I am about to tape a Q&A session about chess rules, tournament etiquette, chess improvement, chess training, etc.
This is for chess parents / coaches of young players of ALL levels (absolute beginner to master). If you have a chance to ask me or other prominent scholastic chess coaches 5-10 questions which could help your player(s), which questions would you ask? And if you are taking your children / students to their first tournaments, what would they need to know?
I asked these questions before and compiled a list of about 50 questions. I am looking for more. Thanks for your help!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Thanks Susan. It is so important.
And I am gaining a lot from this blog
Best wishes
A. Weiler
well, maybe one question that I sometimes wondered in my personal experience is what to say to the child before a game/tournament to show him that you trust him and you know he can win without making him feel pressured by the possibility of disappointing you. One of the solutions that I found to this is making a fun proposal in case he/she wins, like “hey, if you win this tournament we will buy a huge bag of gummy bears and eat it all tonight!” or something like that, which gives the child another reason to win and a feeling that you know he can, but without the pressure.
“Huge bag of gummy bears” … no stress then!
How about – “If you win, you will enjoy the feeling of success, and if you lose, you will learn how to deal with the fact that none of us succeed all the time.”
well, of course I think that´s the lesson you want to teach them in the long run, but I´m speaking of the words you want to say just before the game… such a complex message, from my point of view, will make no real impression on them, they will just think “oh there´s my mum with her learn-to-lose speech”. I think that before the game it´s good to focus only on the possibility of winning, but it must be in a healthy way, so the kid knows that you consider the possibility of him losing, but he only thinks about the good things that winning will bring and not otherwise. Well, in my experience this gummy bear bag (or whatever non-material treat you can think of) really used to work, but anyway the important thing for Susan is the question, which I think can be frequent in other families.
If the gummy bears works for you, that’s cool. Personally, I try to keep it really simple before games. I’ll say “Slow and steady. I love you” and that’s about it. I have used a point and reward system for practicing chess. They earn points for numbers of puzzles completed and numbers of ICC games played. (Same thing for practicing piano.) They can redeem those points for treats. But for tournament games themselves, they get the same number of points for winning or losing because I feel like they don’t need any additional pressure. The reality is that it is the work they do at home before the tournament that will help them succeed so I try to focus on that and less on the results of a particular game.
What about how to deal with opponents who grunt and groan (my daughter has had to deal with that from a 1st grade boy) or who try to talk to you during the game or who move really fast to try to get you to move really fast? What about some methods to deal with trash talking (i.e. “What’s your rating? Wow, that’s low. I’m going to crush you.”)
Q: What should the child do when the opponent behaves in some odd way? E.g. intimidating, talks a lot, moves illegally? – Maybe this is more than one question.
Q: How best to get the child to focus more without too much (subjective) pressure during tournaments?
How do you deal with chess parents who have rude children and they do not correct the children’s behavior?
Some children openly intimidate and insult other children players while their mother and father proudly watches with a sickening smile on their faces. Scary!
No wonder there are so many crazy people in chess here in America.
Can TD’s correct this behavior?
My 8-year-old daughter has an interest in chess. I am an A/expert level player and am happy to teach her (and so far she is happy to learn from me). I am comfortable that I will know when it is time to let someone else take over coaching her for non-chess reasons (assuming we get that far and those reasons arrise), but at what chess level would it be necessary to seek a more advanced coaching (again assuming her interest and development continues)?
Hi Susan,
Your request for questions is serendipitous for me because I was planning to email you a question today concerning my daughter. Amanda is 4 1/2 and really has taken to chess over the last two months. Last weekend she played her first tournament and won first in her group going undefeated. Over the last month, we have worked almost exclusively on opening principals, simple tactics like forks and putting rooks on open files.
Ok, here is the first of two questions.
When and how do you introduce the study of specific openings?
Since Amanda is so young, she tends to get worn down with tight positions without a lot of space to move around. When the position is dynamic, she stays glued to the board and usually ends up making a better move. I’ve been thinking about introducing the Danish Gambit and other openings that open up the center quickly, but I don’t want to expose her to situations that are too unique and make gross deviations from the basic fundamentals of development.
When the time is right, what is the best method for learning openings for young children?
I want to stay focused on the why rather than the what, but realize drilling is necessary (and can even be fun). What do you suggest.
Thanks so much,
Jim
Susan, this is the best picture of you I have ever seen! Wow!
Susan, I help with a school chess club of K-6 kids – about 40 in the room, widely varied abilities. We have about 1 hour for instruction and games. If you have two parents who can give instruction and maybe 2 others to help supervise, how do you decide how to sort the kids, how do you split time between instruction and play, and how do you organize in-club play?
great picture of susan