Teaching my son basic attack and defense

My five-year-old son has been into Chess since before he was two years old, and he's been playing full games against me, my wife, various engines, and on Chesskid.com since he was three. He displays considerable promise, as he can often solve mate-in-1 positions, he understands several tactics like forks, skewers, and pins, and he is getting the hang of some endgame principles like the square of the Pawn and opposition.

However, he is simply not very good at the game. He has had a penchant for hanging pieces, at which we've been working hard. Now, he struggles to understand the relative values of the pieces, as well as basic attack and defense. For example, we're trying to explain to him why he shouldn't play Qxb4 in a position like this:

Or in this position, why he shouldn't capture on b5:

Or in this position, why he should capture like this:

We would appreciate some ideas of how we might effectively teach him when, what, and how to capture.

Give him time.  It might just be that all this information on chess needs to be digested and processed in his brain for a little while.  After all, chess is not an easy game!  The fact that your 5-year old son is actually interested in chess is already a big plus!

@King_undercover_vamp: Thank you very much for your comment. I completely agree. Still, I would like to know how I might help him understand the next steps.

Tonight, he finished this amusing miniature against my old (and quite weak) tabletop computer:

He didn't hang any pieces this time! I'm also glad that he received firsthand exposure to this basic and frequently occurring mating pattern.

Experience.

You say he can do mate in 1 puzzles. Perhaps you should make puzzles that address these issues. Trying to manage 16 pieces AND think about some of these other things can be difficult. Even for those of us nearly 10x his age.

nice deed

Here is a puzzle I made for my daughter:

One problem he may be having is focus: if he's only five, his thoughts might fly around like a butterfly.  If that's so, just continue teaching him more, even if he loses games.  As he gets older, his thoughts will become more streamlined, and he'll be able to use principles he learned before.

One problem he seems to have is that he likes to push wing pawns.  Try to emphasize pushing into the center, and discourage wing pawn pushes.

Also, as amilton said, he might just be inexperienced.  As he plays more, he'll learn his common mistakes and he'll adjust.

Endgames will help him understand piece value. That's when it becomes most obvious. As for hanging pieces, I agree with everyone else, he'll get better with experience.

Later I would really emphasize fast development, even at the cost of sacrificing several pawns or more.

It's obvious none of you have worked much with young children.

Many of these ideas have a greater chance of discouraging him in the long run.

Baby steps is the way to go with young children.

I think the coach jay app is really good, my son of similar age likes it

You know what heppens when you assume.

Only sometimes does he fixate on wing Pawns. He begins most games with a central Pawn advancement without being prompted.

He needs more experience in evaluating threats. He very often moves in an impulsive manner without checking to see what (if anything) was threatened, and sometimes even not noticing the opponent's move at all.

Well I disagree with you completely whirlwind2011. I believe your son has the makings of a great attacker. In fact, After seeing post number 3. I could agrue him running his A pawn up the board in hack attack fashion was pretty on par with other attackers.

He probably needs more help with defense. However, Defense is a huge problem for players. I mean even players in the 1600+ range struggle with defense. I find myself struggling with it from time to time lol.

@X_PLAYER_J_X: I did not say that he could not attack at all, so I don't know with what you disagree. By "basic attack and defense," I refer to material pressure, as illustrated in the diagrams at the top. I do not refer to attacking ideas such as Pawn storms and piece sacrifices.

His 3. ... a5 and 4. ... a4 were terrible moves akin to using a switchblade to attack a tank. I did not bother to think about whether they were attacking moves, because they did not come close to meeting the needs of the position.

Well I was making a joke lol. I guess you did not pick up on it.

I was saying his attacking instincts are already there lol. He is running his A and H pawns up the board.

A true Attacker! The basic attacking instinct is present lol. If he can mix in some defense with this side pawn thrust than things will get interesting.

X_PLAYER_J_X: Do not be fooled; I strongly suspected you were joking, but making that assumption could have been disrespectful.

You can try a training method for kids. This one is really good:

http://www.stappenmethode.nl/en/