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Join NSC RookieU800, Open and Blitz Jan 7, 2007

Two things beginners need to learn sooner rather than later when they start to play chess: Recording the game and Playing with clock.

Time management and playing under time pressure is a very important skill that takes time to learn.

Local scholastic tournaments

In local tournaments most of games in K-3 grades are played without clocks, but clock will be placed if players did not finish the game after 40 minutes. If your child is one of those players who likely to play long games – you need to practice playing games with time (chess clock) at home.

USCF rated tournaments (USCF = United States Chess Federation)

All USCF rated tournaments are played with clock.

Developing skills of time management and playing with clock and under time pressure.

Here are the most common problems playing with clocks:

It is often a stressful transition for young players to play games with clocks
When playing with clock students often do not feel comfortably and start playing too fast even though they have plenty of time.
Often players forget to press clock, they may run our of time
Players play too slowly
Players get too nervous when little time left (e.g. 5 minutes) and they make mistakes in good positions

You need to introduce your child playing with clock sometime on intermediate level of around 900, may be even earlier.

You can start with your child playing against a computer program, e.g. 20 minutes per game. The computer should be set up on the lowest possible level to make it easier. Eventually your child can start playing 5 min per games with some increment (time, e.g. 12 seconds is added after each move to a player’s time). Finally introduce your child to playing blitz games, 5 min per game, with no increment.

See more about “Playing Blitz games”