Hey guys.

My little brother startet looking into chess 2 days ago(im so happy:), and i want to teach him the great game of chess. He has a lot of other interests, so i don`t expect him to take it as seriously as me, but i hope he can learn basic stuff and slowly develop some skill. Therefore i need your help:)

He know how every piece can move, but not anything else. He have no clue about the game(of course) and just moves pieces around without reason and meaning.

How should i start when teaching him this great game? What should i focus on in the beginning and what should i not focus on?(And yes, i know that there is no point in teaching him a bunch of opening). How do i start up teaching a person that know nothing about chess? Any advise or suggestions would be appriciated...everything from general tips to more concrete exercises and principles and other stuff:)

I would suggest that you start out with simple endgames - KQ vs K, KR vs K, KRR vs K, KQR vs K, KPP vs K...

Teach him notation too.

Once he can checkmate pretty confidently with checkmates and notation, I would suggest that you give him some very easy mate in 1 puzzles to do, such as:

Once he starts to get more confident with the mate in 1 puzzles and find them more easily, I recommend you give him some **very basic** opening advice, such as:

-On your first move, if you are white always play 1. Nf3 (or whatever you want him to play)

-If you are black do exactly the same move that white does, if he plays 1. Nf3 you play 1. Nf6.

Don't tell him, "This is the Reti Opening," tell him, "On your next move I want you to play 2. g3 WHATEVER BLACK DOES."

Every day get him to do a couple of puzzles, not just mates but tactics also - pins, forks, etc.

Play 'training games' with him, explaining why you did stuff and telling him what he should be thinking about. If he gets bored, take a break for a while. Whatever you do, don't force him into it because he'll have a very negative attitude towards it. If he starts losing the training game, offer to swap sides.

Make sure he enjoys himself, slowly give him harder puzzles and teach him more openings, endings, tactics, strategy, etc. as he improves. Good luck!!

My dad taught me through playing repetitive, repetitious games.  He would play easy against me, and would put me in situations where he would repeat scenarios that would make me think before moving (traps), until I could recognize it.   

Around what age is your younger brother?... The younger he is the quicker he will learn when he has matured.

Teach him tactics first: forks skewers etc all that stuff, make him do lots of tactic problems, from a book or here on the site.

Then teach notation and let him practise in a game vs you. Then teach some opening principles (control the center, devellop and castle etc), and some overkill endgames KQR v K, KRR v K, and then KR v K and KQ v K.

Keep practicing the tactics and just start playing games

I think playing is the important thing. Play very often and in the games you may give him some hints, like I missed guarding a piece can you see wich? or there is a mate for you in one move can you see it? 

I think it is good if you make some bad moves that makes the game more even, some say that will teach them to play bad moves but in the beginning the most important is that it is fun, and that is it if they get to take pieces and win sometimes.

I also think some basic endgames are good, R+R+K vs K is good. Try to make some of the games end up with that position, (of course he can have more material just make sure he gets a chance to practice what you teach him in real games. That makes it more fun learning it and he wont forget it.

how old is your bro? it depends. on that, and maturity.

I am pretty sure I played your "little brother" and was destroyed. Whatever he learns from here on, message me

Thanks for all the great knowledge folks:) Really appriciate it...I think i will start by playing some training games, and make him explain his ideas of each move, and also explaining what i am thinking when making a move...also a couple of opening principals is a good idea:)

My brother is 14 and really mature for his age, so to get him understand things relatively quick should not be a issue i think...and to you Tryst...i think not :)

try to tell him why you do what you do when you play..

Teach him scholar's mate, fool's mate and other checkmate ideas, then how to recognize unprotected pieces then add a piece and work backwards until he can get to that unprotected piece from 5 moves out. Instead of making bad moves or letting him win (he will know). Play 5 moves then turn the board around, then another 5 and turn the board around. Teach him notation and write your games down so that he can go back over the whole thing later. Most importantly, make sure he has fun. To make it a study or something too serious too soon will ruin his new-found interest. Chess 960 is also a good idea as standard opening theory is almost irrelevant.  Peace

http://www.chesskids.com/lessons04.shtml

a whole syllabus to work through.  

chess begin by hobby, If he like it, he`ll improve by himself.

if he's just playing for fun and doesn't want to study chess, then just teach him some general principles (such as control the center in the opening, move knights before bishops, etc.) and let him work with that first.

if he's serious and wants to learn a lot about chess, begin with simple endgames (king+pawn vs king sort of thing), and definitely tactics are a must.

What about my cousin, he is just 10, end games still?

As he just started playing chess a few days ago, I think that using the lessons from the link, "chessKiDS academy"  in post #10 by Conifer is simply excellent.

I was going to post a list of steps on how to start showing chess to your brother, but after the first few lessons that this course is simple and complete.

Some might say the approach is too simplistic, I would respond that if you miss a single element in his development, he will either abandon or not progress at a good pace.

With his maturity at 14, I think he will whiz thru the first few lessons very quickly.

With this method do cover in lesson 1, the territory for white and black sides, the importance of controlling the center, the wings, king and queen and the algebraic notation should also be introduced as mentioned above. Show him how to write the moves down when he plays a game, this way he will learn faster the algebraic notation.

Always make sure that you give him basic puzzles, I mean with one or 2 move at the most and try using checkmate networks. For instance give him say 3 checkmate puzzles with the knight and the queen so that he recognizes patterns. Puzzles with pawns are also very useful and neglected.

After any lesson give him a test to verify his knowledge and rate it if you can. You then can review with him his strong and weak points and go over some material if needed.

Keep in a folder the test results for future reference, when progress it at a stand still and he hits a plateau, then some basic concept is missing, just like any math problem.

Naturally pieces move comes next as in the lessons from chessKIDS academy. I would however start with the pawn, not the rook, for 2 very important reasons. First by placing it first you are telling him that the role of the pawn is critical in a game considering the way it can move and the possibility of promotion.

Do introduce the “en passant” move. Secondly, pawn moves in the opening phase of the game is often the first move. 

For now that's it. If you want to contact me during your teaching process about any situation just send me a message.

I'm looking forward to teaching my nephew (almost 3 years old) and my two sons (2 and 1 years old).  Obviously I will have to wait a bit to teach my sons, but my nephew is quite advanced for his age (knows his alphabet, can count to 20 in at least three languages, can spell his and his cousins' names, etc.) so maybe I can start with him this summer.

I'm thinking that the best way is to start with endgames.  Those are the simplest scenarios, so it should be easier to get the idea of movement, check and mate across.  I will probably not tell him I'm teaching him chess, but rather describe the game as: "You have a King and a Queen, try and capture my King."  When he gets the hang of that, then we'll try R+K vs. K, etc.

For a 14 year old, you can probably start with all 16 pieces, though it probably wouldn't hurt to do some endgame work early on, at least to teach him some mating patterns.

You need to let the kid first and foremost understand the basis and the basics as I outlined in my post #14.

I have learned on my own and until I could understand basics it was very difficult.

So teach basics and give end game simple problems or puzzles but please not vice-versa.It's logical!

I'll keep that in mind.  I have the ChessKIDS site bookmarked for future reference.  I do think there is value in playing "mini" games (e.g. give the kid 2 rooks and 50 moves or 5 minutes and see if he can mate me).  One way to learn the basics is to focus on one piece at a time.  Another suggestion I read was to play pawn-only chess.  Set up the pawns as normal with no other piece.  Normal move rules apply, and you win by capturing all your opponents pawns or promoting a pawn.  This can quickly show both the importance/power of pawns, but also subtly teach themes such as pawn chains, capturing toward the center, etc.

Do you have experience teaching chess to kids, or are your statements based on your own experience learning the game?

I have both experience teaching kids, not many maybe 10 but I enjoyed every step of it, as I always wanted people to play chess. Never realized that my nephew was a brain but with his degree in electrical engineering he can hardly hold me to a draw, only because I have 25 years more experience playing the game, he is a cute brat but still lacks at times basic understanding of a specific opening and does not play as much chess as I do, where my advantage is.

I also on this site have devoted about 75% of my games to play unrated games since about 6 to 8 months to try to help those that want to get better, any player from a 900 rating to a 1900 rating, which is actually very demanding for me to give new tactics and opening moves and variations for a 1900 player, but I usually can give a lot of advice in end games strategy, which compensates for my other weaknesses.

You can check my games to support this claim.

Nice!

I think the effective way to teach, is by getting him interested. If he's interested, the rest will follow by his own questioning (maybe)...

My strategy to get my two little sisters (9 and 10 or something (maybe 8)) interested, was by letting them beat me the first match. In the second game, and games after that, I crush them convincingly. This establishes a rivalry or challange. And after I win, I can ask "Should I show you a trick to win?", this they can accept because I'm not super-superior, I'm a rival, and they will try to acquire the tricks I know.

I also try to play games with no attacking intent from my side, just building up a fortress and letting them realize that they need to create some strategic initiative, and teaching them that bringing forth the big pieces is the way to do it.

Håper din lillebror beholder interessen! :)