The book "Chess for Dummies" has some good advice, such as teaching them first how the rook moves, since that's easiest motion to understand. Personally I would also start with the late endgame, where the complexity is at a minimum (the opposite of the opening, despite the opening being a more natural place to start), such as with a king and queen against a lone king.
teaching my kids
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#3
Try the steps method, it is considered as the best to teach children. It is used all around the world. Good luck
I suggest you get a beginners book. I suggest Chess For Children by Murray
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chess-Children-Murray-Chandler/dp/1904600069
I just got my 10 year-old nephew into chesskid.com and he loves it. I got him a membership when it was on sale in September, but you can get quite a lot out of the site with the free membership, a lot like here on chess.com. 7 may be a tad young I suppose, but once you get them going I think it's a good site.
I have the book: Idiot's guide to chess by Patrick Wolff. It starts out with mating the king with rook and king, queen and king and such. I think that may be a great way to start. Don't go down the route my father tried with my brother and I: teaching us how the pieces move and then defeating us over and over....Took me 30 years to get back into chess.
I was thinking about this yesterday. I'd start with showing them how the pieces move and then set up some positions with captures available. Next, some positions with mate available: back ranks; two bishops against a king in a corner; queen and rook combining, etc, etc. There's also the nice practice play of King vs pawns from this position...
After that, explain the centre, play Chess and see how it goes.
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#8
I am 7 and started playing 18,months ago. I used Chess Camp, the Coakley red book And How to Beat your dad at chess. But I leaned mostly from chesskid with lessons, tactics and playing online. Chesskid is the best I switched to chess com when I hit 1100 on chesskid.
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#9
Supatag wrote:
I was thinking about this yesterday. I'd start with showing them how the pieces move and then set up some positions with captures available. Next, some positions with mate available: back ranks; two bishops against a king in a corner; queen and rook combining, etc, etc. There's also the nice practice play of King vs pawns from this position...
After that, explain the centre, play Chess and see how it goes.
Not sure that position teaches king activity. The person with further advanced pawns should win, not the better king. Notice how a king can stop 3 pawns when the opponent doesn't have a tempo to give
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#10
Johnny6488 wrote:
Hi! I'm not sure if the general discussion area is best for this; I have 7 year old twins, any advice on how to start teaching them to play?
Stick and carrot method.
When they lose, beat them with a carrot. When the they win, let them play with sticks.
Oct 17, 2017
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#11
My dad taught me how the pieces moved, etc., and then when we would play, he would remove most of his pieces before the game and only play with a partial army - but then he would try to win. After I beat him five times, the handicap would get a little smaller. Now I'm better than him (although he might dispute that!).
You don't really learn opening theory that way, but you get tactics and some positional basics, and if you get that down thoroughly that alone will get you pretty far.
It also means each game is, at least in theory, a roughly even fight. My dad would try to win, but having more material would give me a legitimate chance.
I played chess when i was 11. Now i am 14. I was a runners up in state championship under 12. I played in Asian Schools under 13 when i was 12. This year i played in World School Under 15 in Iasi, Romania. Learn to kill first. Learn how to play Italian Game and Fried Liver Attack as a white and Sicilian Kan as a black. Be an attacking player. Look at the immortal games Tal...Fischer...Morphy...Keres.... Good luck.
DeirdreSkye wrote:
Thanks, this is kind of what I was thinking but going with paws and king first.
Start slowly Johnny.All exercises must be like games and of course never forget to reward him when he does something right by telling him how talented he is.Kids like it when their dad is pleased and try harder.
The basic checkmates are a good exercise that will help him learn the moves of the rook , queen and king.
Start with 2 rooks and king vs king , then queen and king vs king , then the most difficult , rook and king vs king.Once he learn the last one he will be ready.
Next lesson must be the pawns.Give him 2 connected pawns at the initial positions , put your king in front of them and the goal is that he must promote one or both his pawns.That way he will learn the move of the pawn and the promotion and it will be his introduction in planning.If he has difficulties give him one more pawn.Eventually he will make it right.Then make it a little more difficult , give him 4 pawns against 2 of yours(all the pawns must be on the same side , either q-side or k-side) and then 6 against 4(with kings of course , kings must be ALWAYS on the board.The winner must be the one who promotes.Good exercises to learn pawn captures.
Next lesson must be the bishops.8 against 8 pawns on the initial positions and give him 2 bishops and take one or 2 but let him win.The point is to learn how the bishop moves and captures.Again the winner must be the one who promotes or if you want play it till the checkmate.Do the same with knights instead of bishops.The less the pieces on the board the more easily he will learn the moves.
Now he is ready for his first game.Even after he plays on full board , the exercises can continue.For example , 4 against 4 pawns with 1 rook each side , or with rook and bishop or with rook and knight or with bishop and knight , etc.The goal now must be checkmate and not promotion(he is not a kid anymore 
).The material must be the same now , no handicaps anymore unless there is a reason and let him win in the most but start winning some and introduce the concept of learning from our defeats(in chess you need to lose a lot to become a great player , he must start to realise that a defeat is not the end , it's a new beginning). In one of the games resign before the checkmate and explain him that good players usually don't play till the end and in recognition of the skill of the opponent resign before the checkmate.
That's it , it's not anything difficult.It only needs imagination, patience and love.I'm sure you have all 3.
Good Luck!
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#14
Funny that in the Steps Method they will not teach how to mate in first steps, so kids will have a lot of fun taking the figures, and mate would be more a casual thing, not so important as taking for example the queen and the rooks. I understand this concept. It is about having fun and learning basic things like double attacks or attacking a pinned piece a second time. Only later they begin to learn matting patterns.
My son first started out with chesskid.com. He read Bobby Fischer teaches chess also. He enjoyed that.
I just hired a coach. It's still early. Also, another forum regular has offered to play him a 15/10 game and give him feedback.
Most of all, I desire for him to want to learn and train from within. No matter what endeavor.
Tiger moms and dads are successful too, but I really want it to come from the child himself or herself.
SeniorPatzer wrote:
My son first started out with chesskid.com. He read Bobby Fischer teaches chess also. He enjoyed that.
"Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" is an excellent first book for children to learn chess. It doesn't use chess notation and it starts from the very beginning, assuming no prior knowledge of the game. The book is an extremely easy read. In fact my 8 year old daughter (years ago - she's an adult now) completed the book in 3-4 days. I suggest taking advantage of the bonding opportunity and read the book together with your children. I suspect you will all enjoy the experience.
Check my mini-review of the book here....
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/bobby-fischer-teaches-chessa-book-review
https://www.amazon.com/Bobby-Fischer-Teaches-Chess/dp/0553263153/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508280439&sr=1-1&keywords=bobby+fischer+teaches+chess
After the Bobby Fischer book, If you want to continue with some instructional material appropriate for beginners, check out a few of the titles in the beginning of the following list...
Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
Also the following two books - "Comprehensive Chess Course", Volumes I & II, by Lev Alburt provide excellent supplemental material for an introductory chess curriculum appropriate for children...
https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Chess-Course-Lessons-Enlarged/dp/1889323233/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508281510&sr=1-1&keywords=comprehensive+chess+course+lev+alburt
https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Chess-Course-Vol-Tournament/dp/1889323012/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508281773&sr=1-5&keywords=comprehensive+chess+course+lev+alburt
be sure to check the reader reviews of the books on the site.
Best way to learn is have them play. Teach them the rules and play a couple games with them where you are just fixing illegal moves/showing them how to play. Get them chess.com accounts and put on the auto-disable chat setting on. When you make a new account you have the option to specify your experience level so your initial rating is appropriate. Set them up as the lowest one because they are going to be really bad at first. Once a day get both of them together and play a 30 minute game with them. Try to let them figure out the moves but point stuff out as you go along. After they get a decent grasp of things set them up with their own accounts and have them play 10 minute games. They will probably start off < 600 blitz but will improve the more they play. If they have a knack for the game they should be rated about 1000 after 1000 games played. Make sure they are doing tactics trainer too. 5 free puzzles a day and the puzzles will match to their skill level pretty quickly. The most important thing though is whether or not they like it. If they don't really like it don't have them play because it will be a waste of time. You have to really like the game to get good.
Don't waste your money on a coach. There are thousands of excellent chess lectures online and chess books. Have them watch John Bartholomew's fundamentals of chess or St Louis chess center lecture videos. In my experience though the number one best way to improve is to play. You are not going to learn from someone telling you how you should play. You must internalize it through lots of experience. I've given chess advice to countless people and don't think I've ever seen someone actually put my advice into their play. I showed one guy a pattern for mating with a rook and a king like 5 times and would just be watching in agony as he forgot everything I told him every time he ended up in that situation in a game. It's just so hard to use that part of your brain when there is time pressure and nervousness involved. Things can seem so straightforward in practice but are so difficult in a game. You really need to learn things in game circumstances to retain them.
DeirdreSkye wrote:
catkeson wrote:
Best way to learn is have them play. Teach them the rules and play a couple games with them where you are just fixing illegal moves/showing them how to play. Get them chess.com accounts and put on the auto-disable chat setting on. When you make a new account you have the option to specify your experience level so your initial rating is appropriate. Set them up as the lowest one because they are going to be really bad at first. Once a day get both of them together and play a 30 minute game with them. Try to let them figure out the moves but point stuff out as you go along. After they get a decent grasp of things set them up with their own accounts and have them play 10 minute games. They will probably start off < 600 blitz but will improve the more they play. If they have a knack for the game they should be rated about 1000 after 1000 games played. The most important thing though is whether or not they like it. If they don't really like it don't have them play because it will be a waste of time. You have to really like the game to get good.
My niece is 7 and I tried exactly that.The game was a mess of unreasonable clueless moves.She didn't learn anything.Plus I told her " the goal is to checkmate" and she asked me "how will I do that?".How to answer that to a 7 year old kid that still doesn't know the moves and is eager to play have fun and win?Every move was a nonsese and I had to shut up because the more I explained ,the more she were bored.
In endgame the goal and the way to reach it is clear.Kids need clear goals that can understand.32 unknown pieces on the board and an unclear goal(in the initial position checkmate is only a distant vision , you have to do a lot of things before you achieve it) are not helping.
Not all kids are like that. It's worth a shot on your twins. If they don't like it now try again in a couple years when there is more going on upstairs lol. I have about 15 cousins below the age of 10 and about three of them demonstrated logical thinking and an interest in the game.
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#19
catkeson wrote:
Best way to learn is have them play. Teach them the rules and play a couple games with them where you are just fixing illegal moves/showing them how to play. Get them chess.com accounts and put on the auto-disable chat setting on. When you make a new account you have the option to specify your experience level so your initial rating is appropriate. Set them up as the lowest one because they are going to be really bad at first. Once a day get both of them together and play a 30 minute game with them. Try to let them figure out the moves but point stuff out as you go along. After they get a decent grasp of things set them up with their own accounts and have them play 10 minute games. They will probably start off < 600 blitz but will improve the more they play. If they have a knack for the game they should be rated about 1000 after 1000 games played. Make sure they are doing tactics trainer too. 5 free puzzles a day and the puzzles will match to their skill level pretty quickly. The most important thing though is whether or not they like it. If they don't really like it don't have them play because it will be a waste of time. You have to really like the game to get good.
Don't waste your money on a coach. There are thousands of excellent chess lectures online and chess books. Have them watch John Bartholomew's fundamentals of chess or St Louis chess center lecture videos. In my experience though the number one best way to improve is to play. You are not going to learn from someone telling you how you should play. You must internalize it through lots of experience. I've given chess advice to countless people and don't think I've ever seen someone actually put my advice into their play. I showed one guy a pattern for mating with a rook and a king like 5 times and would just be watching in agony as he forgot everything I told him every time he ended up in that situation in a game. It's just so hard to use that part of your brain when there is time pressure and nervousness involved. Things can seem so straightforward in practice but are so difficult in a game. You really need to learn things in game circumstances to retain them.
This sound reasonable. When I give chess lessons for beginners I also try to get them play as quick as possible. If they play me, I give them a lot of material to make it sure they will win the game. And if I win the material back, I turn the board and let them play my side, until they checkmate me. Slowly they get confident, so I give less material. Another funny way is if I play a dubious line, for example QGA trying to hold the pawn and losing a figure. So they have already an idea of what is sound and what not in the opening.
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#20
DeirdreSkye wrote:
catkeson wrote:
Best way to learn is have them play. Teach them the rules and play a couple games with them where you are just fixing illegal moves/showing them how to play. Get them chess.com accounts and put on the auto-disable chat setting on. When you make a new account you have the option to specify your experience level so your initial rating is appropriate. Set them up as the lowest one because they are going to be really bad at first. Once a day get both of them together and play a 30 minute game with them. Try to let them figure out the moves but point stuff out as you go along. After they get a decent grasp of things set them up with their own accounts and have them play 10 minute games. They will probably start off < 600 blitz but will improve the more they play. If they have a knack for the game they should be rated about 1000 after 1000 games played. The most important thing though is whether or not they like it. If they don't really like it don't have them play because it will be a waste of time. You have to really like the game to get good.
My niece is 7 and I tried exactly that.The game was a mess of unreasonable clueless moves.She didn't learn anything.Plus I told her " the goal is to checkmate" and she asked me "how will I do that?".How to answer that to a 7 year old kid that still doesn't know the moves and is eager to play have fun and win?Every move was a nonsese and I had to shut up because the more I explained ,the more she were bored.
In endgame the goal and the way to reach it is clear.Kids need clear goals that can understand.32 unknown pieces on the board and an unclear goal(in the initial position checkmate is only a distant vision , you have to do a lot of things before you achieve it) are not helping.
Yeah, it's hard.
I taught some kids. First lesson was how to checkmate with two rooks, and then Q+K vs K.
So then they play and some of the games start with these (or similar) moves
Followed by 100+ movse of no one capturing anything.
I pointed out that with no way for pawns to capture each other, it's going to be a draw, but they said they agreed before the game to always use this opening.
Which is fine, they're having fun, but when they do the same next week, and the week after that...
Yeah, basically either the kid has to like chess enough to accept your advice, or the parents have to be willing to make them learn/practice even if the kid's not interested.
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Hi! I'm not sure if the general discussion area is best for this; I have 7 year old twins, any advice on how to start teaching them to play?