English Chess Forum

Hi

Can anyone assist me with how to run a Crazy Lightning Tournament for kids.

I want to run one this term and I'd like it to last no more than an hour.

I get the basics of it but how do you score it? What do you do when games end with checkmates etc - do you offer points? Do you repair immediately? What if no other games have finished?

Any help gratefully received.

What is Crazy Lightning?

A manic game where kids have to make moves every ten seconds or so but every few moves, you pause the games and issue instructions.

Eg:

Take any piece of your opponent off the board
Change places with your opponent

etc - the madder the better.

Children like Buzzer Chess but I am struggling to find a suitable buzzer.

Am planning to visit Maplins: do any digital clocks have a loud enough buzzer?

John

I presume this is where you stop every so often for a rule change i.e.
The board gets turned around, all the Bishops move like knights, Blacks rooks drop off, Black has two moves in a row.

I remember this being called crazy lightning chess, but did we use a buzzer or clocks? It seems easier to use a clock, so 5 rounds of 5 minutes each in an hour (assuming you are fairly cavalier with the accuracy of the pairings - and why not). I guess you need to specify that checkmate ends the game, otherwise you could wait after being 'checkmated' and hope for a favourable rule change. Of course there is nothing to stop you waiting the move before checkmate, but with 5 minutes each this will not be too long and shouldn't be too much of a problem.

There was a Crazy Blitz at the British Championships, where Stewart Reuben was God. If you e-mail him, he might be able to send you some rule suggestions.

Thanks, good idea.

John Upham wrote:Children like Buzzer Chess but I am struggling to find a suitable buzzer.

Why not make your own?

Ian Thompson wrote:

John Upham wrote:Children like Buzzer Chess but I am struggling to find a suitable buzzer.

Why not make your own?

We hold two lightning tournaments in Bradford every season.

When we had technical problems on year - a loud-voiced chess player stood on the stage and shouted "BUZZ" every ten seconds. This was one of the funniest experiences I've had as a chess player!

Fortunately we eventually got the technology working...

If you have a PC/Laptop with speakers its easy to use Audacity (free software) to generate the appropriate sound when you want.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Peter Purland has an entertaining set of rules if you don't care too much about winning... (change sides being one of them..!)

Mike