You can't spell fracklefrit without fact.

By the way, I was reminded of an incident I saw a while ago. There was an elderly man playing chess with a boy of around 6 years old (Probably his grandson). They were both staring at the chessboard and for a moment there was an eerie silence there. I was impressed to see how a child of such a young age could muster such an intense concentration. All of a sudden, the boy broke the silence and with a loud pitching noise he yelled "Here come the UFO and it snatches your king away ... VROOOOMMMM!". The boy snatched the old man's king piece and ran away while adding "I quit chess!"

Man, I couldn't stop laughing.

Thats hilarious. I will have to remember that in case I sometimes want to resign a tournament game in the weirdest way possible.

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 i agree

Bought a Quick Chess board for my four year old daughter.  It is five by six. Five pawns, one of every piece.  She loves playing and it teaches her how the pieces move and simple tactics.  

Hi I found this website via Google because I was curious about the age at which children can/are being taught chess. That is, my darling son learned to play when he was two years old turning three (about half a year ago). I'm no hardcore chess-afficianoda myself (although I went to school with Dutch grandmaster Loek van Wely), but I wanted to teach him a game to "put his theeth in", because he got a bit fed up with simple games like rummicub, memory, lucky, elephant parade, etc. He' s a child prodigy in every other way so I wasn't much surprised when he immediately recalled the opening positions of the chess pieces, and how all the basic movement went about. After a few weeks he had learned every rule ( including, en-pasent, rockade, promotion, remise) but was of was still very impulsive in moving his pieces over the board, especially when he could take a piece, not thinking ahead. Then, all of a sudden (mind you, he was then only just three years old) he began to fluently play basic openings and end games, however wtill making crude mstakes in his enthousiasm. I now think, that he can rally " master" this game at the age of four. It's funny because, as I said before, I myself am really not that interested in chess but I only thought it would match my son's cognitive progression and motivation. As for the future, he' s welcone to join a chess club (at age four or so, haha), but I'd rather see hom become a pofessional soccer playe (hey, I'm Dutch).

Oh, I have to ad a really cute story about my son Salomon, that he sometimes playes chess with one of his puppets (for instance "Ella Bella") performing both sides of the board, and teaching his puupet how to play in the meantime. It's hilarious and joyful to watch!

Yep he is, I will upload a home video of my darling son playing chess as soon as I have figured out how to do this . This may take a while haha.

My nephew is 2.5 years.... but he has a tremendous understanding of things around him.. watches movies with me, speaks fluently. makes strategies to get his things done (in normal activities). recognizes faces & names ( (celebs,cartoons,movie charachters)..not only he watches movies with me.. after i explain him the movie while watching.. he picks it up and enjoys it and even goes to the extent of explaining the movie to his mom....

I do speed cubing and i have bought a cube for him to play..he plays with the rubic cube and knows the 6 color of 6 faces of the cube. and solves it (if its very simple to solve,(like one or two turns of a side)..

his memory, ability to learn & attention span made me think why not introduce chess to him..  he has a board and pieces now.. every day we spend 5 mins after i come back from office..he opens the box. takes out 1 piece at a time and gives it to me and i put it on the board. while I take it from him, i call the name of the piece aloud.. he repeats with me.. now, after a  week i can tell him to show me the black rook or some other piece  of a color, he will pick that up from the board and put it back at the right square.

we do this with the chess 5 mins everyday.. he really enjoys it.. exp when he picks up the knight.. (he says Maximus , everytime he picks the knight (maximus is the horse from the movie Tangled...)

so, i guess ther is nothing wrong if he is 2.5 yrs... i dont want to force him to play chess while he grows up... but I want his brain to have some headstart being comfortable with chess... and incase he likes playing chess going ahead i can bet he is going to be one of a  young GM from my country.

I guess, there is nothing right or wrong with the age.. kids can start training at a much later a age and do just fine if this is what they really like & want to get into. but as guarians we have to be carefull not to do anything wrong/inappropriate..both->not training   kid with when you should  &  tranining the kid when you should not  can be wrong depending on the KID.

I finally figured out how to upload a home video to Youtube, so here's a link to my son Salomon playing both sides of the chess board (with Iggle Piggle). I think it's a few weeks before he turned three years old. Mind you, it's not his best game ever haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgwUk_ieZOo&feature=plcp

3 years is too young. If you want your child to learn chess for his/her general development, you can use many other tools: Brainquest, SchoolZone, IXL, etc... If you want your child to actually grasp chess concepts and become good at chess, then focus on general development and when your child turns 5, he/she can learn much faster and apply their knowledge.

5 yrs old. 

CASE CLOSED.

I introduced chess to my brother when he was five. 

Now he plays just for fun instead of striving to be something great, though.

He's 6 now. 

So, I know this question has been asked two years ago but I think that 4 and 1/2 isn't too young. I personally started learning chess when I was 5 years old. (But I wasn't too interested in it back then and stopped playing. Last year, however, I joined a chess club...)

Many famous Grandmasters started playing chess with 4 or 5 years.

I learned when I was four

pfren I don't agree with you I think it is at 4-6 years old

When I was in my 30's I judged myself too immature. Same for my 40's. I'm about to enter my 50's ... maybe now is the right time to teach my son.

I learned when I was 6.  It's my opinion that 4 is the youngest age possible for a girl.  A little older for a boy (5-6?) because as boys are generally more active, it'll be harder to get them to sit and concentrate on a board game.

Maybe better for their chess development, not their own development. 

I hate when parents view their children as a chance to get trophies they failed to get themselves.