Round 1 Begins
The tournament opens. Get the pairings posted, the clocks running, and every scoresheet started. Today is about logistics working, not about chess.
Be honest with yourself about round one: it is the messiest session of the whole program. Kids will not know where to sit, someone will start the wrong clock, and at least two players will forget to write anything down until move six. Budget for that. If round one takes the entire session and only half the games finish, that is a successful round one. Carry the unfinished games to next session or adjudicate them (see the ruling guide).
Have the round-one pairings written on the board before students walk in, with board numbers. Walk them through it once, out loud.
- Find your name. The number beside it is your board number.
- Look at the board with that number taped to it. Go sit there.
- The name on the left plays White. The name on the right plays Black.
- Do not start until I say so. We start all the clocks together.
Tape a number to every board before class. This one piece of prep removes about ninety percent of round-one confusion. It sounds trivial. It is not.
They learned the clock in Week 12, but under the pressure of a real round, students forget. Demonstrate it once more, physically, in front of everyone.
Move your piece with one hand. Press the clock with that same hand. Not before you move. Not two moves later. Move, then press. If you forget to press, your own clock keeps running, and that is nobody's fault but yours. If your opponent forgets to press, you may not remind them. That is part of the game.
- Shake hands before and after every game. Win or lose, we are respectful.
- Record every move. Your scoresheet is your entry into this tournament.
- If there is a disagreement, stop the clock, raise a hand, and wait. We never argue.
- Play the game the right way and help your opponent do the same.
Start all the clocks together on your signal. Then do one thing and do it relentlessly: walk the room and check that every single player is actually writing moves down.
- Expect roughly a third of the class to have a blank or half-blank scoresheet at move five. Stop at those boards. Do not scold. Just say, "Catch up your sheet, I will wait," and stand there until they do.
- Expect at least one board where both players are moving without pressing the clock at all. Reset it and restart them.
- Expect one player to move their opponent's piece. Fix it, quietly, without a lecture.
You are not coaching chess today. You are installing habits. Notation and clock discipline are the entire job of round one, and if you get them right now, the next nine sessions get dramatically easier. Let the chess be bad.
Nobody in this room has ever played in a tournament before. That means nobody is expected to be good at this yet. What I am watching for is whether you shake hands, whether you write your moves down, and whether you are kind to the person across from you. Do those three things and you have had a good round.