Homeschool Cool!

Both boys have gotten VERY into chess over the last few months. They're practicing everyday, and challenging Johan every night. They have even beat him a few times. They don't even bother to play me anymore...I can't beat them. Johan has started to teach them how to take chess notation. Both boys participated in their first chess tournament in the fall. The competitive element of tournaments and the chance to win $$$ has really encouraged them. Both boys have done extremely well at tournaments. C won his first tournament and now, for tournaments later, has a national ranking of over 1000.

This weekend we attended the "For the Love of Chess" Tournament at Ponderosa Middle School. It was a work weekend for Johan. These tournaments have sort of become his thing with the boys. He inserted himself into the organization of the first tournament, thank goodness! If it hadn't been for his common sense approach the day would have been a few hours longer. The tournament this past weekend was a quad style competition. This means that the boys are placed into a quad of similarly ranked players, 6 players per quad. Each person plays everyone in their quad one time. This becomes a long, long day. One point is awarded for each win, 1/2 point for each draw, and nothing for a loss. Both boys ranked high enough that they were the youngest players in each of their respective quads by many years. They were playing against middle school students, and WINNING! (Okay, so I like winning, and I am more than a little proud of my boys...so I'll apologize ahead of time for the pretentious tone that the rest of this post is likely to take).

Spectators are not allowed to watch from anywhere near the games, for fear that overzealous parents might betray some hint of emotion that alters the outcome of the match. I can see how I may accidentally be guilty of this, so I followed the rules and watched from a safe distance. Upon finishing a game the players are responsible for setting up the pieces again for the next round. I was busy reading their body language to determine the outcome. I wasn't close enough to the action to see the play-by-play, fortunately after each match both boys would come out and replay the last 10 or 15 moves for me with their hands. I was amazed at their memory. After telling myself that I really should film this, I finally did after the third round.

Here C explains Round 3.

Here is K's instant replay.


Did you get all that? I love, love the hand talking. The videos don't do their recaps justice as they are replays of replays... Going into round 4 both boys were undefeated. C was having some trouble checking his confidence. He announced to me, "I'm invincible." I cautioned him that each round would get more difficult, and that his excitement would make it more and more difficult to play slowly and concentrate. This turned out to be very tragic foreshadowing. Unfortunately C lost his next two rounds. A valuable lesson learned. He accepted his defeat quite well, we've been working on this. He finished 2nd overall, just a 1/2 point behind the two girls who tied for 1st.

K remained undefeated after round 4. Round 5 was where he met his match. K lost his fifth round, but still finished 1st overall. The astonished looks on the faces of the other parents during the awards ceremony were priceless for this proud mom. K beat out 4 middle school students and 1 3rd grader to win the big prize money. Congratulations K!!!

K just informed me that, "Chess is not a smiling sport." "Why?" I asked. Somewhat appalled that I had to ask, he explained the obvious for my benefit, "Because it is serious." Nevertheless we are all looking forward to the regional chess competition this weekend.