Do you think that it is a good idea for young players (from the age of 5 – 18) to play 12 hours of high level competitive tournament chess per day, every day, for one straight week? Would you allow or recommend this as parents, teachers or coaches?
For the record, I am very much against this. I do not think that it is healthy for young players to play 12 hours of chess a day, especially at high level competion when it is a lot more stressful. But I would like your opinion.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
It’s crazy for kids to play 12 hours of chess per day. It’s not healthy? One must be crazy to allow this.
ok, I’ll bite. Clearly this isn’t a hypothetical situation. What is it based on?
I don’t think it is good for any junior to be doing 12 hours of high level ANYTHING for a full week.
Especially true for the people on the younger end of the 5-18 age range!!
Are you serious? Anyone who advocates this for kids should be fired.
is this serious?? sounds like a russian child abuse
For 5 yo kids it’s crazy but for teens it’s fine and normal. Every Google millionaire today probably spent 12 hours a day as a teenage nerd programming computers, every rock star probably played guitar for 12 hours a day when they were 14, probably every chess grandmaster probably played 12 hours a day at that age too. Doing it all year instead of going to school has its hazards but for 1 week? It’s a vacation.
We want them to enjoy chess. I think 12 hours would risk burnout. Let’s not forget that they’re still kids.
I was an active chess player from 10 to 18. And I can say that a boy/ a girl must do something else than chess. Being the best is no more important than having a life.
I’ve got to know boys of my age who lived just for chess; eating, breathing, sleeping chess. It’s pretty sad what they have become.
I would say that one needs a world bigger than chess to grow up.
Still, chess can be your passion and love it.
Magnus, Parimarjan, go home this instance!
A week straight?
One or two days (i.e. a weekend) sounds pretty extreme. A week straight of 12 hour days is far too much. Adult Grandmasters would find it difficult to cope with high level competition of this sort, how can anyone expect this from children?
Forgetting issues of health and psychology, how will children react to it? Enough to turn anyone off chess I think!
This sounds like an extremely bad idea for an event or training system. A youngster may voluntarily choose to spend this much time training (e.g. Bobby Fischer) but I don’t think it’s a healthy thing to do or to put somebody through.
Two thumbs down.
I agree with everyone here, it does amount to childabuse. For any child it important to be well-rounded and balanced in their approach to anything they do. 12 hours a day of top notch chess during a whole week is NOT balanced and well-rounded. But it is the parents and grown-ups in the children’s entourage who should show the way.
The problem probably arises most when -as a child- you are so pushed by the proxy ambitions of your parents that you strive so much for excellence in order to please them, eventually ending up following crazy unrealistic and foremost unhealthy scedules.
It brings the images of the disappointed father/trainer Mikhayl Zubkov beating his daughter/swimmer Kateryna in front of the camera back to mind.
Misha from Belgium
Sometimes it’s good to imerse oneself in a subject intensively. 12 hours sounds too much, even for just a week, but I think the principle of intensive practice for a limited period is correct.
lsur
12-hour tournament games is too much for any age. It can be used as survival test. I think that’s the only benefit. The game quality will be greatly impacted, and there is no time to recover from any lose. Professionals only play one long game a day, sometimes inserting rest days. Asking high school students or younger to play in both Denker/Polgar + US Open is way too much.
I’m not sure it’s healthy for adults to play 12 hours of chess per day.
Ok, what did the USCF do now?
Definately not.
But for 16+ I would be happy to play a 12 hour session once a week, but not everyday for a straight week. Although, at risk of being a devils advocate, this is the agegroup that many teenagers become embroiled in nihilism, and high risk-taking behaviour. There are many other activities this cohort get obsessed about that are detrimental to health and well-being.
I’d have to assess how balanced other areas of their life would be. So, the question is more complex than it originally looked!
Of course not in general. Actually I don’t think it sounds like a good idea for adults either. But what about Magnus Carlsen and the other young GMS? Or the young FMs and IMs here like Ray Robson and Robert Hess? Are they supposed to pass on tournaments because of the schedule? Again, I think that schedule (12 hours of chess a day) is too much for anyone.
I know I have done this because I love the game of chess so much. So if I was a chess parent I would not have a problem if my kid desired to do this because of their passion or their desire to improve.
However, I would never force my child to play more chess than they wanted. It is never good to force a child to do more than they want because then they will not enjoy it anymore.
For the gifted kid it’s ok and probably good for the health of the kid.
For the normal kid it’s unhealty and you can’t allow this.
Tom
12 is ridiculous. No adult should allow kids to do this.
It’s for sure too much. I wouldn’t allow it as parents.
As long as the kid wanted to do it, it would be fine. My guess is that if the child is in a position to play these hours, then he/she takes the game seriously. If the player ever said something like, “I’m tired” or “I’m bored” then I would pull them out and go home.
I get a laugh out of some of the above posts. However I agree that 12 hours is kind of too much stress and strain.
Chess should be played to be enjoyed. When the tournament is over the kids should be going home saying they had a great time and did more than just chess.
How about a little swim in the pool. Some music and how about playing being a kid with the other kids. Talking and meeting new friends is one social skill that is important.
Ping Pong can be fun, tennis, whatever is fun.
Then when the next game of chess begins the kids are well rested and ready to play.
I have gone to the World Open where the players fall asleep in the last round. That is not chess. That is simple physical stamina. Then when the tournament ends I have seen people demand to stay at the hotel to get some sleep and rest from the tournament claiming they were too exhausted to even go home. The World Open is 9 games usually at 2 games per day. But there are other options.
I think it is just as important to show children how to live a balanced life. When we push kids to stay in the “excitement” for too long they are not learning proper life skills. All of life is not one excitement after another excitement. That leads to addictions. Trying to find something that will keep the excitement up at fever pitch all day long every day. Not healthy. Very Dysfunctional. And of course it implies the same life chased by drug addicts. The constant high brought on by drugs is not to dissimilar to the constant high brought on by 12 hours of competitive chess.
I have seem friends at the World Open so high on chess that they just keep the excitement going. These friends usually play well at the beginning and crash out at the end as the body collapses from exhaustion.
When I go play 5 minute games at a club or on the internet I can not even go for an hour straight. I get exhausted and then I quit for awhile. Even on ICC, I seldom play more than 5 blitz games in a row without a break. My breaks are usually a good couple of hours if I am home. But I will return more quickly for a game or two if at a club.
I have done some 5 minute tournaments of say 10 to 15 games in a row at the clubs. These are fun but exhausting. They might last 2 1/2 hours. Of course there is a few minutes of break after every game waiting for the next round.
We need to understand when teaching children that the life skills lessons are more important than a game of chess. We need to show them how to live a balance life. If we are showing them how to live a life of continual excitement to the brink of exhaustion then we have failed to teach our children proper life skills.
When the adults are dysfunctional they will teach dysfunction to the next generation.
I don’t think it’s too much or too little. It really depends on each child. Personally I wouldn’t want my son to do this. But I have no objection if others want to do it.
I have no problem with it if it’s not every day.
What’s the purpose of playing chess 12 hours a day? Is chess meant to be fun or are we teaching our kids to be the next Bobby Fischer?
It’s up to the parents or coaches. We shouldn’t judge everyone the same. 12 hours is OK.
I think Susan is referring to the Denker High School Championship of Champions tournament, which is held in conjunction with the U.S. Open. There are about 45 to 50 entrants. I believe most of them must be high schoolers, although in theory younger children could qualify. Until this year, one of the prizes was a scholarship, so that gives you an idea of the ages.
About 60% of the kids enter the US Open also, which is part of the idea of holding the tournament with the U.S. Open, and those children do play two games at classic time controls over the course of the Denker: one for the Denker itself and one in the U.S. Open. If both games went to their maximum times, it could be a very long day.
But nobody is compelled to play in the U.S. Open as well, and it is really a once per year thing, for many of the participants, a once in a lifetime thing.
I imagine that when Susan was growing up as a chess prodigy she got through many more arduous ordeals — and enjoyed every moment of it.
I wouldn’t want to see kids working in the chess mines all the time like this, but as a rare special event, I can’t see a big problem with it, assuming the kids have fun with it.
What’s the purpose of playing both if you can’t do either well? Why not give incentive for kids to do both at separate times? How come the USCF refused to allow free or discounted entry fees for these kids even though Arnold Denker personally asked for it? I think the USCF is wrong on all counts.
I did not say anything about specific events so please do not bring them into discussion. The question is simple. As parents and coaches, would you approve of young players between the age of 5 1-18 playing 12 hour of chess every day for 1 week?
Thanks!
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
It would depend on the child and what the situation is. For the low end of your range, 5 years old, it is probably too much, and I doubt you could even get 99% of kids to do it. At the high end of the age range, it would be much less of a problem.
It would also depend on how often this type of thing is happening. If it is frequent scholastic tournaments, every week or every month — then, no. If it is 1 week per year for a special event, yes, probably.
It would also depend on what the setting was. If it was something like the tournament just described, where the kids are playing for a national title, and all very strong players, yes. A different situation, maybe no. (And if it weren’t a national title or championship, you probably wouldn’t be able to get the kids and parents to do it, anyway.)
Finally, I would question the 12 hours. Chess games take varying lengths of time. If 12 hours is the worst case, but the average is more likely to be 8 hours per day in, say, 2 3-6 hour chunks, then that isn’t so bad. If it is 12 hours, but that includes some playing, some skittles, some bughouse or blitz, some post mortems, some spectating other games, etc, then that isn’t a problem, depending on the age of the kids. If it is solid playing, and the 12 hours is the best case, achieved only if the games are all short, and the average is really much longer, that seems like too much even for the most dedicated young players.
So, in short, you haven’t really a provided enough detail to answer. So the answer would be: depends.