My son was frustrated because he sacrificed his bishop to the other kids pawn. He took the other kids pawn with his knight forking the Queen and the rook with the knight backed up by his queen.
The kid stared at the board "thinking" refusing to move until it was time for school to start. The other kid was awarded the "win" having captured a pawn and a bishop and my son having only captured a pawn. So yeah... there's that.
I told him next time checkmate him with the queen instead of dinking around with the fork. His response, "I was going to checkmate him after I took his rook, I like forks, I was so focused on the fork I didn't even think about the mate". We had a rather long discussion about that. So he learned something, and that's cool. But still doesn't seem quite right.
I apologize if this is not the right place to be asking these questions...
So my son age 9 in 4th grade is playing in a chess "tournament" before school in the school's library. They play for 15 minutes.
Two things bother me:
1. The librarian has told him they can NOT castle because it is too advanced? Is this normal? Have you ever heard of this before? Is this normal when children are playing?
2. These kids, being new to chess, hardly ever finish a game. The school doesn't have chess clocks. So, in the event there is no checkmate or draw, a winner is determined by whoever takes the most pieces. From what my son tells me, it seems capturing 4 pawns would beat capturing a queen and a rook. I don't know if this is accurate or not in that he seemed confused. In the absence of a clock, what are your thoughts on proclaiming a winner in a game that has not finished and what method would you use to do so?
Finally, in your opinion, is this something I just let this go, or should I speak with her?