Teaching chess – some techniques

While playing chess is fun, teaching chess is flat out a blast. Teaching chess is really no different from teaching any other kind of board game, like Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly, or Risk. We start with the board [a map of the world –  64 light and dark squares] and the pieces [a colorful plastic marker – Knights and Rooks and Queens, oh my]. Then how to move, [roll the dice – move the chess piece], the consequences of some moves [landing on Boardwalk with a hotel – putting your Knight where your opponent can take it for nothing] and how you win the game [take over the world in Risk – checkmate the King].

I’ll grant you that chess is more complicated than those games and it will take longer than a few minutes for anyone, not just a child, to learn to play a complete game. However, it’s still just teaching a game, and we break it down into small, easily digestible bits of information.

Let me illustrate: The first time I took my then four-year-old son outside to play catch with his brand new glove, he did really well for the first three throws, then to my horror on the next one, he just didn’t get the glove up high enough and the baseball sailed right over the web and smacked him in the forehead. Square on. We were only about six feet apart, so it mostly just made his eyes water and left a swell-looking red spot on which I’m pretty sure you could see a seam mark. 

After a little bit, we started up again and I took the “teaching moment” to tell him, again, to watch the ball go into the glove. What I didn’t do is explain trajectory, ball speed, and  anticipating the landing point because he wasn’t ready for that advanced information. We’ll keep things simple, until they aren’t anymore, then we’ll slow down even more to ensure both you and your child are first still having fun, and secondly that he’s grasping the new concepts.

Chess is full of teaching moments, and nothing is quite as wonderful as when your child has an “ah ha” experience. It might be when she first sees a checkmate three moves ahead, or she might make a move you didn’t expect, and it’s a sound and strong move.

No one knows your son like you do. You know his personality, his likes, his dislikes. You know his limits. But one thing I’ve discovered over the years of coaching chess, is that young players will continually surprise you with their perceptiveness and understanding of the game far beyond your expectations. 

Don’t sell your son short. Using patience and patience and patience, repeat the lesson until you’re sure he’s ready to move on. Sometimes you’ll decide to move on and discover you need to backtrack a bit. Just remind your child of the forgotten information, and move ahead.

As you are playing a game with your son, keep in mind that mistakes will happen. He’ll make a weak, maybe disastrous (from the game point of view) move, and the game would be over in a just a few more moves. This is teaching moment. One of my favorite and effective methods is the “Take-back” rule. It’s just like it sounds. I tell my student to take back the move he just made, and look for a stronger one. I also immediately explain why the move was weak.

We all have our preferences in the way we communicate, and my choice is to label the move as “weak,” rather than “bad.” I know it’s semantics, but as parent-teachers we must be careful not to let our daughter associate our criticism of a move with herself.