Page 2: Clubs, Ratings, etc.
Parent - Do you recommend tournaments over clubs?
NM Dan Heisman - There is absolutely nothing wrong with a club - clubs meet more regularly, so all good chess players are members of clubs. The big advantages of a club is that they usually meets every week and you get to know all the members well. And if your area has a good kid's club, you should definitely join! However, tournaments have several advantages: they are played under US Chess Federation (USCF) rules to keep everything absolutely fair; they require playing chess correctly, which is better for a student’s mental development; they provide the student with the most balanced competition; they include lots of kids, so they are a lot of fun, and they allow all participants to get a rating, which most students think is great! You must join USCF to play in one of their tournaments, but doing so is a bargain, as you get their magazine, also! If your school is on the Federal School Lunch Program, you can receive up to 10 free scholastic memberships from the US Chess Trust. Call USCF at 845-562-8350) All USCF tournaments allow you to join as part of registration for the event. Finally, at a club you tend to play the same players over and over; at tournaments you get a chance to meet and play new players!
Parent - What do you think about his joining a chess club?
NM Dan Heisman - Clubs are places where people go to play chess, so certainly joining a chess club is a good idea! The Main Line Chess Club, which meets every Tuesday night starting at 7 PM, allows younger players who can play quietly. You don’t have to stay the entire time, but if you want to participate in the formal (rated USCF for USCF members) activity of the night, you should get there before 7:20. Note: the Main Line CC is also not loco parentis - your children have to be supervised and behave appropriately, which means at least must play quietly. It meets at the Waverly Heights Life Care Retirement Community at 1400 Waverly Avenue in Gladwyne. Current dues are $15/year for students under age 18. For other scholastic clubs look for "junior" or "scholastic" on my chess club page. The most well known scholastic club in the Philadelphia area is the Huntingdon Valley Chess Society Juniors, which has been run by parents for over 20 years and meets some Saturdays at the Lower Moreland library. PSCF Scholastic Coordinator Steve McLaughlin has his scholastic club in Wyncote
Parent: You say The Main Line Chess Club encourages juniors, but how many actually show up on Tuesday nights and what ages are they?
NM Dan Heisman - During the summer more kids under age 12 are there but it is still primarily an adult club. The summer is also when we have our annual junior championship for players under the age of 14. Ironically, most of the junior players at the Main Line Chess Club tend to be the more serious players; the "for fun" group is usually at the scholastic tournaments (just the opposite of what you might think!). That is because the tournament group only plays a few times a year, while the youngsters at the Main Line club are generally more serious and want to play games against adults and other serious players every week.
Parent -What are these chess ratings?
NM Dan Heisman - The USCF gives out these ratings for everyone that plays in tournaments, whether they lose all their games or not! You need to play at least four games in your life (byes don’t count) to get a rating; the better players have higher ratings. After about 20 games your rating is usually pretty accurate. Many prizes at tournaments are based on ratings (for example, if your rating is 772, you would be eligible for an "Under-800" prize). Your rating goes up when you win (more if you beat someone higher rated) and down when you lose. Having my rating over 2200 is what gives me the title of National Master. Almost all young students start with a rating between 100 and 1000, depending upon their skill and results. (Here is a link to look up USCF ratings)
I have a list of the top players grades K-8 who play in the area called the Philadelphia Area K-8 Chess Honor Roll. I do this "by hand" so I depend on parents like you to let me know who is playing and active!
Parent - So how do these ratings help?
NM Dan Heisman - The USCF began to grow when it required membership to get a rating (all players in a chess tournament must be USCF members to have the tournament rated). By having classes (such as the "G" class is ratings between 600 and 799), then players can play anyone else in the tournament, but still primarily be competing against other players in their rating class - and ability - for prizes.
For example, in a scholastic tournament an organizer can offer nine trophies for "1st - 2nd - 3rd, Top Under 1000, Top Under 800, Top Under 600, and Top 3 unrated" and the best players are only eligible for the top three trophies, not the other six. In fact, the unrated trophies must be won by players who are either in their first tournament or played in their first one so recently that their rating is not published yet (updated ratings are made official every two months; a provisional rating is NOT one that hasn't been published yet, it is one that is based on less than 25 games and thus is more volatile) so when you first bring your son to a tournament he has an excellent chance to win one of these unrated prizes!
Parent - Is there any down side to ratings?
NM Dan Heisman - Unfortunately. Some students become enamored with the ratings and forget that ratings just reflect playing strength. I have seen players stop playing to protect their rating or become even more afraid to lose, not because losing bothered them, just because they didn't want their rating to go down. If there were no ratings, then everyone would just play when they wanted to and were able to, and that would be more fun. So the more you tell your child not to worry about their rating (or anyone else's!) and just play and have fun, the faster they will improve
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