So what's the best recommendation on how to teach my daughters how to play chess? They're 9 and 12 and both say they are interested in learning. Most of the "beginner" stuff I see is more what I would consider intermediate, since I'll have to start from scratch with them.
First lesson will obviously be what the pieces are and how they move, but are there any instructional books that might be better to help me with this? Thanks, and wish me luck. My first poker lesson ended with the 12 year old successfully 4 betting then 2 barrel bluffing with 24o while my 9 year old open folded AJ 4 handed because it wasn't suited. Totally expecting a train wreck here!
- don't bore them
- kids like to play instead of getting lessons so it's probably a good idea to let them play a lot and sneak in learning
- there's a book called "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" which should be good
Keep it fun. My wife and I have taught chess to kids for many years, and we now have our four year old daughter enjoying playing. I pretend with her that the pieces are characters from the "Sleeping Beauty" movie, which she's really in to. So, that helps keep her interest. The black queen is Maleficent, etc.
Don't expect them to do anything other than have fun. If they have fun, then they can learn. As a start, give them the basic fundamental rules, and just let them play.
Thanks for the suggestions. Last night I gave it a shot. I first told my 9 year old to google how to set up a chess board, and she had no problems with that. I went over how the pieces move and before we were even done they wanted to play a game. I showed them a few opening moves and then they were off. 12 year old named all of the pieces after my little pony characters, and the 9 year old wanted blood, but hated it when her pieces got taken, even if they were even trades.
All in all a good start I think and they want to play again so I haven't chased them off completely!
I've noticed that kids sometimes have a hard time understanding the concept of trading
I helped that a bit by going over how many points each piece was worth so that they could track who was "winning". That seemed to help a bit, but yeah, my youngest sure didn't like it when her pieces were taken, even trades or not.
Could you expand on this a bit please? I'm curious what would be reasonable to show a kid at this stage for the opening.
My grandfather taught me and my brother how to play. I can't remember what he taught us specifically, but I know that for a long time, every game between me and my brother went: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bd3 Bd6 4. O-O O-O 5. h3 h6 and then we would start moving the a, b, and c-pawns to create some queenside conflict
Could you expand on this a bit please? I'm curious what would be reasonable to show a kid at this stage for the opening.
My grandfather taught me and my brother how to play. I can't remember what he taught us specifically, but I know that for a long time, every game between me and my brother went: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bd3 Bd6 4. O-O O-O 5. h3 h6 and then we would start moving the a, b, and c-pawns to create some queenside conflict
I went much more basic than that. I told them that for starters they should do e4 or d4 first, and then I went into what moves would attack the center and what moves to counter with. It will be some time yet before we get into proper openings I think.
Just to be clear, I don't think my grandfather taught us those moves. I don't know what he taught us but that is what we settled on. Well, I do think he taught us to play up the h-pawn to create some space for the king and avoid future back-rank issues.
When my son was three, I showed him positions on the computer, and told him to set them up on the board. That is probably not a big deal for your older daughters but was challenging for him, and soon learned to play the game. He is 9 now, can play blind effortlessly, and beats everyone easily in his class.
My 8 yr old kid can beat everyone in his school, but not blind. When we started it was all about attacking the center. He seemed to pick up the rest on his own. I think there's a thread about books here. I recommend Chess for Children.
I was able to beat everybody at my school from age 8 to 18.. and I still suck so tbh, it's not necessarily a good bar of measurement. It depends on the school
learning the pieces and how they move is important. I'd say you could teach them some basic strategies after that. I know they're young but you could certainly discuss the importance of thinking 1 turn ahead, not moving into a trap, etc.
