How to lose...

I play a begginner at OTB play, however he is begginning to get discouraged. I am wondering how can I lose without making it obvious that I am throwing the game.

Ummm...can't you find someone more his level to play with him?

Pretend that you have a "master plan", which merits any sacrifices you may make. Whatever moves they make in responce, they will have "foiled" that plan (oh no!).

Remember, good solid acting can always take the act to the next level.

Don't lose on purpose:

1. It's disrespectful.

2. Chess players take many knocks and keep coming back for more. Learning chess is a long and rocky road and certainly not for everyone, if he wants to give up then let him.

I disagree.  Losing on purpose is fine.  Modernchess has a good idea.  If he knows that you're much better, though, maybe you can side-step the whole issue by talking through games as they're being played.  That way, you can outplay yourself, maybe teach him something along the way, and he feels like he accomplished something.  That's worked for me in the past.

i have to agree.  throwing a game is not good sportsmanship.  if you are better, you deserve the point.  if you actually blunder or are outplayed, your opponent does.  :)

Never loose on purpose it's even more discouraging to your opponent because it's not hard to figure out.

I've played analysis type games with much lower rated players before and it's still fun, you can talk about what you're thinking or see -- if they make a terrible blunder you can say "what about this" and motion your move and allow them a trackback etc.

my friend--an expert and i were teaching my 6 year old son the basics about chess...  (yesterday in fact).  we went over all the pieces and their moves and even set the board up in some really easy puzzles to get him going.  this is the second time my son has done anything with chess other than watch me.

when we were done with the rules and movements etc we set the board up and my kid was playing my expert friend.  on all of his moves i talked him through each of his options and tried to point out threats and ideas.  anyway, when we were done playing my friend and i got to talking.  he said he thought it might help the kid more if i DIDN'T talk him through the moves.  he was like--just let him choose.  this way he'll eventually start to see more and more of the game and board.  and i was like--you're right.  like the prawn says, tough love seems to be a pretty good teacher when it comes to chess.  beat him.  i say, beat him as badly as the game goes--naturally.  i kinda think -- if we never lose, how will we know what we need to learn?

Yeah, just let the beginner think on his own so that he can get accustomed to it. Help him out every once it a while, but not a whole lot while you are playing. I remember when I was first learning to play chess, my dad would let me win, and I always knew when he did, and it really pissed me off.

Hey, ARandomPerson, another approach you could take is to give odds.

Tell your beginner friend straight up - I've played a lot more than you, let's try to make it an even game... and play without your King's Rook. When they beat you at that (it may take a few tries), reduce the odds to a bishop, then a knight... you get some actual challenge in the process while they learn.

Some people are also just not chess-inclined.  Let's keep that in mind.

Man if you're beating him all the time he must really  be struggeling.  I'd suggest telling to play around with the tactics trainer for a while.