Teaching chess to kids?

This is very similar to the approach I have with my 5 year old. Having played like this for 6 months or so, she seems to love playing and asks me to play all the time.  

I haven't discussed chess or teaching chess with anyone before, but I would like to describe my method of teaching chess moves which I have used with children and adults.  To make this fun for steps 1-5, the goal of the game is either be first to get a pawn to the other side of the board or be the last person with any pieces.

(1) Start with just the pawns.

(2) Add the knights.  Their movements are complicated, so it is best just to have knights and pawns.

(3) Add the bishops.

(4) Add the rooks.

(5) Add the queen.

(6) Add the king and make the goal to capture the king.

Has anyone used this teaching strategy?

 Hi

I have four kids 0, 3, 6, 8  and I want to share a few observations: After the kid masters the basic rules it is often a little too demanding to play full games. On the other hand playng only with pawns or doing simple exercises can only bring you so fare. So I play series of games where the child have all pieces and I only get King, pawns and in the first game i get the two Knights. I play at full strength - no taking back moves and no hints. If the Kid wins I get an extra piece next game. If I win I loose a piece, etc. I only play this kind of chess one game a day because this makes the result matter for the Kid. They look forward to beating me, they concentrate because they only get one chance and will have to live with the result for a whole day. I even do small analysis with the child the following day like: "do you remember yesterdays game? Man, I almost got you because you didnt pay attention to my pawn on the side. How could you avoid this in another game?" stuff like that.  We play every game to the end - no resigning because for the absolute beginner it is great training to actually mate - it may take some time but once they have done it a few times they get realy focused.

best,

Larsen_fan  

Off-topic, but... Congratulations on your new arrival! 

First thing you need to do is  forget about what parts of chess to teach and get an idea of how their mind works. If you're really interested in teaching young kids have a look at this: http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/p/preoperational.htm

It tells you about the psychological learning stage of 2 to 7 year olds. Abstract logical ideas are waaayyyyy too hard for them to understand (unless you have an extraordinarily gifted youngster - though these do come along. I currently teach a kid that's just turned 6 since he was 5 and he checkmates his opponents!).

Don't use the game as we know it, use modifications of it. To teach them how the bishop moves set up pawns on the board and let them zip the bishop round to try and get them in as few moves as possible - they love grabbing their opponent's pieces!  Teach how the pawns move forward and take but leave out the rule of jumping two squares on the first move - three concepts if extremely difficult for them in one lesson (four if you consider they have to remember pawns don't go backward). Set up the board with pawns and the king and play a game of 'take all your opponent's pawns' or 'get your pawn to the end'. Don't teach checkmate yet, just say if we take the king the game is won. Help them understand what 'diagonal' means (many don't know) by telling them it moves through the opposite corner's of the squares. Explain the concept of 'turns' (many kids just like to zip their pieces around corners! Don't give all the pieces different value, just say a piece is worth one point so they can count up how much they have more simply.

As they get older you can introduce more, pawns are worth one and pieces are worth two, if you get a pawn to the end it turns into a queen, you can move a pawn two squares on it's first go etc Finally you can start to use the pieces together.

If you want to use puzzles to teach them remember to make them  Forget about what parts of chess to teach VERY simple. We're so used to 'spot the fork' and 'the best exchange' that we forget these are 4, 5 and 6! Set up three pawns and ask 'which one can take' 'which one can move two squares' etc put bishops on the board and get them to count up the number of squares they can go to.

It's all about setting the seeds to grow. Its all interactive, simple and enjoyable but it also starts their ability to analyse, work with numbers and understand the game.

Most importantly make it fun. Don't push them, don't hammer them all the time (I think it's right not to simply give away pieces but let them take some giving them hints or pulling faces of dismay - they love it!), don't do the same thing all the time and don't think every time you see them they have to learn something new - progress comes from concreting what they know, not just from learning new information.

Just some stuff I've learnt over the years of teaching the youngsters :-)

 My 4 year olds learned a ton with the dinosaur chess app on the Iphone.

Lots of different opinions here. 

We have a 9 year old and a 7 year old at our chess club, and the first part of the strategy is the "knights checking distance" technique for Queen + King v King. 

Next is two rooks v King using what I call the "stepladder approach." 

And by the way thanks to chess.com for explaining the Queen + King v King technique in the way they did.  Of course I already knew it myself, but explaining it to a child is never easy. 

I would say the parent has to play chess in order to get the kid interested in it.  Having an outsider show them might be difficult.  THEY have to want it, not you.  If they see someone else having fun with it regularly, they "might" take an interest.  Everyone is different. 

My grandson learned to play by watching us play . . .

                       My 2 1/2 year old grandson moves the horsey to Nf3.

                Notice that he moved the other horsey twice to NC3 and NB5. 

                          That was 18 years ago, now he's in college . . . 

i think it is good i personally think that it is okay

Well there are no grandmasters yet, but the 7 year old kid that I talked about earlier on in the thread, is now 15 and is still coming to the chess club.  

I disagree with doing this though.  Taking the king is not legal, and two kings together on the chess board is not legal.  Any child your teaching has to know the rules they cannot win simply by taking the king.  

A king can be taken in speed chess if the king is left in a position to be taken . . .

I also let my kids win a lot otherwise they wouldnt have any fun ...they also want to play until the end until all the pieces are gone ( they are 7&9) and sometimes play on their own...thank you for all the resources mentioned! I will definetly check them out 

Chess Courses - Instructional Resources...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/beginners-chess-course-instructional-resources

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess...a book review...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/bobby-fischer-teaches-chessa-book-review