October 30, 2022 Livingston Quads Report
I want to tell you about the kids and behavior I observed today in regard to one aspect of maturity: patience. It’s an important skill in the sport of chess and it doesn’t come easily to either kids or adults. Some of these kids could teach all of us a few things about what it means to behave in a grown-up fashion. And others? Well, let’s just say some of them need to work on their patience a bit. Based on today, at least. As with all human development, life is two steps forward and one step back.
Let’s begin with Section 2 (grades K-4), one of the “starter” sections for young players new to chess tournaments. Keeping a notation sheet of their moves isn’t required and most kids don’t bother. One boy (Liam Fan) impressed me by keeping a meticulous scoresheet, along with a slow and thoughtful style of play rare for kids his age. Most young children can’t sit still for long, Liam can.
His style will serve him well in the long run, but for now it means his games run longer than the other kids. So while he’s finishing a game, the rest of the kids in the section are done with their game and antsy for the next to begin. One boy followed me around asking every two minutes if his game was ready to begin yet. Several others asked almost as often.
Section 1 (K-2) had a patience issue of its own. No one was playing abnormally slowly, as these kids are so young that they fly through their games at almost lightning speed. Inevitably one of the games takes a bit longer to complete, leaving several quite young kids temporarily without something to do. Remarkable among these kids was Julian Mayr. The boy could teach a rock how to be patient. His section had an odd number of players, and in round three he found himself with a full-point bye (ie; no opponent). Rather than deprive him of a game, I promised him I’d find him a suitable opponent to play even though it would take me a few minutes to do so. So, Julian sat on the floor in the middle of the room (where he occasionally risked being stepped on), and waited and waited and waited for his next game. I eventually found an opponent, and, without a single complaint, he happily played through to the end. He didn’t win a single game all day, and yet he went home utterly content with how the day had transpired. A remarkable kid.
I don’t recall the name of another boy in section 1 who repeatedly asked when he’d be done because he was “reeeeeeeeally hungry”. All I could do was make him smile with jokes about not eating the trophies. I understand, kid. It’s hard for me to be patient when my stomach is rumbling too.
Section 3 was our largest and slowest section of the day. With 15 kids it took a while to get through all their games. Notable here was Ethan Karni, who in his suit and tie easily would have won an award for best dressed player. In round two his game against Anish Bora went much longer than every other game in the section. Several kids were causing a distraction near his table, so I shooed them away from the area and made them watch through a window ten feet away. One impatient child complained, “Oh, it’s Ethan’s game. He plays slow!”
I’m unsure if that’s true in general, but it certainly wasn’t true in game three when Ethan finished off his opponent within minutes. Now it was his turn to become impatient waiting for the other games to finish. He maintained a cheerful demeanor for the remainder of the round, although it was fraying a bit by the end of the round.
Finally, there was section 4. This section featured seven kids, who were (on average) older than kids in the other sections. For these players it wasn’t patience that was the issue, but rather following the nuance of the rules. I was called back to their tables on numerous occasions to address any number of technical issues. Chief among them was one boy’s habit of moving a piece before his opponent pushed their clock to end their turn. On a first infraction I warned him against moving prematurely. On the second infraction I awarded his opponent two extra minutes on their clock (that’s chess’s standard penalty for rule violations). The boy objected, “but what am I supposed to do when he doesn’t press his clock?” My answer was simple: “You can tell him to press his clock if you’d like. Otherwise, be patient and let his clock run.” After all, a win on time is as much as a win by checkmate.
Win or lose, patient or otherwise, in the end the tournament came to a close and the winners were presented trophies.
Today’s winners are…
Section 1: Subhash Sai Kanakala (1st), Shaurya Mehta (2nd), and Neil Raio (3rd)
Section 2: Naga Bhuvi (1st), Bennett Zhang (2nd), and Anish Shrivastava (3rd)
Section 3: Vihaan Chowdhury (1st), Kian Zarineh (2nd), and Anish Bora (3rd)
Section 4: Geoffrey Chen (1st), Daniel Bronstein (2nd), and Evan Roque (3rd)
Thanks to everyone who attended. I will wait patiently until I see you at our next event in Livingston on December 18.
Visitors: 70