Game of Life Series: Ep. 4 Moving on Up

By Ourtrippytribe 0 3 m read

Its been a while since Our Trippy Tribe’s last installment of the Game of Life Series. Rest assured, we’re still pushin’ pawns, developing our skills and fine tuning the subtle nuances of the game of chess. Since our last post we have attended two (2) sponsored tournaments; TRM 133 (The Right Moves) at Wood Road Elementary on February 2nd and TRM 134 at Albany Community Charter School on March 2nd.

I think both tournaments went very well and more importantly LaPharaoh (and Amoor) enjoyed themselves and gained some valuable experience competing against some of their peers. Simulating situations where discipline, logic, and problem solving are all on display, coupled with a friendly, safe and fun environment sounds like a win-win to us.

One of the key differences in these last two (2) events was LaPharaoh accepting the challenge to take notations during his matches. One of the cool things about notations is that LaPharaoh can work on his handwriting, his attention to details, and his focus on the mechanics of the game all at the same time.

We also learned why taking notations is important when it comes to judging the matches and conflict resolution.

When playing tournament style chess there are situations that factor into the game which can only be verified if there is a distinct record of each move that has been made. For instance, any piece moving to the same square 3 times in a match results in a loss. Any match resulting in more than 50 moves concludes in a draw. Pieces getting displaced and needing to be returned back to their original place is a much more pain staking task without notations.

Probably my favorite reason I love notations is it allows us to “replay” the different chess matches. So let’s say one of LaPharaoh’s matches ends in a draw, we can, at a later date rearrange the chess board back to a pivotal juncture in the match.

We have all the moves right there in front of us. With the slightest change in where you move your pieces you can completely alter the trajectory of the match. This is great for so many reasons and it speaks to the metaphysical nature of chess and life itself. LaPharaoh knows to place an asterisk next to any points in the game where he feels a mistake has been made by himself or his opponent. These data sets are invaluable parts of the block chain we are building for his future development.

I always have proud dad moments with these boys but Amoor deciding to participate in his first chess tournament was special for me. He looks up to his big brother so much and I know it was a big step for him to put himself out there and compete. Although he lost all his matches just having the guts to compete says a lot about his character, not to mention he was the youngest kid there at 5 years of age.

Neteur is counting the days until he can get out there and show his skills as well.

LaPharaoh ended taking home 1st place trophies in his last two (2) tournaments and the event coordinator recommended that we consider moving him up to the 3-6 grade group or possibly even the ranked group where you start to build up your world ranking. We haven’t really discussed what we are going to do yet but we are happy he’s standing out and making a name for himself on the chess circuit. Next month marks the one year anniversary since I taught LaPharaoh the game of chess and we couldn’t be more excited about his progress.