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