How (not) to teach chess beginners

Beginners need to be introduced to the game gradually, starting with the basics. A bad chess coach may try to teach complex strategies before the student has a strong grasp of the fundamentals, leading to confusion and frustration.

Example 1: Amazing plan = bad idea!

In this position the best strategic move for black is 1...Ba3! The point is to weaken the dark-squares, and especially the pawn on d4, eventually provoke c2-c3, in which case the c3-pawn becomes the main target for black. But showing this to a beginner is a complete nonsense! They've recently learnt distinction between good and bad bishop, and suddenly they see this horrifying move, against all known principles and logic. In other words, this bishop on d6 should be seen from their perspective as more valuable then the one on b2, and a good coach should actually critisize their student if they'd chose Capablanca's solution! It would be a sign that they don't understand chess basics, related with activity of pieces! So, demonstrating this complex strategy only causes confusion and makes the game of chess less logical. Noone wants that.

Example 2: Endgames? Sure, but keep it simple!

The basics of chess, such as piece movement, control of the center, and development, are essential for a beginner. As we just saw, a bad chess coach may focus too much on advanced concepts and overlook the importance of building a strong foundation.

Endgames are typically good for beginners, mainly because they are not too complex, and the idea of how to win is streight forward. However, that's not the case in all endgames.

This one is a perfect example of teaching without foundation. White should eventually build an initiative thanks to the two following ideas: 1) domination of the bishop over a knight... in an open endgame, and 2) principle of two weaknesses, when the opponent is not able to stretch enough to protect all their weaknesses. Process of winning is too long and complex for a beginner's mind to stay focused and grasp anything. They should get to know why in this position a GM played the move 1. h5, and from their perspective whatever we'd say to justify it, wont sound reasonable enough, cause they are not even familiar with the terms we use.

Example 3:
Complex middlegame problems (everything, everywhere, all at once!)

Another bad example can be seen in this early middlegame.

Here is white to move, and the theme is GAINING INITIATIVE... which can be obtained by... castling long! It is so difficult and therefore wrong as asking a student to talk about Heidegger's philosophy, while they are still learning the alphabet. If your beginner level student gets something like this on the board to solve, they would probably quit chess for life, even before you get fired.

Example 4: Too much information

Beginners can easily become overwhelmed with too much information at once. A bad chess coach may overload their student with too many concepts, making it difficult for them to retain any of it.

In the given position there are planty of elements to discuss: weakened kings, semi-open files, the outposts on f4 and h4, and for white f5 and h5, bad bishops on e2 and g7, space advantage for black on the kingside, for white in the center/queenside, and so on. Now asking a beginner to evaluate this situation, combining all mentioned elements, doesn't really get them anywhere. Even for a master, the data would not give a clear answer to the question of what's going on. Discussing this type of position would leave your student without any conclusion, boosting only their frustration.

Instead, a good coach would focus on one of those mentioned elements, and stay with it for couple of lessons at least, until it is well understood.

Example 5: Tactical puzzles can be bad too!

Normally, a coach shouldn't spend much time on pure tactics with their students. Instead, a teacher should ask a beginner to work on tactics between the sessions, cause it can be done perfectly well without anyone's assistence (for instance using the resources online). But if they are total beginners, tactical puzzles are definitely the highest priority. However, beginners shouldn't be seeing chess problems like the one that we have here in the diagram.

It's white to move, and there are planty of possibilities - taking on a7, sacrificing the bishop, advancing the pawn... but the only combination that leads to a win for white goes through the move... 1. Bg6!, and after 1... Kd7 - to avoid getting checkmated by Bf5 (1... f1=Q doesn't work cause of 2. Bf5! anyway, followed by 3. Ne7 forking and winning) - 2. Bd3, preventing the pawn from promoting, and later winning the endgame being two pawns up.

First of all, even if you show a beginner the solution, they would be confused by the final position, cause they can't fully understand that this is winning at all. White is only two pawns up, and black has a very advanced passed pawn! From their perspective, this is still quite scary position to play. The whole combination would seem too complicated and the achievement is not that clear. Overall, a very bad teaching material.

A good example: Simplicity is the key

Complexity is the enemy when teaching a beginner. Instead, making things as clear as possible is the key to success when working with beginners. We need really good puzzles or chess problems for that level, and one of the best is shown in the diagram below.

Here we have white with a very active rook, while black has their rook passively looking at own pawns. When we say that white's rook is better, our student is still going to be questioning it, cause they still don't have the notion of what it really means when we say a piece is "better" or "more active". We can highlight the number of squares that our rook is controlling and compare it with the numbers of black's rook. That's still not enough, but for the time being we'll move on to the Kings. Nobody has their king active yet, but because our rook is cutting the opponent's seventh rank, our student is noticing that the king of black is trapped on their back rank, and has no potential to attack anything.

Next thing is to search for the targets. Since our rook alone cannot really checkmate alone, or capture anything, we'll think of how to help it, and the only piece to help the rook is our king. So, we NEED our king active, somewhere on the board. Next question is - where do we want our king to be in the near future. That question is excellent for beginners, cause it pushes the beginner to create a plan consisted of many moves, which is a significant step forward for their thinking process. Plus, their planning is not going to be consisted of difficult moves or concepts, but rely on basic ideas and questions, such as - what is the main weakness to attack with my Rook and King. They'd realize how important it is to put their pieces to work together (coordination of pieces) in order to achieve their goal of winning a pawn or deliver a checkmate.

At the end, I am going to use this opportunity to invite you to check my video on the same matter (which I just recorded and published), and leave a comment or support my effort with a like (of course, only if you think it is worth it).