Have you ever taught chess to kids?

Have any of you ever taught chess to kids? I have :) I've taught a LOT of kids how to play. You?

I also have taught a LOT of kids how to play.  It was usually fun, sometimes frustrating, but it taught me a lot too.

As I'd mentioned in a couple threads, I tried to teach my nephew to play.  I started with just one piece on the board and had him move them around, like a bishop, for example.

 

Then, I'd put a few pawns on the board and ask him to guess which ones to capture and "put in jail" (the box was jail).  He did really well and enjoyed playing until I introduced the knight.  Then he got confused.  To be fair, I don't think I explained it as well as I could have.

 

I don't get to see him often, so I guess it will have to wait until my next visit. 

so, i am going to confess something outrageous here: i have PERSONALLY taught chess to more than 25,000 kids :) yep.

Wow... would you mind explaining how that works?  Some kind of assembly line maybe?

pretty close!! i have taught chess in more than 100 schools using assemblies where 50-200 kids at a time would come to the gym and they would get a 30 minute lesson that was told using stories and then they would get to play for 15-30 minutes. that's how :)

I started a chess club at my kids' school this past Spring for 3rd grade thru 6th grade. It was mostly frustrating, though, because most of the kids were not interested in any instruction. They just saw it as free time or play time. A few wanted to learn, but it was very difficult to instruct the few while the other 12 were so distracting and noisy (we typically got 15-16 kids). I am in need of a new format for the Fall, if anyone has any suggestions. We meet the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays every month right after school - which is half the problem, maybe, because the kids are all wound up right after school. Any help would be greatly appreciated! TIA

a tip for mikeyt, if possible, get an assistant, or the more difficult solution, resrict the age of children that can go to the club, actually, now that I think of it, scratch the second option.  I forgot about the parental complaints.

    And yes I have taught a little, usually when I play someone new to the game or much younger I end up coaching them through the game. But there is one problem. I end up paying so much attention to their moves, I forget about my own and I lose the game :(

 

I haven't taught any kids chess except my own son but I do have an interest in seeing more chess in the schools in my area.  From what I understand, you need to have a managable group size and an age range compatible with the teaching approach.

 

Some teachers would make it "competitive" by giving away points for obedience, correct answers etc and subtracting points for breaking the rules like speaking out of  turn, not putting their hands up or other hindrances.  They quiet down pretty quick once points are on the line.  Of course, this would not work with the older ones. 

I taught scholastic chess for about 2 years.  Class size was usually between 8-20 students, ages 5-11.  It can serve as a good introduction to the game, but the mediocre students, i.e. the ones who don't want to be there, really bring it down for everyone else.

A lot of the time I ended up teaching basic reasoning skills (rather than chess specifically), as a lot of students seem to have zero exposure to topics like logic and critical thinking.  I mean REALLY basic stuff, like "it is bad to lose material, therefore I must not let my opponent have a free pawn."

It was a fun experience, but I far prefere a learning environment where all of the students want to be there.

I taught a 5 year old he didn't understand the moves so I simply asked him to take any of his pieces and hit my pieces out of the board just to give him the taste of winning  he wiped out all my pieces one by one:)

 

My 2 year old daughter knows all the names of the pieces, and knows how to lay them all down to go "night night".

i'm [carefully] thinking of offering to teach chess at the nearby elementary school. i could also possibly do individual lessons.

it's not that i'm very good, but i can teach and there is an enormous set of resources available if one 'googles' <scholastic> and / or <beginners> and there are tons of links from chessopolis, about chess, and chessville, for example.

wow i have taght a few kids and one girl started to cry because she lost

 

Wow, May I say kudos to all of you who are taking time to teach this great game to kids. I learned to play chess when I was 17 or 18 years old. It was my Math teacher who taught the class how to play. I'm 26 now, but I never forgot how he took the the time to teach us all who wanted to learn. I am still learning new things every time I play. It is a great game, and I hope to teach my Daughter (who is 16 months old now) to play chess when she is older.

 

 

I've probably taught over 100 kids in chess and have probably played over 500 kids in chess in the past 30 years or so.  Some have become experts and masters.  I used to give simuls in schools (elementary to high school), 20-30 boards at once. 

My 5 year old got a multi-game playing set and one of those games happen to be chess. So I started teaching him a few days ago (and I have not played chess for over 18 years before I started teaching him). He is now so interested, I started looking around the net and found this chess.com. Currently he is very interested in playing on both sides and making all his pawns graduate into queens. Some how it seems so cool to him to have so many queens...

 

Any recommendations on how to teach chess strategy (opening theory, middle game, and end game) to really young kids are greatly appreciated.

hey in my school we dont even have a chess club. Plus you gotta pay to stay for an extra activity or club. I don't think anyone would like to b involved. I'm not that great of a chess player because i rarely even play. But im thinking of opening a chess club at my school. U think I should? what kind of teacher would support chess club? give me sum advice... im  new here!

erik wrote: I have taught chess in more than 100 schools using assemblies where 50-200 kids at a time would come to the gym and they would get a 30 minute lesson that was told using stories and then they would get to play for 15-30 minutes. that's how :)

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Wow, Erik. That is impressive. Can you give me some idea of what these stories are? I've been teaching my son & my nephew, but like learning chess, teaching it seems like a lifetime's work.