I should be very glad that my son is showing sucha huge interest in
learning chess but I am a bit perplexed on how to each him at this
young age.

He knows how to set the board up for black and white. He has a great
memory. He knows how the pieces move although he can forget that a
piece can go long range. He forgets that the horse can go up 1 and
over 2 as much as it can go up 2 and over 1. It is not quite
automatic that he looks to take my piece after I take his.

He does not know how to win at this stage. It is hard for me to lose a
game without just telling him what moves to make. Is that what I
should do?

How many games should I win? He is not discouraged despite me winning
all games except one but I am worried.

He dislikes drills just preferring to play the full game.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Marc

"Marky Marc" wrote ...
I should be very glad that my son is showing sucha huge interest in
learning chess but I am a bit perplexed on how to each him at this
young age.

He knows how to set the board up for black and white. He has a great
memory. He knows how the pieces move although he can forget that a
piece can go long range. He forgets that the horse can go up 1 and
over 2 as much as it can go up 2 and over 1. It is not quite
automatic that he looks to take my piece after I take his.

He does not know how to win at this stage. It is hard for me to lose a
game without just telling him what moves to make. Is that what I
should do?

How many games should I win? He is not discouraged despite me winning
all games except one but I am worried.

He dislikes drills just preferring to play the full game.

Here's a really cool trick that I use with my 6 year old son. I read about
it in a book that was talking about how the Russians teach young children
how to play, (can't think of the title right now).

Set up the board as usual. Then allow your son to make as many LEGAL
moves as he wants as long as his pieces do not go past his fourth rank.
When he's done he lets you know, then you play the game just as a normal
game (with you moving first). This helps *you* get an idea of what he
thinks
good positions are for the pieces. It also allows you to see if he has any
concept
of "a plan" yet. You can go over these ideas, (good squares for different
pieces
and making plans), as he makes his head start moves. Also encourage him to
look for your weakest square, (king bishop pawn), and plan to attack there.
When he eventually beats you with his head start, then start counting how
many
head start moves he makes. For example, if he beats you when he made 30
head start moves, then he only gets 29 next time. You keep shrinking his
head
start when he wins and eventually you're playing regular chess.

The kids like playing this way and it's much more interesting for you.

I also go over "building a house", (castling) and simple mating patterns
like
back ranks. I usually leave a back rank mate available for my son when I
can
during the game but I don't mention it. Sometimes he sees it sometimes he
doesn't. It's much more fun for him to find it. Of course I act shocked
and
frustrated when he does find it which makes it all the better for him. ;-)

Hope this helps,
Patrick

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 00:40:06 GMT, Marky Marc
wrote:

He knows how to set the board up for black and white. He has a great
memory. He knows how the pieces move although he can forget that a
piece can go long range. He forgets that the horse can go up 1 and
over 2 as much as it can go up 2 and over 1. It is not quite
automatic that he looks to take my piece after I take his.

My 6-year old daughter learned recently, and she had trouble learning
the knight move. A few times of playing over a period of a 3-4 weeks
and she got it.

He does not know how to win at this stage. It is hard for me to lose a
game without just telling him what moves to make. Is that what I
should do?

I've played games against some kids at my daughter's school that I
couldn't give away. Some of them wouldn't take any initiative, even
when ahead. My daughter is different from that. She likes to queen
pawns. It was pretty easy for her to learn to checkmate with Q+R vs.
K, the R+R vs K, then K+Q vs. K and K+R vs K. Either she would get
enough material ahead and either be able to checkmate or queen a pawn
and checkmate.

The concept of checkmate is crucial. My daughter learned to play
checkers years ago, but that is a very materialistic game. In chess
you have to get to thinking about checkmate, which is quite different
from capturing all of the pieces.

How many games should I win?

I'd say you should win 1 out of 4 at this stage. Maybe 1 out of 3.
My wife says that for them to stay interested they should win at least
1 out of 4 but no more than 3 out of 4.

Any help would be appreciated.

You can also find good stuff at www.chess4kids.com and other places.
And they might like to play against a computer with it set on a very
low level. My daughter likes both of those.

She and I play full games and sometimes I give her simple lessons.


-------------------------------------
Replace you know what by "j" to email.

When teaching children to play some members of my club exchange sides with them
every few moves.

On 25 Jan 2004 03:33:14 GMT, (PJDBAD) wrote:

When teaching children to play some members of my club exchange sides with them
every few moves.

I don't know if that's a good idea. It messes up long-range planning.

Of course you can use the old trick of setting up a bad position and
sacrifice your queen on the last move before you swap sides.

-------------------------------------
Replace you know what by "j" to email.

On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 22:22:53 -0500, Jud McCranie
wrote:

You can also find good stuff at www.chess4kids.com and other places.

Also look at
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/danhei...lastic_dan.htm
and
http://chesskids.com/

-------------------------------------
Replace you know what by "j" to email.

"Marky Marc" wrote in message
...
I should be very glad that my son is showing sucha huge interest in
learning chess but I am a bit perplexed on how to each him at this
young age.

He knows how to set the board up for black and white. He has a great
memory. He knows how the pieces move although he can forget that a
piece can go long range. He forgets that the horse can go up 1 and
over 2 as much as it can go up 2 and over 1. It is not quite
automatic that he looks to take my piece after I take his.

He does not know how to win at this stage. It is hard for me to lose a
game without just telling him what moves to make. Is that what I
should do?

How many games should I win? He is not discouraged despite me winning
all games except one but I am worried.

He dislikes drills just preferring to play the full game.


I don't know what your drills are, but most of the kids I've taught get a
kick out of learning the two rook mate. It is a real challenge for kids to
maintain the sequence when the king attacks one of the rooks, forcing it to
reposition.

Marky Marc wrote (2004-01-24 16:40:07 PST):

... He forgets that the horse can go up 1 and
over 2 as much as it can go up 2 and over 1.

_
Is it still possible to buy the game Twixt?
I think that playing that game a lot helped
me to learn the knight move when I was young.

My brother has a bunch of old nintendo games on a CD. I was going through
one of the directories and found "Knight Moves". A cheesy game where you
have to take a knight like piece around a 8 by 3 board( I think); it was to
get a heart. The heart moves when you capture it and the knight starts
moving faster so you have to find a square quicker. After 3 or 4 lands on
the square it goes black and after that you land there you go through the
hole and the game is over. I found it amusing until I fell through the
hole.

Sara

"Louis Blair" wrote in message
om...
Marky Marc wrote (2004-01-24 16:40:07 PST):

... He forgets that the horse can go up 1 and
over 2 as much as it can go up 2 and over 1.

_
Is it still possible to buy the game Twixt?
I think that playing that game a lot helped
me to learn the knight move when I was young.

Thanks for all the hints. I tried giving myself a handicap (all pawns
and a king) but of course my son said "not fair Dad" and wanted me to
play with all my pieces.

Still, I did try some simple mating patterns and he seemed to go along
with that...as long as I promised him a full game.

Marc

My brother has a bunch of old nintendo games on a CD. I was going through
one of the directories and found "Knight Moves". A cheesy game where you
have to take a knight like piece around a 8 by 3 board( I think); it was to
get a heart. The heart moves when you capture it and the knight starts
moving faster so you have to find a square quicker. After 3 or 4 lands on
the square it goes black and after that you land there you go through the
hole and the game is over. I found it amusing until I fell through the
hole.

Sara

"Louis Blair" wrote in message
. com...
Marky Marc wrote (2004-01-24 16:40:07 PST):

... He forgets that the horse can go up 1 and
over 2 as much as it can go up 2 and over 1.

_
Is it still possible to buy the game Twixt?
I think that playing that game a lot helped
me to learn the knight move when I was young.