I don’t remember how I learned to play chess. I’ve no idea who taught me and I’ve no idea when I learned.
I am not a naturally good teacher.
My kids have come across the chess program on their computer and they want to learn. So I tried to teach them.
Boo, one of the twins, zoned out before I’d gotten through how to set up the pawns.
Zeebs, the other of the twins, made it to the placement of the bishops before he zoned out.
They want to learn and I want to teach them but I truly don’t know how to do it in a way that will not bore the shit out of them. I don’t want them to hate the game because I don’t know how to teach them.
So I come to you, fellow Dopers, to ask, “How do I teach my kids to play this wonderful game?”
Any ideas, strategies or resources are gratefully appreciated.
Sincere thanks in advance!
Zeke
P.S. If I don’t respond right away it is only because I’ve got a bunch of stuff to juggle and I want to try the advices I’m given. Please don’t think I’ve abandoned the thread or am ignoring y’all if I don’t reply for a day or so.
I wouldn’t dstart with how to set it up. Get them used to hpow the pieces actually move, as that’s more intuative, before actually going into the objective an the initial placement.
I don’t think I started my boy until he was 8 or 9, at least. He beat me that last few sessions (he’s 16 now), so I probably will retire soon. Do they know how to play checkers, connect 4, or Sorry?
I started with just teaching them the basic moves of each piece. I do all the setup myself, although… I have a chess app on my phone that they play sometimes, so I suspect they could probably do it themselves at this point.
After they understood the moves, we played some games where I introduced some of the basic/alternate moves (castling, the pawn moving 2 or 1 on the first move). So, right now if we can get through a game where I don’t have to tell them they’ve made an illegal move, right now it is a win. We have not discussed strategy in any meaningful way.
It always depends on the kid, but you can certainly learn early. (I taught myself out of a book aged 6.)
You want to start with simple competitive challenge of some sort.
They can pick up the basic moves with each challenge (plus learning castling, promotion and en passant later.)
Initially you want sessions short enough to avoid tiredness and boredom.
I suggest:
explain that the aim of the game is to capture the enemy King without losing yours.
Show them how Kings move (easy!) State that this is the most important piece.
Give them a King each and let them discover they can’t capture the enemy King without losing theirs first.
Show them how Rooks move (easy!)
Show them the mating positions with 2 Rooks v King.
Play 2 Rooks v King with a starting position of say: White Rooks a1, h1 Black King e8. The player with the Rooks has to checkmate in two moves - or ‘lose’
6a) Then swap so the Black player is trying to checkmate, also bringing the King forward: White King e2 Black Rooks a8, h8. Now the player with the Rooks has to checkmate in four moves - or ‘lose’
(If they are enjoying this, use a progression of the King advancing and giving more moves.)
This should give you the method:
introduce one piece at a time
practice playing for a rapid win
give each player the advantage in turn
A couple of later ideas:
Queen v Knight (the Queen has to capture the Knight within a certain time) - a good way to practice Knight moves and also trying to see what your opponent will do
King and 8 pawns each (first player to promote safely wins, unless his opponent does so in reply - that is a draw) - teaches planning and patience, since these are the least powerful pieces.
I agree with the idea of starting them out with endgames. You play a single king and give them two rooks and their own king. Challenge them to capture your king. Moving just rooks is simple enough that a beginner can pick it up but it shows the essentials of the game.
Afterwards you can try other endgame combinations like a queen and a bishop or a queen and a knight or two bishops. Then you can introduce more complicated endgames like rook and pawn vs king where they need to think about how to defend the pawn as they advance it. Then go to endgames like king and queen vs king and rook where defense becomes more serious.
Most commercial chess games have basic tutorials. Chess master in particular might be very good at teaching them through the basics. Plus they have interactive tutorials that kind of guide them along.
I learned when I was around 6. My proudest accomplishment was beating Shredder 7 at it’s highest difficulty.
I always start very young students on piece path puzzles. I set up pawns a markers and give them a single piece, say a bishop. I set up the pawns so the bishop can, on consecutive moves, capture a pawn on every move. The pawns never move. The student has to mentally plot a path through the pawns that collects them all without “stranding” the bishop.
It’s very much like that wooden triangle-and-peg game where you jump the pegs over each other to try to clear the triangle.
Example: Bishop on A1, pawns on d4, c5, f2, g3. Solution is to capture them in that order.
The point of the exercise is to increase board vision and get the student’s mind to see possible moves of each piece.
The thing I was going after was to simplify the game. I think a lot of beginners get overwhelmed by the number of possible moves with sixteen pieces to play. Reducing it to only two or three pieces eliminates that confusion.
But even if you’re just trying to checkmate with two rooks, you’re still playing the essence of chess. You’re maneuvering your pieces to try to corner the opposing king while that king is trying to evade being cornered.
When I first learned chess, I used a set that printed the movement capabilities of each piece on its base. That was very helpful for getting the basics down and being able to refresh your memory at any moment. We did some practice moves with each piece alone on a board before we set anything up, but nothing like the mini-games glee described.
My first example of play was a normal game, played with my mother. She basically talked through each move, talking about why she did each thing, and discussing alternatives. Most of my moves that first game were picked from options that she talked about. That helped to prevent me from making a lot of really dumb moves and it made sure I was thinking strategically from the very start.