He came home crying....

My son came home yesterday from the Deepavali chess tournament crying.

This tournament is an open tournament, which meant that he played with players of all age groups. We felt that he had played fairly well in the tournament, ending with 4 points out of 7 games. He even drew the game with the World Under 7 champion, and a few others who were rated much higher than him.

In fact, when I spoke to him just before the prize-giving presentation, he was in very high spirits and very happy with his performance. So, why all that drama when he came home?

Because he finished overall 4th in his age group category. He thought that since he drew with all those guys who were rated higher than him, on count back, he should have been ahead of them. Also, his sister, who finished with 3 and a half points, finished in 3rd place in her category. He felt that it was so UNFAIR! He had more points but a smaller trophy.

Sigh! Tried to explain to him that there was a bigger field of players in the boys category, and hence more competitive, so it was tougher for him, as compared to the girls. Also, a lot depended on the luck of the draw, and who you were paired to play with. We told him that at the end of the day, how he faired depended on his tournament performance rating (TPR). He scored a TPR of 200 points more than his current rating, which meant that he did very well. But the more we tried to reason with him, the louder he cried.....