St. Brendan Chess Team General Information

Transcription

1 St. Brendan Chess Team General Information Coordinator Ellen Reed home: (425) , mobile (425) Mission Goals To provide St. Brendan students an opportunity to compete in scholastic chess tournaments as a team. Our goals as a team: *To instill good sportsmanship and appropriately represent St Brendan Parish School at scholastic chess tournaments; *To enhance focus, forward thinking & problem solving skills, independence and thinking under pressure; *To work together as a team; *To have fun! *To grow in our understanding of the noble game of chess! Student expectations Students on the St Brendan Chess Team are expected to: *Treat the coaches, chess parent volunteers and their fellow teammates with courtesy and respect; *Appropriately represent St Brendan Parish School at tournaments; *Attend as many practices as possible; *Encourage teammates and have fun; *Complete homework assignments in a timely fashion; *Participate in several tournaments during the chess season (Oct-Apr) (strongly suggested but not required) Parent expectations Parents are expected to: *Encourage their child s consistent & timely attendance at practices and tournaments *Encourage completion of homework exercises *Participate in one or more of the team parties (Dec and/or May) *Volunteer at chess practices (schedule permitting) *Learn to play/enjoy the game of chess themselves! Communication Information about practices, tournaments etc will primarily be shared through and also on the school website (see Chess Team page under Student Life). The St Brendan Chess Team has a FB account and parents will be invited to join that group once registration is complete. 1

2 Practices Practices will be held every Monday afternoon when school is in session from October through end of April, on the dates listed below (19 regular sessions, 2 parties): Oct 16 (preview lesson), 23 rd (full team starts) (no school Oct. 30 th - conferences) Nov 6, 13, 20, 27 Dec 4, 11, 18 (Dec 18: Christmas party & bughouse tournament) Jan 8, 22, 29 (MLK day/no school Jan 15 th ) Feb 5, 12, 26 (midwinter break/no school Feb 19) March 5, 12, 19, 26 April 9, 16, 23 (Easter break includes Mon April 2) (Note: April 23 rd : End of year ice cream party) Note: WA State Chess Championship is Sat Apr 21st in Pasco (suggested but not required). Practices will officially begin after 3pm dismissal and will end by 4:15pm. At the dismissal bell at 3pm, students in grades 2 and up are expected to go to the art/music room. Students in K and 1 st grade will be escorted to the art/music room by a chess coach, chess parent volunteer or older student chess buddy. All students will need to bring a snack to have between 3:00 and when instruction begins at 3:15. All students need to be picked up by parents at 4:15 in the art/music room or prior arrangements may be made with chess coaches to have students escorted to Extended Care. Parents need to sign their child out at every pickup. There will be a volunteer student with a clipboard with the signout sheet. Groups. Students will be assigned to a group and practice room based on a combination of chess experience and age. Pawns. Generally the youngest players and those with no previous chess experience. It s likely that the Pawns group will meet in the gym for a few weeks and later will meet in the kindergarten classroom, exact location TBA. Knights. Generally, intermediate students with at least one year of tournament experience and/or older students newer to the game. Depending on the availability of parent volunteers, the Knights may meet in the art/music room or another room, exact location TBA. Rooks. Older students and/or students with 2 or more years tournament experience. The Rooks group will primarily meet in the art/music room but may get pulled out to participate in different exercises as needed. Our chess team is growing and we need to expand our instruction to meet the needs of students of differing ages and ability levels. The composition of the 2

3 different groups will likely fluctuate as students progress during the year or as particular instructional needs reveal themselves. Older students who are new to the game are asked to be especially flexible while the coaches determine which group may be the best fit for them at first. Attendance at practices. We realize that the chess is season is long, longer than soccer season (e.g.) or some other commitments. We ask that if you commit to the team, that you try to attend as many practices as possible. Only those students who attend practices will get the benefit of professional Coach Lora Petso s instruction, real-life game practice, etc. Doing the homework can somewhat help a student catch up, but it is not a substitute for being there in person. Please let Coach Ellen know if your student will miss a practice, needs to be picked up early, etc. Homework How do you get better at chess? You improve by playing with more advanced opponents, by reviewing past games, and completing puzzles. Each student will be encouraged to: (1) play at least one game with a more advanced opponent each week outside of team practice and (2) solve homework puzzles having to do with material covered in practice. Players will not improve much if the only time they play chess is during our team meetings on Mondays. There are free chess puzzles posted daily at and many other websites. Homework and materials covering each week s lesson will be posted on the school website. We will set up a weekly chess hour hosted by a chess website where our team players (past and current) can sign on and get a game at a particular time each week. More on this TBA. Tournaments Students are strongly encouraged to participate in three or more tournaments throughout the year. We will choose a team tournament (generally one per month starting in Nov/Dec) that we hope you will make an effort to attend. We will be attending as a team, but a parent must be present and is responsible for his or her own children. Tournaments are held nearly every Saturday somewhere in the Puget Sound area, so if a team tournament date does not work for your schedule, there are many others locally from which to choose. We try to choose team tournament dates that do not conflict with holiday/long weekends, or major school events like Craft Fair or Auction. Please note that we try to choose tournaments that don t conflict with CYO sports: we try to choose tournaments in between soccer & basketball season, and between basketball and Little League baseball, etc. We also try to prioritize tournaments sponsored by other Catholic schools. 3

4 We recommend that students new to chess attend a beginners-only tournament. These tournaments are a kinder, gentler (and usually shorter) way of learning how play at a tournament. These beginner tournaments are smaller than regular tournaments, only open to beginners, are a great learning experience and everyone gets a trophy. Beginner tournaments are usually run by Chess4Life, which has many locations across the region, see for more information. (They also run great summer/holiday camps that are all-day chess, or part chess/part sport.) Some of our tournaments are run by Northwest Chess, We try to pick tournaments that are as convenient as possible to the Bothell area, but it doesn t always work out that way. Last year our team tournaments were located on Mercer Island, in Mountlake Terrace, and down the street at Heritage Christian (our home tournament that we do every year). Tournaments are an all-day affair. They usually begin around 9:00 am and run through 3:00 pm. (Siblings are welcome at tournaments, but the long day may try their patience! Some families split their attendance at tournaments, with one parent bringing the player to the tournament, and the other parent coming in at lunchtime.) In tournaments, the players are divided into sections by grade and rating. Usually, kindergarteners have their own separate section, first through third graders play together and fourth through sixth graders play together. This is the norm, but not always true. The students play five rounds which can last up to an hour each. There is no elimination. Players are free to play or goof-off between rounds after their game is completed and recorded. Trophies are given for the top individual players and teams. You are always welcome to have your child attend more tournaments than those we attend as a team. Parents are responsible for registering their own child which includes a fee, usually around $20. If you register late (usually within one week of the tournament) the fee goes up, often to $25. Since chess is booming in the Pacific Northwest, we must be prompt on our registration to be insured a seat for all our players. If you have registered for a tournament and are unable to attend, please contact Coach Ellen and then the tournament director to cancel. The space will then be available to someone on the wait list. If your child is sick the morning of the tournament and cannot attend please contact If your student is uninterested in playing in tournaments but wants to continue learning chess with his/her schoolmates, this is ok, just please note that some of our chess team practice focuses on tournament play. Teamwork In addition to participating in tournaments, there are other great ways to show your St Brendan Chess Team spirit. Do wear your team t-shirt on school Spirit 4

5 Days! For older students who are required to do service hours, it might be fun to do that service as a team in the parish soup kitchen, perhaps some week when our normal Monday session is not scheduled. And what about a silly skit by the chess team for the Variety Show in the spring? Costs This year the cost to participate on the team will be $110 per player plus $13 for a team t-shirt. This represents a small increase from last year (there will be subscription to an on-line chess tutoring program), but we are able to offer a discount for the 2 nd (3 rd etc) chess student in the family. Cost for chess for 2 nd, 3 rd student in the family is $90 (plus t-shirt if needed). If you have a T-shirt that was purchased last year that still fits there is no need to buy another. Adult t-shirts (including women s fitted tees) are also available to order. Chess team t-shirts count as SpiritWear and have been approved to be worn as part of the PE uniform according to new PE requirements. The $110 fee covers coaching fees for our professional coach Lora Petso, team copies & equipment, team tables at tournaments, individual student subscription to an online chess program TBD, as well as team pictures, awards and certain motivational treats TBD. The $110 represents a good value: less than the cost for extended care for those days (but you get to learn about chess and be part of a team!) or about the same as other after school clubs, just with more sessions. Please make your check out to St Brendan Parish School and indicate chess team on the memo line. Please return registration form with fees to Ellen Reed, c/o Simon Cobb, 2nd grade. Additional costs. As mentioned above, there are additional costs to register for tournaments. When you commit to the team, we expect that you will participate in three Saturday tournaments over the course of the year. Tournaments fees (parents will pay directly to the tournament host upon registration for each tournament) usually start at around $20 if you register early and increase closer to the date of the tournament. For those who qualify, the state tournament is a great experience and usually has a tournament registration fee around $50, see below. Ratings In Washington there is a rating system, NWSRS, which tracks and rates players. This service is free and automatic whenever a student participates in any qualified tournament. To find out more see It will sometimes take up to a week for ratings to change after a tournament. State Tournament Our goal is to help every player qualify for the WA State Elementary Chess Championship. To attend State a player must win 3 out of 5 possible points in a single tournament (1 for winning, ½ for stalemate/draw). This year the State Championship is being held in Pasco on Saturday, April 21, Attending the 5

6 state tournament is great experience for all players and is something your student should consider attending at least once in their chess career. (The state tournament location rotates, sometimes it is in Eastern WA, and it rotates to closer venues Tacoma/Seattle - in alternating years.) Parent Help Parent volunteers are necessary to make the chess team run smoothly! Even if you don t have experience with the game, parents are needed in each group (and we have three this year, Pawns, Knights and Rooks) to help with crowd control and to run the students through simple exercises (provided for you) so that the coaches can move around and help individual students. If you know the game (or would like to know the game), then that s all the better! Please contact Ellen if you can help if not every scheduled Monday session, that s fine, we appreciate your talent and help and can find ways to honor you contributions and time. Younger siblings (future St Brendan chess players?) are welcome to come along when you help at chess practice. When logging volunteer hours, chess falls under the same category as CYO sports. We have 20 regular chess practices plus 2 parties scheduled a great way to take care of your volunteer hours! (Volunteer hours are not earned at the tournaments.) Questions? Please contact Ellen Reed, at ellen@spoco.com or at the phone numbers listed on p.1. Thank you for your interest in the St Brendan Chess Team! The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions. - - Benjamin Franklin, On the Morals of Chess 6