How old were you when you started playing chess?

24 years old

I was 5 years old.

i learn in first year of  secondary school!so i was 13!been playing almost 8 years now so! no individual first prizes yet though!

Probably 6 or 7 yrs old

I was almost 4.

I was about eight when I learned how to play.  I started learning basic strategy when I was ten.  Then I did not play a chess game again until I was 12 years old.

I was like 7 or so. Played off and on for the last 11 years. Alot more the past 2-3 years.

12.

i was 9...I started playing in Turkey...I was soo good back then and since I moved to the US i got worse...i dont know what happened....

i started to get iterested in it when i was 13... last year... learned the basics of strategy by moving the pieces in a way that looked pretty, i was actualy quite good to start with, making moves with a positional nature without knowing what the heck i'm doing... it took my 1800+ (i think, never asked him, but he's very good) friend some time to figure i really didn't know how to play :). since then i hired a teacher. hope to be good enough to be magnus carlsons' assistant when i'm 76.

 I don't think there was a computer that could play chess when I was 7!

According to 'Computer Chess History by Bill Wall' : In 1962 the first MIT chess program was written. It was the first chess program that played regular chess credibly. It was written by Alan Kotok for his B.S. thesis project, assisted by John McCarthy of Stanford. The program ran on an IBM 7090, looking at 1100 positions per second.

Ok, so there was, It just wasn't very good!

I learned from my father at 4 or 5. Like many others have said learned the moves at 4-5, how to play at 14-15, and still learning...

I was about 7 when I learned how the pieces moved...........started actually playing chess in about January more than a few game a year

I'm still waiting for some skill or chess aptitude to kick in..............anyday now

age 12

I began to play chess at a local club at 6 years old.

I was 28 when I first started playing chess, I just wish I would have first start around 6 or 7.

Around nine, I guess. I really only actively began in 6th grade, then stopped playing completely by high school, and picked up again last year.

my dad taught me how the pieces moved when I was 6, but I didn't have a chess club until 8 (I haven't lost to my dad since then)

I first learned how to play when I was maybe 7-8, but I didn't start taking up chess seriously until about a year ago. (I'm 17 now)

I was three, I can't remember not knowing how to play, my daughter is two and she can setup the board even getting the board right, and she knows how the knight moves. I'm going to post a video soon.

I learned how to move the pieces in April, 2008. I started really playing people when I joined this site Jun 26. My rating on here is 1329. (I only play turn-based now) I am going to play in my first USCF rated event on Thursday.