Chess for kids

One of the things we try and do at my local over the board chess club is ensure that anyone has the opportunity to improve their game.  The opportunitys for learning new things about the game of chess, never stop even if you have played the game for over 25 years. 

Certianly arbiters who do junior tournaments, maybe familiar with this sort of thing happening:  A child has got 3 queens on the board and their opponent only has a lone king left.  It should be easy for the child with 3 queens to win.  Well yes it should, but if a child has not learnt the technique of a simple king + queen v king checkmate it can turn a well deserved win into a draw. 

At Brewood Chess Circle after learning the rules of how the pieces move we then make sure that any new children coming to the club can learn the basic checkmates.  It might seem strange at first.  However there is little point in knowing how to double-up rooks on the 7th rank if you can not finish the game of with the simple checkmates. 

They are easy to learn, and essential to learn because they come up so often in games.