The New Obsession

Emperor is spending an inordinate amount of time playing on chesskid.com. He is very fond of the Blitz chess games that are offered online against other real live players. I suppose the computer matches you and away you go on a new game. It gives rankings as well. Emperor is about a 900, but he did reach about 980 before losing a bunch of times this afternoon. It goes up or down depending on your win/loss and against whom (what their ranking is). He is hoping to crack 1000 by the end of the year but I think that might be a bit ambitious and he may hover above/below 900 for a bit. Our chess league teacher says that generally, one's ranking is the same as the grade level with two zeroes at the end. So, if Emperor were in public school, he would be a third grader and average ranking would be 300. But, even first graders with a 1000 ranking would not be unheard of. Emperor has improved his game since beginning the league. He used to lose EVERY game, both in practice and tournament. Now he is winning most games in his age ranking. That was enough to bump him up to third place in the smaller child division of the league. Elf also got the third place for the upper elementary/middle school age rank. Elf says that actually, the little kids are harder to beat, and I think he might be right. The little ones are the super-serious players and many of them study notation and strategy. I don't know why that is, but it seems to have worked out that way. Well, wish Emperor the best when the league starts up again at the end of January. And if you're on chesskid.com and see A-Gust-of-Wind playing, challenge him to a game! :)