Six Tips for Kids to Play Scholastic Chess Tournaments

Playing in a tournament feels really different from playing in a chess club at school, or with parents at home. When a child gets there, they might see a giant room packed with dozens or hundreds of kids they have never met before.

This is scary, but it is also exciting!

So, what can a parent tell that child to help, either right before a chess tournament or when the kid first expresses interest?

Here are six tips to prepare for the best tournament experience.

What your child may see upon walking into a tournament room

1. Finding Scholastic Chess Tournaments

Every weekend, there are chess tournaments in community centers, schools, and buildings throughout the country. Here are some websites we recommend.

• Avid tournament players can check out the Silver Knights listing of state and national chess tournaments for kids. You can go to these tournaments even if your child has never been to a tournament before. 
  
  
• For local area beginners, you can check out the Silver Knights directory of local chess tournaments. We run kids tournaments  in the Virginia, Maryland, and DC area.
  
  
• Otherwise, you can also check the United States Chess Federation’s (USCF) chess tournament page for nearby events. 

Now that you have an idea of where to find a tournament, what are some do’s and don’ts while you and your child are at the tournament. 

 

2. Chess Notation and Chess Clocks

At a tournament, you may see some players writing down their moves on what is called a chess scoresheet. This is called “taking notation,” and parents and coaches often ask kids to write down the moves so that they can review it afterwards.

Beginners should look for tournaments where you do NOT need to take notation

This is common practice at tournaments and generally speaking, encouraged! But if this is your child’s first tournament, it is not a good idea to take notation without practicing beforehand. 

In order to take notation, children must learn a special writing system called algebraic notation (older chess books will use a system called descriptive notation, but no one uses this today). For most kids, learning this system is not very difficult. But remembering how to do it in the stress of your first tournament could overload a kid who is already in a new environment.

Kids often have a difficult time focusing on writing down the moves and playing the game at the same time. The only thing more distracting than a scoresheet is a chess clock. When kids play with a real chess clock for the first time it can be very difficult for them to focus on the board.  Constantly looking at the clock during a game is like trying to ride a bicycle while looking at the pedals. 

Beginners should look for tournaments where you do NOT need to use a chess clock

Taking notation and using a chess clock are skills that should not be learned "on the job" in your first tournament.  We teach these skills in our tournament starter bundle for beginners.  Eventually, as kids start to play in more serious tournaments, they will need to develop these skills.  Taking notation and using a clock are required in all serious chess tournaments. 

 

3. Know The Touch Move Rules

Touch move is the rule that when a player deliberately touches a piece, the player must move that piece if possible. There is also another rule, touch take, which states that if a player touches an opponent’s piece and it can be captured, then the player must capture it.  Many chess programs practice touch move and touch take, but if your child has not practiced with it (or if they primarily play online rather than in person), playing with these rules can be an adjustment.

Players in casual games at school or home may ignore these rules, and kids do like to touch the pieces. But in a tournament setting, touch move can become a huge deal. Tournament players will call you out if you touch a piece, and you will be forced to move it.

We have seen tournament players who have touched a piece and thus been forced to make a poor move. One of our students touched a piece that was protecting the queen. She was forced to move it and thus the queen was knocked out at the start. She was quite upset to lose such a critical piece near the beginning of the game!

It also happens sometimes at the highest level - 5 time US Champion Hikaru Nakamura once ran afoul of this move and was forced to move a piece he didn't want to move. 

If you are practicing games with your child, make sure to enforce touch move at home. The only way a child will learn not to touch the pieces is with practice.

 

4. Chess Sportsmanship and Etiquette

Players should shake hands with opponents at the start and end of games

Any chess player or chess coach will tell you that one should not feel ashamed for losing a game. This is especially true at tournaments. Often, kids will go to a tournament because they are at the top of their chess club… but at the tournament, many players are among the best kids at their own school. Chess tournaments can be a moment where a child discovers how large the world is. 

Make sure to encourage your kids and help them understand that losing is a path to progress. Losing games is never fun, but kids can learn from lost games and understand what went wrong and what can be done better in the future. One of the great benefits of chess is that it is a great way for kids to learn how to stay strong even when things do not go their way.

It is also pretty normal to have a tough time at your first tournament. The 2024 US Champions Carissa Yip and Fabiano Caruana each won just one game at their first tournament and lost the rest!  World Champion Magnus Carlsen told us that he "cried many times" after losing games when he was a young player. 

 

5. Ask the Tournament Directors 

All official USCF tournaments will have tournament directors, called “TDs” for short. These are adults with chess experience who monitor games, help record results, and judge disputes.

TDs cannot interfere with a game unless a player calls them over. If the two players agree that it is a checkmate, then it counts as a checkmate – even if the TD knows that it is not actually a checkmate. But if a kid thinks that a move was played incorrectly or that a rule was broken and the opponent disagrees, the child can call the TD over to help resolve the dispute.

Sometimes kids are nervous about raising their hands to ask for help.  The child may feel like they did something wrong or be shy about talking to someone they do not know. They should not be! 

The tournament directors (TDs) are there to help.

The TD's job is to make sure the tournament is run smoothly and fairly, like a referee at a soccer game. Encourage your kids to raise their hand to ask for help if there  is something they are unsure about.  

 

6. Tips for Chess Parents

Parents want to make sure that their kids have a great time at a tournament, but we at Silver Knights want to make sure that parents enjoy themselves at our chess tournaments for kids. At most scholastic chess tournaments (including ours), parents are not allowed into the tournament room while play is ongoing. Instead, they wait in a nearby area called the Skittles room (yes, that is the name). How long a parent stays in the Skittles room can vary depending on the type of tournament, but it can be a few or even several hours.

It is thus a good idea to bring something beyond your phone to occupy yourself. A good book or a laptop can give you a chance to improve yourself, but a portable chessboard is an especially good idea. If your child has the energy and is not tired after finishing the game, you can use the  time to think about what can be done better next time or just play more chess.

Whether this is your first time going to a tournament or you have been to several, a tournament is a great learning experience for a child. In addition to getting the competitive juices flowing, tournaments can be a great social space as kids meet other chess players and make friends with a shared interest. They are also incredibly exciting for kids who are excited about chess!