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Dear Stuart Parents,
It is a pleasure teaching your daughters chess every week at Stuart. They are a clever group I’m always impressed at how quickly they grasp the concepts that I teach! The benefits of chess
are numerous, especially at a young age. On the board, chess teaches critical thinking skills,
problem solving, and patience. In my experience, I have found that the most powerful benefits of
chess can be found off the board: learning to cope with losing, meeting lifelong friends at
tournaments, and managing my time. The analytical mindset I developed as a competitive
chess player prepared me well for academic challenges in high school and college, as well as
professional challenges during my internships.
After speaking with some of you, I realized that there is interest in pursuing chess beyond the
afterschool program - that is, playing in tournaments. Becoming tournament-ready is absolutely
within reach! It does require time outside of class, though, and substantial amounts of practice
and preparation. The information in this document, as well as the list of resources included, will
make it as easy as possible to enable your daughters to achieve this level of chess strength.
What is a chess tournament?
Chess tournaments are organized under the official umbrella of the United States Chess
Federation (USCF). Every USCF tournament must have a certified tournament director (TD) to
enforce the rules. Tournaments typically have at least three games, or rounds. During each
round, a win counts as one point, a loss as zero, and a draw as half a point. At the end of the
tournament, the players with the most points receive prizes, which can be trophies, titles, and/or
cash.
Chess tournaments are an excellent way to train and improve at chess. Almost all official
tournaments in the United States are USCF-rated, which means that the result will influence the
player’s rating, which is a numerical measure of skill. The highest rating in the United States is
approximately 2850. Having a high rating makes it possible to qualify for events; for example,
the opportunity to represent the United States in the World Youth Chess Championships.
Before diving into the details, some information about my background and how I got started
playing competitively:
My chess background
I’m a National Master with a rating of 2225 USCF. I won the North American Youth
Championship in Girls Under 16 and represented the United States five times abroad in the
World Youth Chess Championships in countries such as Turkey, Vietnam, and Greece. I’m
currently a senior at Princeton University, where I am majoring in Operations Research
Financial Engineering with a certificate in Computer Science. At Princeton, I run the Chess
Club, and once a semester I volunteer at NJ’s highest security prison in Trenton.
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My first World Youth Championship in Antalya, Turkey (2007).
How I started playing and became “tournament-ready”
One of my first tournaments- I’m on the right. Fun aside: I’m still good friends with the girl
playing White! (2002)
My dad, a beginner himself, tried to teach me chess at the age of five, but I just wasn’t
interested. One year later, we saw an ad for an enrichment school (teaching Russian, chess,
and math) that was starting about 15 minutes from where we lived, and decided to check it out. I
was fortunate to be the third student to join, which meant that I received a lot of attention and
training from the director (today, the school has grown to be much larger, with hundreds of
students and even a pre-school- you can read more about it here if interested).
I fell in love with chess. I started attending lessons twice a week, completing one homework
(typically 18 checkmate problems) before every lesson. My teacher encouraged my parents to
wait before entering my first tournament- while it is an exciting experience, not being ready and
losing all the games can be discouraging. I attended classes two times a week, completing the
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homeworks each week for a year before I attended my first tournament at 7 (where, funnily
enough, I still lost all my games!). Within months, though, as I continued to participate, I began
winning. I can still remember the joy and excitement of solving problems on the homeworks- I
would work on them everywhere, even in the car. When I was eight, my parents and I flew to
Chicago to play in the All Girls Nationals Championship, where I won six out of six games and
became US Girls Champion for age 8 and under. The trophy was enormous - we had to ask a
flight attendant to help us store it on the flight back!
Very happy after winning 1st place in the 8 and Under at All Girls Nationals in Chicago (2004)
Personal aside: on the importance of having role models
When I was getting started, my role model was Susan Polgar, who was involved in organizing
tournaments across the country for girls. When I went to play at All Girls Nationals in Chicago, I
had the opportunity to meet her, which is an experience that stayed with me forever. The truth is
that there aren’t many women in chess; at most tournaments, the ratio of men to women is
about 10:1. I strongly believe that having a role model early on makes the world of chess more
accessible for young girls, which is why this semester we have been learning about one famous
female chess player every class. You can click here for a sample of the players we’ve studied.
So, what are the steps to becoming tournament-ready?
Like in other sports, chess requires repetition and practice in order for concepts to become
intuitive. Even Serena Williams, for example, started with the same tennis drills as everybody
else: forehand, backhand, volley, overhead. In order for a serve to be powerful, it must be
practiced thousands of times. Much like in tennis, where a player must first develop essential
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strokes and footwork before playing a full game, a chess student must first develop knowledge
of essential patterns before entering a tournament.
The information below is a list of the techniques that are necessary to play tournament chess. If
you or someone else at home plays chess, this list is a good starting point for practicing
together. If nobody at home plays, that’s totally fine! Either way, if your daughter is interested in
playing in chess tournaments, I encourage you to reach out to me to work out a schedule for the
resources below. Buying the books is optional since I can provide scheduled assignments from
the books for you.
While there is a lot to practice, I can assure you from personal experience that it can absolutely
be fun!
Necessary skills before playing in a first tournament
1. The basics
Good news: all the girls in afterschool chess already know how the pieces move, castling,
promotion, en passant, and piece values. For a refresher, click here.
2. Elementary checkmates and pawn endgames:
The game of chess ends when one player checkmates the other. It is possible to have a
significant advantage -- for example, an extra queen -- that improves the chance of checkmate.
However, in order to win and end the game, it is necessary to fully arrive at checkmate, which is
a skill in itself. Some examples of elementary checkmates are King and Queen vs. King, King
and Two Rooks vs. King, and King and Rook vs. King. Pawn endgames are similar- with King
and Pawn vs. King, how can the player with the advantage ensure that their pawn promotes
(and then checkmates afterward)? These situations can be practiced repeatedly to make
winning such elementary positions second nature.
The best book I have found to learn and practice this is Pandolfini’s Endgame Course by Bruce
Pandolfini (Chapters 1-2, 5 are essential). Bruce Pandolfini is one of the most renowned authors
in chess and was at one time the coach of Josh Waitzkin, if you’ve ever seen the movie
Searching for Bobby Fischer! I recommend having a board next to you as you read the book,
following along with the positions in the text so that your board matches the book.
3. Significant practice with checkmate problems:
Most strong chess players started out solving hundreds of problems from Laszlo Polgar’s (the
father of Susan and Judit Polgar) famous volume of practice problems. These problems are
different from the elementary checkmates above: elementary checkmates are common
situations that come up frequently, so practicing them often results in direct application of
concepts learned. Polgar’s problems, on the other hand, come from real games and require
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solutions of checkmate in one or two moves. These problems contain ideas that come up
frequently - as a result, solving hundreds of them hones an intuition for pattern recognition.
4. Introductory knowledge of chess tactics:
Chess tactics, or combinations, are patterns that appear often in games. An example of a chess
tactic is a fork, in which one piece threatens two of the opponent’s pieces at once; only one
piece can escape, and the other is lost.
Solving many tactics problems develops powerful pattern recognition skills. I recommend
Jennifer Shahade’s Play Like A Girl! tactics book (you can find a sample here, and we will be
using it throughout the next semester of the class). This book is especially wonderful because it
presents every tactical theme through the games of a famous female chess player. I wish it had
been written when I was starting out!
5. Introductory knowledge of chess openings:
There are three stages of the game in chess: opening, middlegame, and endgame. There are
common chess “openings” that involve a set of moves made at the beginning of the game.
Openings have names and can be studied - this is valuable because it (1) saves mental energy
and time at the beginning of the game and (2) enables the player to arrive at a good situation
early on. No book needed here - fortunately, this guide offers an extremely comprehensive
background on how to develop introductory knowledge of the first stage of the game.
6. Familiarity with tournament rules/etiquette: recording moves, playing with a chess clock,
sportsmanship, etc.
This is the easiest subject to cover but certainly not the least important! Before playing in a
tournament, it is necessary to learn a number of rules; for example, there is no talking allowed
during the round.
How do I find a first tournament for my daughter, and what will it be like?
She’s been practicing for a while and you know she’s ready for her first tournament! What’s
next? Browse the USCF’s list of upcoming tournaments for an upcoming event. Open
tournaments are open to everyone, scholastic tournaments are open only to children in school. I
strongly recommend scholastic tournaments because they’re more kid-friendly. There are also
some girls-only tournaments, though those tend to be more rare. In order to participate, you
need to register (can always be done on-site, though you must show up early, and most offer
online registration) and there is an entry fee (can be as high as $50). I’ve put together a few
links that offer a better idea of what being a parent at a chess tournament is like. A quick
excerpt from the first link listed:
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Most scholastic tournaments consume an entire day, for kids as well as parents. Many
parents bring reading material, work, or a laptop. Some parents agree to watch a child
who is not their own, or split time at the tournament with another family. Chess
tournaments provide an opportunity for parents to bond not only with their own child, but
with other parents. While their children duel across checkered squares, parents become
friends. Just as the kids learn to support each other through hard fought wins and
difficult losses, parents form emotional bonds, sharing each others’ joys and
disappointments.
Guide to Scholastic Tournaments
Sportsmanship and Etiquette
Being a Good Chess Parent
I hope the content of this document is helpful and makes the tournament world more accessible
to you as chess parents -- and potential tournament chess parents. Please don’t hesitate to
reach out with any questions, and all the best in the new year.