Chess Tournament Time Again

FYI... I started posting this yesterday, but was pulled away. So anything that says "yesterday" was the day before, and anything that talks about "today" was yesterday. Is that imperfectly clear enough??

Spring brings baseball, birds, flowers, and other wonderful things, and amongst all those fresh new beginnings it brings chess around here. We love "chess season." Yesterday Faith played in her grade's tournament and took 3rd place. Sadly, I did not have my camera and wasn't able to attend. I am very proud of her anyway.

Today was Chet's turn. I remembered the camera and got there near the end of the first round. Chet had already put this young lady into checkmate, and they were just playing some practice games until the other teams finished up.

Tyler was there competing too. He gave it a valiant effort, but was eliminated in the next round. It is time for some "tough love" chess lessons for Tyler to encourage him to not leave all his pieces tucked into the corners. I was proud of him for competing!


The next round started, and Chet very quickly brought his next opponent face to face with checkmate.


They played some practice games while they waited for the other teams to finish their first games. Officer Riggs removed these pieces from Chet's board to give the other player a slight chance.

Playing with two knights and his pawns didn't really bother Chet, though.

He soon had two queens and put the girl into checkmate.


So for the next game, Officer Riggs removed ALL of Chet's pieces except for his king and pawns. Chess can be won with pawns, though. Let Chet demonstrate.


See... you just maintain your offense, and get a pawn or two across the board to recover a queen. Checkmate was in the near future.
That round ended, and Chet was paired with another boy who didn't really want to compete against Chet. I think he actually could have done okay if he didn't talk himself into losing before the match began. A lot of these kids don't give themselves enough credit for how well they can play if they slow down and doublecheck their boards.

Chet won that round and moved onto the final four. This is where HIS nerves began to kick in, and he let his opponent give him a run for his money. He ended up winning, and the final game was set for tomorrow morning, where he will play the boy sitting kitty corner to him. This is the boy he lost to last year, so he plans on getting lots of practice in tonight. Personally, I think he needs to worry more about not being nervous and letting it cloud his focus. Go Chet! I am so proud of you, you checkmating, can win with nothing but pawns, and be polite about it the whole way chess guru you!

Have to make this.

I am posting this here so I don't forget about it or lose track of where I saw it. All of the kids love to play chess, and this is so perfect... they can all play at once with this! I will get the pieces for this printed this week and they can keep themselves occupied with it for a while.

I have been browsing chess graphics for a kit I am working on, and I found a board version of it that I eventually want to get for Chet. Although he likes to play against the other kids, there are lots of times he enjoys jsut playing against himself. Either way, this would be a fun challenge for him.

And I happened to find this too, and thought it was pretty cool.

Here is another variant I found that I really will end up getting him. This mat will roll up and fit in the case he already has for his tournament boards, and it only costs $10. How cool is that? We are in the process of putting together an ongoing chess club in our town. This and other chess games like it would be a fun activity for the club.


I should be able to get pics of the kids up tomorrow. Matt and Faith are home in one piece. It has been a happy afternoon for all of us. We are going to Kevin and Debbie's for lunch tomorrow after church. (well later today I guess... it is late.) I guess I should drag myself to bed and get some sleep!