Are you Ready for Tournaments?

Yes, chess fans, our first tournament is just around the corner!  Many kids from the MSCC will be attending the great annual tournament at University School of Milwaukee!  This tournament is for any kid K-12, but we strongly recommend only kids who are tournament ready (Blue, Red, Black divisions) attend.  I will be sending out an email and posting here with instructions for signing up.

In general, you are ready for a tournament when you understand:

• Board setup, rules, piece movement, checkmate
• 4-move mate and avoiding
• Castling
• Piece development
• Simple checkmates
• Stalemate
• Basic Opening principles
• How to Play SLOWLY and think about other person's move
• Battle Squares - counting attackers and defenders
• Pawn Structure
• What is a pin, fork and a skewer?
• Tournament Basics- sportsmanship, manners, etc.

Demonstration of the above concepts also means you are ready for the BLUE division!