Miles learned to play chess right before school ended. He joined the school chess club and actually did well in his school group. When summer rolled around and we went to register him for camps, we asked if he'd like to try a chess camp to teach him the stuff we couldn't. After a little research, I found the Tampa Bay Chess Club. They had a chess camp at a Tampa elementary school that was for a whole week.......all day, so of course we were on board. This was his first chess camp and the first time he would play a rated tournament and become a rated player with the USCF.
He seemed to be doing okay as the week went along, but didn't tell us too much which is typical Miles. On the last day after the tournament, they had an awards ceremony. They gave an award for the "Chess Champion"," Most Improved" and "Student of the Week" in each group. As Miles division was announced, I was already consoling him, cause he thought he didn't win anything, when they called his name in first place.
Apparently, he won his entire division and was the only one with a perfect score, winning all five of the tournament games he played. I was a little confused and assumed they made a mistake. I even looked around to see if there was another Miles. I talked to the director after and he told me that Miles did an exceptional job and his rating was so high, that he was ranked with middle-schoolers. He also suggested that he play non-rated tournaments for the rest of the year to be able to keep that rating and gain some experience. The other benefit is he will have a tutor for the rest of the year to help teach him about tournament play and continue his chess training.
I am still in shock and thinking that maybe they got his name mixed up with some other kid, but for reference, I played him in chess before camp and then after and I have to say I see a marked improvement. It was definitely worth it! Now if they can only come to my house everyday until he is 18 and get him to learn everything that fast:)
First day of camp:
Students coming on stage for their awards:
Trying to get all three boys on stage together:
Still trying:
Close enough:
This was the third picture of him outside we had to take cause my "genius" son kept holding the plaque upside down.
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