wasn't even quite five years old when he stopped pursuing it. Before that he would play hours a day if I let him. Plus he started working on motor skills at that time, you know normal kid stuff like learning to write and ride a bike and pump on the swing. Hah.

He doesn't have a coach. He has taken three lessons before but we just can't afford it to be honest. The coach still thinks my son will be very high ranked IF he sticks with it. I do t care one way or another, honestly. I just want him to be happy and a selfless person. If chess helps him towards those goals, great. It not we will reevaluate his participation in the sport.

Well, we went ahead and took DS to his first tournament recently. He was unrated and a kindergartener, so I think he was given some easy opponents. He beat all of them, very quickly.
He was iffy on whether to go or not--felt nervous about competing--but came home all smiles.

You are stalemated if you are not in check but have no legal moves. Did your son administer stalemate or was he stalemated himself? You could ask him who had only a king (and perhaps a few pawns) left at the end of the game. Either way the result is a draw, but in junior tournaments the player who was stalemated was typically the weaker player, who got a bit lucky. When my younger two started playing in tournaments, some of their first non-losses were stalemates carelessly administered by their opponents.

Congratulations to your son on his result.