Much to my surprise and delight, Liam joined the local chess club a while ago. The club organizer had done a recruiting round at Liam’s school and he decided it was for him. So every Friday he has been off at the club learning to play chess for a while now. All things considered, I think he is doing pretty well. He knows how all the pieces move and capture each other, he understands castling. His main problem is lacking any real foresight or strategy, he does not think enough about the consequences of his moves, but hey he started playing as a six year old so that is understandable.
Last weekend was the end of year chess tournament for the region and Liam was very keen ton compete. He had it in his head that he could win a trophy and that was a big appeal to him. He was going to compete in the group for grade 1+2 kids which had 15 contestants. We arrived at the Altingen Gemeindehaus bright and early Saturday morning and checked in.
Liam started out quite well, winning his first game. He was very proud of this victory. The referee only had to get involved twice because one or the other of the kids had made an illegal move, or not understood something about the rules. Not too bad for a couple of first graders.
The second game was heartbreaking for me. Liam played very well in the beginning and midgame, and on at least 3 occasions, it was mate in one for him, but he did not see it and made some costly mistakes instead. He allowed the other guy to come back and eventually beat him. At this point I decided to stop watching the games so closely but just stand back and wait for the results. It is too psychologically painful to watch your kids make errors and not be able to offer any help. I did not want to unintentionally influence him with my body language or expressions either, that would not be fair.
Because the division was mixed grade 1+2, his next couple of games were against older kids, and he did not manage to win them either. He got pretty upset once he realized that he was not going to have any chance at finishing in the top 3. In the end he finished in 8th place of 15, and was the second highest of the grade 1 kids. This is a result I think he should still be proud of even if there is not a trophy attached to it. I told him if he wants a trophy next year, he has a whole year to practice and get better. Next summer, he will have the age advantage and hopefully will be able to get the coveted hardware.
Group photo of all the winners from the 1+2 and the 3+4 groups.
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