Chess camps are week-long chess intensives for kids. They happen year-round, during any week when the kids won't be in school. They are most popular in the summer months, drawing staggering numbers of young chess enthusiasts away from even such temptations as Robot Camp or Lego Camp. The results are almost always very positive, with the camp experience creating enthusiasm and bringing strong improvement to each child's play.
On the pros side, the benefits of private lessons are very great and sometimes just a few sessions can make a huge difference in filling in gaps of knowledge, breaking bad habits, obtaining invaluable one-on-one personal mentoring on unique individual weak spots, and providing mental and psychological preparedness for competition.
On the cons side, private lessons are expensive, possibly prohibitively so. The range usually runs from $40 to over $100 for each session, normally running 2 hours. Also, private lessons will help build interest and excitement in playing chess, however a certain amount of interest is needed to start with, especially for a young child to be able to sit and learn for two hours at a time.
Every parent will have to decide for themselves both when and if this is the right choice for their child. The two most popular reasons for getting private lessons are:
- The child, already at an advanced level, decides to pursue competition at a higher and more intense level. Normally these kids have shown a great level of talent and interest
- The child is really starting to love chess, yet struggling to get to the top of the heap in their peer group. The parents and students are often concerned the child will fall behind and without the encouragement of enough won games, may lose their interest and give up on chess.
Both of these are very good reasons, and the effect of high-quality coaching on the young individual can not be overstated. In the first case, private coaching is really the only way to go. For the second case, you may also consider hiring a private coach for a small focus group of 4-6 kids, which is a nice balance between lots of one-on-one coach time with all the nice things a group of motivated, talented peers can bring.
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.
There are certain considerations you should make as a parent before deciding. First, how well does you child know the rules? A child doesn't have to have chess strategy mastered to enjoy a tournament! They should be very familiar with the rules of moving pieces and capturing as well has have an understanding of what a checkmate and a stalemate are. They will also benefit by understand the relative value of the pieces, for instance that a queen is more valuable than a rook which is more valuable than a knight. The speed that children learn chess varies, and most are ready for tournament play before the end of their first year, assuming they've started as a complete beginner.
Another consideration that you must make as a parent is how well your son or daughter deals with winning and losing. Good sportsmanship can be one of the best lessons learned by activities like chess. Strangely, I've found kids in the 4-6 age range do better with sportsmanship than those in the 5-8 range. Maybe this is because the ego is not so much in play. Learning to lose gracefully and also to win gracefully are great lessons. If you child is struggling with these, competition may be a good way to learn it and it may be a good time for you to make your presence as a parent known.
After close to a decade of chess coaching, I've never encountered a child who didn't have fun at a tournament and win or lose, they will almost always want to go again!
Read more about chess tournaments from the Parents point-of-view
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.
Scholastic players in Washington State and Oregon need only concern themselves with two rating systems. The most important is the NWSRS which is a system specific to scholastic tournaments here in the Pacific Northwest. At a national scale, and primarily for adults, the USCF ratings are used. Learn more about NWSRS ratings, including your child's rating at this site: Northwest Scholastic Ratings. USCF Ratings can be learned about on this informative wikipedia page.
Partly lending to the mystery and confusion surrounding ratings is the somewhat complex details and mathematics behind them. Calculating a chess rating involves a specific algorithm which initially takes into considerations facts such as the age of the player, if they have any previous ratings and how many games they've played overall. The initial rating is considered provisional until the player has at least 8 wins and losses combined.
If you're mathematically inclined you can learn more at The Rating Algorithm
The short answer is "No." You can be a great parent by simply supporting your child's chess progress.
Knowing some things about chess will help reduce confusion. A lot of parents find their child's interest in chess begins to kindle their own. Maybe you've played casually at an early stage of life or maybe you've always wanted to learn. Having your child teach you can be a great way to help reinforce his or her own understanding. I've even known chess Dads to sneak study time with chess books to stay a few steps ahead of their progeny!
