Dr. Chess: Question & Answer

by Dr. David Leo Stefurak © 2002
 

What, why, where, and how of scholastic tournament play

The role of quiet and silence

Steps to improve chess study

1.  Dr. Chess:  The what, why, where and how of scholastic tournament play for beginning and continuing tournament-going students and their parents.

Question:  Could you please explain the what, why, where and how of scholastic tournament play for beginning and continuing tournament-going students and their parents?

Answer:  Chess tournaments are pro-family, pro-social and pro-educational gatherings of students who share a common interest actively engaged in pursuing their sport.  Chess tournaments are akin to track meets where student athletes (here mental athletes) compete in sequential games throughout the day to determine a set of champions. Scholastic chess tournaments in the Northwest are typically organized by a group of parents (at a given host school) and are played at a host school which has a well functioning chess club. Most scholastic chess tournaments are played during the scholastic chess season lasting from October through April.  Over the years, some tournaments have become standard-bearers and are played at a traditional time of year and at a consistent location.  One such event is the Bryant Fall Classic (in Seattle) which is played at Bryant Elementary School close to the beginning of December each year.  A relatively new chess tournament now on the annual chess calendar is the Lakeridge Elementary School tournament in its second year of being contested.

Scholastic tournaments for primary school students (grades K-6) are almost invariably 5 game Saturday events where all students play 5 games without elimination.  Tournaments usually run from approximately 9am on a Saturday morning until roughly 5 or 6pm that evening.  Each game typically lasts for a maximum of one hour. Students with chess clocks (a timing device that tracks the thinking time of each player) usually have 30 minutes in which to think about and execute all of their moves in a given game. A 'round' represents the collective and simultaneous game playing of students (whether it be the first game played that day: "Round 1" or the last game played that day: typically "Round 5").  An event where each student is allotted 30 minutes to think about their own moves (timed during their turn) will have rounds that last a maximum of 60 minutes in real time (30 minutes per player).

Students are usually divided into sections determined by a range of grades.  Typical grade level sections are Kindergarten (K), grades 1-3, and grades 4-6. The specific and preannounced sectional divisions vary from tournament to tournament and are made at the discretion of the host tournament organizers. Sectional divisions allow students to only play other students close to them in grade (and age). Scholastic tournaments usually award prizes (trophies) within each section to the best performers in each grade and to the overall winners in that section.  These awards are usually made at an awards assembly at the end of the event.

In recent years, tournament organizers have realized that Kindergarten players usually finish their games prior to older students. Kindergarten sections (played in a separate room) are therefore sometimes run on a separate round schedule from the other sections in a given tournament.  This allows rounds to start more promptly for Kindergarteners with less waiting time between rounds.  This also allows Kindergarteners to finish their 5-round event sooner and a separate and accelerated award ceremony is often held just for the Kindergarteners (allowing them and their parents to leave the tournament earlier in the day).

For younger players, parents usually wish to remain with their children at the playing site throughout the day. Parents from many schools usually 'encamp' in the host school's cafeteria while awaiting players to finish a round of play and to provide a central location where their children know to find them after a round of play is completed. Parents get to know other parents from schools around the state and friends are made, seen and met by students and parents alike at chess tournaments. At many schools the venue also allows parents to sit on bleachers to observe play in progress during a round. Parents are not usually allowed on the playing floor itself during rounds.

The specific opponent a student will play in a given round is determined by the Tournament Director (TD) often with the help of a Pairings Director who works behind the scenes to pair-up appropriate opponents for the next round based on players' performance in rounds completed to that point. "Swiss pairings" are typically used in scholastic tournaments.  Here, students within a section are (sub)divided into score groups determined by their cumulative results to that point in the event.  Players usually can only play other players within their section and score group. In round 1, all students within a section have 0 points (a cumulative score of 0) and are therefore in the same score group.  Players are ranked in order within a score group. This ranking is determined by their pre-tournament rating (usually WSRS ratings -- Washington Scholastic Rating System ratings -- are used in Northwest scholastic events). The highest rated player in a score group (within a given section) is ranked first, the second highest rated is ranked second, and so on.  The ranked score group is then divided into a top half and a bottom half with the highest ranked player in the top half playing the highest ranked player in the bottom half. For example, in Round 1, a section with 100 players will be ranked from 1 - 100 and Player 1 will play Player 51, Player 2 will play Player 52 and so on so that Player 50 will play Player 100.

Chess games can be won, lost or tied (drawn). These outcomes lead to 1, 0, and 1/2 points, respectively. At the conclusion of Round 1, the winning players within a section will have 1 point and will collectively form a score group.  The losing players will all have 0 points and will collectively form another score group.  And those fewer players who drew their games will have 1/2 point each and will form a third score group.  Players within a section and score group will then be paired after that score group is ranked, with the top ranked player in the top half in the score group playing the top player of the bottom half in the same score group.  After Round 2 additional possible score groups are created (players with cumulative scores of 0, 1/2, 1, 11/2, and 2 points are possible).  Players continue to be paired against other players who have the same cumulative score which they do (and are therefore in the same score group). 

This Swiss pairing methodology has a number of positive consequences for players. First, all players play all games and no one is eliminated.  Every player gets to play 5 games, practice, and have a chance of recovering from a poor start.  Second, players will move, over rounds, towards playing other players with similar actual playing strength (as 'measured' by their ongoing results that day).  Third, eventual winners will have to earn their tournament victory by playing against other players doing as well as they are in the tournament.

Chess tournaments are social get togethers where students can enjoy their minds at work and at play. Dr. Chess supports the efforts of many clubs which discourage the use of 'gameboys' or other video-game pursuits by their students during tournaments.  Just as it may be inappropriate to read at the table during dinner when there is the opportunity for conversation and sharing with one's family so chess tournaments provide opportunities for students to meet, share and learn from members of their larger chess family.  Dr. Chess recommends that parents bring food, reading material, laptops, and other support for themselves to chess tournaments!  Parents often 'spell' each other or organize with other parents to provide supervision to their children during a tournament.

Dr. Chess thanks the many parents who organize scholastic events throughout the year.  The engaged and proactive efforts of parent volunteers are a gift not only to students but also to chess coaches and instructors.  Dr. Chess also thanks Ollie LaFreniere, the Northwest's premier TD and scholastic organizer, for his more than 40 years of efforts at all levels of chess development and leadership. Parents may find schedule information about scholastic chess tournaments in Little Chess Express or in Northwest Chess (Annual junior membership for $13 in the Washington Chess Federation comes with a 12-issue subscription to Northwest Chess: Northwest Chess, Russell Miller, Business Manager, PO Box A, Chelan, WA 98816).

The National Elementary School Chess Championships will be played in Portland, Oregon in April, 2002. This scholastic year and tournament chess season therefore represents a special opportunity for students to practice their chess skills while preparing to play in the Northwest in a National Scholastic Championship. Carpe Diem!

2.  Dr. Chess:  The role of quiet and silence in the experience of chess play, creativity and competition.

Question:  Please describe the role of quiet and silence in the experience of chess play, creativity and competition.

Answer:  "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. ... A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)  Playing chess well requires undivided attention from both participants.  Speech and noise are distractions which act to break the concentration and thought train of a player. Chess play and practice require contemplation, patience, calm, thorough observation, meticulous examination of cause and consequence, calculation, evaluation, judgment and a myriad of attendant cognitive functions and mental decisions.  Traditionally certain social and cultural circumstances call for silence: attending the symphony, going to a movie, or sitting in the theater.  These are recognized times for silence. Chess play is and should be another of these recognized times for silence.  "Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech." (Martin Farquhar Tupper) 

"Three silences there are: the first of speech, the second of desire, the third of thought." (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) Chess players, like all human beings, speak out-loud and to themselves. External and internal self-talk are two sides of the same currency of rational thought (with external and internal silence being their shadow currency).  Chess players need to control not only externalized speech but also internal self-talk.  It is not enough for chess players to quiet their speech: they must also quiet their minds.  Chess players do well to control their speech, control their desire to win, and control the quality and orientation of their thought.  Speech, desire for victory, and undisciplined thought can all distract or bias a player's consideration of the chess possibilities which lay before them in a given position.

"Now, my suspicion is that the world is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." (J.B. Haldane, 1927)  The universe, in truth, does not compartmentalize itself into the lexical categories and word packets which humans use to describe it.  The universe is all of a piece and the whole is greater than the sum of its constituent word descriptors.  The world flows with a continuity and completeness which is often belied by verbal processes involving discrete words, sentences, and sequential linear thought.  A chess game also has a flow and completeness which are incompletely represented by words and linear grammatical expression. 'A picture is worth a thousand words' goes the ancient adage.  Chess is fortunately a visual game in which observation and examination provide most of the information necessary for good play.  'See, then think' chess coaches admonish their students!  Chess players would do well to see with their visual minds and imaginations before they begin to think with their verbal minds and imaginations.  Quiet and silence are prerequisites to allowing unbiased visual processing to precede and inform verbal analysis.  The rules of geometry and object manipulation are not the same as the rules of grammar.  Let your imagination "...float upon the wings of silence...."  (John Milton)  By quieting one's verbal mind, other, important, cognitive faculties can be activated in the pursuit of understanding and action. The verbal mind may not the most intelligent asset of human cognition!

"He who knows does not speak; He who speaks does not know." (Lao-Tzu) No one knows how to play chess. Chess is improvisational, spontaneous, and situation-specific.  Chess is always about figuring things out and not in knowing what to do in every situation.  "The world is not about knowing but rather about figuring things out." (Bertrand Russell)   Verbal strategizing should not be confused with the tactical implementation of that same strategy.  Chess players do well to use their visual imagination independently from their verbal plans (i.e., "desires").  A wise chess player does not self-censor their 'seeing' by their thinking.  Just as no plan survives its execution, our deeds are not perfect exemplars of our words (and vice versa). It is important not to substitute verbal thinking for visualization.  Words should not be substitutes for variations!

"Our master Caesar is in the tent, Where the maps are spread, His eyes fixed upon nothing, A hand under his head, Like a long-legged fly upon the stream, His mind moves upon silence." (W.B. Yeats)  In other words, chess strategy should, initially, be kept separate from chess tactics.  Speech (externally and internally) tends to conflate these two distinct aspects of chess understanding and execution. A crystal clarity of inner vision, motion, and spatial harmony needs must operate separately from the verbal comprehension (and limitation) of that vision.  Usually, though not always, strategy is a verbal process in conception and elaboration while tactics and consequent variations are visual in origin and implementation.  Each, independently generated, serves to inform the other. Speech (whether it be external or internal) tends to prematurely 'bleed' these usefully distinct cognitive processes together, often to the detriment of each.  "I have often regretted my speech, never my silence." (Publilius Syrus)

"Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he." (Publilius Syrus)  Humans craft and maintain their image and identity through speech.  One's self-image is often the product of internal self-talk while one's public image is often the product of talking with and to others.  Chess players may be best served by letting their moves do their 'talking' for them while desisting from verbal image maintenance during play.  "That man's silence is wonderful to listen to." (Thomas Hardy, 1872)  Chess players are often confronted with a possible 'loss of face' as a result of being defeated in play.  Talking during play is often a defense mechanism designed to preempt and deflect any possible loss of image as a result of play.

"Men use thought only to justify their wrongdoings, and speech only to conceal their thoughts." (Voltaire, 1766)  It is important, always, to reassure students that their self-worth is not consequent upon the outcome of a game or games.  Chess players are bold and courageous warriors who place their hearts and minds on the line in every game.  Chess players must know that the very act of play exalts their character and confirms them as respected individuals regardless of outcome. Chess is a hard game and the margin of difference between winning and losing is a hair's breadth. Chess players should of course not 'judge' others based on outcome.  The practice of this 'tolerance' also goes a long way towards freeing an individual from concerns about how they will be judged based on the outcome of play.  Chess players, particularly scholastic players, would do well to know in their hearts that they are good and valued and respected individuals despite the outcome of the game. Instead of 'showing off' to cover up insecurity, all players really need to do is to 'show up'!  The act of showing up and playing is vastly more important and respected than whatever happens at the end of the game.  "In silence man can most readily preserve his integrity."  (Meister Eckhart)

"The human heart has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed." (Charlotte Bronte, 1846) Chess players need to listen to their own hearts and minds.  Silence and quiet are necessary in allowing the subtle voices in our own minds to be heard. Chess is a two-fold procedure of setting and solving problems. Speech during play is often a form of denial that there are problems to solve (i.e., that there is something which the player does not know), which leads, in turn, to overlooking opportunities for setting problems against the opponent.  It is important for chess players to be comfortable thinking, "I do not know!"  An admission of ignorance is a powerful step to understanding. "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence." (Ludwig Wittgenstein)  Admitting that a problem exists is the first and most important step to solving that problem.

"Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;  And in the modesty of fearful duty, I read as much as from the rattling tongue, Of saucy and audacious eloquence."  (Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream)  Chess requires effort and energy. Admitting that problems (i.e., opportunities) exist in a game is tantamount to recognizing that one will have to expend time and energy to solve those problems and realize those opportunities.  Speech during play is often one way that tired players attempt to escape their 'duty' both by attempting to convince themselves that no problems exist (and therefore no energy need be expended in solving them) and in persuading their erstwhile opponent that they know what they are doing (i.e., image maintenance).  Dr. Chess suggests that there are different and better and more satisfying ways to play chess!  Be confident that you can solve problems as they arise. Enjoy the process of defining problems at the board.  Rest assured that you will be better off finding obstacles and difficulties to overcome (before they overcome you!).  "Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak.  But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues." (Spinoza, 1677)

Speech during play is often a symptom of a larger problem at work in the mind and emotions of the player. Dr. Chess has attempted here to diagnose some of the possible underlying causes of this common speech pathology. Dr. Chess would like to distinguish these observations regarding intermediate and advanced chess players from the needs and interaction of beginning players.  Novice players in Kindergarten and First Grade often talk during play -- which is appropriate and even beneficial at their level. Novice players use chess to expand their communication spectrum.  They act in concert to solve the difficult problem before them: how to navigate their pieces and pawns through a chess game.  Thoughts of competition against each other are distant from the need to work together to make the chess process happen on their board.  If a student has developed to the point where they consistently choose to 'play for the win' then this is the time for silence to be sought and practiced during play.

Dr. Chess is fully confident that all school children can and do play chess well when they give themselves that chance!  Often players are their own worst opponents!  By coming to the board ready, willing and able to play chess with a forward thinking attitude, students let their mental light shine forth (attitude is aptitude).  This inner light from the mind of a child, when uncovered and released, is omnipresent and dazzling in every case!  By holding one's tongue and opening one's eyes, chess players can focus their mental power to illuminate and resolve all questions, however dark or deep.  Dr. Chess recommends the following approach to all chess players during play: Stop! Look! Listen!  Have fun playing chess and let your moves do your talking for you!

3.  Dr. Chess:  Positive and proactive steps which scholastic students can take to improve their chess study in and out of chess club.

Question:  Please describe positive and proactive steps which scholastic students can take to improve their chess study in and out of chess club.

Answer:  In order to obtain the maximum satisfaction and learning from chess club, certain responsibilities, actions, and an engaged, motivated, thoughtful, cooperative and collectively aware approach is required from participating students. The following specific comments and recommendations, when observed in chess club by the student and practiced during play will lead to rapid chess growth and an increase in playing strength.

1. Seeing and Thinking to Some Purpose
    
   1. Think through a variation to its logical end: attempt to be complete in seeing the specific consequences of your move rather than just seeing a move as the cause of something.  The first move or idea that comes into your conscious awareness needs to be thought through quietly before you make your move and reveal your idea or variation to your opponent.  Spontaneous "off the top of your head" ideas need to be supplemented with additional ideas and creative insight before a conclusion as to their usefulness and accuracy can be evaluated. Ideas and insights are useful as starting points to thinking; rarely, however, is the first idea that comes into your conscious awareness ready to be mentioned in a group discussion or implemented on the chessboard -- chess is not that simple or obvious.  Use your mind to refine ideas, generate lines of play, and to see ahead the coming back and forth progress of the game as you and your opponent exchange future turns and moves.
   2. Think in terms of complete variations which have a theme or internal logic to them.  Single tactical tricks and ungrounded tactical ideas are an insufficient basis from which to make conclusions.  Base your thinking on multiple moves of action and reaction -- your moves and your opponent's replies. Predict your opponent's replies to your planned moves: this predictable response is what you would do in their position!  Just like we speak in sentences of many words, we need to think about chess in variations of many moves.
   3. Think first of ideas and leave specific moves for later.  Figure out moves from an idea: find moves that will make your idea work.  Moves which come off the top of your head require additional work, insight, and planning.  When a move appears to work for you, try to understand why it works and in what way it might not work if your opponent took follow-up measures to resist or obtain counter play. Work to see into and through an idea both in terms of moves and in terms of strategy and positional planning.  Always think in terms of move-pairs: your move and your opponent's reply. No move exists in isolation: find the best response to your planned action and weave a pattern of activity which takes your opponent's replies into account.
   4. See into and think through a position based on its evaluation.  Relying on the obvious, the tired, the mundane, the mediocre, the superficial or the tricky will not generate powerful plans or variations of play.  Consider the five dimensions of chess and how they are playing a part in the position you are visualizing (time, space, material, king safety, and pawn structure).   Attempt more and more to evaluate the positions which result from specific moves and not judge the moves themselves.
   5. Use your imagination -- see the seemingly impossible and ask, 'Why not?'  Thinking routinely, making unwarranted assumptions, or being rote and unoriginal will not produce chess truth or chess achievement.  Imagination is more important than knowledge!  And imagination is especially more important than those ideas we only think we know!  Dream up new ways to play, new ways to solve each problem in your position, and discover new ideas even in the most seemingly obvious-looking positions.
   6. Think creatively, think the unusual, be novel.  Self-censoring your thinking, interrupting your thinking, and flitting from one idea or one variation to the next is an inefficient and ineffective method of setting and solving chess problems.  Free your imagination!  Be unbounded in your creativity!  Think how things might work and could work rather than how they won't work, shouldn't work or can't work!  Be inventive!  Be constructive!  Build your game up!
   7. Ask and answer questions about every position and every move. Question everything; see through the obvious objections to a move and find reasons why the move or variation might work despite the obvious and superficial reason why it seems not to work. Ask hard questions about the position and work hard to seek, search, find and then see the truth about a position or variation.  The first thing that comes into your mind about a chess position is just the first step (not the last) of a journey of a thousand miles of creativity and imagination and discovering the truth.
   8. Realize at every moment that you have an opponent with his or her own ideas -- think of them. Strive to go beyond self-centeredness in your thinking.  Realize that, while hoping things will work out is a good thing, you also need to think through, do mental work, and make your ideas come true. Engage in active consideration of your opponent's best move or best plan in every position.  Think your opponent's thoughts -- see your opponent's options -- know your opponent's mind.
   9. Make an effort, be inquisitive, be curious, and remain interested in every position and every variation. Strive to get beyond complacency, over-confidence, and being too comfortable or lulled to sleep in your thinking.  Know that the position will not play itself and that your mind and will are always needed to carefully and thoughtfully navigate the course of your game. Always be aware that there is more to be figured out, more to see, and more planning to do.
   10. Smart is as smart does; accept the consequences of your thoughts as well as your actions.  Do not be afraid to be wrong -- being wrong is an absolutely necessary step to being right. If you are never wrong you are never right -- if you are rarely wrong you are rarely right.  Do not be afraid to take chances -- thoughtful chances -- in your thinking -- the worst that can happen is that you will lose a chess game.  The best that can and will happen is that you will learn from your losses and your wins to be mentally adventurous, creatively ingenious, and critically focused.  You will become a winner by accepting and learning from your losses.  Let the best happen even as the worst also happens (if you lose, so what! ... it will lead to winning in the future) and you will become a mental giant, a deep thinker, and a creative, empathic and sensitive individual.
        
2. Getting the Most Out of Chess Club
    
   1. Chess club works best when all students are sensitive, caring, thoughtful of others' feelings, generous, unselfish and open to new ideas and to the ideas of others.  Realize at all times that everyone's ideas deserve being listened to without interruption and that everyone has an equal voice in chess club. Realize that others have ideas too, that others' ideas must be respected, and that you will learn something by listening to the ideas of others.
   2. Interrupting the instructor without constructive purpose slows chess club down and leaves less time for students to play chess. Interupting other students decreases the free flow of ideas and makes insight and discovery more difficult for everyone in the class.  Interrupting yourself or your own thoughts decreases your own understanding and creativity. Ideas and variations are holistic entities -- listen to the whole of the idea -- the whole truth -- before judging or prejudging the situation.  Let teaching and learning occur without weakening the process by interrupting the thought or the variation or the instructor's point. Take turns speaking in chess club -- just like in a chess game: both players do not move at once.
   3. Chess club is rewarding and enjoyable when all students are making an effort, being creative, respecting others by being quiet and silent when not speaking, attending to the instructor and to other students when they speak, being sincere, being honest, and caring more about critical and creative thinking than about trying to look good or show off.
   4. Noise in the classroom makes everyone hear less, understand less, be less creative, and distracts yourself and others from the mental task at hand.  Contribute to clarity in thought and understanding by being quiet and silent so everyone can hear, think, reflect, listen, and learn.  In chess club strive to be clear, correct, concise, and cooperative.
   5. Realize that you are one of a group, that you have the same rights as others in the group -- not more and not less -- and that for group learning to occur you must contribute to the group educational dynamic. Remember that chess club is a fellowship of students, you included, pulling together to achieve the common goal of chess improvement.
   6. You can contribute to the group educational dynamic by staying on point, being relevant, staying with the topic under discussion, asking questions that everyone wants to know the answer to, and by asking questions that clarify and do not confuse. In making an effort to ensure that everyone in the group is understanding and learning and not just yourself, you demonstrate true sportspersonship.
   7. Raise your hand when you have a question, a relevant insight, or some useful comment to make. The point of chess club is to have fun using your mind and is not found in showing off, nor is chess club a proving ground that your ideas are superior, faster arrived at, or in some way more meritorious than others' efforts.  Listen to the ideas of others (even when your hand is raised), attend to others just as you like to be attended to, and respect the spoken thoughts of others enough to let them complete their thought before you speak.
   8. Save your competitive spirit for the chessboard during a chess game.  Chess club is a cooperative endeavor which fully succeeds only when all students understand.  Chess club is not the place to compete for attention, take out aggressions or act out personal needs.  Be generous in your approach to other's thinking and in the sharing of your own thinking.
   9. Be sportsmanlike, be a warrior, follow the code of the warrior, always be trying to improve, to do better, to think more efficiently, to think more clearly, to think more completely, to see all of the chessboard, and to help others do the same.  Ask yourself, "If everyone behaved like I do, would the group function better or worse or not at all?"
   10. Use chess club to practice patience and to simulate thinking about chess ideas for long periods. Concentrating and maintaining focus in chess club can be similar to participating in an actual chess game.  Use chess club to be your best, bring out your best, and practice living a conscientious life of the mind that contributes to your growth and the growth of others.   Chess and chess thinking require constant practice: the virtues of chess must be practiced in chess club as well as over the board. These virtues include respectful and polite behaviors inherent to a life of the mind, the proper consideration of others, and an effective approach to learning.   Practice the virtues of chess in chess club.   By practicing the points explained above you can and will be a strong, motivated, engaged, sensitive, thoughtful, responsible, sincere, generous, considerate, empathetic, cooperative, and successful chess player in chess club, during games, and at tournaments.  You have fun being a good chess player and now you can have even more fun by being a better chess player!

Copyright 2002 Dr. David Leo Stefurak

Last updated