My Chess Champion! . . .

This is my chess champion.  A champion because he's come from winning 0 matches at a tournament to winning 4 out of 5 matches at a tournament.  (In just 4 tournaments)  He's now qualified for the elementary State champion tournament in Seattle.  He's a champion at heart and in mind.  He's a great sport and has such a positive attitude even when he doesn't win.

It's no accident that my little guy did so well last Saturday.  During Christmas break I found a chess mentor for him.  The Scientist was able to have 5 lessons and 7 hours worth of instruction.  He was taught stratagies for his end game, four rules to always remember in each game and chess notation.  The chess mentor gave the Scientist the goal of notating 3 games and in return he would earn a candy bar of his choice.  The Scientist notated 4 out of 5 games and won the games he notated.  This earned him 4 points and put him in 3rd place for his age group.  His trophy is still struggling to get from the East coast storms to the West coast for delivery.  A week later and we still haven't received a call that it's arrived.

Notating kept him focused... very focused.  So focused that it kind of drove the other kids crazy.  One boy had to get up and walk circles around his chair when the match had gone past 25 minutes.  Another boy started looking everywhere but the chess board after 30 minutes.   Those kids became distracted and loss the match.

Chess is a level playing field.  You have to bring your mind and body to each match.  Check out mentally or physically and you are done.  Game over.  A bit like parenting.