Frequently Asked Questions:
Who
produced this site?
What
is CalChess Youth Chess.org?
What
is the CalChess State Scholastic Championships?
Who
decides the rules for the scholastic and junior chess tournaments in CalChess?
How
do I prepare my child for a chess tournament?
Is
there anything else I need to know about entering a scholastic chess tournament?
Are
there any resources I can use to begin a chess club or team at my child's school?
What
resources are available for a beginning chess coach?
At
what age is chess notation (writing the chess game) required?
Where
can I learn how to notate?
Is
it true that learning chess will help my child in school?
I (Alan Kirshner) take full responsibility for the design, the organization and everything else related to these pages.I swiped my own photograph for the top banner and played with the heading design in photoshop. The logo was my manipulation of a few graphics I located. The site was produced using Dreamweaver MX on my Mac with a bit of my knowledge of html. I have selected what to use and decided what to say. I take blame for all that offends--of course, being originally from New York, offending is a reality of my culture. :0)
What is CalChess Youth Chess.org?
The United States Chess Federation divides California into two states. Northern California, from Fresno north to the border of Oregon, is called California Chess(CalChess). When I took over from Ray Orwig as the Northern California State Scholastic Director in 1996, I decided to create a website dedicated to chess in our state. I proceeded to name it CalChessScholastics.org. I preferred to refer to myself as CalChess Scholastic Director instead of the official title: Northern California Scholastic Director. When I left my post with CalChess numerous individuals asked me to continue providing the services I had at my website as they missed seeing the current material I had provided. I did not want to confuse anyone who identified my CalChessScholastics.org with my official post as CalChess Scholastic Chair. I had also mentioned in my October 2003 newsletter that I would be retiring the CalChessScholastic.org site as Ray Orwig, the new/old CalChess Scholastic Chair, selected not to continue the site. I looked for a name that was reflective of our state and youth chess that separated my service to the Northern California scholastic chess community from CalChess.
I am solely responsible for this website. I run it in my capacity as President of Success Chess Schools, a non-profit corporation. It is produced for the benefit of scholastic players in Northern California. Anything posted here is done without the authority of the Northern California (CalChess) Board of Directors. CalNorthYouthChess.org is not affiliated with any other organization besides Success Chess School and has been registered as a "Service Mark" with the California Secretary of State and a copyright for this website has been applied for with the U.S. Copyright Office.
What is the CalChess State Scholastic Championships?
In 1976, the Board of Directors of Northern California authorized a State Championship for all the schools in our state. Ray Orwig, as State Chair, took over the responsibility for that tournament in 1985. He maintained the name the Northern California State Championships even though the Board of Directors officially took the name CalChess in 1990. When Ray resigned his post as the Chair in 1995, the Board of Directors asked me to become the head of scholastics and run the Northern California Championships. I made the decision to re-name the competition the CalChess State Scholastics Championships. This name fit the scope of the meet and provided more prestige to the tournament. The CalChess State Scholastic Championships is one of two meets run under the auspices of the Board of Directors as the name suggests. The other is the open CalChess Championships held over the Labor Day weekend. During my tenure as organize from 1995 to 2000, the championship grew from around 400 player to nearly 1100. While I enjoyed running the tournament, I decided I was spending a disproportionate amount of my time over the year between meets to be sure everything ran smoothly. The tournament is now put out to bid by CalChess and anyone is welcome to submit their application to be the organizer. You can learn more about this procedure at http://www.CalChess.org, the official site of our state organization.
Who decides the rules for the scholastic and junior chess tournaments in CalChess?
The United States Chess Federation sets the rules for chess. They define junior tournaments as 19 and under and scholastic as pertaining to players in schools. A coaches meeting, under the direction of the Scholastic Chair, has the responsibility of setting the procedures for the CalChess State Scholastics Championships. At the 2001 States, a committee was appointed to try and gather these procedures that have never been placed in one single document and suggest revisions to the coaches and the Board of Directors. At the 2002 States, the committee issued its report and the coaches present at the meeting approved the more formal regulations.
How do I prepare my child for a chess tournament?
Check out this article:
A
Chess Coach's View of Competitive Chess
By
Kevin L. Bachler
"If your child is just embarking into the world of competitive chess, if
she or he is thinking about playing in that first Saturday tournament, then
you, as a parent or a coach, need to prepare yourself as well. For most
children, especially those in K-3, a chess tournament will be different than
any other sporting event in which they have participated. . . ."
After reading that short article, I suggest going to the U.S. Chess Center's A Chess Primer for Parents.
Is there anything else I need to know about entering a scholastic chess tournament?
I am happy to say that the Illinois Chess Association has developed an excellent Guide for Parents that you can download from their site. Granted, a few issues pertain to their state, but these you can overlook. Their work saves me a lot of time and energy. Kudos to the Co-Chess Elementary and Junior High Chess Coaches' Association.
Are there any resources I can use to begin a chess club or team at my child's school?
I would begin your search with the U.S. Chess Federation's A Guide to Scholastic Chess. You should then go to the Weibel Elementary School Chess site. There you will find links to an article on the success of that program and many other resources. If you have any further questions, e-mail me at Alan@CalNorthYouthChess.org.
What resources are available for a beginning chess coach?
Head for the Coaches Corner--a valuable resource supplied by Dr. Robert Ferguson.
At what age is chess notation (writing the chess game) required?
While the US Chess Federation does not set a minimum age, the Guidelines for Scholastic Nationals requires that those children in the championship sections from fourth grade through sixth grade notate. All seventh grade through twelfth grade players must notate. I might note here that notation is only required for chess games that have time controls longer than 30 minutes.
Where can I learn how to notate?
http://www.geocities.com/chess_camp/how_to_read_and_write_chess.html
http://www.uschess.org/beginners/read/index.html
http://members.aol.com/manusfealy/ch44.htm
Is it true that learning chess will help my child in school?
I am not sure the final answer is in on that one. I personally believe that the method used by Success Chess Schools, the program I run in nearly 70 schools,does. The SCS program emphasizes the relationship between chess and academic learning. I have designed the curriculum as an educator--43 years,including training and supervising teachers at the university level. I insist that our students all have their own sets so they can be interactive with the lessons. After a few months our students begin writing their games and analyzing their moves. Team members are asked to place their games with annotations in a computer program. I cannot help but believe as an educator that this analytical approach with hands on involvement will improve student performance. All our instructors, from those that have never played in tournaments to our Senior Masters and FIDE Masters, are required to keep their students engaged through interaction with the individual chess sets SCS provides.
And without the
commercial--a few scholarly studies have found a
correlation between chess and academic learning: Download
in pdf format a summary of 14 research projects that show how playing chess
helps children with their school work.
