Playing in a ChessKid Fast Chess Tournament

We regularly schedule Fast Chess tournaments on ChessKid.com to give students in our clubs the opportunity to play each other online. They get to play multiple games against kids from all over NC, and, since it is Fast Chess, the whole tournament usually lasts about an hour.

To reduce the chance of technical problems, clear your browser cache and restart your browser before playing in a Fast Chess tournament. Play in a spot where you have a good wi-fi signal. ChessKid also recommends using a computer rather than a tablet or phone for playing Fast Chess. Fast Chess works best using Chrome or Firefox. Here are more Fast Chess tournament tips from ChessKid and a 2 minute ChessKid video on “How to Join a Fast Chess Tournament.”

To play in these tournaments, log in to ChessKid 5 to 10 minutes early. We schedule our tournaments to begin 3 to 5 minutes after the top of the hour. For example, for a 9 am tournament, you can join at 8:50 am, and the first games will start at 9:03 am. You can still join after a round starts, but you will not be paired for a game until the next round. You will get to play 3 to 5 games, and each game will usually last up to 10 minutes, so you could get to play up to 5 games in one hour! If one of your games finishes early, don’t leave the tournament. Watch some of the other games instead. Also try to stay where you have a good internet connection (so you don’t get disconnected during a game). Have fun!

Here are more detailed instructions. About an hour or so before a tournament starts you should see the upcoming Fast Chess tournament in the lower left corner of you screen.

To get to a Fast Chess tournament, you can click on “Fast Chess Tournaments” in the lower left corner, or you can click on “Play vs. Kid” near the top of the screen.

You will see the names of upcoming Fast Chess tournaments on the right side of the next screen. Click on the name of the tournament you want, and then click the orange “Join” button.

Once you join the tournament, you need to stay in the tournament until it starts.

If an odd number of children joins a tournament, then one student will get a bye each round. They will get 1 point for that round like they would when they win a game. If you get a bye, or if you finish a game early, you can watch other games that are in progress by clicking on the binocular icon next to a game.

Please try to avoid switching to another program or leaving the room while you are waiting for the next round as you could easily miss your game. Having a book to read during this time would be a good idea.

If you get disconnected from a tournament, please try to rejoin. If you can rejoin before the current round ends, the ChessKid server will include you in the next round. If you miss two rounds, the server will remove you from the tournament.

Most of the tournaments we schedule use the “5 min + 5 sec” time control, which means you will get 5 minutes for all of your moves plus 5 seconds will be added to your clock for each move. The extra 5 seconds especially helps if you run low on time as you will still have 5 seconds for each turn. We also schedule some tournaments with the “10 min” time control, which gives you 10 minutes for all your moves but does not add incremental time each turn. These games give you more time to think and can last up to 20 minutes, so we limit these tournaments to 3 rounds so they will still last about an hour.

After the tournament is over, you can review your games by clicking on “Play” and then looking at your “Recent Games”. Click on the result (won, draw, or lost) of the game you want to see.

You can also compare your statistics with those of other students in your club or group by clicking “Play,” then “Leaderboard,” and then selecting your club or group. You can see how your Fast Chess rating, number of wins, and total number of games compare with your friends.

Please note that Fast Chess tournaments are only open to children. Parents, teachers, and coaches cannot join them. Outside of these tournaments, children can play Fast Chess with an adult, but they must challenge the adult. An adult cannot challenge a child to a Fast Chess game.

Please let me know if you have other questions, and I will update this blog post.