On Dec 12, 2:12 pm, Kenneth Sloan wrote:
Beliavsky wrote:
I am a chess master (NOT GM Beliavsky) and play often at the Internet
Chess Club, and my son, 3.5 years old, wants to learn, having watched
me play. Are there any books recommended for small children?

I am thinking of first teaching how to mate with K+Q vs K, then K+R vs.
K, but I don't know if my son will grasp the concept of "checkmate".Small-sided games are (in my opinion) the best introduction to chess.
Here are the ones I use:

a) the Pawn Game: use only pawns. To win, get a pawn to the last rank.
If it is your turn to move, and you have no move...you lose. At first,
allow the Pawns to move only 1 square forward, even on their first move.
After this version of the game can be played competently, introduce
both the 2-square first move AND en passant, at the same time. Note
that you can play this game with checkers, pennies, stones...whatever.

b) KRRk. Place the White K at d4 and the White Rooks at d3 and d2.
Place the Black K at d6. The task is for White to checkmate. Beginning
players can take turns with White. You can declare that Black "wins" if
he captures a R, or if the game goes beyond 20 moves.

c) KRk. As above, without the R on d2. Note that I skip KQk. I found
that it doesn't add much, and the added power of the Q tends to confuse
kids rather than help them mate faster.

d) KBBk. As above, replacing the Rooks with Bishops. This is *much*
harder. Many beginners will successfully force the Black K into a
corner, but will not be able to figure out the final combination. I
usually (eventually) provide a hint that they should aim to get the
White K "a knight's move" from the corner. That key idea is often
enough to take them all the way to the end.

e) KBNk. This is mostly for brilliant players who breeze through the
first 4 small-sided games. I don't ever *teach* anyone how to do it,
but I do remember to brush up on it before a lesson, to make sure that
*I* can do it. For players who have had a hard time with a)-d), I omit
this one and just move on to the full game.

For a child under 10 years old (and, indeed, for an adult beginner) if I
have my way they cannot even set up the pieces for a full chess game
until they have mastered a)-d) (and somteimes been humbled by e)). I
have seen many 5yo players who happily played The Pawn Game for MONTHS
before feeling the urge to move on to KRRk. What's nice here is that
they can actually play a game with another player, and playing that game
will improve their chess game (when they get around to learning chess).
This means that you don't have a room full of kids making random moves
on the chess board and arguing about how the horsie moves.

And, it avoids the real travesty of kiddie chess - the kids who can reel
off 15 moves in the Sicilian but can't mate with KRk.

As for books...it depends on how you want to use the books. If you want
a book for the child to read, there are any number of cute children's
stories with an associated chess game. I've never found these to be of
much use. Once the child can read, I recommend "Bobby Fischer Teaches
Chess". This is a book that some young players will SLEEP with, and
read and re-read until it falls apart. I'm not quite sure what the
attraction is, but I've seen it over and over again.

If you are looking for a book for parent and child to work through
together, my first choice is "Pawn and Queen...and in Between", which
used to be available from USCF (I don't know if they still carry it).
It will take you from zero knowledge to the Morphy Opera House game in
13 easy lessons. A parent can read each chapter to the child and they
can work together on the various exercises.

The "industrial strength" version of this is Lev Alburt's Comprehensive
Chess Course. This book is aimed at teachers, and may be a good choice
for formal class-room instruction. I have not had any success with kids
using the book on their own, or with a non-chess-playing parent. But,
in your situation (strong chess playing parent) it might give you some
ideas on exercises and games to play - and advice on the ORDER in which
to introduce concepts.

Almost everything else aimed at children has been a disappointment, to me.

All very nice, but when it comes to teaching chess to children, my
inspiration has long been Uncle Hein, described in the chapter "Donner
Reads from the Classics" in "The King" by Dutch GM Jan Hein Donner. A
brief excerpt:

"Jan had another uncle, whose name was Uncle Hein. But while Uncle
Jan was Jan's favorite uncle, he was a bit scared of Uncle Hein. Uncle
Hein always said such strange things, which you didn't understand,
especially to Mother, who often blushed when Uncle Hein said something.
Father always said that Uncle Hein was sure to come to a sticky end,
and Uncle Jan didn't play chess with him any more since Uncle Hein was
expelled from the chess club because he failed to pay his dues. But
when Mother answered the door, they heard him in the hall: it was Uncle
Hein. He always made a lot of noise and he was also very fat and tall,
and he had a long beard.
"'What's this,' he said when he came in, 'are you teaching the poor
thing to play chess? Fie, for shame! Why not have him drink hard liquor
or take him off to a brothel, while you're at it!'

Uncle Hein proceeds to offer a brisk refuation of an unsound
combination played by Uncle Jan, which Uncle Jan had been showing with
great pride to his little nephew:

"'And here you sacrificed your bishop?!,' bellowed Uncle Hein. 'The
rabid petty bourgeois with spite eating away at his inner life is
always hankering for violence. He doesn't recognize beauty as the
simple image of the ideal itself, which it is, but only as the strange
and the bizarre ... What idiot would want to sacrifice the best piece
on the board here?"
"... But now Mother had had enough ... 'I've told you before you're
not welcome here here as long as you're cheating so shamefully on my
poor sister Truus, and I don't care if you're a great chess player or
not.' ...
"Uncle Hein said nothing, but I need not tell you that he was
laughing uproariously as he slammed the door behind him."

For the full story, I recommend acquiring Donner's "The King" (New In
Chess, 2006), considered by some the best book ever on the topic of
chess.

In article . com,
"MaximRecoil" wrote:

Beliavsky wrote:

I should have been clearer. The book would be for the adult teaching
small children, describing a progression of chess subjects suitable for
small children. I know a lot about chess but am not sure in what order
things should be taught.

I would teach a young kid the same way as I would teach anyone else.
Set up the initial position and then tell him how each piece moves.
Correct errors and give advice as you play the game.


Awful, awful advice for teaching anyone chess. Setting up the initial
position is overwhelming for most beginners. Start with piece or two at
a time. Introduce the king and queen first and the pawns last (since the
pawns have so many special rules). THEN show the initial position and
mention castling.

--Harold Buck


"Hubris always wins in the end. The Greeks taught us that."

-Homer J. Simpson

Harold Buck wrote:
In article . com,
"MaximRecoil" wrote:

Beliavsky wrote:

I should have been clearer. The book would be for the adult teaching
small children, describing a progression of chess subjects suitable for
small children. I know a lot about chess but am not sure in what order
things should be taught.
I would teach a young kid the same way as I would teach anyone else.
Set up the initial position and then tell him how each piece moves.
Correct errors and give advice as you play the game.


Awful, awful advice for teaching anyone chess. Setting up the initial
position is overwhelming for most beginners. Start with piece or two at
a time.

I agree with this.

Introduce the king and queen first and the pawns last (since the
pawns have so many special rules). THEN show the initial position and
mention castling.


But this is simply wrong.

In my experience, it is best to introduce the Pawn *first*. Very young
children (and other beginners) can *immediately* play a game that is
very much like "chess" (see my post on The Pawn Game). For many
beginning players, it is important that they can play a *game* - and not
just do "drills".

Once the Pawns are mastered, it's time for Kings and Rooks...and then
perhaps the Queen, and then the Bishops, and finally the Horsie.

KRRk, KRk, KBBk, KBNk are the essential *drills*, but The Pawn Game is
the secret to a firm foundation in chess.

--
Kenneth Sloan
Computer and Information Sciences +1-205-932-2213
University of Alabama at Birmingham FAX +1-205-934-5473
Birmingham, AL 35294-1170 http://www.cis.uab.edu/sloan/

Mark Houlsby wrote:
Abu Hamza wrote:

Beliavsky wrote:
I am a chess master (NOT GM Beliavsky) and play often at the Internet
Chess Club, and my son, 3.5 years old, wants to learn, having watched
me play. Are there any books recommended for small children?

I am thinking of first teaching how to mate with K+Q vs K, then K+R vs.
K, but I don't know if my son will grasp the concept of "checkmate".

Tell him you have to capture the king to win the game.

ROFLMAO!!

snip

What's the joke ?

Harold Buck wrote:

Awful, awful advice for teaching anyone chess. Setting up the initial
position is overwhelming for most beginners.

"Overwhelming"? There are only 6 unique pieces. There is nothing
esoteric about learning to play legal chess. Set up the game and have
at it; it is the most straightforward way to learn, and avoids the
"When do I get to play a *real* game?!" scenario.

Start with piece or two at
a time. Introduce the king and queen first and the pawns last (since the
pawns have so many special rules).

"So many"? Let's see, on their first move they can move 1 or 2 squares
forward, thereafter 1 square forward at a time. If they can reach the
"end of the board" they get promoted, usually to a queen. They can only
capture one square diagonally forward to either side. En passant can be
briefly mentioned but isn't really important until an opportunity to do
so presents itself in a game, which may well be ~50 games down the
road. Chess is not rocket science. Even idiots can learn to play a
legal game within a short time, and without your "kid gloves" method,
which would annoy me to no end if I was the one being taught how to
play.

Beliavsky wrote:
I am a chess master (NOT GM Beliavsky) and play often at the Internet
Chess Club, and my son, 3.5 years old, wants to learn, having watched
me play. Are there any books recommended for small children?

I am thinking of first teaching how to mate with K+Q vs K, then K+R vs.
K, but I don't know if my son will grasp the concept of "checkmate".

Go to ChessCafe.com and search Novice Nook.

Abu Hamza wrote:

Mark Houlsby wrote:
Abu Hamza wrote:

Beliavsky wrote:
I am a chess master (NOT GM Beliavsky) and play often at the Internet
Chess Club, and my son, 3.5 years old, wants to learn, having watched
me play. Are there any books recommended for small children?

I am thinking of first teaching how to mate with K+Q vs K, then K+R vs.
K, but I don't know if my son will grasp the concept of "checkmate".

Tell him you have to capture the king to win the game.

ROFLMAO!!

snip

What's the joke ?

You wrote: "Tell him you have to capture the king to win the game.".

That is the very *worst* thing to tell any beginner of any age.

FYI the aim, far from being to *capture* the King, is to *trap* the
King, at the same time placing him under attack (in other words: to
deliver CHECKMATE).

Never EVER tell a beginner to capture the King.

Perhaps you're not sufficiently informed to enable you to contribute
meaningfully to this thread...

Just a thought.

In article . com,
"MaximRecoil" wrote:


Harold Buck wrote:

Awful, awful advice for teaching anyone chess. Setting up the initial
position is overwhelming for most beginners.

"Overwhelming"? There are only 6 unique pieces. There is nothing
esoteric about learning to play legal chess. Set up the game and have
at it; it is the most straightforward way to learn, and avoids the
"When do I get to play a *real* game?!" scenario.

6 uniques pieces, each with lots of possible moves. From in the opening
stages of the game, you force someone who is trying to remember how the
little horsie thing moves to keep straight all of the possible moves of
allthe pieces and pick which one to make.

Start with piece or two at
a time. Introduce the king and queen first and the pawns last (since the
pawns have so many special rules).

"So many"? Let's see, on their first move they can move 1 or 2 squares
forward, thereafter 1 square forward at a time. If they can reach the
"end of the board" they get promoted, usually to a queen. They can only
capture one square diagonally forward to either side. En passant can be
briefly mentioned but isn't really important until an opportunity to do
so presents itself in a game, which may well be ~50 games down the
road. Chess is not rocket science. Even idiots can learn to play a
legal game within a short time, and without your "kid gloves" method,
which would annoy me to no end if I was the one being taught how to
play.

To a beginner, these special moves are confusing. You know how to play
chess already, so it seems like nothing. But to a 4-year-old, your
method makes little sense.

I speak from experience. I taught my son when he was 4.5, using my
method, and he picked it up quickly. I've tried to teach adults using
the "whole board" method, and they struggled.

One of the most fundamental educational principles is to break up
complicated subjects into easy-to-learn chunks.


--Harold Buck


"Hubris always wins in the end. The Greeks taught us that."

-Homer J. Simpson

Harold Buck wrote:
6 uniques pieces, each with lots of possible moves. From in the opening
stages of the game, you force someone who is trying to remember how the
little horsie thing moves to keep straight all of the possible moves of
allthe pieces and pick which one to make.

6 unique pieces with 6 sets of moves.

To a beginner, these special moves are confusing. You know how to play
chess already, so it seems like nothing. But to a 4-year-old, your
method makes little sense.

They only need to know how the pawn moves and captures to begin with.


I speak from experience. I taught my son when he was 4.5, using my
method, and he picked it up quickly. I've tried to teach adults using
the "whole board" method, and they struggled.

Well I have taught plenty of people how to play as well using the most
common method of simply setting up the initial position, giving a brief
summary of how the pieces move and then playing the game. Does your
experience trump mine or vice versa? No, it is simply anecdotal; but
I'd wager that the vast majority of people who know how to play chess
learned according to my method rather than according to yours.

One of the most fundamental educational principles is to break up
complicated subjects into easy-to-learn chunks.

The method I use *does* break it up into chunks. The first chunk is the
brief summary on how the pieces move. The 2nd chunk is letting them
know they can move a pawn or a knight on the first move if they are
stumped. Subsequent chunks involve correcting any mistakes they make,
answering any questions they have and giving advice where needed.

This is how nearly everyone learns, unless they have a teacher who
thinks he needs to fix something that isn't broken.

To a beginner, these special moves are confusing. You know how to play
chess already, so it seems like nothing. But to a 4-year-old, your
method makes little sense.

I speak from experience. I taught my son when he was 4.5, using my
method, and he picked it up quickly. I've tried to teach adults using
the "whole board" method, and they struggled.

One of the most fundamental educational principles is to break up
complicated subjects into easy-to-learn chunks.

Ive taught both of my kids how to play chess with the 'whole board'
method. They simply watched me play and asked how to play. I believe
my daughter was around 3-4 when she easily picked up how each
piece moved and figured out the basics of the game.

Another good way to learn is to use the josh waitzkins tutorials
in CM 10k. Kids really seem to like these tutorials because they
are part of a 'video game'.

Personally, I believe that each person learns in their own
unique way so there isnt a uniform 'best way' to teach all kids.