Tournament Chess

Have you played tournament chess yet? If not, then you should really start, as it's the best way to test your chess skills. And every time you win a tournament, there will be a bigger tournament for you to move up to:

- junior rapid events
- junior long play events
- senior rapid events
- senior long play events
- junior Championships
- senior Championships
- International events
- World Championship events

Ok, win the World Championship and you can't get bigger or better than that!!

To start with, all juniors should be building their game so that they feel comfortable playing with clocks. To do this, playing in a rapid event is the perfect start. Melbourne has a number of chess clubs, and they all run rapid events, and so do Kids Unlimited. The KU events are called RJ Shields, after International Master and former Australian number 1 player Robert Jamieson. You can find details of the events here:

http://www.rjshield.com/

Playing in tournaments helps with your chess skills, builds confidence using a clock, and will get you a rating. You then have to grow you rating, as the higher it is, the better you are. Here's the live ratings for the best players in the World, the goal we all need to aim for!
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