Chess?

[spotty_dog]

After about a year's break my son is in another chess phase. Chess with Friends wasn't a great option, so now we're on ChessKid.com. If anyone has an elementary kiddo who'd like to play against DS7, it could be fun!

[GrayMatterWife]

I'll ask DS9, He LOVES to play! We have not used ChessKid. I'll look it up! Do you guys used ChessMagnet? LOVE THAT.

[spotty_dog]

Cool, thanks for the recommendation! Like I said, we only *just* got back in, so he's reviewing what he used to know from his Garry Kasparov book and setting puzzles up for himself, plus playing the Dinosaur Chess teaching app on my iPad. We're debating buying a membership at ChessKid ($27 through Homeschool Buyers' Co-op, to which I feel justified because I do so much home education), which would let him view instructional videos and play teaching puzzles to his little heart's content. However, an actual course of study looks pretty great too!

If you sign up on ChessKid, PM me your son's username. The site is set up to protect kids' privacy, so both users have request each other by name without any outside contact, before they can list each other as friends to start games and use the chat feature.

[Sheherezade]

My son plays constantly on Chess.com, but he's 17. If they ever startup on that site, as they get older, let me know! DS is chess addicted these days.

[Momo]

So are any of your kids rated, ie play in officially sanctioned tournaments?? If so what are their ratings? All four of mine play. They are only in elementary school and their ratings range from 100 to 486? We just started tournament play this year.


Angie, my cocky 11 yr old, expressed interest in playing your "big kid." PM me on FB, if he'd be intrested in humoring a 5th grade boy who us desperate for more of a challenge, than his siblings seem to provide.We are working on doing complete notations, of every game...that way, their coach can assess the game and give pointers.

[Sheherezade]

My DS's Chess.com ratings are in the 1400s for regular and blitz play. It's controversial how that converts to standard IRL tournament ratings; some say they are artificially higher or lower depending on the study. Chess.com gets a lot of international players and typically U.S. players are worse, so the international element might make it harder to "level up" in the ratings. That said, face to face play is a different animal. Online, you get issues like a connection timing out or lagging during your times turn that effect outcomes.

I replied to you on FB, Suzanne!

[spotty_dog]

ChessKid is an offshoot of Chess.com, so it has a similar estimated rating. DS hasn't played enough for his rating to make any sense, so I'll report back when he has.

[spotty_dog]

Well, we have signed up for the free trial of chessmagnetschool.com. DS is intrigued by the idea of having progressive lessons, but we couldn't quite figure it out. We did manage to get through the program's "rating test", which scored him as a 967. However, he makes a lot more silly mistakes in actual games than in puzzles, so I'm sure his tournament rating would be much much lower.

[spotty_dog]

No takers? Well, if anyone has any advice about finding the good chess resources, I am all ears. DS is desperate to improve and starting to get frustrated. He wants a chess school like they have in abundance in the big city, but of course there's nothing like that within an hour of our sleepy town. I told him we'll consider a summer camp, and in the meantime we're looking into what we can do online and if we want to find him a coach or club.

Angie, does your son use the training program on chess.com, Chess Mentor? Or does he have a school club?

[Thirteen]

I just asked DH today if he would teach me how to play. Maybe I can be a contender soon!


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[spotty_dog]

Yay! When DS got interested, I only knew how to move the pieces. Now the rest of the family has started learning alongside him and it's actually pretty fun to start recognizing the intricacy of the game, appreciate the World Championship games, etc.

[Sheherezade]

The new chess champ is kind of dreamy too.... Maybe it will bring in some more girl players. Or at least, moms.

[spotty_dog]

I found a thread on chess.com that featured girls talking about his most desirable features...it included a topless photo. Oh, my. Did you know his real first name is Sven? I'm not even kidding.

[Sheherezade]

He posted the shirtless in the pool - half tux thing on Twitter after he won. He's very good at self promotion...methinks.


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