Chess tournament facts for kids

Kids playing in a chess tournament in Spain.

A chess tournament is a competition between chess players. It can take one of these forms:

A knock-out tournament. Not a popular choice in chess events.
An all-play-all event. A highly regarded format, but does not permit large entries.
A Swiss system event. Permits large entries, and is the most common format. The event has a pre-set number of rounds, and there are many more players than rounds. Progressively, players play opponents with roughly similar points to their own score. Players who win get stronger opponents, players who lose get weaker opponents. Pairing each round may be done by computer. This is an invention of the chess world and, like chess clocks, has been adopted by a number of other two-person sports.

Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become a standard form of competition among regular players.

Images for kids

The 35th Chess Olympiad, a biennial chess tournament
Adolf Anderssen
Chess Olympiad tournament hall, Torino 2006
There were 16 participating nations in the 1st Chess Olympiad, 1927.
By the 37th Chess Olympiad, 2006, there were 133 participating nations.
A pressure-sensory chess computer with an LCD screen from the 1990s
A typical analog chess clock. Note the two separate timers.
Digital clock
A chess score sheet of a 1909 match between José Raúl Capablanca and Louis Eisenberg, in descriptive notation.