2017 Chess Nationals, Melbourne

In September, Marcus came third at the Tasmanian state finals in the secondary section, a terrific result. He was then specially invited to the nationals - his Taroona High team were well outside the top 5 teams that qualified.

So at the end of November he and I went off to Melbourne for two nights. We stayed at the competition venue, Queens College. It's one of Melbourne Uni's residential colleges.

He had a great first day, winning 3 of his four games which put him in equal 6th. The next day was much tougher, and he won one of his three games, to finish equal 16th. He has two more years in this age group.

He has definitely come home determined to play more chess and study to improve his skills.

Here are some pics from in and around the college, the university, Carlton and Parkville.

The senior kids are mostly private school.
Marcus always stands out at these things in his red Taroona gear.

On day two while Marcus played I strolled through the nearby Melbourne Cemetery's Jewish section.

At the airport someone had left this impressive leather helmet atop a bin near departures.

Chess Club for grown ups

I supervised the Taroona High team at a chess tournament the other day. There are some terrific players at THS but many of the older ones have drifted away from chess, which leaves Marcus as the main hope of the team although he's only just turned 13. He carried South Hobart Primary team's hopes through his last 2 or 3 years playing chess there, too.

He did OK at the tournament, but as he often does he finished between 3rd and 10th. I feel like he puts so much time into working on getting better, and tries so hard in tournaments but isn't making inroads against those top 4 or 5 kids. He's certainly smart enough. So I asked him if he wanted to go and try out the Hobart Chess Club.

The lady who runs the school chess tournaments mentioned it years ago. The juniors run from 5 to 6.30 on Monday evenings and the adults follow; kids are welcome to stay and play against adults if they wish. I didn't push it as who wants a commitment on Monday nights when there other things all week, especially in soccer season?

But now I think Marcus, who loves playing and loves to do well, is ready to have regular games against strong players and meet the wider chess community. He seemed cautiously keen so we went along this evening to the Migrant Resource Centre in Molle St, which is not far from home.

There was a coaching session for the first hour, playing through a famous game; then the kids (all boys) were paired up. Marcus played a kid of similar ability and age to himself and had a long tight game that he ended up losing. By then it was 6.30 and the adults were shuffling in.

Elf and Michael and I had been reading books and generally sitting around the edges, and all four of us were getting pretty hungry, but Marcus was very keen to stay and play. The rest of us went off and got takeaways at the Tandoori House.

When we got back he was just starting his third game against his nominated adult opponent, and he was having a wonderful time. Marcus won all three. He loves it, thinks the people are very nice and the balance of coaching and playing is just right. He was concerned the opponents would be too hard (or too easy) but I think he is going to get heaps of good competition and heaps of variety too.

South Hobart go to the Chess Nationals

Marcus and I had a couple of days in Melbourne with the school chess team, at the National Schools Chess Championships. The team was Marcus, Fergus, Joe and Tom. The Ed Dept rules say that all interstate school excursions must be accompanied by a teacher, so the principal Cathy Franz decided to come with us. She reasoned that she could do a lot of her work remotely, unlike class teachers. Cathy actually paid her own way to Melbourne as well as personally donating to help cover the families' costs. Our former principal Greg Turner also donated.

Cathy picked up Marcus and I and then Fergus at 4.30am. Joe's dad Andrew dropped Joe and Tom off at the airport shortly after we arrived. All aboard with no problems. I sat with the Grade 4s Ferg & Tom, who played iPhone games. Cathy sat behind with the Grade 6s Joe and Marcus, who had a couple of games on the magnetic chess board as we crossed Bass Strait.

Last time I was at Tullamarine I waited half an hour for a cab, but we had no trouble getting a taxi van to Queens College, our home for the next 2 days. A nice fella named Ross intercepted us on our way in and showed us the ropes. Magnetic keys etc. Rooms were small but fine, with very high ceilings. The college is quite fetching, castellated buildings in classic Oxbridge style. Our rooms were just a short walk across the quad from the dining hall which was also the competition venue.

We had a bit of settling in time, then Day 1 of the tournament kicked off. The day panned out like this;

• Marcus: win loss win win
• Tom; loss loss loss win
• Joe: loss win loss loss
• Fergus: loss win loss win

Tom’s third game was one he should have had no trouble with - but he was very tired and a bit headachey. He had a panadol and came out very well in his 4th game. After winning his first game, Marcus was sent to the Nº 1 table to play the top seed, Kris Chan. He aimed to hang on for 20 moves and just managed it. (Marcus is rated about 940 and Kris about 1550).

Joe and Fergus (both mid 600s) lost a couple of games against high 800 rated players. Considering our early start to the day, it was great to finish off strongly with three wins from the four final round games. In all we scored 7 points from a possible 16 and were placed 17th of 23 schools at the end of the day. Our boys were all hoping to get at least one win in the tournament, and they had all achieved that by the end of Day 1.

Cathy paid for a wristband to have access to the "VIP Suite", where one-on-one coaching and seminars were offered. Marcus went through his games with a coach; later Joe took the wristband and listened in to some seminars on strategy and tactics.

We had penne bolognaise for dinner, floppy penne but good chunky sauce - needed black pepper though. Boys all seem happy with the food, apparently it is superior to that dished up on the recent Canberra trip. After dinner we just took a walk around the University area, then put everyone to bed by 8.30. The boys each had their own room; we considered pairing them up with mattresses on the floor but they were all content to be on their own. Neither Cathy or I heard a peep all night.

Day 2 of competition turned out to be very tough. Tom improved on his Day 1 effort, getting a win and a draw. The other boys only mustered two draws between them, for a return of 2.5 points from a possible 12. We slipped to finish 22nd - which was disappointing after such a good Day 1, but reflected our position as equal 5th in Tasmania. The boys were not downhearted and showed excellent sportsmanship.

We walked them down to Lygon Street for ice-cream, and a visit to Readings bookshop, which was our only off-campus excursion of the two days. On the way we talked about the differences between Carlton and South Hobart – I think the preference was for South Hobart. When we got back to Queens it was time to head to the airport. Although worn out, the team were well behaved and I was proud to be out in public with them.

It was a great experience for the boys and hopefully will have good spin-off effects on the rest of the school as well. Thanks to the parents, the School Association, staff and students and especially Greg Turner, Cathy Franz and school business officer Bev Thomas for supporting our trip.

Tasmanian Interschool Chess Finals

We went up Launceston last Monday for the State chess finals.Our team was Marcus, Tom, Fergus, Joe and Izzy. None of the other parents could make it, so Elf came along to share the driving and supervising/encouraging duties. And that meant Michael had to come along too, and he fell into his accustomed low-key support role combined with some puppety bouncing around. The school paid for us to hire a people-mover for the day, which was really good of them.

We started brilliantly. Our captain Marcus won his first 4 games, and everyone had some points after round 4 (one point for a win, half for a draw). Our newest player Izzy had 2 wins, and some of the boys started to get nervous they might miss out on medals. Team score is based on your 4 highest scorers, and if the team places, only those 4 get the medals - always a tricky situation. The team as a whole were doing so well that medal allocation seemed like a problem we may well be dealing with by the end of the day.

Marcus was still unbeaten after 6 games and in equal 3rd. His 6th game was a superb win against a quality player rated well above Marcus. Marcus knew the other boy sometimes ran into time problems (each player has a 15 minute limit) and so he just kept setting up awkward situations where his opponent had to spend time deciding what to do. One rushed poor decision put him into an unwinnable position, and he resigned.

Meanwhile Joe who had a slow start was winning and not worrying so much about medals. Izzy plateau'd after her early success then won, and won again. Fergus had 5 points after 7 rounds and looked like a million dollars. Tom won his first 2 then lost 4 on the trot, and was starting to think about missing medals again.

At one point the team were equal-3rd. In the run home Marcus lost two in a row. He felt they were opponents he should have beaten, but he didn't make mistakes - he was just outplayed. Joe ended up winning his last five straight! Tom bounced back and won his last three. The sky had seemed the limit for Fergus but he lost his last 2 matches. The scores we finished with were Marcus and Joe 6.5, Fergus 5, Tom 5 and Izzy 4.

We were a little disappointed to have slipped in the placings - at some stage I think each of us had started to dream of getting a podium finish. As we sat and waited for the tallying to be completed, Marcus was a little emotional. Michael made us very proud by comforting him, and said quietly to Elf "I think when you are very good at something it must be hard when you don't do so well".

We finished in equal 5th, but 6th on countback. As the top 5 qualify for an invitation to the National Interschool Finals, I thought we had just missed out. Some of the kids thought it was announced that we had qualified, but when nothing came in the email during the subsequent week I told everyone that I didn't think so. And in fact I was a bit relieved because I (and I'm sure some other parents) didn't fancy finding money for flights and accommodation at short notice.

Then to my surprise, an email came yesterday, 8 days after the finals, with some details about the Nationals - which are in just 4 short weeks. I got in touch to clarify, and it turned out that if teams are equal 5th, they are all invited and countback is ignored. So we were in! I dutifully emailed the school and said I was prepared to go with the team, but we had better get fundraising pronto if we are going to get a team over there. I imagined parents thinking, like me, that it's lovely to earn an invitation but it's just money we don't have to spare.

Lo and behold the school, the school association and our sensational ex-principal have all today said they are so delighted the school chess team has achieved this, that they are going to contribute what's required to get us over there. There may have been school sports teams travel interstate before during our 8 year-long involvement, but I can't actually remember any. This is quite a big deal, and I am blown away that everyone is recognising that.

Chlorophyll Club

This is one of those stream-of-consciousness updates. You have been warned.

Just been mowing the lawn. Often while I do that Elf is simultaneously vacuuming inside. Then comes the delicate point that I, covered in grass clippings, want to come in to the now spotless house. I brush myself down throughly but still feel that wherever I go I am going to leave a trail of grassiness. (Feel obliged to note that I also vacuum sometimes though I am generally more of a sweeper).

Michael likes to form clubs at school. He likes to do his own thing, and will almost never be found joining in something started by others. But he is always happy to have followers, and the latest crazy scheme is Chlorophyll Club. He and others collect plants, grass (and sometimes small insects) and crush them into a mush. I found a list of members in his schoolbag. He is President and Leader. A girl named Madison is responsible for “Waste Removal”. The last organisation he founded was Ice Club, back in winter.

Marcus currently has all his medals around his neck and just announced to the visiting neighbours “I’m a bro with some blingggg” with an appropriate homeboy hand signal. The boys have been watching a terrible cartoon lately with a character voiced by B Grade celebrity and rapper Flavor Flav, and have picked up a few things. Flav is currently doing a stretch for domestic violence, but I suppose you can’t go pulling a cartoon off air on that basis. Unsurprisingly, his character ‘Father Time’ finds plenty of opportunities to say “Yeaaaaaaaaaah booooooooooooy”.

Marcus scored a new medal today, coming 2nd at a chess tournament. This is the first one he’s attended as an individual, not representing the school. The more seriously chessy kids played in a 2-day tournament, but there was a 1-day alternative and that’s what we went for. While he played I read a fantastic book.

Hilary Mantel just won her second booker prize, for Bring Up The Bodies. It's more or less a sequel to the first prizewinner, Wolf Hall, which is what I am reading now. It's fantastic - an historical novel set in Tudor England, full of bloody treachery, cunning and pragmatism. The main character is Thomas Cromwell, who usually gets written up as a bit of a rotter. In A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt he is a bloodthirsty rat-cunning survivor. The hero of that play is Sir Thomas More, but Mantel is not a fan.

I read an interview with Mantel which I found on Longreads.com. She has had a very difficult and sometimes tragic life, and you have to be happy for her finding success. She said that for a long time it was out of fashion to write historical novels about famous women, you had to write about the ordinary woman in the sixteenth century or in Rome or whatever. 

But she stuck with what was plausible—she couldn’t stand maudlin feminist mythmaking. “There was a time when, truffling around historical fiction for women, I seemed to come across nothing but ordinary women who happened to have a brilliant knowledge of herbs,” she says.

So - I'll do a proper review when I have finished it.

The Beep Test

Marcus broke the school Beep Test record again today. If you haven't heard of it, it's a fitness test where the subjects have to run up and down a measured course (a basketball court last time I did it), and keep up with a tape recording of beeps at regular intervals. Except they aren't regular - they gradually get closer and closer together. If a person doesn't complete a lap before the beep they must drop out. After each set of beeps a voice announces what level the test is up to. A month or so ago Marcus set a new record which only stood for one day, before it was beaten again by a wiry little Grade 4 boy.

Marcus is a competitive kid, but even he is a bit bemused by the amount of competing he has to do this week. He has the inter-school cross country run tomorrow (followed by soccer practice), a chess tournament on Thursday and the Maths Olympiad on Friday. Saturday is regular soccer and Sunday is the regional rep team training. We have just heard he has been selected in the team to play over a weekend in June up in Devonport, an area where we no longer have family to flop with.

Meanwhile Michael was today sent to the principal for refusing to be Beep Tested. It would be heart-warming here to say I am so proud of both of them, one for doing his best and the other for sticking up for what he believes in. That would be premature though, as Michael will not tell us why he wouldn't run, and claims he "doesn't remember" anything the principal said to him. Chances are it was simple pig-headeness with a bit of backchat thrown in. We will make some enquiries before we sanctify him as the Gandhi of the Gymnasium.

First chess tournament of the year

The chess thing at school is fraying a bit. Another dad and I are taking turns at running Chess Club on Fridays, and communication is not a strong suit for either of us. The principal is very supportive but he is away at present, guest starring at another school.

This tournament was just suddenly upon us and we didn't really organise things well. Elf and couple of other parents managed to get our team of 7 out to the venue at Sacred Heart (or Holy Pump, I can never remember which it is). But neither I nor Other Dad nor any of the transport parents were able to stay for the day. Of course this was not really acceptable to dump them there with no supervision, so our school dispatched a teacher's aide to keep an eye on things - fortunately one who is keen on chess.

I feel bad about the whole thing, as I am very keen on the whole team aspect of these chess tournaments, and I like to be there encouraging the kids, and trying to use the successes of some to boost the morale of others. All that stuff.

Marcus sets himself goals at each of his tournaments, and they are always realistic, which is admirable. He was going for 4 points from 7 games yesterday, and fell short with 3 and a half. He was a bit upset when Elf got there to collect half the team. One of his mates finished on 5 points, and Marcus felt he should have done better than he did.

One of the tricky things is that Marcus was probably playing tougher games. The top ranked players are on the low numbered tables, and Marcus got as high as Table 4, and had some drawn-out struggles with very good opponents. When you lose you move to a lower table, but by the end of the day Marcus was still at the top end of the hall.

I have just looked up the amazingly detailed stats that they have on chessKids.com.au for all tournaments. Because of his tough opponents, Marcus' rating has actually gone up a little after yesterday. I just popped in to tell him before he fell asleep - I think that puts a better slant on it for him.

Chessfest 2010

That rant below about music started out as an account of our day at the chess tournament. South Hobart was represented by Marcus, Avon, Angela and Oscar. We arrived at nine, and after some kerfuffle things got going at tennish. The kids each played nine games (plus a few practice games before hand and at lunchtime) and the whole thing wrapped up around four. It was quite intense.

There were maybe 200 kids involved from all over Tasmania. There are two parallel competitions in the same hall - Open High School and Open Primary. Some of the high school kids were just enormous, quite a bit taller than me, and I am 6 foot. I remember from last year how strange it is to spend a whole day in the same room with kids that age.

Last year South Hobart came 14th of 18 schools, so we certainly weren't going in to it feeling any pressure to perform. I was very pleased with the goals Marcus set for himself and the team - modest improvements on last year. He won 3 games and drew 2 in that tournament.

Yesterday he won his first two, and I think that set him up to enjoy the day, even though he lost the next three. After five rounds Oscar had a win and a draw, and the other three had two wins each - a very even contribution from everyone.

The event was hosted by Launceston Grammar school, the same as last year. My Dad actually attended back in the fifties. Although it is a swanky private school, its located in the working-class suburb of Mowbray. Marcus and I went for a walk in the sun during the lunchbreak, and the difference in culture once we left the gracious grounds was significant. On the corner next to KFC is Dave's Noodles, and just across the road, the Dilligaf Café. Noice.

The school is on a hill, overlooking the broad mudflats and marshes of the Tamar river. It may have many fine qualities but it is not a handsome waterway. Closer in to the city there has been a lot of development around the old river port, with an attempt to work with the maritime theme. I was very amused to see a fine dining restaurant there called Silt. I'm pleased to see they are embracing the unavoidable.

After lunch the team really finished the day off well, getting seven points from a possible 12. Marcus and Oscar improved on their results last year, and Avon and Angela did very well in their first efforts at this level. Although we had an extra player last year, our team score was slightly better this year.

One thing that is ridiculous at all tournaments I've been to is the way the playing rosters are put up. After all matches in a round are completed, the organisers do some calculations, and work out who should play next, and on which table.

Then, in a large hall full of 200 kids ranging in size from tiny Grade 2s girls to lads with beards (who row in the first eight and drive cars) the organisers put up ONE a4 sheet at each end of the hall - often on the doors. Cue the stampede. At one stage I was coming in from outside, and as I opened the door about 20 young people staggered forward into the light, as though magnetically attracted by the roster.

Rather than calming the situation, the organisers then get up on the stage while the smaller and more timid are still trying to get a look at the roster, and say "Get a move on please, the next round will start in 2 minutes! If your opponent has not arrived by then you can start their clock". Cue mild panic attacks and some light shoving.

To their credit the organisers did try to wrap things up quickly this year. We stayed to see the big trophies and medals handed out, then drove home. On the way we stopped at Campbell Town for dinner at a new place called Burger Me. 1/10 for the name but the food was actually very good.

Chess Success

Twelve of my chess kids took part in another tournament on Thursday, and did really well. The gun team in town, Princes Street Primary, did not attend, and this made our task a little easier. The hosts, Goulburn Street Primary, won pretty comfortably, but we came in second. Our top seven players shown above all collected medals, but we had five others who contributed wonderfully, two of them in their first tournament. I think everyone really enjoyed the day, although for the new kids playing seven games in a row was pretty demanding.

The top eight players at the end of the day were all Goulburn St kids, but next was Marcus. He won 5 of his seven games, and was the only one to beat the eventual champion. Angela (in the centre of the pic) is only in Grade 2 but was equal top girl in the tournament.

One of the dads, Rodney, volunteered to be there all day. By the end he was really fired up, and has announced he wants to help me with the Chess Club next term. Which is terrific because unlike me, he actually knows a thing or two about chess.

That's Super-Duper

Here is a list of various good things, to balance out my somewhat whingey list from the other day.
1.    Marcus is officially Australia's 12th ranked under 8 chess player. He is practically unbeatable at school now.
2.    Today I bought the Assassination Vacation audiobook with my iTunes voucher from my birthday in March (thanks Sal and Matt). It is John Wilkes Booth-tastic.
3.    In related news, the World Book encyclopedia (1979 edition) calls confederate general Stonewall Jackson "the bible-quoting lemon-sucking infantry genius". How much work do I need to do before I die, to earn a description like that? Lots.
4.    I like the quiet moment when you drive under a bridge in a rainstorm. A hiatus.
5.    There She Goes by The Las - perfect pop song from 1988
6.    The Devil With the Green Eyes by Matthew Sweet - perfect pop song from 1993
(I have tried and failed to embed little samples of these tracks - I'll try again when I am not doing it over dial-up).
7.    Hattie is a very predictable miaow-er. If she hasn't seen you for a while, you get a miaow. Pat her on the head - another miaow. Pat her again - another miaow. This goes on for about another 4-6 pats, with diminishing returns. Lately I have been taking advantage of her predictability, and dueting with her on Downtown by Petula Clark.

8.    I like the fact that "cyborg" sounds a lot like "sideboard". I can see a day when I have a long, low cyborg, maybe with beautiful walnut veneer. When someone asks 'where are the salad servers?' I will say "top drawer in the cyborg there" - and they probably won't notice a thing until the cyborg's drawer opens automatically, and it maybe does a bit of a dance.

A big catchup - Robots to Lizards

I have a big Sunshine Harvester deadline today, so I have a been a bit flat out with getting my head around the winnower, the riddles, the "bush eccentric for adjusting long rack stay" and so on. You know how it is.

The weekend was very busy with visitors, actual events and a fair amount of just kind of pointless bustle. Here is a handy guide you can cut out and keep.

ROBOTS: Marcus and I went along to session 2, in which Mindstorm NX1-C Nº 10 was programmed to walk if he is put down on something black, but stop if he reaches something red. The next step was to get him to speed up if he reached something silver, but he never quite mastered that. This time Marcus did most of the programming, while Nicholas concentrated on fabricating a part that will be needed for session 5. Nicholas's dad and I tried hard to say glued to our seats and let it all just unfold, but I have to admit to a tiny bit of helping/interfering/project managing.

SOCCER: My team, champions of the hack division, have been promoted to the fit-and-skillful division, where we will be found out. We have a couple of new players, both dads from school, who look like they can do the business - so maybe we'll be able to take it up a notch.

Marcus's team are still unbeaten.This week they had another titanic struggle against a team they had never met before, West Hobart Red. They are well coached, and play like a proper soccer team even more than our lads. I actually saw someone in possession run into trouble, and turn and pass back to someone who called for the ball - that's unheard of in under 8s.

It was a very tense struggle. We were up 2-1 for a long time, then with not long to go, their star player Antonio make a big run right through and belted a goal from long distance. I thought 2-2 would be a fair result for such a tough and well-balaanced game. Antonio was subbed off. Suddenly Marcus scored, and suddenly Antonio was wheeled back on again. Bizarrely, his team seemed to have completely used up their energy, and in the last two minutes of the game South Hobart scored again, and again, and again. A very even game unfortunately ended up 6-2, but I don't think their kids were too disappointed. They had a number of girls in the team who played extremely well, and slide-tackled ferociously. Marcus was upended by one of them on a few occasions.

FULLAGARS: During the game, when the tension was at its peak, Elf's brother Fred arrived, visiting from Melbourne. Sport is not the Fullagars' thing, so I had to try to be warmly welcoming and also explain the situation on the field while not missing any of the gripping action. Elf's parents Bill and Felicity arrived later that evening, and are still with us now. There is always a certain amount of shuttling back and forth to Imp and Ed's place at Kingston - there are 4 grandchildren to dote on and most activity while they are here is based around that. Also crochet, sudoku, crosswords and usually eating a lot of chocolate.

CHESS: South Hobart's chess team did very well at a Southern schools tournament yesterday. I spent the morning out there at Sacred Heart College, encouraging and coaching in my actually-not-that-good-at-chess way. At the point I left, Marcus and two others had won three out of five games, and the others were all doing OK. It's very common with kids, for a strong winning position to suddenly become a draw with one false move, and I saw that happen with our players a number of times. Sometimes they were the lucky one snatching a draw from an impossible situation, but a few times the boot was on the other foot. If you trap your opponent so there is nowhere they can move, but they are not actually in check, that's a stalemate, and a draw.

One of the rules in tournaments is that if both players repeat a move three times, that's also a a draw. I saw a very funny scene where two kids who presumably had lost all their prior games, were playing each other. They went back, and forth, and back, and forth, about fifteen times - while their hands were flying about, one looked up at me and said "is this a draw?" I said yes, definitely. They were both jubilant. "YESSSSSSS!!!!!!" Their first half-point each. Elf took over from me and was there at the end. South Hobart finished equal third, and Marcus got a credit certificate, but he was a bit overwrought and crazy by that stage.

LIZARDS: In the car on the way to chess, Marcus was showing the other kids his Ripley's Bizarre! book, in particular the two-headed lizard. Bradley blurted "I've got three one-headed lizards!"

Embarrassing insight / chess progress

This is a bit of an embarrassing insight into how we sometimes talk to the boys, but it's worth it. I was requesting Michael to approach me for a little bit of a squeeze.

Me: Can I flip and flap you and floop you?
Michael: No you can't, as I'm a private rodent.

Later, we were having our second game of chess. I was pointing out to him that my king was boxed in behind a row of pawns, in a bit of a trap that he could take advantage of.

Me: So my king is trapped, you see he's kind of caught in a bag…
Michael: Of prawns?

Michael plays games

Lana stayed for a sleep-over last night. In fact I watched the soccer from 5.15am this morning (see below) with Marcus and Lana beside me, sworn to silence. They made so much noise getting up that we were joined by Winston. Winston subbed in for Hattie, who had been on my lap but now left the field. I think she will be on board for the full ninety minutes against Ghana, though.

Last night after dinner Lana and Elf played the boys and I at Pictionary. It went fairly well. Michael is not usually very interested in organised board games, preferring to invent his own (such as Mrs Cat's Miaow Money). His drawings were very beautiful - this one for MIND was my favourite.

Between dinner and getting going with Pictionary, Michael asked me for a game of chess, for the first time ever. We only got about 3 moves each in before the scheduled Pictionary kicked off, but he was keen enough to insist that we continue it in the morning.

This morning we did resume, and he stuck at it right up to the point that he had just a king left, to my 4 or 5 pieces. Then he waltzed off in a huff. But - he had remembered the set-up, and all the moves. He listened to my advice and remembered it. He was patient. Best of all, as Elf was still asleep and I was trying to corral three kids and the dog in one corner, it kept him quiet for about an hour.

Once the huff had run its course, he was back at the board, setting it up again and then inventing some chess variations. He has now got out the chinese checkers (which he has never played, as far as I know) and is working on a version of chess using those pieces - eg purple is the king, red is the queen etc.

A classic game of strategy and wit. And bubbles!

I am trying to think of ways to get a few more girls to come along to the Chess Club at school. While googling the problem I came across this, from Saturday Night Live. Hmm. I guess if men are from Mars and women are from Venus, we might need to involve some kind of craft activities.

Clicky clicky clicky - that's the sound of a chess tournament

Warning: this is an attempt at an objective report which veers off into hero worship and parental pride overdrive.

Today I attended my first chess tournament, accompanying Marcus and four schoolmates to the State Junior Championships in Launceston. Today was also the school swimming carnival, so many of the more experienced chess players were otherwise engaged with tumble-turns, negative splits and so on. Thus South Hobart fielded an inexperienced but keen team, with one Grade 6er, one Grade 3er and 3 Grade 2s.

We had to get on the road at 7am to make it by the 10.00 registration deadline. Liam from over the hill came with Marcus and I. We breezed in at 9.56 with the rest of our delegation already there and having kittens. (The venue was Launceston Church Grammar School, attended by my Dad in the fifties. I pictured him walking the hallowed halls with young knobbly knees and a straw boater).

The kids had a tough agenda - nine matches each with half an hour off for lunch. The tournament was held in the large hall. Each player was limited to 15 minutes, timed by a special chess clock at each board. After each move a player had to click their side of the clock. The clicking frenzy at the start of each round was amazing, as less thinking time is required for the fairly standard opening moves.

There were 180 players, playing at 90 numbered boards. After each game winners would meet a tougher opponent, and losers an easier opponent. Parents were asked to sit around the fringes and not cruise up and down around the boards. This was made difficult by the sheer number of stackable chairs that had been left in the hall. It probably seats about 800; - 180 chairs were in use, leaving many, many piles of chairs around the perimeter. Some of us hovered awkwardly for the whole day, others took the hint and went to explore the cosmopolitan joys of the Mowbray area.

Marcus started strongly, with two wins and two draws from his first five games. A draw is worth half a point, a win worth one. He had his heart set on getting 5 points. Angus, our elder statesman, also had 3 points from 5 games. I think at that stage we were 12th out of 16 schools.

After lunch Marcus only picked up one point from his last 4 games, finishing with 4. Angus finished strongly with 3 wins from the last 4 games for a total of 6 points. Lachie, Oscar and Liam scored 3, 2·5 and 0·5. In the end we were 14th. Liam played nine games, without a win, but was never disheartened or gave less than his best - I was really proud of all the boys.

Marcus was initially disappointed to fall short of his last tournament score. I pointed out that he was playing today at a higher level, against the best in the state, from all primary grades. Beating three of them was a fantastic effort. All nine opponents are rated above him. By the end of the day Marcus' rating was up 24 points to 715, which puts him in the top 20 seven year olds in the national Chess Kids database. Er ... once I put him in the database that is.

Coordinators

On Saturday morning Elf's debut as Soccer Barbecue Coordinator finally arrived, after weeks of postponements as home games were shifted elsewehere on account of mud.

The previous holder of the post decided this season not to continue, after several years of early frosty starts and late pack-ups and not enough help. After a month or so the peasants were revolting over the lack of burgers and coffee which had become part of the landscape. Elf and another mum named Gina put their hands up, and now are the proud custodians of the ceremonial tongs.

Elf was nervous about keys, alarms, lighting the ancient gas barbecue etc etc, but it all went off very well. They decided to keep it very simple and only offer sausages in bread, tea and coffee. If you want more excitement there is tomato sauce. Other offerings might be gradually re-introduced.

I have recently taken on a coordinating role of my own, doing the Chess Club at school at lunchtime on Fridays. I set up the boards and trestle tables then prowl around helping when asked and occasionally venturing some advice when a game is going in circles. I didn't have many customers at my first meetings, and I started packing up early so i could get away back to work promptly when the bell went. Cue about a dozen grade 2s and 3s to arrive and mill about, eager for board-based combat.

I am actually a chess player of no great ability, and several of the kids (including Marcus) are easily better players than I provided they concentrate. The chess sets they have at school come with three queens of each colour, to allow for promoted pawns. (Usually with a basic set one takes back a captured rook and stands it upside down to be a queen). I would be interested to know what is the largest number of queens charging about on the board at one time in a serious chess game.

Plangent quoins

Actually, this will just be a meandering diary of the last week, and I couldn't think of a snappy title.

Marcus won all five chess matches and finished on top of the ladder in the Spring Cup at school. He played against the computer here today on the toughest setting and completely flogged it. (I have a feeling the software is a little wonky though).

He is riding to school now very proficiently and confidently. I lumber after him, with my manly courier bag in my hand like a giant camo-pattern clutch purse.

On Thursday we had a visit from the Premier at work. He had been through to announce something once before, and this time he burbled on about us being his good friends. We are good PR for him - the government give us seed money and we use it to earn export dollars in the "knowledge economy". He brought a wide range of public servants with him. One of his major people is the sister of our next door neighbour Sharon - that's the size of Hobart right there.

We were not particularly asked to drop everything and mingle, so most of us kept plugging away at our work. A functionary in a beautiful dark suit picked up a box of breath mints off Dave's desk and popped out a couple, saying "Thanks mate" as he headed back over to the heavy hitters.

We lost at soccer last night. Cam copped a punch in the guts at one stage, and the culprit was sin-binned for about five minutes. This made it 4 v 3, and we should have been able to capitalise, but we didn't. When the guilty party was allowed back on, he went up to Cam, apologised and shook hands, and said he'd thought Cam was someone else. Nice excuse in a 4-a-side game!

Today I took Marcus to athletics which has been off for a few weeks due to the regular rain. He did very well, getting a couple of personal bests in a row. I sewed on his badges last night, and it was nice to see him looking like he belonged with all the right insignia.

This afternoon we spent in desirable West Hobart, visiting Nick and Anna and the girls, then Matt and Mem and the girls. Matt is just back from 2 weeks in New York and Washington. I was staggered to realise that is his first trip outside Australia, as he is such a knowledgeable, interesting and "been overseas" type guy. Mem has never been overseas, so I am taking up a collection starting RIGHT NOW to send her to New Zealand. Matt and Mem have two of my drawings AND a Patrick Grieve, so I am thinking of making some little amazon.com-style cards for my exhibition that say "people who bought this also bought..."

Nick's job every December is to take our family photo for the Christmas newsletter. Unfortunately Michael was in a strop, so we will be trying again tomorrow with the timer function taking the place of Nick.

Sausagey chess excellence

Marcus took part in another chess tournament for the school team yesterday. He played seven games against various ages, but it is organised so everyone is as evenly matched as possible. If you win your first game your second game is against another winner and so on.

Marcus had his best result at a tournament yet, with 3 wins, two draws and two losses. His two losses were pretty quick - he reported matter-of-factly "they were both four-move checkmates". The 1st time he fell for an old trick. Then his conqueror showed him how it worked. The next game while he was carefully looking out for "the trick", his opponent employed "the other trick".

He was given a very nice certificate for being in the top 25% of players. I can see that my days of beating him are numbered.

Marcus holds his own at the board

Today was Chess Tournament Day. Elf and Michael went along as volunteer supervisors and to help with transport. The only person they needed to transport was a grade 1 boy named Oscar. "So Oscar", said Michael by way of getting to know him - "are your Mummy and Daddy still married?" Gasps of horror mixed with giggles from Elf. "No" said Oscar. Ah. Off to a great start.

Marcus did very well, winning one and drawing three of his eight games. He enjoyed himself, and was sporting and gracious in victory and in defeat. The kid he beat was in grade 4 or 5. He had a gritty draw with a little chinese girl who Elf thought may perhaps have still been in nappies. She had a rook and a knight while Marcus was left with just his king, but he somehow evaded her tiny clutches to clinch a draw. We are very proud of his efforts and his composure representing his school.

The first thing he wanted to do when he arrived home was challenge Elf to another game of chess.

Marcus gets his knights out early

Elf rang yesterday to tell me Marcus had been asked to go to an interschool chess tournament. We are both very proud. As it happens he beat me (again) the previous day. I am still stopping the game now and then, giving him the chance to change his mind if he plays a clanger, and anyway I am certainly not a very good player. But the fact remains he is five and I am 39.

When I got home from work I said "Marcus - Mum said you're going to be in a chess competition!". He answered (scathingly) "Not a competition Dad, its a tunnymimp, er, turneymonk, er..." It runs pretty much all day next Tuesday. It remains to be seen how they will get five hours of chess out of prep and grade 1 kids.