word, i feel that. I'm just trying to think about what might be fun and instructive besides just playing full games. Thanks for the reply.
teaching a beginner
Sort:
I also began teaching my girlfriend chess about a year ago, a little while after I began my serious study of the game. She has a quick mind for puzzles and her powers of mental visualization are better than mine, so before long I think she will be able to outplay me ;), she hates losing though, which is an important thing to get over if you are going to enjoy playing the game, because fun and enjoyment is the true goal right?
As far as teaching ideas, I took hints from the way I was learning the game. I had started by playing a lot and talking with players after games, but when it came time to really study I read a few recommendations, and started the following: doing online tactical puzzles, reading books, and working through some of Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition academies.
Since you want to have it be interactive, instead of just handing her a book and saying "here, this has what you want to know", use the books as a guide to help you set up a study program. When my girl and I were starting, we worked through the basics first, like you've described. She already knew how the pieces moved, but other than that had not played. Opening principles and basic tactics definitely come first. Also, explaining the major facets of the game. Yasser Seirawan's intoductory book Play Winning Chess breaks it down as follows: space, force, time, pawn structure. This gives you a framework to begin understanding more about the game.
After that use your favorite book or only tactic trainer to set up some tactical problems for her, and you can give her hints on the particular tactical theme (such as fork, pin, forced mate) if she struggles. For my personal study, I started with tactics, then after understanding principles of the opening (very basic), I went to endgames and positional/strategic play.
If you have Silman's Complete Endgame Course, that book breaks endgame study down by rating, and the positions it uses as examples are excellent, and have lots of explanation of the different variations that do or don't work, which can help you answer questions.
My girlfriend and I also play "takeback" games. You sit down to play a serious game, and at any time if either are you not happy with a move, you can just take it back and play another.. it's a friendly game, the goal is learning and fun, so no need to be competitive about it. View each takeback as an opportunity to explore a tactical or positional idea, discuss why you make the moves you are making.
My final piece of advice is as a teacher, especially of someone you are in relationship with, be patient, give lots of positive feedback, and above all else have fun! Best of luck.
thanks for the great ideas Laedryn!
thanks, good question. I knew how to play chess when I was little but don't study much, but I'd like to improve.
so anything else you would suggest for a beginner to learn to play chess better?
I suggest you give her two rooks to your king, and let her learn to mate you. Once she understands that, take away a rook, and teach her how to mate with rook/king vs king.
It's very common for beginners to play other beginners, end up with an easily won game, such as a rook/king vs king ending, and then have no idea how to win. So teach at least the basics of the endgame early.
If an experienced player is playing a new player and you just play games, the new player essentially never has a chance to win. That can be very discouraging. By giving them chances to play out those endgames against you, they will be able to win, and they'll feel they've learned something. That helps a lot.
And if you can get her to working tactics problems on chess.com or chesstempo, that will help a lot.
FlowerFlowers,
The best way to improve without studying is simply to play often. Playing online is useful because the computer automatically tracks your moves for you, and you can go back and review your own games. Look for mistakes you made, or patterns in the opening that either worked for you or against you, and try to commit them to memory.
I began seriously studying chess about a year and a half ago. When I began studying my rating was likely around 1000, and although I do not have an official rating yet, my guess is it is now somewhere in the mid-1400's and closing in on 1500. The fastest way I found to improve my game was by studying. As I mentioned above, the basics come first. There are probably a lot of things you have intuitively learned and understood just through playing, but having these ideas in your head as a clear concept and not just a feeling can help guide you through a lot of situations, and this is where the study of the basics come in. If you are truly interested in pursuing chess as a hobby and learning more about the game, I would be prepared to invest a little money and time in materials for study.
How I would start:
For almost all players below 1400, the most important area of study is tactics. Tactics are the "tricks" on the chess board, things like forks, pins, skewers. To me, tactics is a matter of first understanding the basic concept of a particular tactic, and then learning to recognize patterns in which that tactic is present, essentially how it can be used. For tactics, there are 3 resources I highly recommend: Tactics Trainer here on this website, as a nonmember you get 3 free daily and it helps chart your progress. www.chesstempo.com is a website that offers unlimited free tactical training, great place to go do some puzzles. Winning Chess Tactics by GM Yasser Seirawan. The writing style in this book really works for me. Each chapter is devoted to a different tactical theme, starting with a basic explanation of the tactic with examples of how it works, and at the end of each chapter is a series of tests that get successively harder, all centered around that tactical theme. The end of the book has some games from grandmasters known for their tactical abilities, and then a lot of tactical puzzles of varying difficulty.
Next, I would learn the basics of opening play, just to help you get into the game where you can start to plan your own tactics. These are fairly straightforward, and when I mean basics, I am not talking about memorizing opening moves or specific lines, I mean what are the IDEAS behind opening the game. If you'd like, send me a message and I can outline my personal understanding of these. In my Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition, Josh Waitzkin's Academy does a fantastic job of outlining these principles, but this information is probably easily accessible in a lot of places.
The next piece to the puzzle comes in the form of endgame and positional study. To me, there are 2 books here that are of enormous value. The first is Silman's Complete Endgame Course. This book is fantastic. It separates endgames out by rating, so you don't get overwhelmed and everything is very easy to digest and learn with just a few hours of study in each chapter. Endgame is an area that is hugely important and largely ignored in the lower ratings, and having some basic knowledge goes a long way. As Baldr mentioned above, the concepts behind mating with 2 rooks, mating with queen and king vs. king, king and rook vs. king, and then delving into the basics of king and pawn vs. king and the concept of opposition, are super important. I don't know how many games I struggled with or lost before I had this information. This book will be your primary endgame manual through most of your chess time would be my guess, I know it is for me, and is well worth the small investment.
For positional play for a beginner, I highly recommend The Amateur's Mind, another book by Silman. It introduces the principles behind positional and strategic play, the concept of planning, and above all else, the ability to break a position down by looking at imbalances - a key ability in planning and finding a good move. This book completely changed the way I look at the game.
Hope this helps 
.
I've finally convinced my girlfriend to learn chess, and she is doing pretty well (we only played a couple of games) I'm basically just telling her the general guidelines (control the center, how much each piece is worth, what a fork is, etc.), but I was wondering if maybe I should set up some mate in 1's or something. Any good ideas for teaching an absolute beginner?