AboutLouis Lima Expertise I can answer questions on proper self-training and chess tactics, but feel free to ask me anything related to chess and if I cannot answer it I will tell you.
Experience I am a category A player with a FIDE rating of 1963, and a USCF rating of 1965. I have several instructional chess videos at http://www.youtube.com/chesslearning and author a review column for http://www.chesscafe.com and teach a Sunday chess class to kids at Tzu-Chi Foundation's Chinese School.
Organizations Nassau Chess Club, Queens Chess Club, Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR)
Education/Credentials Masters degree in Organizational Psychology with a specialization in Training and Development.
Awards and Honors 51st Nassau FIDE Futurity 2009 (3rd Place)
Queens July Open 2007 (1st Place)
North American Open 2005 (3rd Place in the U1600 Section)
2nd FCC Winter Swiss 2009 (3rd Place)
32nd Freeport Spring Swiss 2006 (3rd Place)
9th Queens Teams Champtionship 2009 (3rd Place)
Question I have a 91/2 yr. old son who started school chess in the fall. It's been 6 months and he has a consistent 850 rating and beats 1000k rated people. He plays Chess everyday and thinks it's funny when I'm down a ton of game pieces...he takes over the game and wins. Is this normal?
He practices with adults per his grade school coach. Recently, he had me watch a copy of "searching for Bobby Fischer"...I almost died! That is so our homelife. Due to this, we tried another Chess Group this Sat. This group has mostly 1300-2400 rating people which is a big jump.
How do I know what I'm looking at? I've watched my son vs. the other kids in grade school. They don't jump from starting out to beating 1000k people in 6 months.
april
Answer Dear April,
Below is my own opinion to your question. However, I do not have experience with children and chess (Other than teaching chess to my daughter who turns 4 next month). I am just trying to become a Chess Expert (Elo rating of 2000). For this reason, I'd like to recommend for you to contact Laura Sherman and ask her the same question, see what she thinks. Laura and her husband specialize in teaching chess to children and have a free newsletter. Maybe they have some advice for you. We recently hook up online and she gave me some coaching tips for my daughter. They also have a free newsletter. You can reach her at laura@yourchesscoach.com and their website is www.yourchesscoach.com
As for my own opinion...
As you might imagine, we all think our children are absolute geniuses and beyond perfection. A starting rating of 850 seems normal to me. Most players of around that age start with ratings from 350-850, and depending on natural talent and coaching they get stronger. Some, of course, have no aptitude for the game so they stay in the low 500's. I just played Anthony Cortese recently. I think he is nine years old and just reached 1681. Anthony just won a big junior state championship in NY. He started off at about a rating of 935, took an interest in the game and has been making steady progress. Your son has a grade coach and it is obvious that he has interest in the game, so I am sure his own interest alone will take him much further than his current rating. (more important, as long as he is having fun!)- I'd be happy to contact Cortese's parents and have them give you a call or e-mail you. They are really nice people. I am sure they would be happy to share their experiences with you. Just kindly e-mail me directly at louis.lima@yahoo.com with your e-mail contact and I'll pass it on to them.
The rating fluctuations can be extreme in the 300-1000 rating range. It is very common to see a huge increase in rating, say 100-150 points after a good tournament performance. However, as one climbs into the 1400's, 1500's etc, or as players begin to reach their own plateau (that plateau where each player's natural ability and knowledge reach its peak) then the increments are small. What I am trying to say is that it seems normal for an 850 to beat 1000's - no much difference in the ratings at that stage (in my opinion) If he was say, 1400 and was beating 1600's then that becomes more unusual, etc.
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask me any questions, or contact me at louis.lima@yahoo.com - I also join a monthly coaching session and three folks on my study group currently teach children, so I can always ask them any specific questions you might have and see what they think.
