complicated mathematical rating formula that assigns each player a number based on past performance; the higher the number, the stronger the player.5 In his guide for parents, chess coach Dan Heisman succinctly describes ratings: “Suffice it to say that when one wins, his rating goes up, and when one loses, his rating goes down. The higher the rating of the opponent beaten, the more it goes up; the lower the rating of the opponent lost to, the more it goes down.”6
Tournament opponents are decided based upon a player’s rating.7 Pairings are announced before each round via wall charts, which are essentially pieces of paper taped to the wall or to poster boards. Children and parents crowd around these sheets of paper before preparing for the next round and quickly retreat to their own corners to discuss the implications of the match-ups. Wall charts announce each player’s name, rating, and school and who will play with the black and white pieces in the round. The wall charts are divided by section. Sections separate children by age and ability. For example, there may be a K–3 section, and then separate sections for those with ratings under 1,000 and those over 1,000. (There may even be a K–3 under 1,000 section and a K–3 over 1,000 section.)
In later rounds wall charts also reveal the tournament standings. The child with the highest point total at the end of the tournament wins. A win equals 1 point, a loss 0, and a draw or a bye is worth .5.8 Ties are decided using software programs that judge how hard opponents were based on participants’ relative ratings, and reward those who bested more difficult challengers.
The USCF publishes ratings every three months. But once tournament results are reported, children and their parents can log on to the organization’s website and see the updated rating, usually within a few days after a tournament. All tournament results are publicly available online. You can use the USCF’s website to search for a specific child’s name and to see the results from every USCF tournament he or she has ever played in.
Besides being public, the system is completely hierarchical; there is nowhere to hide for children falling down the rating scale. Yet the system is open to manipulation, and parents who are in the know are aware of the ways they can stack the deck to advantage their child. Ratings used to determine opponents at tournaments lag behind actual competitions. Only the quarterly published ratings are used to structure tournament pairings. If a player has earned many rating points in the past few months, he or she is still officially rated lower because of the time gap and hence can play in lower-rated sections against weaker players he or she can easily beat. Some parents deliberately avoid letting their kids play right before a new published rating so they can “save” or “protect” a lower rating for an upcoming event.
When ratings are published, the USCF releases its Top 100 lists of players by age, starting with those seven and under and then on to eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds, and so on. The USCF also awards chess titles, such as Master, to players based on their ratings. (Titles come into play once an individual goes over 2,000 rating points.)9 Children who routinely top these lists and earn titles can make the All-America Chess team and represent the United States in international scholastic events, but these are truly the exceptional children.
Separate lists and titles for the highest rated girls are also released by USCF. Chess is dominated by boys, starting at the youngest ages, with greater numbers of boys entering the game at the lowest levels.10 Special attention is paid to girls, especially those who are talented, to get them to stick with chess as they get older; hence the separate lists for top-performing females.
The cost to participate in tournaments in order to earn rating points and titles is fairly low, and some major cities have organizations that host free tournaments. Entry fees range from $30 to $50 for local tournaments and up to $80 for state and national tournaments. On average, children I met play in one tournament a month during the school year. These contests are usually in a school cafeteria or a gym, if they are local events, and in a hotel ballroom or a conference center, if they are regional or national.
Children do not need any special equipment to participate in a tournament. The tournament itself almost always supplies chessboards and pieces. Children often are expected to bring their own paper and pencil so that they can annotate their games,11 but some tournaments even provide these.
Most competitive children have a chess notebook in which they record their games sequentially so they can be dissected and studied after a tournament. Hardcover notebooks that hold annotations from one hundred games can be purchased for around $8, and spiral notebooks that hold fifty games cost around $3. Even though it is not necessary, children usually bring a chess set to tournaments so they can play and analyze between rounds. Supplies like these are often purchased at chess tournaments, where organizers set up a small store with other chess-related gear and books and software. Similar items are also available for purchase online. Kids often keep all of their chess supplies together in a chess bag, which can be bought for around $25.
A chess clock is an important additional piece of equipment because scholastic chess games are timed. In local tournaments the time control is usually “G30,” or thirty minutes for each player, for a maximum of sixty minutes per game. After each move a child hits a button on the chess clock, which reveals the time he or she has remaining, and then records the move in his or her chess notebook. There are a variety of chess clocks available, some digital and some analog. Digital clocks cost more, but a chess clock can be purchased for as little as $30 (though the more expensive ones, often endorsed by chess stars like Gary Kasparov, cost upward of $200). The player who has the black pieces in a tournament game gets to use his or her own clock. Players who do not have a clock can use their opponent’s.
There is some debate in the chess world about the “proper” length of time for children’s games. A G30 game is considered short,12 but it is preferred at one-day tournaments, mainly because parents do not want to spend twelve hours (or longer) indoors on a weekend. State and national tournaments, held over two to three days, have longer time controls, often G90. Some believe longer games promote deeper chess thinking and calculation, but other demands on family members’ time usually prevail and G30 games are most common.
In order to prepare for tournaments and develop strategies for games of different length, many children take private chess lessons. These sometimes occur in small groups, but most often they are one-on-one and take place in the home. Private lessons via the Internet are growing in popularity as well.13
Parents find private coaches mainly through word of mouth, either through other parents or through the chess teacher at school. Lessons typically last one hour and can cost between $50 and $150, depending on the reputation of the teacher and the level of the student. Formal certification for chess teachers and coaches has not developed, and since it can be difficult to locate a great coach, parents are often left with Internet instruction as the option. But families usually prefer a personal and in-person connection, and they cultivate relationships with coaches with whom they share goals for the child—and a price point. The bonds between family and coach can become very strong. When the demands of competition require that children leave one mentor for another, bitter feelings may result, especially when a coach feels the new coach “stole” his or her student.
Summer and holiday chess camps provide another venue for intensive instruction. These camps are generally run by those who give private lessons and run their own chess tournaments, creating a one-stop-shopping chess experience. A day at a chess camp usually costs between $80 and $100. Camps are held at schools (though in theory they are open to children from any school), private clubs, or semipublic community spaces such as those owned by religious organizations.
Camps and lessons increase in frequency before major tournaments, such as the state and national championships. Anyone can compete in state events, regardless of where they live, but if the winner is not from that state, the next highest finisher from that state is declared state champion.
