Parents Survival Guide to Scholastic Championships

(Anxious Bay Area parents patiently wait for games to finish in Dallas. For more photos, check out the Picasa album by Rob Wheeler.)

Here's a great topic for someone to write a book about: the many roles of parents at chess tournaments. More than a few anxious parents may feel better simply reading and learning from the experiences of someone who has been there in the past. Over the past week, Chess Life Online published a series of articles from the National K-12 Championships in Dallas to offer three unique personal perspectives into the wacko world of scholastic tournaments.

• Veteran Parent Mark Schein -- Article 1 and Article 2
  
• Coach and Bookstore Staff FM Todd Andrews -- Article 3
  
• Parent and Volunteer Melinda Matthews -- Article 4

Here's how the last article (my favorite!) begins: Ever since my son, Nicky, began playing chess, I’ve worn numerous parental hats in support of his tournament play. I’ve been his food and drink delivery service, his chauffeur, his dreaded sleep enforcer, his social coordinator. I’ve been his biggest, brashest, most ardent champion and fan. I’ve been that parent pacing nervously outside many a tournament hall, cheering every win energetically and consoling painful losses sympathetically. And I’ll sheepishly admit I’ve been that crazed, hysterical parent who strikes fear in the hearts of scholastic tournament directors everywhere (twice, tops, I swear...and it was justified, honest!).