If they are old enough to walk, they are old enough to study chess...
What is a reasonable age to start teaching a child chess?
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As soon as they stop sucking on the chess pieces. Or when they show an interest.
And dont try and force them, if they dont like it.
EGBDF wrote:
...at what age have people started teaching chess to children?
I think my dad was about 32 when he taught me how to play chess. When my neighbor was only seven, his ten year old cousin taught him chess. I have a friend who learned chess from a 77 year old! Anyone of any age can teach chess to a child, just as long as they know all the rules and cover everything about chess.
Jul 28, 2011
0
#7
bugoobiga wrote:
EGBDF wrote:
...at what age have people started teaching chess to children?
I think my dad was about 32 when he taught me how to play chess. When my neighbor was only seven, his ten year old cousin taught him chess. I have a friend who learned chess by a 77 year old! Anyone of any age can teach chess, as long as they know all the rules and cover everything about chess.
LOL
I have just turned 50. Am I too old to start teaching chess to my young nephew?? 
My 5-year-old nephew knows how to play. Of course he's still pretty easy to beat and after we play a game with normal rules, I let him play a game by his own rules to keep him interested and to not make him get discouraged by losing. Of course then it's back to normal rules, just so he doesn't forget them. Perhaps some day soon I'll work on strategy with him.
I wouldnt try to teach a child chess until they : a) show an interest in the game AND b) have an attention span of at least 30 min...
I took an interest in chess in February and my 4 kids (age 5-12) all followed suit. They like to play me or each other..but mainly I have downloaded a chessmaster game that we all use. The lowest opponent is a monkey named 'Stanley' with a rating of 1 - that they love to play and beat. My 7 year old also loves to solve the puzzles in the game, especially 'find the check'.
they all understand how to move pieces and sometimes will even plant traps; for example encouraging me to use my bishop to take their pawn that's protected, etc. But all but the 12 year old often make very fundamental mistakes too..I really don't structure much teaching other than very occasionally going over a game I played and why I made the moves I did. Mainly I think if they are having fun and using their pieces properly that's more than enough for this age.
I would say that a child would be fully old enough around 7 or 8. The most important thing, however, is to make sure that they take an interest in it. I've found that many of the most enthusiastic chess players I know started to play the game at a relatively late age. If a younger kid is forced into playing the game, they will often begin to dislike it and will abandon it as soon as they are old enough to do so.
I taught my son the rules when he was about 5 when he showed an interest. He's been taking group lessons at the local chess academy since he was about 6 (he'll turn 8 next week). He just started playing in the club's league night and Kid's Quads tournament to start building his rating. I can still beat him, but I need to be on my game. He'll blow past me eventually -- he's better able to memorize things than me. The advantage of youth I guess.
The key is to make sure they're having fun and not just doing it because "daddy expects me to." There are some kids in my son's class at the club that clearly have no interest in being there, but continue due to parental pressure.
Jul 29, 2011
0
#14
It seems like the consensus is:
1. when the kids shows an interest, and
2. is about 5 years old, and
3. has an attention span of 1/2 hour.
Did I miss anything or does anyone have anything else to add?
EGBDF wrote:
It seems like the consensus is:
1. when the kids shows an interest, and
2. is about 5 years old, and
3. has an attention span of 1/2 hour.
Did I miss anything or does anyone have anything else to add?
This isn't the consensus; ozzie said nothing about age.
EGBDF wrote:
It seems like the consensus is:
1. when the kids shows an interest, and
2. is about 5 years old, and
3. has an attention span of 1/2 hour.
Did I miss anything or does anyone have anything else to add?
What else could there be? If they want to learn it, let em learn it.
As long as they like chess and/or
don't erode the pieces by moving them too fast
they are fine. Teach them to play, there is no limit to how good you can be at chess; top human grandmasters are around 2800 elo 
but you can get better, Shredder 12 is 3100 elo.
The youngest Grandmaster was just 12 years and 7 months old. 
children can do school work so they can study chess.
I'm 9 years old and I am being taught chess so zip your mouth
I realize that this is very dependent on the child, but at what age have people started teaching chess to children? Did you use the chesskids.com syllabus or some other method? Any feedback will be helpful.