Whatever, I’m not a grandmaster. That’s what my dad taught me, worked well for me so far.
I used to play a grandmaster when I was a kid. He spotted me a bunch of pieces in the beginning. I was still not competitive for a long time. As time went on he cut the spot . It maintained my interest more than getting creamed over and over.
Agreed. This is the first strategic lesson I teach my kids. I then do a lesson on “opening moves” which instructs them where each piece is allowed to go. For example, Bg5 isn’t any good without the opponent playing Nf6. Be3 (or Bd3 for that matter) is never any good if it blocks a center pawn. When my students get some experience and play against me, I declare them resigned if they play, say, b7-b5. “What? WHY?” “Because it’s not an opening move.”
I tell them it’s because of the hats each piece wears. Glee, I doubt you’ve ever heard of this because I made it up myself and I’ve never seen it in literature or anywhere else. The rook (in a Staunton set) has a flat top with vertical cuts in it. Therefore it can only move vertically and flat across the board. The bishop wears a triangle, thus having diagonal edges, and a diagonal cut into it. The knight has a long neck going straight up and a smaller snout going to the side, like an L. The queen has a crown with points radiating in all directions. The king has a tiny little cross with short arms.
If the kid asks me how the piece moves, I just tell them to “look at the hat”.
For boys that are particularly interested in the battle of it, I paint vivid scenes where the pieces are clashing all over the battle field. The bishops are archers, the rooks=chariots, kings=swords, queens=throwing knives, pawns=spearmen, knights=lances. They love that.
I’m sorry if you’re offended, but chess is like maths - there are precise answers.
It is simply wrong to describe moving the e-pawn as giving the King an escape route.
I already gave one example and here’s another:
- e2-e4 e7-e5
- Ng1-f3 d7-d6
- Nb1-c3 Bc8-g4
- Bf1-c4 h7-h6?
- Nf3xe5 Bg4xd1
- Bc4xf7+ Ke8-e7
- Nc3-d5 mate
You say it’s worked well for you - what strength of players have you beaten with this idea?
(You can beat beginners with all sorts of weird ideas, but it doesn’t mean it’s good chess.)
Your points here are good ones.
I’m very wary of stating specific moves are no good or ‘not opening moves’.
Here are three openings played by grandmasters:
-
d2-d4 f7-f5
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Bc1-g5
-
e2-e4 e7-e5
-
Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6
-
Bf1-b5 a7-a6
-
Bb5-a4 Ng8-f6
-
OO Bf8-e7
-
Rf1-e1 b7-b5
-
c2-c4 c7-c5
-
Ng1-f3 Ng8-f6
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g2-g3 d7-d5
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c4xd5 Nf6xd5
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Bf1-g2 Nb8-c6
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OO e7-e5
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Nb1-c3 Nd5-c7
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d2-d3 Bf8-e7
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Bc1-e3
Sound like fun!
If the child likes making the hats, that’s even better…
I played Grandmaster Uhlmann in a simultaneous display over 40 years ago, when I had only been playing for a year.
Amazingly the game was drawn - I was so proud that my parents were there watching and I became inspired to play chess seriously.
About 20 years ago, I discovered the scoresheet and played through the game. Now it was clear to me how Uhlmann had been careful to let this little kid draw, without making it obvious. 
SInce then, whenever I give a simul, the youngest kid always gets a draw! 
Regarding the knight’s move: I’m convinced that it makes more sense to treat the move as a straightforward “in-between” diagonal move - that is, at all the “intermediate” compass points (NNE, ENE and so on).
Show the student a 5x5 board with the Knight at the centre. Show that the Knight can move to all the squares, and only the squares, that a Bishop, Rook or Queen cannot move to. I think that teaching the Knight’s move as an L-shape (or a dog-leg, one straight and one diagonal) is actually a hindrance to grasping the move of this odd piece, and understanding why it can “jump over” other pieces. (It doesn’t. In moving from g1 to f3 (KN1 to KB3 for White), it does not pass over f2 or g2; it passes between them - so it cannot be obstructed by anything on those squares.)
First, I never teach them those openings. Second, I give caveats to these rules so they know when they can be broken. I was just being brief.
It makes sense to an adult, but kids have trouble understanding the “not on squares” move spacially. When I teach 4 year olds to draw a letter X (in my preschool class), they can’t grasp the crookedness of the lines. They parse them as either my mistake or as straight lines. When they copy it themselves, I get plus signs, Hs, and Is. It’s similar to if I told you to copy a line that was 42 degrees off the vertical. You’d probably parse it as a 45 angle.
Direction changes seem tough to handle as well. It’s not that they don’t understand it, it’s that they don’t internalize it. They can’t “see” the turn at the top of the L. I therefore teach the moves as a Y. That is, one square straight, then one diagonal move.
I agree that the kids need to learn it as a straight line, but maintain that the squares need to be used, and that takes priority.
You don’t teach the Ruy Lopez?! :eek:
I honestly think that just sticking to the three opening principles I already mentioned earlier is much better than giving them your own rules, followed by caveats.
They need to develop their own understanding, so they can choose a set of openings that suit their style and discover when to break any arbitary ‘rules’.
Didn’t mean to give off the impression I was offended, apologias. What I meant was, moving the pawn in front of the king 1 place (thus sinking the counterplay at point one); allowing the queen and one of your bishops to come into play whilst not leaving the king too exposed. I was also taught (again as a kid) another method was to keep 3 pawns in front of the king as ‘protection’, YMMV on that too. Of course, any move is a blunder in the wrong circumstances.
My boys started learning last year when they were six and now they are chess fanatics. They beat me more often than not – often enough that I am starting to teach myself so I can keep up.
We started with No Stress Chess which is an outstanding way to learn. The game comes with a deck of cards. Each card shows a particular piece and the ways that it can move and capture. There are three levels of play. In the first level, a player draws a card at the start of his turn and then has to move or capture using the piece shown on the card. If there is no legal move, he skips his turn. Later levels allow a player to have a ‘hand’ of cards and use any card in the hand per turn. Honestly, my guys moved from level 1 directly to the regular game.
This was enough to get them interested in chess club at school. Their club starts at first grade (my guys started at second), but the chess tournaments seem to start at kindergarten. The class is once a week before school. A number of libraries in the area also have a chess event once a month or so. One library offers free group lessons from a grandmaster once a month (or so I have been told).
As you know, kids are capable of much more than we give them credit for. At six, the rules aren’t that difficult to comprehend. My kids picked up castling, en passant, stalemates, pinning, skewering, and strategies like controlling the center and grouping the pieces all just from a few months of chess club.
It’s a great hobby for the whole family. We bring a set with us when we go out to eat. I’ll play each of them in turn and whoever is not playing will watch. Anywhere that we go where there might be some waiting, boredom, or a lack of kid activites – the chess set comes to the rescue.
One more thought: When I first started teaching my boys, I used to start my side without some key pieces (e.g. the queen, a rook, etc.). If they lost the game, I would play the next game with one less piece. If they won, I start with one more piece. It kept the game competitive and thus kept both of us interested. The kids new they always had a chance to win and I knew that I would always have a real challenge.
No worries - any SDMB chess topic is something I take seriously! 
Thanks for explaining.
What’s happened is that your teacher meant well but has slightly muddled you.
Playing 1. e2-e4 e7-e6 does indeed bring the queen and bishop into play. (Incidentally it’s called the French Defence…)
However it doesn’t ‘protect the king’ any better than playing 1. e2-e4 e7-e5, which has the advantage of discouraging White from playing 2. d4 . This move isn’t necessarily better that the French Defence, but it’s probably easier to play.
As I said earlier, both sides should try to castle, so the important pawn protection is the three in front of the castled King, not the one on e8.
Say Black has played OO. For beginners, it is good to keep the f,g + h pawns defending the King. However not moving any of them can lead to back-rank mates! :eek:
This is why I insist that teachers know what they are talking about and stick to principles, giving their pupils plenty of practice so they can understand chess, not memorise it. Players need to work out for themselves when a general guideline doesn’t apply.
P.S. Teaching chess notation is also a fine idea, so players can communicate easily…
You’ll want either How to Beat Your Dad at Chess or Survival Guide for Chess Parents for Xmas then!
I’m always wary of variants (such as having to ‘skip a turn’). After I teach each piece separately and the kids practice it, we do basic checkmates, then move on to openings. I would be happy to use the cards you mentioned simply as an memory guide.
If you need to inspire youngsters, there are plenty of ways to do it with regular chess positions. I mentioned a couple in post 13 - here’s some more ideas…
- White (to move and win): King h5, pawn f7
Black: King h7
White’s only winning move is 1. f7-f8=R!
(This example needs them to know both checkmate and stalemate)
- White (to move and mate in one :eek: ): King e5, Rook a8, Bishop f6, pawn h7
Black: King f7
White’s only mating move is 1. h7-h8=N!
(This example needs them to know both checkmate and promotion)
- White (to move and mate in one :eek: ): King e1, Rook h1, Bishops f4,c8, Knight c3 Black: King f3
White’s only winning move is 1. OO!
(This example needs them to know both checkmate and castling)
Excellent!
Yes indeed - chess is also cheap and easy (no expensive equipment or pitches needed), played all over the World and has probably the most extensive literature of any sport.
Just one quick thought - why not have your kids play while you watch? (You could offer impartial advice too…)
I know you mean well, but this comes under the heading of ‘variant’. Giving odds changes the game away from the original.
Why not use a ‘training game’ method? Play with the full set, but they can:
- ask your advice on the best move (an agreed number of times)
- ask to analyse ahead, actually moving pieces before restoring the game position
- you have to move almost instantly; they can take as long as they like
I may be rather traditional, but until they achieve some understanding, I think the parent’s job is to bring the kids on, rather than see it as a chance to win for themselves.
Ah, yes, I have many bitter memories of being back-rank mated as a child (although obviously didn’t know it was called that back then), hence why I think of the idea of a pawn out one place in front of the king as an ‘escape route’, the king moves to the place previously occupied by the pawn and thus escapes being checkmated.
This is a perfect example of how deep chess is and how to teach it.
The general principle is that the pawns should protect the castled king, which indicates they shouldn’t move.
However a specific case is the back rank mate, which players need to learn so they can spot the exception to the principle.
(You can go further - once an ending is reached, the king is in no danger of being checkmated and should be used as an active piece. For this purpose, it’s probably worth about ‘4 pawns’, i.e. between a bishop and a rook in terms of power…)
Thanks for the book ideas glee – they look really interesting!
This is more or less what happened for us. The kids were way more interested in playing the ‘real’ game and so we used the cards long enough for them to learn the moves/attacks. Then they hung onto the cards as reference for a bit, while we played the real game. We used to call it ‘Stess Chess’ because we were playing it the real way instead of the ‘No Stress’ way. The game comes with a decent set and board too. The board is two-sided. One side is traditional and the other side has the starting positions labeled.
We do this a lot too, but my boys play each other a lot. So when we go out, it is a ‘treat’ for each of them to get a turn against Dad. It is disconcerting, because they all root for each other. I’ll have three boys laughing and chortling as they clobber me.
Thanks, I’ll try some of the exercises you have suggested in this thread. Giving odds was the most obvious way to try to balance the game; I guess that’s why I started doing it. But to be clear, I don’t give odds to balance the game so that I can try to win. As you must know, with kids it is much more satisfying to watch them win (legitimitely) than for me to win. The goal is to give them enough confidence to try to win. Then as we play, I’ll do some of the things you mentioned: let them change their minds after they move their pieces and give them hints without giving away the answers (“Take a close look at your knight”), etc. At this point, I only need to do these things with my five year old; the seven year olds are better then me.
But I appreciate the need not to vary the game and I’ll try the exercises you mentioned up-thread as well as the time-constraint rule.
BTW, what’s your take on playing Bughouse? My boys play that with their friends a lot.
I’m glad this has been helpful and that your lads are enjoying their chess!
‘Bughouse chess’ (sometimes called ‘exchange chess’) is popular amongst the young, but doesn’t help regular chess skills.
I’d like to make an offer to any chess parents - would your kid(s) like a game against a Chess Master*?
Let me know here, then I’ll set up a new thread in the Game Room.
If there’s more than one child, then I suggest that they play as a team.
Parents are welcome to advise!
I’ll give a running commentary and also allow a few blunders to be taken back. You’ll need to use chess notation (see post 32 in this thread).
*in case they are interested, I’m a FIDE Master with an ELO rating of 2269. I’ve taught chess professionally for over 30 years and have won the UK Quickplay and Problem-Solving championships.
I wish my daughter was ready to take you up on that glee, I think the parents will benefit as much as the kids from that. 
Wow glee – thanks! I bet my boys would love that. Let me ask them.
What would the pace of play be like?
Well I am semi-retired, so usually post here daily (sometimes twice per day ).
Of course the key thing is that you are happy with the amount of time your kids spend on the computer.
Also they will benefit more if they think about each move carefully.
So we should be able to play several moves per week (if that suits you).
I guess the game could last 20-30 turns (by that I mean a pair of moves; one by each side), so it could take roughly 10 weeks. (We can put in conditional continuations e.g. for recaptures saying ‘e4xd5 if you recapture e6xd5, I’ll do Ng1-f3’)
But it won’t hurt for kids to practice patience and anticipation!