Susan Polgar National Open

Daniel and I went to the Susan Polgar National Open in Arizona this past weekend, and Daniel won the 1st place in the boys K-2 section. I am so proud of him. (Here are some photos).

We came as a team representing Norcal House of Chess, and overall the team did extremely well. There were 7 kids in the team (boys K-2, girls K-2, and girls 3-5), and we were fortunate to win many trophies both individually and for the club.

More importantly, you could really feel a team spirit. One of the most fun things about scholastic chess tournaments is the team (or club) trophy. For kids at this age, getting a trophy is very very important. Even if some individual players on the team will not get an individual trophy, they continue “fighting” until the very end of the tournament so that they can contribute to winning the team trophy. Working as a team towards a common goal — that is a wonderful lesson for life.

It was a weekend I’ll never forget.

 

2010 – Year in Review

Inspired by Seth Godin’s blog post, I wanted to post my own list of “what did you ship in 2010”. Seth is absolutely correct in saying “shipping something that scares you (and a lot of what follows did) is the entire point.”

(If you don’t know what I mean by “shipping” – get Seth’s book Linchpin now; I highly recommend it)

So here goes:

  1. Launched my blog: achessdad
  2. Organized the new chess club at our local school with bayareachess.
  3. Played my first chess tournament (alongside my son), followed by several others during the year. This led to my blog post “put yourself in their shoes” which is about understanding what your kids are going through in a tournament.

And on the non-chess side:

  1. Left Yahoo! and joined Nor1 (yes, back to the startup world)
  2. Launched my first iPhone App: Running Late

I didn’t do this all by myself. I could not do this without the tremendous help and support from my family and friends. Thank you all!

What did you ship in 2010? don’t be shy…

Happy new year!

Annoyances…

You play a beautiful opening; you now have the initiative, control space, maybe even up a piece, and then it happens. Your opponent shakes the board, makes a strange noise, or even says something negative about your last move that just makes you mad. You get completely annoyed at the whole thing, lose focus, and within 3-4 moves you make a blunder, and continue to lose the game.

The rules of chess say: “A player may not distract or annoy another player by any means.” but in many cases you just don’t know if it’s ok to complain, or choose not to; even if this was not intentional, you still lose focus. The damage has been done.

For children starting up in chess, annoyances are quite common, and not easy to handle.

So how do you deal with this? There are tactical tricks like: always imagine you’re playing against a computer, and just look at the board – not at your opponent.  But it’s easier to say than follow.

At the end of the day, the best plan is just – “make a great move!”; seeing your opponent in trouble will bring back your focus in an instant. Trust me – it works!

The same plan is quite useful in our daily lives. Someone annoys you at work or at school; don’t be frustrated, instead just do something great. Right then and there. I promise – it will make you happy, bring back focus, and you won’t even know why you got so annoyed.

Starting up in chess

Many parents have recently asked me: “I want to get my kid started in chess, but I don’t know how. What would you recommend?”

I’m certainly not an expert, but here are some things I’ve found useful:

  1. Chess camps: Daniel’s first summer camp was with bayareachess, and it really got him going great. Later on, he also participated in more advanced camps. “Chess camp for chess champs” with his coach Ted Castro was really great. There are many chess summer camps in the bay area, and it’s a great way to get started.
  2. Books: There are so many books on chess, it’s very difficult to choose the good ones without some guidance. FIDE recently published its recommended books list, which should be an excellent resource. Personally, I really liked is Silman’s Complete Endgame Course.
  3. Computer Software. Using computer software is great. It’s a very engaging way to learn chess and kids love it. For beginners, I really liked Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster. After you learn the basic moves, getting a copy of Chessmaster: The Art of Learning (or Chessmaster 9000 if you have a mac) is really worthwhile. Other software that I heard is good (but have not personally used): Deep Fritz 12, Deep Rybka 4, and Shredder 12.
  4. Websites. There are many websites where you can play online, and learn about chess. ICC is very well known, but I find the interface out-dated and not very kid friendly. chess.com is nicer. There are many others. The USCF and FIDE websites are great resources for tournaments and news about chess. Locally to the bay area — I like Calchess.org.

I hope this is helpful. If there are other useful resources you know of, please share.

What are you afraid of?

“Fear is the mind killer!” — this famous incantation used by the Bene Gesserit in Dune, turns out to also be helpful in chess. (oh, while I’m thinking of Dune and chess: wouldn’t it be nice if I could use some spice to be Precient?)

Fear of the opponent plays a significant role in the psychology of chess. This fear typically manifests itself as belief that the opponent is “better” given his rating, age, height or even looks. Then, when you make a mistake or reach a position where your opponent has the advantage, all these fears come up again, leading to even more mistakes and blunders.

Naturally, this fear is common with kids but it exists at any age or level of play. With adult players, fear is subtler, but it’s still there. It’s not easy to recognize this fear and overcome it, but sometimes it’s crucial to your success.

This type of fear is common in many other competitive situations, from personal achievement to business success. Take the movie The Karate Kid – Can Daniel LaRusso overcome his fear of Johnny Lawrence (who is larger and better trained) and beat him in the final round of the karate tournament?

The Bene Gesserit‘s incantation continues with “I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.” Try that the next time you sense fear creeping in and holding you back from being successful — in chess or in anything else you do.

Ambition!

The other day my son said “I’m going to be world champion in chess!”
I was quite amazed at his conviction – It was not really a question, more an observation.

My first thought was: wow, that’s great.

Then, I felt the need to protect him — isn’t this too ambitious? What would happen if he finds out it’s too difficult to climb that mountain?

But I felt that this instinct to “protect” is wrong. It’s really a “learned behavior” for us adults; over the years, with more responsibilities we tend to become risk averse; we avoid taking on really big challenges, and thus don’t fail very often.

This is exactly what Seth Godin describes in his book Linchpin – our lizard-brain trying to stop us from taking risks, and drives us to seek safety.

I think we should be more ambitious every day; take on big challenges and make life more interesting. So I said to my son: “wow, I really think you can. I will help you get there.”

So I urge you: take on a new big challenge today. You won’t regret it.

Put yourself in their shoes

I love participating in Scholastic Chess tournaments (alongside my son); first, I don’t have to wait outside the game room, anxious and helpless, trying to predict whether my son will win or lose; instead I can be in the same room and I get to see him from across the board;   second, I get to play chess and improve my own skills in the process; maybe even get some rating points; and third, and not less important, it is a rather humbling experience to get beat-up by 7-8 year olds; I always find it refreshing for my point of view on the world.

Today I took my son to a local chess tourney at bayareachess, where “chess parents” are allowed (I would even say “encouraged”) to play with the kids, so I jumped on the occasion. The kids I played against were really good and I really enjoyed every game;  by the end of the day I felt completely exhausted.

We, parents, have a tendency to stand on the sidelines, and give advise to our kids after each game: “why did you give up the queen like this?” or “didn’t you see what he was planning?”; today’s experience reminded me how difficult it really is to play in these tournaments, and how “putting yourself in their shoes” periodically is valuable — it gives  you a whole new perspective on how to be helpful to your son or daughter.

This, I think, is also true for many other aspects of life. When providing advise, put yourself in the receiving end, if you can, and I guarantee your advise will become exponentially more valuable.

Hello world!

I’ve recently read Kasparov’s book How Life Imitates Chess.

As a father to a young chess player, I feel I am on a journey; and on this journey I’m learning much about chess, but more importantly how to be a great father, and a better person.

I am starting this blog to document my journey. I don’t yet know where it will take me, but I am certain it will be fun and interesting. See you on the road.