Since our son, Javier starts showing interest in chess when he is turning 10,  chess has gradually becomes a huge part of our lives. From just a newbie in chess, he is now part of the National Training Program of Singapore Chess Federation. Through daily practices in chess, he did well enough in the National Singapore Individual Tournament to be 2nd place in the Under 12 Open Category out of 456 players, and manage to get into his dream secondary school via Chess DSA.

Because of his interest in chess, my wife, Stella and myself had also become actively involved in the chess community. Stella is the Founder of Singapore Chess Infinity - premium organiser known for hosting high-quality chess events and tournaments over the years. And I had progressed to become a national arbiter.   

I will seek to share as much as I can about Javier's progress and how we support him in this journey to Chess DSA. We hope this will be insightful to you!

There's only 1 to 2 DSA Chess slots being given out annually. If your goal is to let your child get into a particular preferred school. A much easier way to do so is to help your child to focus on your studies. For most children, it's easier to do well in studies than to be the top or 2nd best chess player in U12 age group. 

Why did we pursue this route if it's so difficult? It's simply because our son loves chess, and we encourage, support and cultivate that love. Chess is a healthy mindsport and has brought us many joys in terms of the many wonderful friendships that we had made in this journey. 

Achieving Chess DSA is a huge surprise to us. It's a wonderful bonus that we are blessed to receive. 

However, even if our son didn't achieve Chess DSA, we have no regrets and will continue to help him to do even better in chess. We are even willing to skip school and travel overseas for chess tournaments just to give him more exposure.

So I think it's important to set our expectations right.  Achieving Chess DSA is an awesome goal. but we should approach it realistically and not see it as the end goal. It's really just part of the journey to be a strong chess player.   

In my personal opinion, having a chess coach is a must. We are talking about being among the best in U12 age group. The best thing we as parents can do, is to provide a good coach for our child to excel. As much as there are tons of chess materials around. There's too much information to sieve through and  having a chess coach will help you to identify your child's areas of improvement so much faster. In fact, if you do not have a coach for your child, he or she might find it hard to improve and gradually lost their interest in chess! 

And as to how many hours of lessons are recommended, i'll suggest to have it as much as possible. Let me frame it in another way, your child is in primary 6, and his PSLE is coming at the end of the year. it's not uncommon for parents to pack their children with daily tuition so as to give them as much advantages as possible. 

However, it's crucial that you communicate clearly with your child to ensure that he sees value in the lessons and he enjoys himself during the lessons. 

It is not enough to just set up chess lessons for your son to attend. What happens before and after the chess lessons are equally important too. LIke most children, our son is not the most disciplined or focused boy. To him it's not about improving chess. It's simply about having fun. He likes chess and he's winning games and he's having fun! Personally, instead of trying to get him to be more mature about his approach to chess learning, I choose to accept that he is a playful boy and that it's easier for us if we can make his chess journey to be fun fill ways of chess improvement instead of boring chess learning. There are many ways that we have incorporated to make chess as interesting as possible for our son.

Some of the ways we had seek to make the journey more fun for our son includes

1) Getting him to make friends with fellow strong chess players

2) Constantly bringing him to chess tournaments

3) Sitting in his chess lessons so I can better understand the things he needs to improve

4) Watching Youtube Chess Videos together

5) Participating in chess tournaments with him

6) Travelling overseas for chess tournaments

7) I will be using his online account to play against an opponent, but I'll make the moves on an actual chessboard, my son will make the move on the board and I'll key in the move on his behalf online. 

8) Printing out chess puzzles and getting him to do it when we are outside

9) Playing together against online chess opponents

10) Playing puzzles battles together 

11) Watching videos of Grandmasters sharing their top 10 games on Chessmood

12)  Practicing moves using Lichess Move Trainer