Josiah began accompanying Gilbert to Friday morning chess club as a third grader, and was about average among the other third graders in the school, although somewhat of a slow mover. The Tri-Cities area usually has a schedule of several scholastic tournaments organized by different schools. Having a "plus" score in any tournament qualifies a participant to sign up for the Washington state elementary championship tournament. Josiah entered the last tournament of his third grade year with a 2 points of 5 score.

Gilbert tried mostly to instill good sportsmanship and knowledge of how to win with a king and queen or king and rook against an opponent's lone king at the expense of tactics. Otherwise, kids tend to only know what to do when they can get two rooks or queens and "lawnmower" the opposing king. However, even in tournaments we see players up as much as three queens accidentally stalemating the opponent and throwing away a half-point, or being up a queen and blundering it away rather than exchange the other pieces to simplify to a K+Q vs K endgame. The school club rating system, therefore, was not based on playing strength but on the ability to know some basics:
White pawns: know the rules
Black pawns: can mate with king and queen vs. king
White knights: can mate with king and rook vs. king
Black knights: can draw when down king vs. king and rook or center pawn
White bishop: can win with king and e- and f- pawns vs. king and c-pawn
Black bishop: can win with king and e- and f- pawns vs. king and e-pawn
White rook: can mate with king and two bishops
Black rook: can mate with king, bishop and knight
So where are the white and black queen tests? We'll have to see whether we ever get a Black rook first!

As a fourth grader, Josiah entered several tournaments and twice got a 3.0 score that would qualify him for the state tournament, which in 2006 was held in Kennewick. Only one third grader and one fifth grader from Amistad also qualified and played. Of the over 1000 entrants, Gilbert and Josiah were probably the only ones who arrived at the Three Rivers Convention Center by bicycle that day (an uncharacteristically wet and also windy one). Because Josiah is the archetype of an "Amistad School" player, not full of opening books or middlegame tactics, but who won't throw away a winning endgame, he typically would win against players at the bottom and lose to players at the top of the standings. Without any of the bottom players involved, there weren't many expectations of winning any games. And the results were not a surprise; he only won in the last round against a player near the bottom. However, it was worth the effort as the state tournament would not be here again until Josiah would be too old for elementary school chess.

Now in fifth grade, Josiah has discovered that many of the weaker players in the 3-4 section are either better or have quit playing, so the 5-6 section is now a struggle. After only getting a draw and a bye for 1.5 in his first tournament, he did earn two in his second. We had considered letting Andrew play in a tournament in spring of 2006 but thought that his attention span and behavior might not allow it. Even after signing Josiah up for the first Fall 2006 tournament, we made sure Andrew really wanted to play before sending in his registration later. As a first grader in the K-2 section, he won three of five, placing seventh overall (of 16) and getting a trophy as the #2 first grader. Between that and running around in a middle school gym and tennis court between games, he decided "I love chess tournaments". In the second tournament a couple of months later, Andrew got an undefeated four of five (two stalemates; he said one time he was behind and once ahead, but he did win a K+R vs K in the last game), which made him 5th of 33 overall and the #1 first grader, so he now has two trophies.

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