Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Chess tournaments

If anyone reading this is looking to find a group to practice with, 'meetup.com' has lots of chess club listings. Participation in tournaments is not required, often they will also have 'casual' meetings, to help new players get used to playing chess with a clock and writing down the moves.

Also, the book 'Average is Over' covers a lot of interesting angles on tournament chess, computer Chess AI, and 'freestyle' chess which involves teams of humans and computers competing...(pretty different from human only chess). No matter that it happens to be a book on economic trends.

DS did very well in a school chess tournament as well.

He did even better than thought, actually. This is all pretty astonishing considering that he was definitely not nearly this good just 3-4 months ago.

Well done him! Sounds as though you've got some difficult decisions to take.

I am on the one hand really proud of him and on the other feeling gradually a bit more overwhelmed by what I am beginning to recognize is 1) a lot of potential and 2) a lot of potential for him to compete, be coached, and travel because of where he goes to school and where we live (a city with a lot of chess happenings and a school with a strong chess team).

When I was growing up I played mostly in adult chess clubs and tournaments in my town, rather than in state or national scholastic tournaments requiring expensive travel. Now it's even easier to find a competitive game online. It's arguably more important to become a better player, which will be reflected in a higher rating, than to become the national or state 1st grade champion (individual or team) or whatever. (Arguable because for some children, being on a team and winning trophies may be more rewarding than just becoming a better player.)

If your son is still serious about chess in high school, winning national scholastic titles may help him get into selective colleges.

He doesn't really like playing online as much and tends to not play as well on a computer. There's something about over the board play that engages him more.

ultramarina, as far as expenses go, does your DC' school hold fundraising for the chess club to help parents out? One of my teacher friends is a GT coordinator for her school and they're raising $$$$$ right now for a trip that involves thousands of miles of travel. School's goal is for parents to incur zero expense unless they decided to come along then they're responsible for their own travel expense. Within the first week of announcement, they had two substantial donations from community organizations.

I share your reservation about participating in competition. We're opposed to DD competing in any types of music or ballet competitions even if the cost may not be an issue but obviously, chess is a game and you have to compete one way or another. I agree though with Bostonian that participating in local teenager/adult tournaments is a good alternative.

I suppose one question is--what is the goal? Is it to meet other kids who enjoy the game and find a tribe? (This is valuable for DS at present since he is not yet in an environment at school with other gifted kids.) Is it to get really good? Is it to learn the life lessons of poise, losing with grace, and practice and determination?

Or is it to play as much as possible because he just loves it? Let me emphasize that chess is pure joy for DS. He plays every single day and practices tactics with an app on my phone (this is what he chooses for screentime 80% of the time). He reads chess books. But this is all his idea. It is not like an instrument or a sport, where at some point every kid balks at practice or is tired out. It's 100% enjoyment and excitement. I wonder, if he were being coached, if he might lose some of this. He never "has to" do anything with chess at this point (well, except go to club).

Love that concept.