Cyber Chess -- update

Wanted to share a brief update to my post this past week on Cyber Chess.

So yesterday, my son was in his first chess tournament.  I found out that this is pretty much a whole day affair.  When the games are 60 minutes and each player must play 5 games... it's going take awhile.  As luck would have it, I ended up sitting with a chess coach for the day.  When he wasn't busy mentoring his students, he happily answered all of my questions about chess.  I cannot tell you HOW much I learned.  Awesome experience.

What I'd like to pass on to y'all are some additional websites the coach told me about:

Chess Tempo
Excellent website for solving thousands of interactive chess puzzles.  The site gives members a rating as they solve (or don't solve) the puzzles.  The coach has his students go on this site EVERYDAY for practice.  It seems like it must be good, because his students were winning almost every game.

Gameknot
Great website which allows you to play chess with people from all over the world.  What the coach especially likes about this one is that you can play games with people one move at a time at a rate of time you specify.  He says that it is great for when you don't have the time to sit and play a whole game in one sitting. The site also has chess tools and annotated games you can follow along with.

One more thing... both of these sites are FREE.  So there you go. Some additional resources that can be found online to help your children (or you) improve your chess game.

In case you are are wondering how my son did at his first tournament?  He did pretty good.  He won 3 out of 5 games, which allowed him to take home a 4th Place trophy.  Since he now has the "bug" for competitive chess, we are going to register him with the United States Chess Federation so he can play at USCF sanctioned chess tournaments.

Finally, for any homeschoolers who are involved with the Boy Scouts, just last month the BSA introduced a Chess Merit Badge.  Here is the announcement that appeared on the USCF website:

Earn your Boy Scout Merit Badge

On Saturday, September 10, 2011, the Boy Scouts Merit Badge was unveiled in Saint Louis outside the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and the newly opened World Chess Hall of Fame. An initial group of 20 scouts received the brand-new badge while special guest astronaut Greg Chamitoff thrilled the crowd with stories of playing chess in space.