Here’s a quick chess tournament primer by David Hendricks, a long time tournament director in the Seattle, WA area:

This is a tournament for highly qualified players. There are three separate sections. Registrants can move up a section at anytime when qualified.

For most children there is no way to get them excited about chess that works better than competition. It makes the games important and exciting and a lot of times it has a galvanizing effect on their overall chess learning. Students that enjoy chess already will get even more focused, while students that were lukewarm towards chess will start to get really excited.

Maybe your child has started to go to tournaments. You've probably noticed a rating number next to some of the competitors names. You may have encountered ratings at registration to a tournament that features both "rated" and "unrated" sections.

Ratings are used in chess to calculate an estimate of the strength of the player by comparing their performance to the other players. To most players what the number represents about them is more important than how it was calculated. At the scholastic level, for instance, the NWSRS starts young players at 400. An average rating after gaining some skill and competing may be around 600-800 while scores over 1000 are more exceptional. The top level players may have ratings closer to 2000.