2022-2023 GoFundMe for the ChessKidz

How would your children like to participate in some chess classes and chess tournaments with no cost to you?

ChessKidz GoFundMe Project

Please spread the word on the current GoFundMe project for ChessKidz children programs. Covid put a big damper on the projects, but chess will continue with your help. Simply share this with your social media, friends and local businesses. We need to create a buzz to go viral!

ChessKidz Community Support GoFundMe Campaign

2018 ISOFM Chess tournament and Summer camp

Welcome back to the one day chess tournament event. This year we have a new venue, the ChessKidz club! Please join us this year for the In Search of Future Masters tournament at the club. Other schedules and events are in the making. Keep up to date by visiting the calendar often - https://www.chesskidz.org/events/

ISOFM provides the very best way to gauge the level of the students who are part of the after school program as well as offers the opportunity to hone the skills of competition. Again, this is a non-elimination chess tournament. Participants will receive wristbands, scorebooks, pencils, pin and USCF membership renewal. This year we have decided that the winners of the scholastic section 1 and 2 will be offered free entry into the Nationals! - https://www.chesskidz.org/tournament-camp#tournaments

Summer camp is also announced for June 11-22! This is also hosted at the ChessKidz club; we hope to see you there! https://www.chesskidz.org/tournament-camp#tournaments - https://www.chesskidz.org/tournament-camp/#chesscamp

Come see the new venue and get ready for much more chess in Reno 🙂

Yours truly in chess,

ChessCoach Vernon

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2017 ISOFM Chess tournament and Summer Camp

We are really looking forward to seeing everyone again at Brookfield school. This year we have scheduled the year end tournament for June 10 and it is now a one day event.

This event provides the very best way to gauge the level of the students who are part of the after school program as well as offers the opportunity to hone the skills of competition. Again it is a non-elimination tournament for trophies!

Participants will receive wristbands, scorebooks, pencils, pin, USCF membership renewal and a chance to win a huge trophy! This year we have decided that the winners of the scholastic section 1 and 2 will be offered some travel expenses and free entry into the Nevada State Championship next year in Las Vegas!

This is of course a big deal 🙂 I really hope to see you there!

Please allow me to also invite your children to our chess summer camp at the University. We have offered two sessions that will begin the week directly following the last day of school for the public schools' balanced calendar.

Here we will study chess in depth and play quite alot. Tournaments each day with a mix of videos will keep us sharp in tactics and strategy.

The QUADZ weekly chess tournament will be running as much as possible in preparation for these events. If anyone needs to shake off the dust, let me know and I can send you the details.

Yours truly in chess,

ChessCoach Vernon

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2016 ISOFM Chess tournament and Summer camp

ChessKidz is proud to announce that the In Search of Future Masters tournament has been organized for June 3 and 4 at Brookfield School.

This is an event that is open to all the students in the Reno/Sparks area and may even see some participation from children from neighboring states.

It is a non-elimination tournament and features awards for individual and team achievements. The trophies are as big as a preschooler!

Everyone who participates gets a United States Chess Federation membership good for a year, a chess pin, wristband and scorebook.

Chess tournaments are held on almost every single weekend throughout the country and an event like ours has a value of over $130-$200. Our entry fee this year is only $25 thanks to a grant provided by DEW Foundation. Because of this, there are 200 sponsored spots available for this price!

Other tournaments require the kids and parents to provide their own chess clocks, boards, pieces, scorebooks and USCF annual memberships. There is no other single tournament in the entire country who is providing what we are bringing to this tournament. We want to make it as easy as possible for the kids to come and experience chess here in local Nevada.

Please share this with everyone you know. We hope for a very successful, exciting and fun event for the children.

ISOFM tournament flyer

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Famous Chess Quotes

“When you see a good move, look for a better one”
(Emanuel Lasker)

“The Pin is mightier than the sword”
(Fred Reinfeld)

“We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for sacrifices is part of a Chessplayer's nature”
(Rudolf Spielman)

“All I want to do, ever, is just play Chess”
(Bobby Fischer)

“A win by an unsound combination, however showy, fills me with artistic horror”
(Wilhelm Steinitz)

“Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation”
(Max Euwe)

“I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves”
(Bobby Fischer)

“Modern Chess is too much concerned with things like Pawn structure. Forget it, Checkmate ends the game”
(Nigel Short)

“Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events”
(Benjamin Franklin)

“I give 98 percent of my mental energy to Chess. Others give only 2 percent”
(Bobby Fischer)

“Chess is no whit inferior to the violin, and we have a large number of professional violinists”
(Mikhail Botvinnik)

“Only the player with the initiative has the right to attack”
(Wilhelm Steinitz)

“The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake”
(Savielly Tartakover)

“Your body has to be in top condition. Your Chess deteriorates as your body does. You can't separate body from mind”
(Bobby Fischer)

“Of Chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not Chess”
(William Ewart Napier)

“Life is like a game of Chess, changing with each move”
(Chinese proverb)

“You cannot play at Chess if you are kind-hearted”
(French Proverb)

“The Pawns are the soul of the game”
(Francois Andre Danican Philidor)

“In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else, for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame”
(Jose Raul Capablanca)

“Chess is mental torture”
(Garry Kasparov)

“Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine”
(Spielmann)

A new ChessKidz look

As our first recent blog post we at ChessKidz believe that it would be fitting to announce that DEW Foundation made it possible for this amazing new website. We want to say thank you very much for helping us further the mission of promoting chess as a technique for lifelong learning!

They have done this by updating one of the most important technological mediums allowing us to stay in contact with everyone involved. Thank you for the updated website!!

For more information on DEW Foundation and their mission, please visit www.dewfoundation.org

Also, thanks to Tango Studios www.tangostudios.com who designed & developed the new website.

This site provides a much cleaner and organized experience than before. Please feel free to click away and enjoy browsing to find out more about our organization.

Some Benefits of Chess

Life-skills Learned from a Game: Children enjoy their leisure time with activities that are easily available. Teachers, parents, and other family influences encourage children to participate in programs that provide benefits to his or her learning and development. So what kind of activity is easily available and provides developmental benefits? The answer is chess! Chess is multi-faceted in helping children learn life-skills. Many of the key effects of playing chess should be analyzed by anyone interested in helping youngsters learn more efficiently and enjoyably. Your findings will probably lead you to realize that children need solid pastimes in a world of Playstation and Nintendo.

Learning can be Fun: Ask any person who has a passion for a game if their pastime is enjoyable. Their answer will be “yes!” of course. However, chess is much different from just any game. Becoming involved in a chess game can increase the players IQ. Imagine the effect of children becoming seriously involved in games of chess repeatedly. They would naturally score higher on science, math, language, and many other tests. A case study that was conducted using chess teachers in elementary schools realized that “the patterning among the three groups of scores on the various tests, made at the beginning and end of the study period, point to positive changes with regard to ‘comprehension’ and ‘arithmetic’ skills in the ‘chess coaching’ group.” (Forest, Davidson, Shucksmith, and Glendinning, 2005, p.52).

A surprising benefit is that young people who play chess learn at an accelerated rate and may not have any idea that learning is one of the benefits of playing. He or she may simply be trying to have fun, which comes naturally for a child who sits down to enjoy a game. Some youngsters play for the feel of the heavy weighted chess piece in their small hand, ready to wage large-scale war on an eight-by-eight chessboard, never realizing that life-skills will be enhanced during this time of battle against an opponent. In effect, he or she becomes more open to learning new subjects, and retains an open mind concerning the learning process. However, this is not the only effect that chess has on children.

Concentration: Being very competitive, some children are willing to concentrate very hard to win a game of chess. The ability to calculate the possible outcomes is learned with experience over the game board, and this will help children deal with the consequences of their actions. One researcher explains, “Clearly, one crucial lesson all young people must learn is to think before they act. Chess teaches this skill in an authentic way: every move in chess has consequences, and successful players must learn to anticipate these consequences many moves in advance. An opponent’s expected response is what guides the player’s decision to make or avoid a certain move” (Kennedy, 2004).

Imagine a child who is putting fervent effort into beating an adult opponent. He is concentrating, his eyes are wide, and he is intent on winning – checkmate! The child is victorious. This young person would have learned that concentration and focus directly relate to winning and losing. He also would gain self-esteem having overcome an adult at “a game of wits”, as chess is often perceived to be. A victory like this enables a person to understand the true value in giving one’s full effort. This person can excel in elementary school as well as college using these skills, applying them to daily life while working with the people who they come into contact with.

Social Development: Chess is a very social game. It requires two people to sit and exchange moves over a chessboard and interact with each other physically, intellectually, and psychologically. This allows a player to make new friends who share a common interest. To interact efficiently, one might find the need to increase his or her vocabulary with chess terms or learn a new language entirely. Robert (Bobby) Fischer, 11th world chess champion, taught himself the Russian language to keep up-to-date with the latest chess theories at the age of 15. Though not all players would go to this extreme to interact socially, the chess player is more likely than the non-player to be involved in clubs and social activities. The smell of the vinyl chessboard, the sound of the ticking chess clock, the sight of the different types of chessmen are all senses that are shared by the chess players and inspire them to play. Children are mesmerized by the ancient game and are willing to harness the skills needed to succeed at it. Success is important for young people because they grow up to become adults with careers and lives of their own.

Career and Life: Each adult can remember the key activities that helped them learn the skills that they possess today. Would you have liked to learn chess as a child? Can you see the benefits that chess can instill as a learning device? The child who enjoys learning, can concentrate well and has outstanding social skills will become a very prosperous adult. Career wise, they can finish school achieving high scores on exams, graduate with a degree, and move on to starting a career which they will find fulfilling. "Chess-play assists the learning of 'how to learn' and creates a desire, alongside increased motivation and the will to use knowledge'. This initiative has made a significant difference to classroom life, family circumstances and community development." (Aberdeen City Council, 2005) The child that learned chess will see the win or lose effect in life because the chess player is very good at setting goals. Therefore, he or she will work hard to fulfill the necessary tasks to reach the plotted goals in career and education. The minds of those who play chess can focus in on life like the tuning of binoculars to see a far away object. It is our job to help children pick up these life-skills and use them.

Conclusion: Making educated choices on what activities should be supported in the community is easier when you weigh the benefits that are offered against the costs. There is little to no cost in allowing, supporting and promoting this intellectual activity within the community. Chess offers a vast assortment of effects, all of which can contribute to a skilled and developed person. Would you like to enable children to become better learners? Whether you are a teacher, parent, principal, or any other person who has the possibility of influencing the learning process, keep the benefits of chess in mind when you are looking for an activity to present to youngsters.

References:
Aberdeen City Council (2005). Huge benefits for young chess players. Retrieved August
26, 2005, from the Chess Scotland website:
http://www.chessscotland.com/archives/abcity2005.htm
Forest, D., Davidson, I., Shucksmith, J., and Glendinning, T. (January 2005). Chess
development in Aberdeens’s primary schools: A study of literacy and social capital,
48-52. Retrieved August 26, 2005, from the Scottish Executive Research website:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Research/Research/14478/21999
Kennedy, Mark (August, 2004). More than a game, eight transition lessons chess teaches,
¶7. Retrieved August 26, 2005, from Cyc-Online website:
http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0804-chess.html.

The Amateur’s Mind

If your rating is anywhere from 1000 to 1900 you can find some value in working through The Amateur’s Mind by IM Jeremy Silman for a guide to improving your play. The main ideas are much like his book Reassess Your Chess, but this work has more material dealing with some of the thought processes and emotions that the amateur deals with during a game.

He sets up several rules and has his usual list of 7 imbalances – Minor Piece, Pawn Structure, Space, Material, Files and Squares and Development. He also includes rules to exploit advantages that may arise out of those imbalances. What is interesting about this book is that Silman uses his knowledge and experience as a chess instructor/trainer and includes the thought process from annotations written by his students during their exposure to positions that have a specific theme or idea that he wants to make clear.

In this way the reader can question him/her-self as to what they think about the position before reading on to see if any misconceptions or incorrect thinking patterns will occur, maybe matching that of the amateur’s mind. Some common problems are unearthed and Silman tries to show a recurring theme. After every main example he includes some tips for the amateur player to help with the corrections to the thought process that lead to inaccuracies.

If I had to write a theoretical statement to expound Silman’s main point (aside from the idea that he wants you to recognize and use his list of imbalances), it would be “it seems that the amateur is plagued by mindless king attacks and reactions to the opponents ideas and this action is possibly caused by a mental dominance by the opposing party that is allowed instead of combated”. In other words, the main point that Silman strives to make with this book is to follow your own plans to the best of your ability (and have plans!!). Base these plans on concrete concepts that can be found within the position.

I find that many players out there are looking for a methodical checklist or approach to thinking about positions. I have been working on my personal method for several years now and Silman surely offers an integral idea that every player should include in his/her method. That fundamental principal is that every single move should aid in improving your position somehow making it better. If you have no method at all, follow these three tips in the least:

1. Ask yourself “what is the threat?” after every single move that your opponent has chosen and played. Be sure to do this every time you have the move.
2. Make every single move count as stated above in bold. Play as if this is the only time that you will ever get to play that particular game - because it is!
3. Blunder check to avoid big trouble before moving. This will save you many hardships over the board and sidestep many heartaches and headaches.

Learn to Lose Well

I recently read an old book titled Bringing Out the Best in People by Alan Loy McGinnis and it made me think a lot about what motivated me to want to spend a lifetime digging into analysis and research on a topic so obscure as chess. Being that I am a student and practitioner of business management, I was cruising along enjoying a book on how to better motivate people around me and my eyes were immediately halted from coasting mode when I saw the word chess. The paragraph that engulfed my attention is the following:

“Watch to see where a child’s innate skills or talents lie
 then gently lead or coax him or her into those areas. It may be difficult for a father who was a crack athlete to understand a son who would rather play chess than football. But chess, not football, is what such a boy needs if confidence is to grow in him. If he does one thing well he will come to believe that he can do other things well.”

The last sentence reminded me that the main motivating factor avalanching into the force that drives my subsistence is the belief that I can accomplish goals that I set for myself. If you find that you can do something and that the result is better than satisfactory, you may be inclined to give your best effort for other tasks. When I found that one of my favorite things in the world is to play a game of chess well, I found that it was also possible to finish high school and move on to higher education with decent grades. Goal after goal has been set and attained and the inspiration to live life better was found in a complicated game designed to exercise the mind.

Another very interesting section of the book discusses the art of failure. Recently I examined this same issue in another book titled What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 by Tina Seelig. I had never considered the power that failure can have on a person or questioned what drives someone to seek more punishment with another failure before smashing through the barricades on the path to success until these two books had maneuvered their way into my library. Some people get a taste of failure and choose paths in life to avoid the possibility of future failures as much as possible. On the other hand, some of the most successful people have actively sought the paths that are difficult, failed to reach their goal, learned from their mistakes and eventually trudged onward to the spotlight of victory and triumph. It all depends on attitude and the ability to cope with failure. This short video on success through failure gives some examples of success in the bay area by startups and internet companies.

The truth is that failures make us much stronger in so many ways. It can help us sharpen a skill, teach us the importance of determination or make us reminiscent of some needed humility. The best advice that chess coaches give on a regular basis is to analyze ones games to clear up any incorrect thinking or blunders to help refrain from future failures and chess players experience failure on a constant basis! In business, life or chess, will you flee from past and possible failure or will you show good will for the learning process by learning from your mistakes with the intent to accumulate and realize more failures? One of my favorite quotes comes from Vinnie in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer “He didn't teach you how to win, he taught you how not to lose. That's nothing to be proud of. You're playing not to lose, Josh. You've got to risk losing. You've got to risk everything. You've got to go to the edge of defeat. That's where you want to be, boy - on the edge of defeat.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnZObWCz0as&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Think Like a Grandmaster

Alexander Kotov said in his book Think Like a Grandmaster, a grandmaster must:

1: Be well up in modern opening theory.

2: He must know and keep in his memory the principles behind typical middle game positions learned from both games of his own and from those of other players. The more you know and remember, the easier it is to strike upon the correct plan. Learn variations and calculate candidate moves.

3: A grandmaster must be able to assess a position accurately and correctly.

4: A grandmaster must hit upon the correct plan in any given position.

5: A grandmaster must be able to calculate accurately and quickly all the significant variations that may arise.

TIPS: Find candidate moves, analyse, and learn speed of analysis to achieve your greatest potential/opportunities.

Think about moves from a static (body at rest) and then dynamic (body in motion). At a glance know the pieces and pawns on the board. Which opening has this position arisen?

Work on pawn structure, open files, diagonals, and outposts.

Have I ever reached this position before? Have I ever seen similar positions? Hit upon the correct plan.

Solve the problem of who stands better.

Find the strengths and weaknesses of both respective positions.

What is the influence of the center? Who will defend and who will attack? The best answer to a flank attack is a blow in the center.

If the position is quiet or equal, you must maneuver quietly to provoke weaknesses in the enemy camp.

Cross your opponent’s plans if possible. Monkey wrench his plans.