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Teaching chess
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Here are some things that will help:
Opening Principles:
1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
3. Castle
4. Connect your rooks
Tactics...tactics...tactics...
Pre Move Checklist
1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.
2. Look for forcing move: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
I'm sure you can teach chess well, but one of the main things I would look for in a class is a friendly and relaxed environment.
YuriSenkevich wrote:
Depends on who you are trying to teach and their chess understanding. Probably ones will know nothing and others may know a little bit. Teach them the basic tactics and opening principles. Maybe bring a interesting game to share with the participants and go over it with them.
Teaching people with various levels is done all the time. You find a par and teach at that level and give special exercises to those at the either end of the spectrum.
Jun 28, 2016
0
#6
Teaching chess can be very fun and rewarding! I have been volunteering at my local library for about 2 years, working with mostly youngsters on the basics and playing regular games with the more serious players. It seems like your situation is different but I will tell you it can be hard to work with a larger group, especially if the age group is so widely spread. I would keep it really simple. Just be warm and inviting, show them how the pieces move, go over a few basic checkmates, explain things like pawn promotion and en passant, explain castling and the very basic opening concepts but don't go too far in depth. Also you can prepare some puzzles for the class to solve, this will definitely help engage them. Don't bore them to death with too much talking, ask them questions and be prepared to answer any that might come your way. And if possible allow them playing time and just go around and survey, that's where people really start to like the game! Most importantly just be nice and fair to everyone. I reccomend having some help too. The young ones can be a headache!
Btw I used to play tennis too and did a few coaching sessions. It is definitely harder to have everyone engaged and on the same page when it comes to chess! I'm sure you will have fun and make many friends!
Jun 28, 2016
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#7
Money is irrelevant here. These people want to learn the game and obviously prefer to have someone teach them. He is doing a service for the community! You don't need to be a master to teach the basics.
Jun 28, 2016
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#8
And why do you think we have teachers or coaches for anything then if everything is just sold from books? Do you really want to discredit the thousands of coaches out there who people actively seek out? Even top players have coaches! I have never taken money only volunteered for 2 years and I do it because I enjoy the rich experience. When I am a master I will be more willing to take money because I will then feel like I deserve it, but that's no one's business anyways. What is agreed upon is mutual.
PuttingFromTheRough wrote:
Too many scams involved with chess coaching. Anyone can take material from a book and sell it.
What the hell are you talking about? Teaching is an innate ability. You just need knowledge to teach and then coming up with your own effective techniques is easy. It is not like there is a "Teaching chess for dummies" book that is the holy bible.
Jun 28, 2016
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#10
Young kids are really different as chess students. I think you'll find when watching their games that they're making so many illegal moves (walking into check, ignoring check, moving a piece to an illegal square, setting one king right next to the other king, etc.) that much of your time will be spent deciding if a position is a draw, if a move is legal, what to do if they've played several moves with an illegal position, castling erroneously, and how to set up the board with the right pieces on the right squares with the right colors. Chess clocks complicate the situation. Therefore: Tip: Learn the basic rules related to how to handle illegal moves that have just been made, or illegal moves that were made a few moves back.
For older kids through adults, I've found that the weird topics capture their interest more, especially smothered mates, but also perpetual check and stalemates, and probably pursuit. Also fast opening wins/traps like Damiano's Defense, fishing pole attack, Fried Liver Attack, Legal's Mate, etc. Those aren't particularly useful topics, though: I believe useful topics are the important, practical, simple things that happen or are threatened frequently, especially "queen slaps" (QxQ+ ...KxQ), basic K-P endings, maybe The Fork Trick, queen harrassment based on a weak opening, losing a tempo from B-N5 ...P-B3, etc.
Older students are more willing to listen to lectures that will bore and go over the heads of young kids. Everybody wants to actually play, of course, not just listen to a lecture, so tip: Some time should always be allocated for actual play, if possible.
One teaching idea I had but never tried was to teach several common mistakes at the beginning of class, then have the students play some games, then go over one of the weakest games you saw (and wrote down) as a brief lecture at the end, while having the audience point out how the players made exactly those mistakes you taught earlier not to make. That would have the following benefits: spotlight the players of that game (that will hold their attention!), let the audience participate in crititiquing, reinforce the beginning of the lesson, and demonstrate how players will always have to keep relearning what they already know in a new context. If you try that idea, please let me/us know how it turned out. Based on 1-2 YouTube videos I saw where that end lecture idea was used, I suspect that approach would be quite successful as long as that ending mini-lecture were not extended too long.
If you're trying to engage newbies, I think the best arrow in your quiver for that is Tactics. Show them some smothered mates and tricky knight moves and Queen sacs. Yasser Seirawan's book on tactics kind of brought the game to life for me.
I recommend cracking open a book or two depending on the player's rating. Go over both theory and tactics. Have a few GM games on hand and explain why a certain move was selected over another! Tactics, tactics, tactics!
Make sure you have fun and are patient! If it's a group lesson keep all the children engaged by asking questions:)
Jun 28, 2016
0
#13
He is just introducing them to the game, no need to go over master games - only masters really understand them anyways.
One of the main things I would look for in a chess class is a cool and friendly environment.
Dr. Ferguson is one of the founders of teaching chess in American schools.
http://www.zoominfo.com/s/#!search/profile/company?companyId=1654832&targetid=profile
Teach them:
How the pieces move
How the game is won
Piece captures
Value of pieces
- Queen is stronger than rook.
Castling rule
Put the rooks on open file
Castle to make king safe
Develop your knights and bishop before queen
Teach them basic tactics of pin, fork, double attack etc
Show them one or two move mates
Let them solve easy mate, pin, fork problems.
Teach them two rook endgame mates
Tell them to always look at the whole board
Always study their opponent's last move
Show them chess history and its great players.
Suggest beginners to get beginner tactics book like World Champion's Guide To Chess by Polgar or Chess Tactics for Champion by Polgar.
Thank you for all the tips in such a short amont of time
I will definitly keep checking this to see if any new good ideas comes up. Think a plan is already forming thogh. Saw some uncertanty in what level the students are. so just to clarify they are all completly new. no previous experience and at an age of around 6-13 years old. To top that off i might only have one hours the whole week. but from previous experience i will probbebly have one hour every other day for the week.
Do you have a demonstration board? If it is practical to show a sample game or two, one of these books might be helpful for ideas:
Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
So im setting up this chess introduction this summer, and i need a few tips on how to engage and let the participants easily come into playing chess. I have no real experience on teching chess. but have alot of experience teaching tennis (i work as a parttime coatch with education in the field). Is there anything importaint i should go thorught besides the simple rules of the game (how the pices moves, queening). I have 1 hour to teach and engage the participants. importaint that it is simple, the participants can come in all age ranges from 6-50 years old. from last years experience with a 75 year old man talking for 2 hours about nothing was not the right way to go.
so in summary. I need innputt on chess teaching that i might have forgotten. i want to teach the participants the bare minimun but make them interested in the game. Any advice?